Posted on 04/05/2006 4:32:42 AM PDT by beaureguard
There is a lot of bad news in black America.
After a decade of rising affluence, poverty (among blacks and whites) is on the upswing. Marriage is out of fashion, but diabetes, hypertension and heart failure are not. We die sooner than whites. And black men remain disproportionately shut out of the mainstream — unemployed, on drugs, in prison.
So if black activists and political leaders are looking for matters crying out for redress or reform or fairness, I could give them a list. Cynthia McKinney's complaints would not be on it.
If you're going to call a press conference and muster such prominent supporters as Harry Belafonte and Danny Glover, you ought to be sure the issue is important enough to command national attention. You should save that sort of clarion call for the most serious matters — renewing the Voting Rights Act or raising the minimum wage so that more black men can support their children. The precious spotlight of national news coverage should not be wasted on a spoiled and demanding congresswoman who thinks she's the Soul Queen of Capitol Hill.
Nor should the Abrams tank of political warfare — the charge of "racism" — be rolled out to fight every minor battle. Racism is a shadow of its former self, but it lives yet. You see it in the high rates of harsh discipline meted out to black boys in public schools. You can also see it in the disproportionate numbers of black men sent to prison for crimes they didn't commit.
Certainly, the legacy of racism is alive and well. You can see it in the self-destructive behavior of so many young black men — the internecine violence, the distorted self-esteem, the worship of thug culture. You can see the legacy of racism in the enduring rates of poverty and poor health among black citizens.
But McKinney's trumped-up charge of racism merely cheapens the term, so that it's less effective when it's needed to discuss genuine discrimination.
Immediately after the episode, McKinney — uncharacteristically, to be sure — issued a statement of regret, saying, "I know that Capitol Hill Police are securing our safety, and I appreciate the work that they do." But within hours, her stance had changed as she rallied supporters to her side to defend her against the depredations of a racist white police state.
(Now, I can understand McKinney's frustration over the fact that she is often unrecognized. I share that frustration. More times than I can count, I've been mistaken for McKinney, criticized for things she said or given advice about my braids. In fact, while McKinney wore braids until recently, I haven't worn them since sixth grade. Still, I've never slapped or slugged anyone who confused me with her. But if this keeps up, that could change.)
Last month, The New York Times ran a front-page story outlining the dire social and economic prospects for young black men. According to a number of recent academic studies, black men, despite the obvious successes of a few, are falling further and further behind, locked in place as a permanent underclass. "Especially in the country's inner cities, the studies show, finishing high school is the exception, legal work is scarcer than ever and prison is almost routine, with incarceration rates climbing for blacks even as urban crime rates have declined," the article said.
I waited for somebody to call a press conference. I waited for Jesse and Al to take to the streets demanding public policies that would bring black men into the mainstream. I looked for responses from the usual suspects — the NAACP, the Urban League and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. I heard nothing.
But a misunderstanding between a second-rate member of Congress and a Capitol Hill police officer has apparently become a full-blown crisis. So maybe I'm wrong about all of this. Perhaps I just need to adjust my perspective.
Perhaps the fact that one-third of young black men have police records is not a problem. Maybe the fact that 70 percent of black children are born outside the bonds of marriage is no big deal, and a 72 percent unemployment rate among black male high school drop-outs in their 20s does not signal a crisis. Maybe the serious decline in the marriage rate among black adults does not suggest the demise of a community.
No, indeed. The biggest problem facing black America involves a white cop who wouldn't give a black woman her props.
This is a refreshing article by Cynthia Tucker. Perhaps some Democrats are realizing that after Katrina, people are fed up with being called racist for everything that goes wrong. Sometimes people just make mistakes.
I'll bet McKinney will just love that. *snicker*
Hey Cynthia, you pinhead. This is America, each of us is responsible for themselves and their children.
That's all.
I would hope that someday people will be able to recognize the fact that people have difficulty differentiating between people of a different race without ascribing this phenomenon to racism. The fact of the matter is that children imprint on people of their own race when they are young, and have a hard time developing the same familiarity with people of other races out in the wider world when they grow up. There is nothing wrong with this and it does not mean they hold racial animus toward anyone.
People need to make allowances for this tendency, instead of trying to capitalize on it for short-term gain. People need to be smart about such things. When I am in a country where I am in the minority, you can better bet I give the police officers every opportunity to identify me correctly and happily supply whatever documentation they request. It would be foolish to do otherwise.
ROFLMAO!
"As I said yesterday, there are only so many Race Cards in the deck."
...and Cynthia McKinny is the joker!
It's intersting that the majority of problems that Ms. Tucker attributes to racism are problems WITHIN the black community and should be addressed there, first. White leaders and white people in general have not caused 70% of black children to be born out of wedlock, have not brought about the 'thug' culture, nor the high dropout rates among black high schoolers. All that is going to have to be solved within the black community for those folks to ever have a real chance at success in life.
"You can also see it in the disproportionate numbers of black men sent to prison for crimes they didn't commit.
Now I'm sure jihad Cindy #2 has all the documentation for all these black men who are in jail for crimes they didn't commit....and
"Certainly, the legacy of racism is alive and well. You can see it in the self-destructive behavior of so many young black men — the internecine violence, the distorted self-esteem, the worship of thug culture."
So which is it Tucker? Self-destructive, or they just can't get a fair shake from the cops?
But I love it when she calls Mckinney second-rate, and admits in the same article that she hasn't hit anyone yet but that could change. Brings a smile to my face.
Tucker is just as much of an idiot as Mckinney, and she's not even smart enough to see it.
You're right. One of the Cynthias has better hair.
Aside from Bill Cosby, among prominent blacks, they are caused by white racism. Just ask the Revs Al Sharptongue and Jesse Hijackson.
I almost hurled when I read this quote:
If you're going to call a press conference and muster such prominent supporters as Harry Belafonte and Danny Glover, you ought to be sure the issue is important enough to command national attention.
Even a blind pig finds the occasional truffle, and this comment was spot on...
"But McKinney's trumped-up charge of racism merely cheapens the term, so that it's less effective when it's needed to discuss genuine discrimination."
CAAAT FIIIIGHT!!!!!
The only people more stupid are Cynthia's constituents....
Sounds like racial profiling. What about Asian men? Hispanic men? Old men?
Not only that, policies don't bring people into the mainstream. Hard work and personal responsibility do.
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