PRINCETON, NJ--Princeton University greeted 400 men and women on Saturday, March 3, all attendees of the second annual State of Black Men in America Conference. It was an unusually warm day in Princeton, New Jersey and the mood matched the weather. Chris Chaney, president of the Black Men's Awareness Group (BMAG) and a central organizer of the conference charcterized the day's energy as "inspiring and empowering". "It was a 'we-can-do-it' atmosphere, " Chaney recalled. The conference was sponsored through the efforts of BMAG, a a Princeton University organization committed to issues concerning African-American men on campus and in the world at-large. Chaney is a member of the class of 2007 and will be graduating this May. He collaborated with five of his undergraduate colleagues to coordinate the event.

Registrants of the conference hailed from 36 universities and various institutions throughout the region. Among the universities represented were University of Pennsylvania, Babson College, Rutgers, and the University of Virginia. Attendees were not only limited to the tri-state and surrounding area--delegates from New Hampshire, Massachusetts, North Carolina and Mississippi were also a part of the conference. Community organizations and institutions such as Goldman Sachs and the Phelp Stokes Fund also sent representatives. Women comprised about 15% of the registrants, down from 30% last year. To Chaney, the diverse group was a dream come true. "I am proud of all the people who came. We had a dynamic group--they were all passionate about the conference. I will really miss it."

Planning for this year's conference began on March 8, 2006. A year later, the conference is in full swing. "We've been getting tremendous feedback," Chaney commented, " We set the goal to be the premier conference on black male issues in the United States and some say we've already achieved our goal." For Chaney and others, the fact that it began in Princeton is especially meaningful. "Twenty years ago, no one would ever have thought a black male conference would take place here. It is a milestone. It is powerful to see how far we've come."

The program, which began at eight in the morning and lasted well into the evening, had a similar format to last year's conference. Seven panels featuring forty-two different speakers comprised the bulk of the day and the program ended with a community "town hall meeting" which engaged the attendees in a larger group discussion. The result was a diverse and multifaceted conference which probed the unique position of black males in America.

'The Six Faces of Black Men in America' was the theme this year and it was driven home in the structure which featured six seminar topics: education, sexual health, mental health, religion, black male professionals, and BLANK. The "Black Men and Sexual Health" panel consisted of the controversial author of "Brothers on the Down-Low", J.L. King, Associate Professor Samuel Roberts of Columbia University and professor of Africana Studies at Brown University, Tricia Rose, who articulated a female prospective with blunt and challenging honesty. "The fundamental problem we face is...the problem of gender identity itself," Rose argued. She demanded that the audience begin to hold accountable what she termed an "economic, racialized, and gendered system that normalizes exploitation". "We're fighting to get a seat at a table we should not be sitting at," Rose lamented.

Roberts exposed the devastating link between poverty, political economy, and the spread of infectious disease through a comparative analysis of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and tuberculosis. Citing staggering statistics ( 64% of women with AIDS are black and 41% of men with AIDS are black), he called for more attention to be paid to the ways in which societal phenomena institutionalize the spread of AIDS. Among these phenomena were the prison-industrial complex and homophobia, the latter of which King underscored dramatically through an anecdote regarding a minister who forbade HIV/AIDS education in his church. As King related, the minister, like many others, had an HIV prevention program which declared homosexuality a sin and AIDS a punishment. When asked how the stigma surrounding "coming out" could be removed in the black community, King's response was ironic: "Pray."

he day came to a close with a town hall meeting which served as a recap for the day and allowed for a conversation among all the conference members. The meeting, led by moderator Amiri Baraka, a hip hop expert, was alternately rousing and profound. Questions posed ranged from the impact of slavery on black mental health, to whether or not it was "okay to be a nerd" in black America. Yet the main message which resonated from within the Princeton lecture hall concerned the desire to find and normalize progress for the black male through action and through intellect.

As the session wound down, moderator Amiri Baraka called upon the younger, high-school aged attendees to stand up and ask questions. Though the youth were too shy to stand, the conversation turned decidedly towards issues which concerned their generation, such as the responsibility of black leaders, both public and private, to assume responsibility as role models and mentors. It was fitting for an event organized by young students that the day closed on this note. The conference seemed a critical moment of a handing-over-of-the-reigns from the older generation to the up-and-coming generation-- across the audience, alert black youth were nervous yet ultimately poised to take on the challenge.