Mark Anthony Neil

The new black man book illustrated the struggle of identity faced by black men and how they strive to reach an impossible ideal, while being viewed negatively due to  racism, stereotypes and the actions of certain individuals, and how even prominent figures in black history had flaws and commited things such as adultery. As with many groups of people, they are forced into a box where the only exceptions are a "talented tenth" of them but they are all equally scrutinized and ostracized. There was a lot of finger pointing, but in the end it came down to flaws and shortcomings in the very institutions that were aiming to change the notion of what it was to be a strong black man, that were ultimately detrimental. I also found it surprising that the community commits things against itself, especially against known figures such as Rosa Parks being mugged, or how the hiphop generation gets blamed for things.