What’s in the News About Black Men:
5 Big Issues.
Over the past few months, headlines and policy debates have zeroed in on the challenges and opportunities facing Black men.
From health disparities to economic inclusion, these conversations are shaping legislation, community programmes and cultural narratives.
Here is what’s trending and what we can do about it.
Health Disparities
Look at the data and you see a pattern that feels almost inevitable. Black men are more likely to die from heart disease, diabetes and prostate cancer than nearly any other group. Add mental health stigma to the mix and the picture gets even darker.
But this is not about biology, it is about systems. Access to care, trust in providers and cultural competence are the missing pieces. The solution is not just more clinics, it is care that speaks the language of the community.
When that happens, health literacy becomes a family tradition, chronic illness stops being destiny and culturally, asking for help becomes a sign of strength, not weakness.
Economic Power and the DEI Backlash in the UK
When the doors close, the numbers tell the story.
Black men earn about 40% less than White men, own homes at a rate of just 43.9% compared to nearly 74% for Whites and capture barely 1.6% of federal contract dollars meant for disadvantaged businesses. For a brief moment, DEI promised progress supplier diversity programs, procurement targets and corporate pledges.
Then came the backlash. In 2025, executive orders gutted federal DEI mandates and major brands from Walmart to Amazon rolled back inclusion efforts.
The result? Black-owned businesses lost out on supply-chain opportunities that were already scarce.
The fix is not lip service, it is intentional investment: targeted funding, mentorship and procurement programmes that do not vanish with political winds.
When those doors swing open, wealth stops being a dream and starts being a legacy. Inter-generationally, that means kids grow up with options, not limits. Culturally, it shifts the narrative from hustle-for-survival to building-for-prosperity.
When Black-owned firms are squeezed out of contracts, the ripple effect hits whole communities.
As of March 2023, only 14–16% of Mixed White–Black and Black Other households own homes compared to 70% of White British households. Black individuals earned a median of £13.53 per hour in 2022, while White workers earned £14.35. The adjusted ethnicity pay gap also widened for Black backgrounds in 2023–24.
UK firms once hopeful about DEI are now uneasy. As of March 2025, both the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) scrapped proposed mandatory diversity reporting citing industry pushback.
Although UK law still mandates positive-action training, many organisations, spooked by pressure from U.S. trends, are quietly watering down supplier-diversity initiatives. MSDUK reports over 80% of large firms pledged supplier diversity, but actual Black-owned business contracts are shrinking.
With public and corporate buyers stepping back, Black-founded firms lose not just revenue but credibility, network access and client references. This is not collateral damage, it is a direct hit to intergenerational opportunity.
UK suppliers have alternatives. Community Development Finance Institutions (CDFIs), targeted innovation grants, social-enterprise mechanisms. MSDUK, CREME and Supplier Diversity UK provide programmes to bridge pipelines. Now government policy (e.g., National Procurement Policy Statement, 2025) also mandates social value including supplier diversity in public contracts, offering a legal lever.
When procurement systems open rather than close, economic gaps shrink, but it is more than just business. Children grow up believing wealth is attainable, not elusive.
The cultural narrative evolves from “just surviving” to “building together.” That change does not just happen it is engineered, policy by policy, contract by contract.
Education & Careers
Education is supposed to be the great equaliser, but for Black men, it often feels like a rigged game. Underrepresented in STEM, overrepresented in the school-to-prison pipeline, those two facts alone tell you everything.
The answer is not just more degrees, it is scholarships, apprenticeships and tech programmes designed with us in mind.
When that happens, we do not just fill seats, we lead industries. Inter-generationally, it creates a lineage of innovators. Culturally, it affirms what we’ve always known. Brilliance is not rare, it is just underfunded.
Justice & Civic Rights
The stories of injustice are no longer whispers, they are in the numbers.
In July 2025, ICE held approximately 57,000–66,000 people in detention, more than 70% without criminal convictions.
Arrests surged to 1,200–2,000 per day, with nearly half targeting non-criminal immigrants. Draped under an expanded $170 billion enforcement budget, ICE has entered "expedited removal" territory, detaining individuals swiftly and deeply affecting Black immigrants from Africa and the Caribbean.
Recent data show Black Londoners remain three times more likely to be stopped and seven times more likely during weapon-land searches. Only 44% believed stop and search was fair compared to 61% of Whites.
In July 2024, the MET unveiled its Race Action Plan, co-designed with over 2,200 community members, adding transparency to stop and search procedures and improving Black officer promotion rates from 68% to 75%.
Yet trust remains low. Only 22% of Black Londoners trust the MET as of 2020, compared to 76% of Whites. January 2025’s Police & Crime Plan introduces biannual, ethnically disaggregated data to monitor progress against disproportionality.
By stripping enforcement down to numbers, we see real lives dismantled. Families disrupted, trust eroded. The solution is structural. Restorative justice, transparent oversight and rights-based protection for civil liberties, including voting.
When systems begin to partner rather than punish, trust grows. Inter-generationally, that puts sons and grandsons on a path of rights not records. Culturally, it restores our agency. The power to shape our future, not fear it.
Mental Health: The Silence Epidemic
Stress is not just a feeling, it is a public health crisis. COVID-19 amplified it.
During the pandemic, Black men were twice as likely to die from COVID-19 compared to White men in the U.S. and in the UK, Black communities faced mortality rates four times higher than the national average. That loss was not just physical, it was psychological, leaving behind grief, isolation and economic instability.
The fallout is visible:
Homelessness among Black men in the U.S. surged, with Black individuals making up 39% of the homeless population despite being only 13% of the general population.
Addiction rates climbed as coping mechanisms turned to substances. Opioid-related deaths among Black men increased by 44% between 2019 and 2021.
Trauma became generational. Children growing up in homes fractured by job loss, eviction, addictions and untreated mental health conditions.
What is the cultural cost?
Gifts and talents. The creativity, leadership and entrepreneurial drive get buried under survival mode. Silence is not strength, it is a slow burn that erodes potential.
It is time to normalise therapy, peer support and holistic wellness in spaces where Black men feel seen and safe. When that happens, cycles of pain break. Families get stronger and masculinity gets redefined not as stoicism, but as resilience.
Which of these areas feels most urgent for you and what solutions do you want to see in your community?
