I absolutely positively cannot wait to get my hands on the latest copy of the New Yorker. The art cover features Barack and Michelle Obama in their true guise, at least according to a lot of less than well informed Americans who get their information from an institution of inconsequential integrity such as FOX News, more accurately described as the bizarro world news network.
Despite his protest to the contrary a lot of hardworking, white Americans cling to their bitter belief that Mr. Obama is a closet Muslim and Ms. Obama is a fist bumping terrorist who is also a Louis Farrakhan devotee and is the leader of the Chicago chapter of the Osama bin Laden fan club. Ms. Obama loves Osama so much she married a man whose name is just one letter away from the terrorist leader. I would not be surprised if there was a rumor floating about that she was set to live in Omaha until she realized it didn’t rhyme with Osama or Obama.
The magazine features an illustration from Barry Blitt named The Politics of Fear in which the Democratic presidential nominee and his wife are shown wearing traditional Muslim garb in the oval office of the white house, presumably after Mr. Obama won the presidency. The drawing of Michelle Obama has a huge angry black woman afro while wearing fatigues and combat boots with an automatic assault rifle over her shoulder. Mr. Obama is wearing a traditional Muslim headdress and attire ala Osama bin Laden style. And to top it all off the stars and stripes is shown burning in a fireplace blaze while Osama’s portrait hangs above.
The only thing the cartoon needs is little caricatures of Sasha and Malia. It would be the icing on the cake of comic fabrication to see the two girls depicted with bomb vests and copies of the Koran while wearing the traditional garb of Arab women. I know that they’re much too young to be wearing the covering from head to toe. But we are trying to drive home the point that the reality surrounding the Democratic candidate has been distorted to the point of severe absurdity.
This is not the first time the Democratic presidential nominee has been lampooned. Dozens of cartoons of the senator from Illinois appear in various newspapers, weekly and monthly periodicals, websites, and elsewhere on an hourly basis. He has been satirized on Saturday Night Life. Comics galore stand in line to ridicule any weakness in his political armor. And even one of the hardest working white joes in the workforce is ready to make a dime off of this historic presidential run of an African American by plastering a picture of the monkey Curious George with the caption Obama ’08 on a t-shirt.
The official response from Mr. Obama’s presidential campaign referred to the illustration art as tasteless and offensive. If anybody has a clear reason for being offended by this lampoon it would be the Muslim community that continues to be slandered by an affiliation with terrorism and unpatriotic tendencies. Mr. Obama refused to give an opinion about the cover. Other people have made their much less than favorable opinion known. Unfortunately for Mr. Obama, many people will continue to unfairly associate his character with a negative stereotype without any foundation in reality. Not unlike the way Mr. Obama continues to hold fast to his opinion that black people need to take more personal responsibility for the conditions of the black community before the nation takes any social responsibility.
At the annual NAACP convention Mr. Obama reiterated his call that black people show greater responsibility for improving their own lives. Mr. Obama urged Washington to provide more education and economic assistance. He called on corporate America to exercise greater social responsibility. But he received his largest applause as he urged blacks to demand more of ourselves. Said Mr. Obama, “I know some say I’ve been too tough on folks talking about responsibility. NAACP, I’m here to report [that] I’m not going to stop talking about it. Because as much I’m out there to fight to make sure that government’s doing its job and the marketplace is doing its job, none of it will make a difference, at least not enough of a difference, if we also don’t at the same time seize more responsibility in our own lives.” I guess the other racial groups don’t have to have any personal responsibility.
Mr. Obama insists on holding steadfast to the notion that the black community is somehow more corrupt or somehow more irresponsible than any other race of people. A cursory glance at headlines would support Mr. Obama’s assumptions. But the headlines are controlled by a dominant community that would rather backhand people in the black community than extend a helping hand. We all could take more responsibility for our communities.
For example, Mr. Obama could have gone before the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and tell the Jewish community that Israel could take more responsibility for ending the tensions with the Arab community and Iran in particular. Mr. Obama could stand at his podium and tell Hillary Clinton to take more responsibility for the debt she incurred when she campaigned against Mr. Obama. I didn’t see anybody say John Edwards or anyone else deserved a handout for racking up debt. What makes these other examples of irresponsibility so much more tolerable?
I seriously doubt that the problem of broken families in the black community is significantly more of a problem than the broken families in other communities. I have to admit that I have not seen any numbers on the subject. But if the propaganda that says black crime is so much more staggering than white crime compared to the actual crime numbers broken down by race is any indication, I have to say that unless Mr. Obama can produce some actual numbers from credible sources, all he is doing is reinforcing the negative image of the black community to his supporters who want to believe the stereotypical hype against black people.
There is little to support Barack Obama’s emphasis calling for more responsibility for the black community in relation to the level of responsibility in other community’s. No matter what the reality is Mr. Obama will cling to his supposition that black people are the most irresponsible community of people in America. So why would he of all people expect anything less from those of us who think he is a Muslim and his wife is a whitey hater with nothing to support their claims? The way I see it, what’s good for the slandered goose is even better for the slandered gander.
In my classes, I teach about the destructive nature of institutional racism. I teach how much, but not all, of what happens to black Americans is a result of factors beyond their control. However, not everything is out of our control. Who do we blame for black-on-black crime? Who do we blame for drug dealers selling drugs to black children? I understand that micro-economies in black communities lag behind other communities, but that’s just all the more reason to stay in school, not drop out. My distinct impression of Senator Obama is that he recognizes government and society should do more, but aid is useless and is seen as a waste by right-wingers when blacks harm themselves.
>But if the propaganda that says black crime is so much more staggering than white crime compared to the actual crime numbers broken down by race is any indication, I have to say that unless Mr. Obama can produce some actual numbers from credible sources, all he is doing is reinforcing the negative image of the black community to his supporters who want to believe the stereotypical hype against black people.<
Race, Crime and Justice in America
The Color of Crime
New Century Foundation
Oakton, VA 22124
Second, Expanded Edition
Major Findings
• Police and the justice system are not biased against minorities.
Crime Rates
• Blacks are seven times more likely than people of other races to commit murder,
and eight times more likely to commit robbery.
• When blacks commit crimes of violence, they are nearly three times more likely
than non-blacks to use a gun, and more than twice as likely to use a knife.
• Hispanics commit violent crimes at roughly three times the white rate, and
Asians commit violent crimes at about one quarter the white rate.
• The single best indicator of violent crime levels in an area is the percentage of
the population that is black and Hispanic.
Interracial Crime
• Of the nearly 770,000 violent interracial crimes committed every year involving
blacks and whites, blacks commit 85 percent and whites commit 15 percent.
• Blacks commit more violent crime against whites than against blacks. Fortyfive
percent of their victims are white, 43 percent are black, and 10 percent are
Hispanic. When whites commit violent crime, only three percent of their victims are
black.
• Blacks are an estimated 39 times more likely to commit a violent crime against
a white than vice versa, and 136 times more likely to commit robbery.
• Blacks are 2.25 times more likely to commit officially-designated hate crimes
against whites than vice versa.
Gangs
• Only 10 percent of youth gang members are white.
• Hispanics are 19 times more likely than whites to be members of youth gangs.
Blacks are 15 times more likely, and Asians are nine times more likely.
Incarceration
• Between 1980 and 2003 the US incarceration rate more than tripled, from 139
to 482 per 100,000, and the number of prisoners increased from 320,000 to 1.39
million.
• Blacks are seven times more likely to be in prison than whites. Hispanics are
three times more likely.
Most Dangerous Cities in America:
1) Detroit-81% black, 10% white
2) St. Louis-51% black, 42% white
3)Flint-53% black, 40% white
4)Oakland-35% black, 23% white
5)Camden-53% black, 7% white
6) Birmingham-73% black, 23% white
7)North Charleston-49% black, 43% white
8) Memphis-61% black, 33% white
9) Richmond, Ca.- 36% black, 21% white
10) Cleveland- 51% black, 38% white
Notice any similarities between violent cities and racial makeup?
What these figures do not take into account, is how many more blacks vs. whites are arrested and prosecuted for these crimes. Racial profiling is a factor.
Tim Wise did an excellent essay explaining this, I can’t remember exactly which one it is but all of his essays are at http://timwise.org.
Stats do not give the whole story, or take every factor into account.
Yes I agree there’s racial profiling but not to the extent that the statistics are skewed meaningless. Profiling may effect arrest and imprisonment figures somewhat but what about the code of silence that’s prevalent in most black communities? How many crimes that are black on black go unreported do to fear of reprisal or to protect the guilty from “the man”? If you count those crimes, I would submit that the scale would tip back the other way and at the very least cancel out the profiling bias.
Is the code of silence in the black community any different than the code of silence in police departments when there is an investigation into possible police corruption or wrong doing? Is it the same as the code of silence in the military when investigators are trying to get to the bottom of military discrepancies? Is this particular brand of silence any different than the code of silence from people who work in the white house who refuse to testify about possible illegal happenings in the executive branch? How many crimes have these various institutions of government, and other organizations such as the FBI, CIA, and who knows else, perpetrated on the black community and on others? Of course these crimes are not counted as criminal activity at all. I would submit that the scale would tip far back the other way and do more than to compensate for the profiling bias.
Peace
I agree with Obama, Bill Kesters, and The Black political annylist share my view that us Black folks have more problems than White racism. Clearly there is a higher crime rate amongs Blacks than many other ethnic groups. I think a main culprit in this crime rate is out of wedlock pregnacy and fatherless families. White racism although still strong, is not worse today than the effect of fatherless families. I see the White racist like the KKK losing power. An Obama presidency will prove that this country has come a long way.
The White power kkk people fear Obama and Today is a bad day to be in the clan. Black on Black crime is self destruction. Fathers not raising their kids is self destruction. I also see alot of self destructive things in the African American community which are more prevalent now than they were in the days of White power legal enforced segregation. Those who believe that it is mearly a racial profiling bias are believing in a conspiracy theory. Obama is correct. Fathers must rejoin contributing as much to their families as they did in the days of segregation. Compared to the Black fathers of today the Black fathers of the past were supermen. They dealt with racial profiling and White power legal segregation.
The underlying premise for the code of silence is the same for all groups – everyone wants to protect their own. Police are the worst at covering up their own crimes by looking the other way. I guarantee that a cop who gets pulled over and is DUI will get a free ride home and 9 times out of 10 a cop who tee’s off on some innocent black will not be charged with assualt unless there’s witnesses or a video. But statistically we’re comparing the crimes commited by police which is a much smaller universe than the population they “serve” – if you want to call it that. Even though profiling exists and some crimes committed against blacks by authorities are not factored – the crime statistics still say that black crime is rampant and totally out of balance when compared with white crime. It can’t all be blamed on racism. Blacks have more rights, opportunities and freedom than any time in their history. There was much more racism back in the 40′s, 50′s and 60′s but the black crime rate was much lower then. How do you explain that?
“Is the code of silence in the black community any different than the code of silence in police departments when there is an investigation into possible police corruption or wrong doing? Is it the same as the code of silence in the military when investigators are trying to get to the bottom of military discrepancies?”
To even pose such a question is just plain silly. The police and military have a code of silence to protect themselves from outside influence. Their self-interest and self-preservation takes precedent, tacitly, over justice. It is when those interests are threatened that they then close ranks. When they are the victims of some crime/mishap do they close ranks and keep quiet? Hell no! They never stop screaming from the rooftops and going into the most “exact” detail of how, and by whom, they were wronged. How wounded and how heroic in response they were and will be, to shift everyones sympathy their way and focus attention on those who’d done them wrong.
This so-called “code of silence” (which it is definitely not) in black communities is nothing to do with closing ranks or any sort of solidarity (purposeful or otherwise) and more to do with plain apathy, genuine distrust of the police and, with the younger generation, the dumbass “no snitching” bravado. Now, if we had groups of black vigilantes taking out the scum, black and non-black, who prey on the black community we would have good reason not to tell the authorities about their use of not quite lawful methods. But that’s not the case is it? What’s a more likely result of this “code of silence” is some murderer/rapists/robber, who is known to be such by a good number of people, continuing to prey on black victims before being caught.
What is the logic of your post? Is it “Forget the punishment fitting the crime, if a code of silence cuts crooked White House employees some slack, then it’s only fair that black transgressors be cut the same slack too”?
“To even pose such a question is just plain silly. The police and military have a code of silence to protect themselves from outside influence. Their self-interest and self-preservation takes precedent, tacitly, over justice. It is when those interests are threatened that they then close ranks. When they are the victims of some crime/mishap do they close ranks and keep quiet? Hell no!”
Typical promotion of racial disparity. It’s okay for the various dominant culture establishments to remain silent and protect someone in their midst that have done something wrong out of fear of retribution. But when black people do it, it’s “dumbass no snitching bravado”.
However, to the truly informed, there is absolutely no difference. When the establishment feels that it has been wronged, police, justices, lawyers, politicians, and etcetera, have the luxury to take matters into their own hands. Who polices the police? The people. But instead of taking the police to task for their indiscretions we tolerate their code of silence designed “to protect themselves from outside influence.” You say that black people have a distrust of police. Why? Because the black community knows that the police and their code of silence are not here to help us but to punish us and keep us in check.
Everyday we see evidence of racial intolerance. We see black people being murdered on their wedding day for driving home to be married. We watch videos of boot camp guards choking the shit out of a fourteen year old black boy and we watch the coroner rules death by latent sickle cell trait. We watch police punch fourteen year old black girls in the face for the crime of breaking curfew. And we are supposed to trust these people?
If coming clean and telling the truth would works so well for the black community then it should be just as effective for the white house, the police, the FBI, etcetera. But you want to focus your angst on the black community for keeping silent. Please! You are a credit to the promotion of racial disparity.
What is the logic of my post? I’m sorry if you are too thick to understand it but it is rather self explanatory to people who bother to exercise a little intellect. Birdlegs? Maybe. But definitely evidence of a bird brain.
Peace
The New Yorker ‘cartoon’ was clearly unfunny. However, one of the things that still get me in relation to the slanders against Obama is that there’s nothing wrong with being Muslim, which Obama isn’t anyway. That hardly enters the conversation.
>there’s nothing wrong with being Muslim<
There is a lot wrong with being Muslim. Islam values death more than life. Islam is anti-woman and supremist in the sense that anyone who is kafir (non-believer) is sub-human.
BrotherPeacemaker, I hope you consider giving Bill Kester the boot from your blog.
He uses stats to link crime with race rather than poverty and racism. He denigrates another religion, citing it being anti-women, ignoring that our own nation didn’t give voting rights to women for a very long time.
You cannot reason with race-obsessed haters no more than you can reason with with someone who has Obsessive Compulsive Disorder to stop washing their hands.
The type of propaganda he uses were ploys used by Nazis during WWII to plant seeds of genocidal hatred among the non-Jewish German population. It would not surprise me if his deepest desire and covert agenda is to fan the flames of hatred by mis-educating the public so that maybe the day will arrive when he can see blacks, browns and Muslims and perhaps other groups living in the US sent to extermination camps.
This is why, in my opinion, he lobbies so hard to sway others to have contempt for us. He does this in an intentionally deceptive voice of education and politeness and is armed with stats to spread hate.
I will not engage in a discussion with him because this would be akin to trying to convince Hitler that Jews and blacks are just as human as his own group.
Instead, I will ask you, Brother Peacemaker, to ban his ass permanently and any others who try to exploit your blog for their ungodly self-appointed mission.
Ban the haters
Banning a fan of the Afrospere for apperance of racism is too harsh. The afrosphere has a diversity of opinions. The man could just be a Republican or some kind of conservative. I agree with him on a few points will that get me banned. You seem to assume that Bill Kesters is full of hate. He quoted stats which don’t support your opinion and He also has problems with Muslims. You did not question his stats or what he stated about Muslims. In every country where Muslims have the majority women, Jews, Christans, and all other Religions are in daily danger. Yet you seem assume that Bill Kesters is a racist by linking him with the name Natzis. Calling people names weakens debate.
Bill Kesters is no fan of the Afrospere or racial diversity. He is not here to enter an intellectual debate with people he consider his equal. Mr. Kesters spouts statistics to support his view that black people are more oriented towards committing crime than white people. Mr. Kesters says, “Blacks commit more violent crime against whites than against blacks. Fortyfive percent of their victims are white, 43 percent are black, and 10 percent are Hispanic.” We know for a fact that in 2005, there were 934 black on white murders compared to 4,497 black on black murders. To keep things in perspective, there were 4, 755 white on white murders and 337 white on black murders. These numbers are straight from the Bureau of Justice Statistics and yet Mr. Kesters wants to spread the propaganda that black people are running rampant against white people.
I would enjoy nothing more than to censure Mr. Kesters and keep his kind in the hell they truly belong. But I also feel that it is important that people in the black community know first hand the racial hate and propaganda we are up against. If we do not let people see the lies of Mr. Kesters, more black people will start to believe that these type of people don’t exist and that racism and racial propaganda is somehow a thing of the past. Everyone should see what Mr. Kesters has to say.
Peace
brotherpeacekeeper- First of all- I am not a hater of people. However I do abhor ignorance. I am only interested in truth. I had no preconceptions as to how my posts would be received. The statistics I posted were for violent crime – which is a broader statistic than homicide so it’s not apples to apples brotherpeacemaker.
Unfortunately I didn’t double-check the source which was from the New Century Foundation. I just looked it up on Wikipedia and there seems to be some concern that there is a racist agenda at work there so I apologize. I have no Idea where they got their figures. I assumed they were gov’t statistics – maybe they are maybe they’re not so let’s disregard them.
Using your BOJ stats – there were almost 3X as many homicides by blacks against whites than whites against blacks. What I would conclude – and I’m curious what your response will be – it’s a lot more likely for a white to be murdered walking through a black neighborhood than a black walking through a white neighborhood. I am not saying that whites are good and blacks are bad – let’s just acknowledge the facts without making judgements. I am willing to be persuaded by any facts you can provide that would dispute this.
For one, these are government statustics provided by the Bureau of Justice statistics based on criminal records provided by the various jurisdictions throughtout the country. We know for a fact that there is a difference between in perception between shootings by black people like John White who tried to defend his home from a drunken white mob in Long Island, New York and Joe Horn who shot a couple of burglars in the back in a suburb of Houston, Texas. We see the district attorney in Jena, Louisiana who will dismiss white students for fighting with black students, but charges black students with attempted murder for fighting white students.
According to statistics black people are more likely to murder a white person than white people are to murder black people. But it also should be noted that when police officers kill black people in the line of duty, for example the murder of Sean Bell or Amadou Diallo, these numbers are not included in anybody’s homicide statistics. When Martin Anderson had the life choked out of him by seven boot camp guards, his death was officially ruled to be caused by a latent sickle cell trait instead of the fact that a baton was held against his throat while amonia tablets were stuffed up his nose.
I mentioned the Bureau of Justice statistics to refute your original claim that statistics show black people are killing more white people than each other. However, the statistics mentioned are themselves tainted by the fact that many offenses against black people by police departments and other agencies of authority are not included in homicide rates when they should be. Too often the criminal activity of white people will be forgiven or dismissed because of technicalities where black people too often do not have access to such legal maneurverings or favorable opinions from our law enforcement and justice officials.
Regardless, the fact that black homicide numbers are up is no reason for celebration or for condemning the entire black community of thirty eight million people or so for the murder of a thousand white people. To put this into perspective, according to these statistics, we are willing to judge the entire black community for the activity of about 0.0025% of the population. To put this another way, no less than 99.9975% of black people commit these crimes and yet you will conclude that white people are more likely to be murdered by black people. While your statement is accurate, it paints a false picture of black people in general and needs to be kept in perspective.
Peace
One more thing – statistics are only a tool for determining if there is a problem. Taking a patients temperature that is 104 doesn’t give you any information as to the cause or the cure. If you believe that black crime isn’t a problem because white crime is just as bad statistically then I disagree. Even if they were statistically equal – which they’re not, it would be silly to say that my house on fire is not a problem because my neighbor’s house is on fire.
I posed this question before and have yet to see a response: Blacks have more rights, opportunities and freedom than any time in their history. There was much more racism back in the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s but the black crime rate was much lower then. How do you explain that?
Yes statistics are tools for determining if there is a problem. What are the statistics for well qualified black people being rejected for jobs? What are the statistics for black people being denied education? What are the statistics for black people being incarcerated when they are innocent? What are the statistics for black people being killed by police officers? What are the statistics for black people being portrayed on television and other forms of entertainment as thugs, murderers, and thieves compared to the number of black people portrayed as respectible and responsible members of the general community? What are the number of black fathers who are involved in their children’s lives compared to the number who choose not to and are not prevented from being in their children’s lives because of incarceration or death? You say blacks have more rights, opportunites and freedoms than any time in our history. I would argue that our ancestors were much more free back when they lived on the plains of Africa. What statistics do you have to support your theory that we are more free?
Peace
I once heard this quote which I always take into consideration when someone uses statistics to try to convince me of the validity of their argument:
“There are lies, damn lies, and then there’s statistics!”
Some of the situations you described – I don’t have the stats and doubt that you do too. I’m not denying that there’s injustice and racism committed against blacks by whites. Instead of stats I’ll just give you my general impressions based on my 50+ years of observation of this world. If blacks are denied education, that’s news to me. My wife has been teaching in a 95% black inner city public elementary school for the last 20 years. She has taught kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grade. The majority of her students are from one parent families – either the mother or grandmother. In a class of 25 students, when she has parent/teacher night, she is lucky to get 5 parents to show up. Hows that for a stat? I don’t believe all the absent fathers are missing because they’re in jail on trumped up charges. It’s been shown that there is a direct correlation between student performance and parental involvement:
“The research overwhelmingly demonstrates that parent involvement in children’s learning is positively related to achievement. Further, the research shows that the more intensively parents are involved in their children’s learning, the more beneficial are the achievement effects. This holds true for all types of parent involvement in children’s learning and for all types and ages of students. ”
http://www.nwrel.org/scpd/sirs/3/cu6.html
I don’t think it would be a stretch to say that parental involvement will likely not get better over the course of the student’s education. Such as it is it’s no wonder that the male black High School graduation rate is under 50%. So now you have more than 50% of black males without a high school diploma and it’s no wonder it’s tough to find a job. So what do they do for $$$. What are the options for a 20 yr old black male without a high school degree? Crime, hustle, sell drugs, get on welfare or work a menial job for min wage etc. Please don’t blame whites for black absentee fathers and mothers on drugs who neglect their children and then want handouts for the rest of their lives or turn to crime.
You’re angry and so am I. It just pisses me off to see people throw their lives away and watse their talents because they buy into the belief that they are victims and that before their situation can get better OTHERS must change. You will get nowhere if your WAITING for something to happen. And rule #1 in life that I learned a long time ago – it is next to impossible to change people. You can only change people through education and education requires a willingness and desire to learn.
Yes our ancestors were more free on the plains of Africa. Noticed how I said our ancestors? We are genetically linked to a common ancestor 60,000 years ago – the San bushmen of the Kalahari. National Geographic has more information:
https://www3.nationalgeographic.com/genographic/index.html
I’m not excusing what whites did 300 years ago but slavery has existed since the beginning of civilization. Slavery existed in Egypt, Greece, Macedonia, Europe, Africa etc. In fact there were more slaves in ancient Greece than free people.
“The evidence for slavery predates written records. It can be found in almost all cultures and continents. Slavery can be traced to the earliest records, such as the Code of Hammurabi in Mesopotamia (~1800 BC), which refers to slavery as an already established institution. ”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery
And it is not a white only phenomenon:
“Slavery in Africa continues today. Slavery existed in Africa before the arrival of Europeans – as did a slave trade that exported millions of sub-Saharan Africans to North Africa, the Middle East, and the Persian Gulf.[1] However, slavery and bondage are still African realities. Hundreds of thousands of Africans still suffer in silence in slave-like situations of forced labour and commercial sexual exploitation from which they cannot free themselves. ”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_modern_Africa
Bill Kesters I will answer you.
Why was there lower crime rates Amongst African Americans durng the 40s 50s and 60s than now. Additionally Blacks were enduring incredible White power segrigation limitations and before the 60s most African Americans were in poverty. My answer is that African Americans of the past possesed many cultural strenths which we have lost since the 60s. They were more responcible and less Angry. They took care of larger families with terrible job opportunities and a White world hostile to them. The White man of today has not made many Black men not raise their kids. That is just plain old Americanized selfishness. The breakdown of nuclear families, families without fathers are the main source of many problems in our community today. The bottom 1/3 of our community have slower progress from poverty and many have advanced into self destruction.
Any other anwser to your question not involving self destruction involves certain kinds of conspiracy theories. Most incarcarated Whites and Blacks are far from innocent. Most folks on the wrong side of the criminal justice system Black and White are commited to using drugs, not paying child support, and unwilling to do menial work. I have rode my bicycle inbetween two Burger joint jobs to keep my wife happy and I have lived with borders to pay rent. Blacks of the past in the days of segregation were more responcible and took care of their families. Racism has declined however many African Americans are more angry than the blacks of the past who had to deal with worse conditions.
wrong bill kesters
wow you are really long winded , for what ,…..
blacks had more freedoms before they were put on the slave ship … your argument , is your folly it is dull and at this stage moot .
Bill Kesters,
You are correct in your assertion that I don’t have the statistics for the situations I listed. Which is why I don’t make blatantly false assumptions about African Americans having more opportunities now than we did before or that we are somehow more free now than we’ve ever been before. I do recognize the fact that some black people have achieved wealth and status that many people could never achieve. However, to take such a simplistic and narrow minded view that such achievements apply to the entire African American experience is to ignore the plight of many in the black community who are still dealing with the affects of racism and racial discrimination.
I have no doubt that blacks being denied opportunities for education, or employment, comes as news to you. You’ve supplied more statistics on black males not graduating from high school and therefore the high unemployment rates for black males is understandable. But why are black males not graduating from school? How does this affect black females not being able to find opportunities? Does this have anything to do with the constant image of black people being portrayed on television and other mediums as thugs and dropouts? Does this have anything to do with the fact that black parents are too busy trying to just make ends meet and themselves never being able to take the time to learn to be good parents? How come white people who do not graduate from high school have less problems finding jobs and other opportunities?
Yes I am disappointed with the situation of black people. But I also know that to constantly point the finger at black people and say “you are wrong” and “you are less than” without looking at the entire picture is not the solution. High profile black people and black people who are able to shake off the perpetual messages from corporate America that depicts black people as everything problematic in America do not have the right to sit back and say that they found a way so other black people who don’t are lazy are some other problem that social programming constantly says of black people.
The slavery that black people suffered here in the United States is unlike any form of slavery ever experienced on this planet. You talked about the slavery of Greece and Egypt. Please! It is a fact that when people were enslaved in Egypt and these other places, families stayed together. The slaves were still considered fully human and not just someone’s property or only three fifths human. The slaves in these other geographies and times often had mechanisms in place where they could earn the right to be considered full citizens. These slaves were not denied the right to an education or a living.
When slavery ended in America and white people held all the property and wealth, black people had to make due with nothing in order to survive. For generations white people did not provide the enslaved descendants with an education or much of anything else other than the minimum. Our black ancestors had to somehow pay for housing and food and all of their other needs with their only possession being the rags on their back. And from this they were supposed to compete with white people for opportunities.
America has never provided the black community with the fair footing needed to compete fairly. People passed a law and said okay you’re free now go get your own jobs and your own schooling and quit looking for a handout because slavery is over. In the meantime, we tolerate police beating and killing black people for the crime of being black. We constantly see black people being depicted as criminals and less than moral on television and we don’t think these subtle messages have no influence on our children’s understanding of who they are or where they are or what they are in this social construct.
You are very correct that I don’t have the statistics to support any argument that black people are still feeling the affects of racism because that is not the concern of a society hell bent on depicting black people as everything corrupt. It is very true that people in the black community need to take more responsibility for who and where and what we are in the 21st century version of America. But black people don’t realize we are all in this together. We don’t have the luxury to say only poor black people are the problem or only ignorant or uneducated black people are the problem. We don’t even have the luxury of saying that rich black people who turn their back on the black community are the problem. As long as one of us is being left behind the entire black community is being left behind. Need proof? With only 0.0025% of us committing homicides against white people, black people are depicted as killers of white people. We all need to wake up to this problem.
Peace
Bill Kesters,
I almost forgot. You said that the statistics you quoted were for black people and violent crimes. According to the Bureau of Justice, out of the 10,437,620 crimes committed in the United States 7,270,214 were committed by white people while 2,924,724 were committed by black people. In terms of percentages that means 69.7% of the crime in 2006 were committed by white people and 28% committed by black people. According to these numbers black people should be far from being America’s number one problem. But if you take a moment to visit the web site, you would be able to see first hand how much of the violent crime was committed by black people and white people alike. You might be surprised with the results. And once you determine the truth for yourself will you continue to use per capita rates or population percentages to support your insistence that black people are more likely to commit crime or will you be willing to admit and insist that truth be told that white people are responsible for most crime in America?
Peace