You and other regular FReepers know I’m about the last person in the world to suggest pandering but I do think the way we present ourselves in these situations could be greatly improved upon.
Too often we see stories like this morph into a bashfest of Detroit when should praise the true empowerment that is the subject of the story. A little well deserved praise is a whole lot more valuable than an Obamaphone and free stuff.
I was talking to the father of my little town’s only black family the other day after voting when the conversation turned to Detroit fraud and naturally to race. He said that white conservatives have a bad habit of believing what the race baiters like Jackson and Sharpton say when blacks themselves really know better but use it because they can.
He pointed to the stories of “White Flight” from Detroit and called them crap. He said there weren’t that many whites in the area of the rioting to begin with and more blacks fled the rioting than anyone with his father being one of them. He says the more correct term would be “Business Flight”.
Basically he says the GOP needs to offer more than a slap for bad but correctable behavior. Use the teachable moments wisely. When he moved his family from Jackson a few years ago his kids were well on their way to being typical inner city thugs but living in a farm community has really changed them. Sending his son to a rural school where his only options for friends were white farm boys got his son over the “White man’s plantation” crap in a hurry and he now works on a farm full time.
Glad that it worked for them. I have heard it works the other way as well.