The Uphill Climb For Black Men

Black men have to work two to three times harder to achieve the same successes as their white male peers. There are a combination of reasons for this stark discrepancy in effort and tantamount result (environmental, socioeconomic, discrimination, racism, prejudice, etc.), and they are all multi-layered. As sound as they may be, I choose to focus on a single cause: effort.

Effort is measured in both amount and consistency, making its duality the premier harbinger for success; therefore, if it's true that black men have to work two to three times harder to achieve the same successes as our white male peers, then for us, effort, and the willingness and discipline to exert this effort is crucial.

This effort, or level and consistency of effort, is needed in the vast majority of cases for successful Black men in order to overcome the multiplicity of unique obstacles (i.e., accumulated disadvantages) that appear before them on their paths to success.

We succeed in spite of circumstances; not because of them.

Conversely, there are accumulated advantages, typically referred to as white privilege. White privilege, which infers that whites are more likely to have fewer disadvantages than minorities have advantages, thus creating privilege. The perfect illustration of white privilege, and the advantages that constitute them, follows in the video below.