Dickson Igwe. Photo: VINO/File

The culture of the outlaw, and being constantly on the run from law enforcement “affects the full spectrum of social relations,” of young black men.

The result is a society in fatal imbalance. A subset from the culture of the outlaw is a value system that places personal loyalty above probity, principle, and civic order. Another is that the male authority figure is virtually absent. “Middle aged women who range from the respectable and hardworking to the erratic and drug addled are central figures sustaining men on the run.”

There is a systemic dysfunction that impacts black communities in these inner city type areas where the majority population is black. Marriage is virtually absent. Sexual liaisons are short lived, multiple, and concurrent.

The young women are often better educated than their male partners. This leaves these young women resigned to the waywardness of the men in their lives. However, they sleep with these men, bear their children, and continue the culture of illegality and illegitimacy. In fact the men’s outcast and outlaw status adds to their allure and attractiveness to these women.

Paradoxically, these women desire and expect sexual exclusivity. Instead, however, their men show no interest in anything approaching monogamy. Wax describes how a “resulting disharmony looms large.” This disharmony is part of the fugitive dynamic. In fact, “jealous women wield their knowledge of their men’s criminal activities to settle old scores, and curry favour.”

The women vie for primacy with mothers and sisters of these men. This ‘musical chairs’ of relationships “creates a tangle of personal ties that renders women vulnerable to conflicting pressures.”

Wax reveals that “girlfriends and mothers of the children of these men holding coveted jobs in law enforcement are conscripted into the network by using their positions to smuggle contraband and bend the rules.” Relationships are fraught with mistrust and secrecy.

Research reveals that 60% of black men without a high school certificate end up in prison by their mid thirties. The rest are hounded by arrest and probation. That is a very concerning metric. It states that if one resides in the inner city area of the USA, and one is a black father, there is a 60% chance that one’s black son will end up in prison. And as a father, one would most likely be an ex con, or on the run one’s self. That is indeed a sad state of affairs.

There is some good news. Encouragingly, those males that remain on the right side of the law, or better stated, that choose to do right, although from poor backgrounds and not well educated, work steadily at unskilled jobs in maintenance, security, retail, and cleaning.

These young men do things that keep them off the streets.  

Sadly, for young black males looking to escape from a life of criminality, temptation comes from, “less scrupulous young men that surround them, and who pull them into a life of crime and deviant behaviours.”

The researcher advises the young black male that wants to do right to practice constant vigilance and keep his distance from the others that want to pull him into a life of crime and deviancy. The old adage reigns supreme that, “birds of the same feather flock together”.

However, this advice to stay away from toxic company is a tough call, and too many young men succumb to the temptations from their deviant peers.

The street is always a prison.

To be continued….

Connect with Dickson Igwe on Twitter and Facebook