Posted on 08/29/2014 11:26:21 AM PDT by Kaslin
After weeks of national angst generated when a white police officer shot an unarmed black man on the streets of Ferguson, Mo., perhaps it is time we have an honest discussion about race in America. But if we do so, the voices should not be restricted to those who carry a sense of racial grievance and blame racism as the root cause of all the problems that afflict the black community.
Jason Riley, a Wall Street Journal editorial board member and author of "Please Stop Helping Us: How Liberals Make It Harder for Blacks To Succeed," is certainly one man who should be listened to.
Riley is not oblivious to police bias. He recounts, in what is a very personal book, several incidents in which, as a young black man, police pulled him over when he was driving through white neighborhoods or high-crime areas, suspecting he might be up to no good, based solely on demographics.
In the early 1990s, while driving home from work as a sportswriter late one night through Washington, D.C., he got a harsh taste of what it sometimes means to be a young black man.
"I was sitting at a red light when no fewer than four squad cars converged on me, lights flashing and sirens screaming," he writes. "Seconds later police officers were pointing guns at me as I sat cowering."
The police ordered him out of the vehicle, pushed him to the ground and handcuffed him, while two officers kept their guns pointed at him. A few minutes later they let him go, explaining he fit the description of a suspected gunrunner from New York (his license plates were from the Empire State).
The incident, far more traumatic than the one Attorney General Eric Holder recounted in the wake of the Ferguson shooting about being stopped by the police while running to a movie in Georgetown, didn't leave Riley embittered and angry, however. Nor did a series of other slights and suspicions, such as being followed in stores and while driving around white neighborhoods when visiting friends.
Why? Because he recognized that the behavior of all too many young black men makes many people -- including other blacks -- fearful. Riley recounts the statistics on crimes committed by blacks, most importantly young black men, from a variety of sources.
But one needn't take Riley's word for it. According to statistics compiled by Holder's own Department of Justice, black men commit a hugely disproportionate share of violent crimes. In 2012, blacks made up 38.5 percent of all persons arrested for violent crimes and 51.5 percent of those under 18 arrested for such crimes, but they constituted only 13 percent of the population. And even accounting for the possibility or likelihood of bias in arrests, the conviction rates are similarly stark. One Bureau of Justice Statistics study from 2002 concluded that when the race of the person committing homicide was known, blacks committed 51 percent of homicides.
Riley's book discusses why these depressing statistics stem not simply from poverty or prejudice, but from cultural changes that have occurred in the black community and the unintended consequences of liberal efforts to blame everything on poverty and prejudice. Much of Riley's discussion has to do with what has happened to black culture. He describes the pernicious effect of even middle-class black youngsters eschewing proper diction and devotion to schoolwork. In one study of fairly affluent kids in an Ohio suburb, Riley reports that researcher John Ogbu, a Nigerian-born anthropologist and Berkeley professor before his death in 2003, found that "black kids readily admitted that they didn't work as hard as whites, took easier classes, watched more TV and read fewer books."
But, of course, the major problem in the black community that accounts for so much of the disparity in achievement and criminal behavior is that more than seven in 10 black children are born to single women and will spend much of their lives with no father present.
If we want to have an honest conversation about race, we need to begin here. Riley is not afraid to confront this issue or any other. As the conversation on race in America continues, let's hope his voice gets a hearing.
I once was a finger twitch away from having my head blown off by a cop's shotgun.
I fit, quite nicely, the description of an escaped convict who had already killed one cop and two civilians.
Was this some sort of bias against me as a white guy? Of course not. I fit the description and the cops had to check it out, taking appropriate precautions in appropaching someone who might be very dangerous indeed.
Linda's implication here is that this was also an example of racial profiling. It was no such thing, at least as described.
Wow, you sure was lucky
I've learned that blacks especially in groups are violent and predatory....I will avoid them...period...that is my right...infact, its my obligation to myself for self protection...
I profile in other ways...and I sterotype...
for instance, if I read about a meth addict doing some crime I think "white trash"....if I read about a serial child rapist I think "white evil pervert".....
I'm an equal opportunity profiler...
It’s hard to have an honest discussion on this subject when one side refuses to accept clear facts and treats the presentation of such as racist. The Trayvon Martin shooting is a prime example. Show me a liberal screed about how Zimmerman murdered Trayvon and I usually can find at least three or four cases of lying through omission.
And the sad thing for today’s young people is that they have been conditioned and shamed against common sense profiling and end up hurt or killed because of PC.
“But, of course, the major problem in the black community that accounts for so much of the disparity in achievement and criminal behavior is that more than seven in 10 black children are born to single women and will spend much of their lives with no father present.”
Even worse, watching a procession of men come and copulate with mom (and sometimes kicking your ass in the process) can screw someone up...
I drove through a bad neighborhood the other day and I couldn’t help noticing all the bars on the windows. And I was thinking, how sad it is that white cops are so dangerous that that these residents have to put bars on their windows to keep them out.
” And I was thinking, how sad it is that white cops are so dangerous that that these residents have to put bars on their windows to keep them out.”
:-)
.
The unspoken assumption in these “absent father as the cause” of the problems is that if the biodad had just hung around things would have turned out better for the child.
But is that true? Most of the men who father children and split are, by definition, irresponsible and often thugs or wannabees.
If the only variable is this guy’s presence or absence, is it really going to make a difference? Allow me to express my skepticism that a present thug is all that much better than an absent one. What’s he going to model and teach? Thuggery?
The real issue is the dearth of responsible black males, who of course, again by definition, won’t abandon their children. But the irresponsibility is the problem, not the absence.
The “absent fathers” I know were kicked to the curb by the women (for a variety of reasons, some not the guys’ faults at all); the relationship problems should be laid at the feet of both parents. Often when the welfare bastard is born, the father hangs around and just can’t marry the baby-mama (because of the potential loss of benefits); since both are young and restless, they both end up in other relationships anyway.
The mothers in question are no better role models, passing along lessons in fraud, whorishness, and how to be a gibsmedat. I was shocked at how honest the “Precious” movie was...
Some Honesty for “Black America” to learn (to its benefit) or continue to ignore (at its peril).
0) You aren’t a slave. Your father and mother weren’t slaves, neither were your grandparents or great grandparents. Quit pretending slavery has anything to do with your squalid lifestyle.
1) You’re not going to become a millionaire in the NBA.
2) You’re not going to become a millionaire in the NFL.
3) You’re not going to become a millionaire rap star.
4) Studying and learning isn’t “acting white”. It’s acting smart. The fools that run down education DESERVE to live in poverty and squalor.
5) Society doesn’t owe you a damn thing. You want a good life? Quit sitting on the porch whining. Get off your lazy ass and EARN a good life.
6) Real men take care of their kids. You? Well? Odds are you’re not a real man ...
7) Real women don’t mate with every male that flashes cash at them. Whores do that. What are you?
8) When you try to assault, rob, rape, burgle, or murder normal people ... they’ll kill you. And you deserve it.
Now ... what were you bitching about?
Beautiful!
They’ll haul my sorry carcass off to the re-education camp for that ...
“I fit, quite nicely, the description of an escaped convict who had already killed one cop and two civilians.”
In 1977, I found myself facing five armed police detectives. No guns were drawn but all five had their hands on their weapons and were in a ready to draw stance. I fit the description of a three time murderer who’d escaped from prison. Fortunately, I was on active duty and my military ID calmed things down. Must have been racism.
I am truly amazed at how black guys can read the minds of people they suspect dislike them.
heh. I see what you did there.
I was standing in a 7/11 looking at magazines when I heard the door open behind me. Paid no attention. One second later I had a 12g in the back of my neck, hands up, then thrown to the floor and cuffed, none too gently.
Meanwhile, the poor girl behind the counter, who had called me in, was having hysterics. The guy I was mistaken for had the day before waited till the other customers left, then robbed, raped and murdered a convenience store clerk.
The misidentification was cleared up pretty quickly, and the cops were friendly, though not exactly apologetic. They’d done their job, and I appreciated that.
I matched height, weight, and approximate age and clothing. I had a paperback book in my hip pocket, making a bulge that could have been a gun.
If I’d moved the wrong way when surprised, I suspect they’d have had a real mess to clean up in the store.
OTOH, I being a white guy, nobody would have cared except to say, “Too bad, so sad!” If I were black, it would have been an indictment of the racism of America and its legal system.
BTW, white guys in black neighborhoods often get a similar rousting. And they very often are indeed down in the hood looking for drugs or hos.
Oh, you’re right, of course. Didn’t mean to lay all the blame on the biodads.
My response was aimed solely at those, like Linda, who seem to think the presence of a biodad, in and of itself, has magically life-enhancing qualities for children.
There are biodads a child is much better off not having around.
This is not, BTW, an indictment as fathers of all gangsters. By all accounts the Italian, Irish and Jewish gangsters of the last century were devoted husbands and fathers, for the most part, whatever the morality of their activities when away from home.
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