africanamerican men definitely function at lower reading levels than their peers male or female and it is because the education system doesnt teach them how to read you cant treat the problem without acknowledging its origins it isnt the athletes its the educators i spent years faking interest in football baseball and basketball and pretending adam sandler movies were funny and getting shot with a paintball was enjoyable if you could have branded me with a label on my forehead that let the world know i was in fact manly i would have begged you to do it though never once did i ask myself what being a man actually meant to me what really makes a man a man