This Saturday is the 15th anniversary of Louis Farrakhan's Million Man March, and The Loop 21 marks the occasion by analyzing how much of the "promise" of that fall day in 1995 held true. According to writer Cindy Barnes-Thomas, not all that much. She points to the alarming murder and incarceration rates of black males, single-parent households and unemployment as examples. "What's missing today is that there is no longer a sense of collectivism and community that was once the cornerstone of the Civil Rights Movement," she writes. "Fifteen years ago there was a lot more of 'we' and 'us' rather than 'I'm doing me.' " We think T.I. might have written a song that sounded a lot like that quote — and he did capture the tone of the moment. It's the "me" generation all over again, but what will fix a thing like that? Another march is certainly not the answer.
Read more at The Loop 21.
Lauren is a former Deputy Editor of The Root.