Role model in chief

Culture: Will Barack Obama give African-Americans a new definition of masculinity? | Alisa Harris

Associated Press/Photo by Frank Franklin II

In New York on election night, a burly young black man stood in a big, gutted garage decorated with white paint and graffiti art, crying while he watched Obama's victory speech. In a mostly African-American neighborhood in Brooklyn, black men stood next to corner delis on streets littered with McDonald's wrappers and cheered. In Harlem, New York Times' City Room blog reported, another young man bounded down the streets, shouting, "Fried chicken in the White House!"

An African-American man—growing up the son of a single mom—with a Harvard degree and a stable family will be leading these men for the next four years. He will be president of a country where young black males are more likely than any other group to murder or be murdered, according to the Bureau of Justice. Fifty percent of black children live with their mother alone, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, and a quarter of black people live in poverty. Sixteen percent of black men haven't graduated from high school.