Posted on 08/29/2013 12:18:27 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
You know, it amazes me how Black people collectively get accused for everything that is wrong with our nation. We appear at the top of the list when it comes to issues that many people consider to be controversial, heinous or criminal. Whether it’s the issue of welfare, homicide, drugs, violent crime, prison, school dropouts, negative entertainment or single-parent households, you can’t help but see Black people get paraded out front in the mainstream media like they are the only group of folks in the country that are contributing to the problems associated with them.
I was recently watching the VMA Awards on MTV, where I saw Miley Cyrus on stage performing a song with some pretty risqué and culturally questionable lyrics in it, when all of a sudden I see her giving a pretty raunchy performance, while ‘Twerking’ all over the stage. Now, this was a shock to me, only because I couldn’t believe that this was the same young girl that my, now-teenage children and I, used to love watching as Hannah Montana on the Disney Channel.
Now, I get that she is older and isn’t a kid anymore, but does that mean she had to jump off the deep end like that? Probably not. But what bothers me the most are the comments that I have heard coming from media outlets and others, who are stating that Miley Cyrus has become a “bad girl” and her change in behavior has to do with the hip-hop culture and her hanging out with Black people has negatively influenced her. This is ludicrous! Last time I checked, Miley Cyrus had a daddy. So, are we going to blame her behavior on somebody else, let alone an entire cultural group of people? That’s so stupid. She has a mind, and while she may have had folks influence her, you can’t blame Black people for it.
Same thing goes for the three kids accused of killing Christopher Lane, an Australian baseball player who was visiting the town of Duncan, OK, where his girlfriend lives and was out for a jog. Only two of the teenagers were charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of Lane, a crime that one teen said they carried out simply because they were bored, according to police. James Francis Edwards Jr., 15, and Chancey Allen Luna, 16, both Black males, were charged with murder. A third teenager, Michael Dewayne Jones, 17, a White male, was only charged with being an accessory to murder after the fact and with firing a weapon.
This was an incredibly stupid and heinous crime, but you have heard many people saying that the White kid was an accessory because he was being influenced by the Black kids to commit this crime. All of them are guilty, so it wasn’t a matter of Black versus White; it was a matter of right versus wrong. Every year, it seems as if Black people get accused for a crime that was either committed by a White person or with a White person. It is so much easier to say, “The Black Guy Did It,” than for people to take ownership over what they did.
Take Ashley Todd for example. In 2008, Todd thought it would be a good idea to carve a backwards B on her face and blame it on a Black Barack Obama supporter in Pennsylvania. However, after investigating her story, the police found out she had lied. Of course, then-candidate John McCain and Sarah Palin called her and offered her their condolences for this “made up Black man” story which had to be believable; because she said a Black man did it.
Or what about Susan Smith, who went on TV and received a ton of media attention after claiming that a Black guy hijacked her car, with her kids inside of it. Little did we know that she would later admit to taking her car and rolling it into a lake, with her children in it so that she could start a new life by marrying a wealthy man without having the burden of her old family. Better yet, what about ole’ Charles Stuart, Massachusetts, who shot himself and killed his pregnant wife for insurance money and blamed it on a Black man. After the police arrested several Black men on suspicion of being involved in the incident, Stuart’s brother admitted that he was actually involved in his brother’s wife’s killing, which prompted Stuart to commit suicide after being found out.
There are more and more stories that I could list, but let me make my primary point. Black people shouldn’t be the only faces that appear on the 5:00, 6:00 and 10:00 news. However, this has been the way Black people have been displayed for decades in the media and in society.
Black people have been labeled savages, mongrels, criminals and animals, as if they are the only cultural group in America that can do any wrong. Truth be told, the majority of White Americans have always sought to mimic African American culture, whether it is music, entertainment, physical presence, art and style. So, if you want to blame Black people for being a negative influence on White youth, then the same should be said of White people’s influence on America. Because Black people have no majority control over the mainstream media, in Hollywood, heading up Fortune 500 companies and music labels, manufacturing guns and drugs, overseeing the educational system or dominating the political landscape, how can Black people be truly blamed for what’s wrong with our country? Shouldn’t the people who have control over these areas, be blamed for what’s wrong with them? When I worked in Corporate America, we always pointed out and disciplined those who were incompetent of handling their responsibility.
The only way to change the perception that society has about Black people, is to not only challenge Black people to do better, but to also be fair and equitable with the critique and coverage of activities in every cultural group. I am tired of Black people being singled out and called to the carpet for the very things that White people do and should be called out for as well. Where is the accountability fall in the community that helped create and foster many of the problems Americans face in our country, especially African Americans?
Black people are committed to overcoming the struggles and the problems that we face. Remember Black people endured slavery and fought to overcome all of the racist laws and systems that were put in place to keep us enslaved. Who we gonna blame for that in the media and in our society, huh?
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Jeffrey L. Boney serves as Associate Editor and is an award-winning journalist for the Houston Forward Times newspaper. Jeffrey is a Next Generation Project Fellow, dynamic, international speaker, experienced entrepreneur, business development strategist and Founder/CEO of the Texas Business Alliance. If you would like to request Jeffrey as a speaker, you can reach him at jboney1@texasbusinessalliance.org.
Don’t forget the current Affirmative Action Mayor of Columbia SC, likely did the Race Hoax thing to insure his election.
http://countenance.wordpress.com/2013/08/17/all-about-the-benjamin/#comments
Why is the ignorant author, throughout this article, capitalizing the word “black”? He does it on the one occasion when he used the word “white” too.
One look at the crime statistics proves the above statement largely correct.
Don't believe me? Just look at the recent racial killings (black on white) one of which involved the murder of an 89 year old WW2 vet.
Savages, yep. Send 'em back to their mother country.
“You know, it amazes me how Black people collectively get accused for everything that is wrong with our nation.”
This would true, if it were not for the small fact that it is wrong.
The word "black" doesn't get a capital "b", regardless of what the author of this article thinks.
I wonder if this guy has a Trayvon Martin Luther King, Jr. t-shirt like they were selling on the Mall yesterday?
Obviously there are some real problems with black “culture” and there are some real cures if only they were tried. I would suggest starting with a 24 letter alphabet. Those job interviews may go better without the m and f. Mothers may find it novel to refrain from using words beginning in those letters while addressing their young children. They already know them as daddy.
Yeah, ‘cause we all know that White people are not blamed collectively for anything. Like being racist merely by being white and having “white privilege”. [/s]
That 12%/54% ratio is misleading in itself. Young black males, those predominantly committing the 54% of the crimes, are but a fraction of the overall 12% black population. I’d estimate that a 4%/54% ratio would be more accurate.
“Whether it’s the issue of welfare, homicide, drugs, violent crime, prison, school dropouts, negative entertainment or single-parent households, you can’t help but see Black people get paraded out front in the mainstream media like they are the only group of folks in the country that are contributing to the problems associated with them.”
For a group that make up about 13% of the population they lead in close to 50% of all the negative categories listed.
Heh. I was going to say that!
We ALL should.
Talk to the hand, race baiter. And hey, Boney, if I encounter any thugs like young Trayvon I WILL defend myself. Just to let you know to rein in the Black Guy and all.... The Zimmerman treatment doesn't faze me at all, as I prefer to live.
Any mention of the leading cause of death for young black males?
You know, young black males.
Pretty high numbers for a perfect race of love and peace.
The older I get, the smarter the Bible becomes. There are none so blind as those who refuse to see.
You know, it's funny, I never saw twerking in Billy Ray Cyrus' big hit, 'Achy Breaky Heart'. However, I have seen twerking, misogyny, race hatred, gangsta values in Hip Hop Culture, where the tone is set by, but not exclusive to Black Americans.
So, if Billy Ray's daughter finally wakes some of the progressive media up to the results of their philosophy, I don't see it coming from her Daddy.
Now, Daddy Billy Ray has caught a lot of flak for allowing his daughter to go off the rails with hip hop values.
The idea that Black America is blamed for everything is delusion suffered by the author, who obviously is a member of the entirlement/black victimization crowd, which is damaging to Black Americans, especially young Black males.
Yea right....I know..!! You can go vote for some more of them sorry a-- democrats...that will fix it..!
I am fine with condemning white criminals and bums on a equal-opportunity basis.
The author might feel better if the flood of crime committed by his group is underreported, misunderstood, and unaddressed. Will that change the reality for the victims or improve the lives of parenting-deprived children? “Optics” fool people; they do not fix problems.
I think he is a self hating homosexual ill feeling in a black skin.
Before the were slave by force, now to their shame by choice to government and cravenness to hate the other guy becauseeehe has what I have not (silver spoon white skin of Jesse Jackson).
Point is that there is black intifada of blame the other guy, but he feels we are blaming. This is the kind of stubbornness we should not wait to change because it is a suicide to hope fr such change, abandoning all custodies. This is pimp language and not even an argument. It’s Alinskian to blame the other guy for a problem he cannot solve alone while abandoning ship an lettin him sink with it not helping. They got to shift blame for betraying. Obviously he does not want to help and denounce when blacks cause problems in name of blackness.
The Black Guy did it!
WIFE:"I wish you were not allowed in here!"
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