New Black Man by Mark Anthony Neal

I personally had an extremely difficult time understanding the point Neal was attempting to make in Chapter one. However, from what i understood, he was trying to say that the black man is in trouble due to the racial stereotypes that many people associate with him. Neal gave examples of Nushawn Williams who infected many girls with the HIV virus. He said that Williams met the fear that many individuals attribute to the black male-- about their "sexuality, interracial relationships, and sexually transmitted diseases." I think he was trying to say that we stereotype alot in today's society; I agree with him in this aspect. I do not think that just because one individual did something--we should attribute that behavior to a larger group of people--in this case we are referring to ethnicity. In other words, just because Williams engaged in such behavior doesn't mean every black man will--it is very ill-informed of us, i personally think, to infer that. Neal also talks about hip-hop and its relation to black man and how black man fail to take part in alot of university activities and have a tendency to move towards hip-hop and "away from realities of life." He talks about "talented teeth," a group of elite and educated black men described by the activist W.E.B. DuBois. However, it is important to note that women are not included in this concept, which leads us to note gender discrimination.