Study on young blacks reveals more than style

I was on a train late in the evening recently when a young African-American man boarded. He was wearing a pair of those baggie jeans that tend to puddle around the gym shoes and sag relentlessly in the butt.

The hood of a dark jacket covered his head and he carried a cloth sack slung over his shoulder. He walked to the seat in front of me and sat down.

Several of us noticed the young man. More importantly, several of us thought we knew him. Not "knew him" in the sense that he was an acquaintance. But "knew him" in the sense that he fit a mold. He was a "type." He appeared to be a young thug type.

But after he sat, he pulled a laptop from his bag, along with a thick math book and a multi-buttoned calculator seemingly capable of rocket science calculations. He then started on what I would guess--since I'm so good at discernment--was his homework.

I am not proud that I typecast this young man. But it happened and the story dovetails nicely with the point of this column, which is that often young people are viewed too superficially.

The University of Chicago recently released the results of a comprehensive survey on the attitude and behavior of young blacks.

It should be required reading for those of us who look at young people, more specifically young black people (and most specifically young black male people) and believe we know so much about them.

Having been so simplistically rendered in the media and even in statistics, young black men, possibly more than any other group, are readily typecast, often appearing as one-dimensional figures.

A team from the university's Black Youth Project (www.blackyouthproject.com)--led by political science professor Cathy Cohen--surveyed nearly 1,600 black, white and Hispanic youth, ages 15 to 25, from around the country.

The survey was taken over several months in 2005 and used methodology that allowed the respondents to be open and honest. Though the Black Youth Project surveyed an array of youths, the study's chief focus was on young blacks.

Some of the findings may seem a bit counterintuitive. Here's an example: What do young blacks really feel about the images they see in rap videos? If you think they're drinking the Kool-Aid, think again.

Although the survey showed that blacks listen to rap much more than their white and Hispanic counterparts, 66 percent of black females believe that rap videos portray women in negative and offensive ways. Fifty-seven percent of young black males believed similarly. A majority of young blacks also were greatly concerned about the violence in rap videos.

What does this suggest to me? The prevailing sentiment often is that the toothpaste is out of the tube and little can be done toward change. I despise that sentiment because it's defeatist. This isn't about going back to that non-existent time when life was perfect. It's about working with what we have.

It's clear that the majority of these young people are intelligent enough to see through rap music's misogynistic messages. For those who want to make sure that young people aren't getting their cues from videos, it's good to know or be reminded that many of them aren't.

The survey also examined these kids' ideas on safe sex, politics, racism, gender roles, crime and health care. Those findings were equally illuminating.

It's true that you don't have to convene a research team to know that there are some pretty weighty problems affecting some segments of the black community. Even this survey cites a drumbeat of depressing statistics, from U.S. prison rates for young black males to poverty rates for black youth in general.

But the empirical evidence helps us understand what's real and what isn't. That way, we're not just signing on to a stereotype that's been repeated so many times that it feels like we have the complete picture.

I grew up hearing that if you want to make a difference, you have to constantly examine that thing you're trying to change. Sometimes if you're too close, it may appear distorted. If you're too far away, you may not be able to appreciate the details.

When it comes to young people, this study draws a more accurate picture. It challenges us to see it from a different vantage point. Then it reminds us that we can't give up.

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dtrice@tribune.com