the lack of job training ummmmm... it's pronounced HIGH SCHOOL!!! can't get a job without it.
Posted on 10/11/2005 7:55:51 AM PDT by beaureguard
The knee-jerk tendency to condemn anyone who dares to enumerate troubling statistics and realities in the African-American community prevents mature discussions and viable solutions for what ails black America.
Last year, educator and entertainer Bill Cosby was vilified by many in the black community because he dared to speak out about the epidemic of poor parenting and undisciplined and ungoverned youth in too many African-American communities.
Now comments by former Education Secretary William "Bill" Bennett are selectively taken out of context. Instead of having a meaningful conversation about how to reduce black-on-black crime in many African-American communities, Bennett has become the poster child for the neo-racist.
On his Sept. 28th radio talk show, Bennett made the following comment: "If you wanted to reduce crime, you could — if that were your sole purpose — you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down." Bennett quickly added that such an idea would be "an impossible, ridiculous and morally reprehensible thing to do." But, he said, "your crime rate would go down."
I do not believe that Bennett is purporting the systematic abortions of black babies, but instead is suggesting that based on sheer, cold statistics, if the number of black babies coming into American society were to decrease there would be a decline in the number of blacks who have the opportunity to get involved in the criminal justice system.
The only argument (statistically speaking) that I have with Bennett's statement is that he should have said "black male babies" instead of simply black babies.
According to U.S. Bureau of Justice statistics, in mid 2004 there were 4,919 black male prison and jail inmates per 100,000 black males in the United States, compared to 717 white male inmates per 100,000 white males.
Like all babies, black male babies are born as innocent human beings. Black male babies do not have any innate proclivity toward crime.
However, due to ongoing structural racism, gross inequality in educational opportunity, and the lack of job training and high-wage jobs in many African-American communities, black males have more chances to become involved with the criminal justice system.
Instead of bashing Bennett because he alluded to this reality, black leaders should be initiating discussions about what we can do to decrease these numbers.
Moreover, we need to talk about and then take the necessary action on what we can do to reach out to those blacks — both male and female — who already have a criminal history and help bring them back into productive mainstream society.
The discussion must include talking about ongoing prejudice and discrimination in American society and how to eliminate racism; but we must resist having meaningless conversations that are little more than a citation of the sins of white people imposed on black lives.
Instead, black people must discuss and decide what we can do as individuals and as a group to help more of our people stay out of the criminal justice system and make our predominantly black communities safer places.
People like Bennett can parrot troubling statistics about black people, but they are not likely to do much more than simply speak about our deficiencies.
It is up to us — black Americans — to do what we can and must do to save ourselves.
— Benin Dakar of Duluth is a writer and owner of a property management company.
it is a seemingly impossible task given the life-styles handed down through the welfare system. we did it to ourselves... i grew up down the street from the porjects. the things i heard and saw left me with many questions about generational welfare. how did we get to this place? what can we do to change it?
it's a very hard thing... we started passing out free food and now we can't stop without destroying whole families. and not just african american families but european americans who are on welfare as well.
white and black is not at issue. revival of good core values is... a belief that people can change is needed. the huge welfare estate needs to be replaced by an investment estate... there is a solution.
I think it goes without saying that cops that use excessive force are not the best cops to begin with. Emphasis on excessive.
I hope that conversation gets started, in earnest, very soon!
"Oh, right, there's no such thing as racism. Whites and blacks and all the other colors live together in perfect harmony.
And there's no such thing as injustice, either. Cops are perfect, judges are perfect, life is just a bowl of cherries."
AND
There is no such thing as 60+% of all violent crime is committed by a particular 10% of the population of color.
There is no such thing as this particular 10% of the population's leaders are race hustlers and racists.
There is no such thing as this particular 10% of the population refuses to come to grips with the fact they do nothing constructive to confront the criminal problem from within of which they are overwhelmingly the victims.
Nevah happen....no money in it
the lack of job training ummmmm... it's pronounced HIGH SCHOOL!!! can't get a job without it.
Stop that! Do you see what you're saying?
You're saying "blacks commit crime." Which is a lie.
Some blacks commit crime. Not all blacks.
If you can't look at a black face without thinking "criminal" then you're part of the problem.
The writer is certainly not reformed in his or her (what kind of name is Benin, anyway) theology.
Sorry.. flame me if you must, but the first time I was mugged was on a Chicago street at age 9 with my little brother by a group of black thugs. There were multiple run-ins throughout High School, with occasional hospital visits compliments of a certain demographic. I'm now 37 and just last night a black thug noticed the painful wince on my face as he cruised past with his 1 billion bubba-watt bass boomer car, he jumped out and incoherently babbled something about doing something terrible to me and my 10 year old son at my side.
It's just the way it is and it is not my fault.
I won't sit here and say that "Some of my best friends are black..." because they aren't. Having said that I will say that *one* and only one of my very best friends of more than 15 years, is in fact a black man. We talk about these issues sometimes. There is little disagreement.
I do try and follow the civil-rights mantra of judging a man by the content of his character. But one can only be burned so many times before one develops an aversion to fire. And I will not deliberately put myself or my family in harms way just to 'prove' that we aren't racist.
Having grown up in the ultra-tolerant, liberal 70's I now find my tolerance at an all time historical low.
Go ahead... you can blast the newbie now.
I agree that it is the African-American communities that need work. They are the ones who abandoned the poor in NO. The 70% who have moved out of poverty but have not yet developed the community organizations and institutions to help the less fortunate.
Sorry you feel that way.
I suggest to you that, when thinking about race, you might think about people like Justice Clarence Thomas, Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, former Secretary of State and General Colin Powell, economist Walter Williams, columnist Armstrong Williams, not to mention millions more less famous but equally honorable black folks.
I live in a racially mixed neighborhood, including a black Baptist preacher and his extended family, with zero problems.
In fact, the only time anybody in the neighborhood was mugged, it was by a couple of young Asian men. I kid you not.
Did you ever live in New Orleans? Because the vast majority of blacks in New Orleans are working-class, living in intact families, typically extended families living together in the same community.
Most of the unique aspects of New Orleans culture is from the black Creoles -- the music, the food, the architecture. Black Creoles write and play New Orleans jazz. Black Creoles cook and serve New Orleans cuisine. (Emeril is from Massachusetts!) Black Creoles built the beautiful houses, and crafted the wrought iron, and tend the gardens, and maintain and drive the streetcars.
Without black Creoles, New Orleans would be another Shreveport.
You won't get much argument from me on that. Compelling photograph, ominous & frightening, what was the source?
Looks rather like the "Ninth Gate", yes?
Regards,
GtG
"due to ongoing structural racism, gross inequality in educational opportunity, and the lack of job training and high-wage jobs in many African-American communities, black males have more chances to become involved with the criminal justice system."
Try breakdown of the black family, absence of fathers, lack of discipline, and a culture where studying hard, working hard, and being successful is considered "acting white" and thus to be avoided. (By the way, since the author wants to bring up "structural racism", why doesn't he chastise the racism inherent in the black culture's stigmatizing of "acting white"?)
At least we can congratulate him for realizing there's a problem. But he's so far off base on the causes of the problem that he'll never arrive at the solution.
In response to a private message I received, I'll post this to you.
Let's compare -- when I was 19, a black man stole my purse, when I was 21, a black man attacked me with a knife and tried to rape me, when I was 23 a black man attacked me with a knife and stole my purse, and when I was 25 a black man just swung at me with a knife.
Do I win in the "I was attacked by a black man" contest?
If I can get look at a black man and judge him by what's under the skin, you can, too.
I know... there are exceptions to the rule, and that is great.
I too have seen Asian gangs who can be extremely vicious... but they don't seem to go out of their way to be aggressive and confrontational with everyone who crosses their path.
Heck, there is a white trash kid on my block who likes to come tearing up our cul-de-sac in excess of 40mph with kids playing... I'd LOVE the chance to put a 7.62mm round through his engine block.
But again, exceptions don't prove or disprove a rule. Hard facts and statistics do.
Also, this really is not a matter of me 'feeling' a certain way. I am a linear thinker, quite logical. I assess relative danger based upon past experience and probabilities, that's all. Right now... It just ain't looking too good for the brothers. I sincerely hope more of them start looking to the positive role models you have cited instead of the thug/gangster/rapper sect.
Yes, you win the contest. Well, maybe a tie. If what you say is all true, and you still claim to be able to walk down a street past a group of black men and approach them with a completely open mind and un-jaded eye, then maybe you are a better person then I am...in an ethereal sense, but I hope you don't mind if I pray for your safety.
Here in Georgia - the state suffers from the reputation of being 49th or 50th, depending on the year, in the SAT performance of its students. That South Carolina is either 49th to GA's 50th or 50th to GA's 49th is the subject of a lot of humor - but it looks past the truth that each state has a nearly 30% black population. When you look at white (non-Hispanic) SAT scores, compared on an equal basis with other states - you see that there is very little difference (a small standard deviation) among states. Yet politicians rage about the poor performance of the schools here. It's not the poor performance of the schools - it's the poor performance of one very large segment of the school population. But that's the elephant in the living room that no one can talk about. Event he State Department of Education releases annual SAT information - but conspicuously not broken down by race. Late they quietly release the race segmented results and the results are...well, you know.
I have spent an awful lot of time in your state recently, and both of the Carolinas too. If there is one state in the union that has completely bent over backwards and prostrated its collective self in atonement for sins of the past, it is the great state of Georgia. Take a cruise through the terminal walkway at ATL sometime. Yet the oppressed, victim mentality still prevails. Any change to that fact must come from within those who hold on so dearly to it. It isn't happening.
Nor is it happening here in California either. A very good friend of mine is a teacher here. He is a walking dichotomy. He was an Army combat para-trooper in Vietnam, yet he went on to graduate from UC Berkeley, of all places. He has actually sat and shown me many examples of downright fraud in the state testing that allows for special accomodations and exceptions that have been granted for black students, in a futile attempt to get the aggregated scores up.
Again... until it comes from within, it isn't going to happen. Bill Cosby's comments, and even some from comedian Chris Rock are a step in the right direction. Let us hope this is the start of something good.
Obviously you don't, because you read in a bunch of crap he didn't write.
Why not deal with the facts as presented and spare us the sanctimony?
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