Showing results for "The City Man" in Education & Learning

Gang- and drug-related inner-city violence, with its attendant epidemic of incarceration, is the defining crime problem in our country. In some neighborhoods in America, one out of every 200 young black men is shot to death every year, and few initiatives of government and law enforcement have made much difference. But when David Kennedy, a self-taught and then-unknown criminologist, engineered the "Boston Miracle" in the mid-1990s, he pointed the way toward what few had imagined: a solution.

Mateen Ajala Diop's life was a rollercoaster of one misfortune after another. He had to endure an abusive stepfather who repeatedly raped his older sister from a very young age. To escape his stepfather, Mateen's mother took him and his sister away. This move saw Mateen end up in Alamo Heights, San Antonio, where he constantly endured racist taunting and abuse. With increasing exposure to racism and racial discrimination, Mateen coasted through life without any guidance or prospects until he had a moment of clarity in the military.