What America owes communities like Ferguson — and black America in general — is a sincere grappling with that take on law enforcement that is so endemic in black communities nationwide.
Here we go again WE OWE havent we paid enough? when does responsibility for ones self come into play. They talk a great deal about being disrespected, well respect is earned not just given to you when you are born.
def: they want to freely conduct thier business without law enforcement getting in the way
At the beginning of the school year, the principal where I teach came in to our department meeting to discuss the newest mandate (from on high...or wherever the inane mandates about edu-mah-cation come from these days) which was to alert us to the need to reduce the number of black students that are being written up for behavioral issues, noting that there was a disproportionate number of blacks receiving such attention. EVERY colleague of mine (black, white, green) groaned. I suggested to the [black] principal that the underlying insinuation was that these write-ups were racial in nature, rather than behavioral.
Silence filled the room.
I asked whether we would be told how many of these referrals we would be able to write before we had committed some unpardonable transgression.
More silence.
I remember reading an essay by a black writer (don’t know if it was McWhorther or not) that included a description of the social behavior of blacks when they go out - how they tend to become quite gregarious, are prone to use language that may raise eyebrows, etc. I don’t remember what the gist of the essay was (racial differences or some such idea), but I remember thinking, “well, that’s going to lead to some separation of some kind. I don’t WANT to have MY night out ruined by some loud-mouthing regardless of whoever it is that is doing it.”
Our cultures are different - black culture and white culture. We share some things in common, but we also have differences. Some of those differences are deal-breakers (most of my mouthy students are black - sorry, deal with it Black America). As a result, there will end up being some separation (you can’t learn when your approach to learning is to be mouthy. You just can’t...not the same kind of learning done by the quiet, nose-in-the-book student). The result is separation - in my school there are fewer blacks in Honors/AP courses.
If your idea of a good time is to dress in “slop” and walk around holding your pants up with one hand while you’re throwing the other all over the place to the tune of some raunchy, angry-sounding rap song you are reciting as you swish your way down the street...sorry again, I don’t want to have anything to do with you (and neither does my son or daughter, both of whom are bi-racial). The result is separation. Who goes to a mall these days if they don’t have to? Who really wants to go to the restaurant on “THAT” side of town, when I can go to another one over “HERE” (even if it is twice as far away)?
If you get off posting on Facebook pictures of yourself with a stack of bills and guns and half-empty Old English 800 bottles, sorry, still yet again. You need counseling for that problem of yours...oh, and by the way, you look like you celebrate what’s wrong in America...are YOU part of what’s wrong, too? Separation. Please don’t think I would ever want you around, that I would ever consider you or what you have to say to me as something I NEED to hear/could possibly learn from. Nothing personal, but...well...it’s personal. I don’t like your BEHAVIOR. You can try to make it sound like I don’t like your skin color, but, it goes deeper than that...it’s YOU, man. I don’t like the way YOU behave.