I felt a sting of disgust and sadness as I read your piece. It is very well written. I also appreciated your point of view on some of the reasonings behind why many of our men are broken. May I add something to the picture? As one of the previous posters made mention of; our culture has given into many of the life altering/destroying habits we've learned from others that we are surrounded by. I applaud anyone who wants to better themselves through education, hard work, and supporting of the things they believe in, but somehow, we must stop the notion that we need to, or should be able to have the same twisted ideas of wealth and other vices that our counterparts have. We see every day what it has done to them, (graft, greed, dishonesty, power lusting) still we will do anything to emulate the same ridiculous practices that they use. Systemic racism is just that, it's been built into the dominant culture; passed on from generation to generation. We've been trying to convince the ones who possess the power to make real changes of this idea for centuries. They love the feel of domination and control, and unfortunately, we have seen that words are not enough for permanent, lasting change. I wish I knew a magical way to end all of the foolishness that this world insists on bombarding us with every day, but I don't possess that knowledge. I will say that until we truly stand together, with like mindedness, and stop relying on the treasures that this world has to offer we will never be free. Stay strong, and keep your head grounded in truth.