At some point in their existence they all felt their visibility and voice denied by people within and outside of their own race. These were people that only afforded them an opportunity to fit in a very confining box. A few of these young men withered under pressure and a few tried to break the box. However, in all of the situations they had a breaking point where a decision had to be made. "Do I continue to struggle or do I end it all?"
A couple of these young men tried to end it all. One jumped off a bridge and one cut his neck open, and they both lived to tell about it. The Princeton student tried to destroy the administration building. He wanted to get a Ph.D. but through that action he could've potentially ended it all. One of the drug dealers wanted to pursue his GED but all he could see was his life of crime. So, he said, "If that is all you are going to see me as, that is all I am going to be" until there were some people that wanted to invest in him. In some instances there was a community around all of these young men that could see them and work along side them to change – not looking down on them, but working with them. I'm not writing to please academics; my prayer is that it's beneficial to students. I want young men to read pieces of this book and say, "That is my story. Somebody sees me."