Abstract
This chapter analyzes data collected from 28 after-school programs funded under the W. K. Kellogg African American Men and Boys Initiative. It examines the inevitability of massive failure and incarceration of African American males in American society, and it presents systemic evidence of alternative outcomes. It examines the role of public policy for expanding existing and new school- and community-based after-school centers. It also considers media practices in which disproportionate attention is given to those African American males who go wrong compared to the greater majority of African American males who lead upstanding, decent, and productive lives. The public policy analyses further address the lack of attention focused on individuals and institutions that assist and produce admirable, high-achieving African American men and boys, and how this neglect magnifies the issues of race and inequality in American society.