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In response to a University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee report stating nearly 52 percent of black men in Chicago are unemployed, The Black Star Project last week demanded a $100 million plan to improve social outcomes for African-American men in Chicago.
The report by Marc V. Levine, Race and Male Employment in the Wake of the Great Recession, uses 2010 census data to examine employment of males ages 16 to 64 in major metro areas throughout the country, among other findings.
It shows Chicago ranks fourth in having the greatest decline from 72.1 percent employed African-American men in 1970 to 48.3 percent in 2010, following Milwaukee, Detroit and Cleveland.
“Massive unemployment among black men and youth drives violence and murders, contributes to broken family structures, indirectly discourages educational achievement, and causes chaos and disfunctionality in Chicago communities. The Chicago Plan for Black Men and Boys would include mentoring, educational support, job training, job connection, entrepreneurship, fathering support, strengthening families, spiritual development and community building,” according The Black Star Project press release.
The proposed plan is similar to a $127 million New York City investment announced last August.
Click here to read the entire release by the Black Star Journal.