1) Give that professional black man's life a little closer look. There's about a 70% chance he was born without a father around and he is most likely poor. That alone is almost an instant ticket to nowhere. He probably lived in a neighborhood of high crime, his mom had to work multiple jobs which meant little parental supervision, and there were constantly influences and inducements to get into trouble.
Is this because he was black? No, It is because he was born without a father, and is living in a poor neighborhood. 50 years ago, it may have been because he was black. There is currently no law prohibiting this man's family from moving up and into a gated community. There are, in fact, laws against prohibiting that one sell nicer homes based on race or sexual orientation. If someone attempts to keep him from doing so, he can, and should merrily sue them, then afford an even nicer home.

2) Putting that together, there's a very good chance he ended up in jail at some point, which is yet another instant ticket to nowhere.
I just don't see crazy cops running around here targeting black men. If we're talking statistics, do we see more African Americans causing crime than white individuals? If so, we need to examine why they are causing crime, not why they are getting caught. I've never known an African American to be randomly tossed in prison for no cause, and I know plenty of them. I'm sure it happens...somewhere. But most African Americans are respectful to the police in my city, and with police more often than not, respect is reciprocated.

3) He probably went to a horrible school where there most likely weren't great mentors to help boost him up, clearly demonstrate some of the positive options he had for his life, and help keep pushing him in that direction when he was tempted to go astray. This means there was a better than average change he dropped out. There's your third instant ticket to nowhere.
Similar to the first point, this is likely due to the neighborhood he lives in. Due to school zoning, this can be easily remedied by changing locations. There are laws enforcing that he has the capability to do so (Rather, his parents do).

4) The first time his race starts to be even the slightest "advantage" is maybe applying to college or for scholarships. But even then, he probably didn't have a lot of people making these options clear/known to him so there is a good chance he missed out on them.
A couple of people could be to blame for this. Parents? The Public/Private school he attends? I don't think this is a matter of race, but of class. If this is a class-based argument, this can very easily apply to all races, and should.

5) Oh, and all throughout this, there is a better than acceptable chance some police officer with a hard-on killed or beat him, or a family member, derailing or ending his life.
This is a rarity, and not the norm. Contrary to what the news channels say, there are no hordes of racist police officers waiting to pistol whip African Americans on the street. It makes the media money when it happens to an African American. If it happens to a white man, it does not. One of the cons of free speech...

6) Also throughout this, there is a far higher chance that he or his mom/parents/family got hit with numerous minor offenses/fines/penalties that a similar white man would have been excused for. This could have resulted in them not being able to make rent, become homeless, and bam, another instant ticket to nowhere.
This seems like more of a class-based argument, If you cannot afford to pay off a traffic ticket. Generally, I find two truisms for traffic stops for both white and black individuals: You catch more flies with honey, and you generally receive the same respect you provide. When the cop pulled you over, did you apologize and sheepishly hand over your information? Or did you give the cop a hard time? I've seen African Americans get pulled over, apologize, receive a warning, and be on their merry way. Alternatively, I have seen them go completely bananas on the officer, at which point his or her sense of mercy went flying out the window. I believe that there exists a certain mental conditioning amongst the black community to react in certain negative ways during engagements with the police.


7) Assuming he somehow navigated that insane minefield, maybe he then made it to college. There he faces the fact that a huge portion of professors and fellow students assume he's a quota-filler and isn't really qualified to be there. Every time he steps into a classroom he has something to prove and an extra barrier to get over. This also affects membership in prestigious clubs and school groups where people make connections and do networking that is valuable for future employment.
You can't flunk someone for being black. Well, you can...but you won't be a teacher for very long. Haven't seen that as a problem around here, at least. Granted, the engineering heavy schools I have attended had white students as a minority in many cases.

8) Now assuming he even gets through all of that, once he gets in the job market he still only has the small, occasional advantage of applying for a job somewhere that has either a legally required or PR induced need to hire minorities. As Kailen mentioned, this can also result in caps which are the flipside of quotas and could prevent him from being hired. But most workplaces have absolutely nothing like this, which means even if he is equally or more qualified than someone, he's dealing with the non-racist but unavoidable psychological fact that people tend to like people that are similar to them. This means the white guy hiring people is going to have a subconscious, unavoidable, unintentional bias towards hiring other white guys.
This makes sense, and can be considered a problem. People do indeed become drawn to people of similar habits, personality, etc. However, this can extent to a litany of other issues aside from race. Ultimately it is the responsibility of the individual hiring to break his conditioned mentalities and pick an employee of the best fit for his or her company. This goes way beyond race...

Then even if he gets the job, yet again superiors and coworkers assume he got it because of a quota or a desire to "increase diversity", and he constantly has to prove himself just to get on even ground with the white dudes that got hired at the same time. He deals with the same problems in the previous paragraph whenever he's up for a promotion, and the same doubts like "why should we promote this diversity hire?"
This is exactly why we should not have diversity hires. One should be picked based upon merit.

9) Then there are all the little things throughout your entire life - no matter how successful you become - that sap your energy and keep you down.
Being trailed by employees at an expensive store.
Getting hassled by police constantly.
Being afraid of the police or other authority figures.
Never getting off with a warning and instead being hit with fines/penalties for hundreds or thousands of dollars each year.
Being denied for loans or credit and wondering (or knowing) it was your race.
Getting worse deals on cars or furniture or beds or anything else either because of your race or because nobody in your family ever bought those things to help you know how to buy them.
Or hell, never having advice from family on things like how to manage (and avoid abusing) credit/debt, how to manage bank accounts or finances, scams to avoid, etc, etc. the list is endless.
Probably a zillion more things here but I'm a white guy so I can't even imagine.
Alot of these points are rehashed, but I'm going to hit on one. The traditional "That black guy is going to rob my store" arguement.

Two people walk into a store...
One is Morgan Freeman in a suit.
One is a white fellow with 25 facial piercings, tattooed from head to toe, and is wearing cut-off jeans and a hoodie.
Your store has had alot of issues lately with theft, you are being told, as an employee, to keep an eye on your inventory. Who do your eyes gravitate towards?

In most of our cases, this would be the white fellow.

We are naturally inclined to identify things which are threatening to us. Society tells us a certain criminal element behaves a certain way, dresses a certain way, and acts a certain way. Unfortunately, not all African Americans dress up like Morgan Freeman to go into the local Walmart. Generally, they dress poorer than white individuals, and are identified as the greater threat to merchandise. Yea, this is a problem. But I base this as again a class-economic problem, not a race problem, as you will see this as a hurdle regardless of race.


I know I'm going to be hit on the head with this further as this is not a popular opinion, but it is an accurate one which is not freely mentioned publicly.

Several of these issues above are class-economic issues which have mutated from racial issues. They affect all races. They affect African Americans more, because there are a greater amount of African Americans below the poverty line.

The fix for this is for African Americans to get above the poverty line.

As I don't subscribe to the ideas as people should be given free money, free rides, or extra advantages for the mere fact that they were born a certain way, I think it is the responsibility of the African Community to proceed to better themselves in education, class, and morality, while it is the responsibility of the rest of us to NOT HINDER THEM.