The awful statistics are widely publicized: More than one-third of black men in America are obese; they also experience the highest rates of HIV infection and die from gunshots at a higher rate than any other population. One in six African-American men has been incarcerated, and if trends continue, a black man born after 2001 has a one in three chance to be incarcerated in his lifetime. Black men have the highest school dropout rates and highest unemployment rates in the country. In 2014, 47 percent of young black men in Chicago were out of work and out of school.
“It’s not enough just to know the statistics and quote them,” Boykin said Wednesday in a phone interview from the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. “It’s our responsibility to turn them around.”
Dates for the three proposed commission hearings have not been set yet, but one will be held at the Cook County Board of Commissioners, one in the south suburbs, and one in the west suburbs. Boykin hopes to see the commission up and running by September.
