Howard University Unenrolled 500 Freshmen Days Before Move-In. The Money Wasn’t the Only Thing That Broke Down.
Somewhere between March and July, more than 500 incoming Howard University freshmen thought they had a spot in the Class of 2030. By the last week of July, they didn’t. Howard confirmed that 502 first-time students were unenrolled for missing a tuition or financial aid deadline ahead of the fall semester, which starts August 17. […]
Black Unemployment Just Hit 7.5%. If That Were the National Number, We’d Call It a Recession.
The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies put a number on something a lot of us have been feeling anecdotally for a year: Black unemployment climbed to 7.5 percent by the end of last year, up from 6.2 percent at the start, according to the organization’s “State of the Dream 2026” report. Read that […]
The Masculinity Crisis Isn’t About Weakness. It’s About Men Nobody Sees.
There’s a data point circulating in recent national research on American men that I haven’t been able to shake, and I want to lead with it instead of burying it in paragraph six the way a lot of coverage does. Men who report feeling that “no one really knows me” show up as dramatically more […]
There Are Two Roads for American Men Right Now. Only One of Them Leads Anywhere.
2026’s defining split among American men isn’t left versus right — it’s growth versus grievance. And the men choosing grievance are being fed a script that flatters their pain instead of resolving it.
The Recession Nobody Called a Recession — Because It Only Hit One Community
Black unemployment has climbed to 7.8% from a 2023 low of 4.7%, erasing an estimated $87 billion in household income. The National Urban League calls it a recession. Here’s why almost nobody outside the community is using that word.
Work Stopped Being the Container. Now What Holds a Man Together?
Somewhere in the last decade, work quietly stopped being what it used to be for men — the fixed container that held everything else in place — and started becoming something more like a moving platform you have to keep rebalancing on. That shift, more than any single headline about masculinity trends or grooming routines, […]
The Masculinity Debate Isn’t About Vibes. It’s About Work.
The Atlantic says the “manly man” is back in Democratic politics. The Federalist says that’s backwards. Both are arguing about a version of masculinity that never included the men I grew up around.
America’s 250th Birthday Split the Country Instead of Uniting It. That’s Not New – It’s the Point We Keep Missing.
The America 250 celebrations were supposed to be a unifying moment. Instead they became another Rorschach test for a divided country, and the divide itself is more American than the unity we were promised.
AI Isn’t Coming for Black Jobs Someday. It’s Already Here. And Almost Nobody’s Building the Off-Ramp.
Black workers are overrepresented in 17 of the 30 U.S. occupations most exposed to automation, and AI-driven layoffs are already running roughly 50% ahead of last year’s pace. Marcus Hart on why this is a cultural reckoning, not just an economic one – and what a real response looks like.
Grievance or Growth: The Two Versions of Masculinity Competing for 2026
Two competing stories about what it means to be a man are circulating right now – one built on resentment, one built on growth. Marcus Hart on why the version that wins matters more for urban and Black communities than either side of the culture war admits.