A New Civil Rights Movement [NYT/Bob Herbert: Blacks must change their BEHAVIOR]

The NYT ^ | Dec. 26, 2005 | Bob Herbert

[Crawdad]

Herbert knows the status that awaits the black "community" if it doesn't get its collective act together. With the ever increasing population of Hispanics in America, the "community" is facing further marginalization because of its immoral and anti-social behavior.

[DieHard the Hunter]

> It sounds like he is lamenting the total lack of black leadership, and telling blacks to get their act together for the benefit of their kids by changing their own BEHAVIOR. I was really amazed. Anyone else read his editorial today? And feel the same way I did??

Dunno because I cannot afford to subcribe to yet another newsfeed.

What I can say is this: "the 'Hip-Hop community' needs to come into line with the rest of Society. Tagging is vandalism: pure and simple. It should be punished as such. It damages property, both private and public. And costs a sh*tload of money, every year, to fix. And most people (at least DownUnder) have had a thorough gutsful.

So fine: enjoy your "hip-hop gangsta" lifestyle with impunity. But start tagging our street (as you have done) and peddling drugs and advocating violence, and abusing women (aka "hoes") and start throwing around side-arms and introducing our kids to P-Methamphetamine, then you shall make us truly angry.

You don't want to do that."

[Right Wing Assault]

No doubt the first response, if any, from the black "leadership" will be that Mr. Herbert isn't REALLY black like Bill Clinton is.

[GladesGuru]

Remember the line about broke clocks and blind squirrels?
An occasional article does not a rational mind make. What is the overall perspective of a writer? Therein like predictive value.

Down here in the Sheeple's Republic of FloriDUH the Miami Herald runs columns by another black writer named Leonard Pitts. Most of the time, Pitts is exactly what his name implies. A racist whiner pandering to the "black community" meaning the activists in the black community.

Occasionally, Pitts turns out a wonderful piece of work. But his "Tripping Through The Hagen Daz", about a Liberal mom with super brat walking on the ice cream to cool off one hot day, does not mean he has given up his sense of black entitlement, etc.

In all cases, black writers become conservative at great financial risks because their present employers would not retain them once they left the Plantation of the Left.

If you are waiting for another such article, bring lunch, as the wait may well be as long as the one for Godot.

[Right Wing Assault]

It will take a new movement to bring about the changes in values and behavior needed to halt the self-destruction that is consuming so many black lives.

The scary thing is that the 'new movement' looking to fill the void is the Muslims. Not necessarily the Black Muslims. I mean the Arabic Muslims (as seen in our prisons) if they can manage to cover up their love of slavery. Too bad the Christian black preachers can't get together without having the politicians and publicity seekers involved. Maybe Cosby, Herbert, and others of like mind can get something going.

[yankeedame]

Alright, I blush to admit this but what is "tagging"?

As in "Tagging is vandalism: pure and simple..."

[rdb3]

What I can say is this: "the 'Hip-Hop community' needs to come into line with the rest of Society.

Young brothers would agree with you. Check out Why I don't like Hip Hop.

Be advised. There is some salty language.

Imagine peace on this earth when there's no grief
Imagine grief on this earth when there's no peace.

[rdb3]

Alright, I blush to admit this but what is "tagging"?

Stuff that looks like that.

[billhilly]

Call me crazy, but I did not know that Bob Herbert was black until I just saw his picture. That is both good and bad. Good that he wrote about the obvious, and bad that only a black writer is deemed entitled to comment about the behavior of 10% of this nations' people. I don't mean to suggest monolithic behavior of all ten percent, but in a nation, it seems stupid, to me, to forbid the majority to comment on things that affect us all, and in spite of forty years of silly comments to the effect of, "its a black thing, you wouldn't understand", a lot of us do understand, and we have been perplexed by generations of underclass americans accepting a lifestyle that is guaranteed to hold them back.

Imagine this country with all cylinders cooking. The economy would be awesome, our people would be finding real "equality" of opportunity, the federal budget would be healthy and we wouldn't still find pockets in cities where only Marines in Humvees could go with a reasonable certainty of getting back safely.

[DieHard the Hunter]

> Alright, I blush to admit this but what is "tagging"?

I sniff bait, and am hesitant to rise to it. But benefit of the doubt...

"Tagging" is where someone takes a spray-paint can, or an indelible marker, or a glass-cutter, or some other means of leaving his permanent unauthorized mark, and uses it to deface public property. It is an act of vandalism.

[rdb3]

Like I said in #6, "But it can't be a one-time event. If so, he'll remain a hypocrite."

[billhilly]

Why not copy it and paste it in freepmail to posters who ask for it via private message?

[Katya]

my greatest issue with all of this, is the left's and media's notion that there needs to be "black" leadership, and annointed leaders. Are there Asian leaders in the US? Arab leaders, hispanic leaders? NO.
It is completely paternalistic to further this idea, and once obliterated we will see a rise of the individual.

[summer]

I don't subscribe to Times Select; I read it in the hard copy of today's NYT. Maybe someone still has it and will post an excerpt.

[rdb3]

my greatest issue with all of this, is the left's and media's notion that there needs to be "black" leadership, and annointed leaders. Are there Asian leaders in the US? Arab leaders, hispanic leaders? NO.

When I want a leader, I look in the mirror. That leader is staring right back at me.

[DieHard the Hunter]

Mate, thanks!

> Be advised. There is some salty language.

I know and use salty language that would make Satan Himself blush. Good, original Sailor Language, of the sort that Hip-hop gangstas have never heard, because they have never been to sea (lucky for them!). So no worries on that score...!

[billhilly]

You got that right.

[summer]

He wrote about a lot more than their lack of leadership -- he mentioned the sky high rate of black males in prison, more and more black women getting HIV, and he did not not any of this to some who engage in defeating group-think (that it is all the white man's fault); rather, he kept coming back to the theme that blacks themselves need to take control of their behavior and lives. He also mentioned how far blacks have come in terms of once being slaves (and not being allowed to read), and now, how blacks have so many kids out of wedlock, and their kids fail to appreciate or understand the value of education.

It was really quite a column. He did not once mention Bush or blame the GOP or anything like that. He did however note that many blacks are now middle class. Yet, still, this incredible prison rate exists among black males, black kids are routinely still abandoned by their black fathers, etc.

The 17 year old drop out he mentioned had already fathered two kids. Truly, I thought he would end the column by encouraging blacks to starting voting GOP. That's where he sounded like he was going.

[cyborg]

Yes the people that need to change their behaviour should do so. Otherwise, this is just preaching to the choir. Believe it or not, black people who obey the law and don't committ crime aren't strange anomilies. If you watch the what the lib media says you'd think that black life is sad.

[summer]

No, I don't think this is preaching to the choir. Bob Herbert really is sounding off lately about the cultural cluelessness of black kids following rap music, and the accompanying violence, and now, this call for a new civil rights movement, which oddly enough seems to have nothing to do with government programs. It was very much a departure in terms of his writing style and message.