The Detrimental Factors of African American Society in Jesmyn Ward's "Men We Reaped" Anonymous 11th Grade

The United States of America is a country that, despite much of the relatively progress in race relations, remains gained by a history of prejudice. Even today, elements of our society have a significant impact on the life expectancy and mortality rates of African-Americans. According to Jesmyn Ward’s memoir, Men We Reaped, and researchers at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, the greatest contributing societal factors of black deaths in America are poverty, lack of education, and poor social support (237). These factors are the most significant elements that connect the deaths of the five young black men in Ward’s memoir and many deaths of other African-Americans today.

Of the three greatest contributing factors, poverty is the most significant. In our capitalist society, money buys happiness or at least better living conditions in general; therefore, the lack of wealth in many American “black neighborhoods,” is the leading societal factor of African-American deaths. One of the five young black men in Men We Reaped, whose name was Charles Joseph Martin, died in a car collision with a train. According to Ward, “there was no reflective gate arm at the railroad crossing. There were flashing lights and bells...