TV Reviews : PBS’ ‘Black Men’ Offers a Message of Hope

The danger of television’s annual approach to Black History Month is a tendency to dwell in a distant, sepia-toned past as a way of not confronting the harsh realities of the present. The Maryland Public Television report “Black Men: Uncertain Futures” (tonight at 9 on Channel 24 and at 10 p.m. on Channel 28) faces realities head on, making up in substance what it lacks in style.

While acknowledging the impediments of institutional racism, “Black Men” opts for a broader critique which suggests that many of the woes of black men can only be solved by blacks. A new “war on poverty” led by white men looks like a dim option.

Teacher Jawanza Kunjufu and others stress that the perception of failure by blacks is a crucial roadblock to black success. It can create a poisonous, self-fulfilling syndrome: If the media portrays nightly images of young black men as criminals and if the father isn’t home, the son sees no future because he has no role model.

“Black Men” looks at several programs that have reversed this trend, and few are more impressive than Dr. Spencer Holland’s Project 2000, which brings black adult men into grade school classrooms to work with kids. Holland’s point is perhaps at the heart of the black male crisis: boys must have black men as father figures, providing them with living examples of success, values and responsibility.

It is a potent message that may save the upcoming generation. But for the 35% of unemployed black teens and 25% of black men in their 20s behind bars, the message may be coming too late.