Mentoring Black males: responding to the crisis in education and social alienation

Young African Caribbean males are over-represented within the British criminal justice system, within the ranks of the unemployed, amongst those who are academically underachieving and those subject to exclusion from school (Sewell 1997). Additionally, African Caribbean males suffer disproportionately from poverty, violence, substance and alcohol abuse and higher mortality rates (Majors and Gordon 1994; Majors and Billson 1992). The social construction of Black males as dangerous and destructive exaggerates their current position and alienates them from the mainstream of British society.