Cause and Effect...the Black Conundrum

Some idle musings...

The permutations associated with Black people's lives are innumerable, as are most ethnic groups. However, as most anthropologists do, a look back from the current state of affairs can be quite revealing. Many of my friends and associates look at the situation in which most Black people find themselves and conclude that racism is often the root cause.

To be sure, it has been well documented what Jim Crow and racism and bigotry have wrought and there are many people who are still afflicted by those systems. But, after looking at the situation from my own limited view, I can conclude that the devil is in the details...rather, he's not.

Right now, Blacks lag behind Whites in many areas and the gaps are widening. Academic test scores, crime rates, illegitimate birth rates, HIV occurrences, and poverty statistics all out-pace White people and the situation is not improving when you look at it that way.

I say that because EVERY ethnic group seeks to compare themselves to White people and as such, none of us may ever catch up and the ingrained sense of inferiority will remain. Now, it's not a bad thing to shoot for that brass ring but with such disparities inherent in the system which will seemingly always paint a negative outlook, what does one do in the meantime?

So, one has to look backward from now to try to determine how we all got to this place.

Let me say at the outset that in my opinion no one is guaranteed equality. No one says that you and I or he and she must be equal. We're not going to be and no matter how one wants to jigger the system, equality of outcomes should not be guaranteed.

Guarantee of opportunity should be the goal and the end result. If you and I have the chance to succeed because the doors are open, it is up to us to walk through and make the best of our opportunity. We do, however, need to be equipped to seize this chance and optimize it whenever it presents itself.

So, a long look back, with a pre-natal view, should ask if a person was ever shown the importance of a nuclear family unit, a strong moral foundation, an honest appreciation of local law enforcement to keep our neighborhoods safe from crime, an aesthetic that keeps our neighborhoods clean and litter-free, an active insistence on quality educational resources, a worship of academic achievement, a vivid and ardent supporter of economic dynamics which edify the local small businessperson, an emphasis on courtesy, dignity, manners, and the social graces, and having all of these mold a productive and dignified Black citizen of this country?

All of the external negative influences combined, when identified and checked at the gate, could not stop any Black person with a willingness and ability to climb the ladder to success. Do we identify these prospects and nurture them to do so? We see this within other ethnic groups, why not ourselves?

Walter E. Williams, a noted Black conservative with whom I have often disagreed in his views, correctly pointed out that at one point in Washington, DC Black students at Dunbar High School had more graduates go to college at a rate higher than all of the "White" high schools in the District combined! Why was this? and, what happened?

Dr. Martin Luther King fought for the abolishing of legal barriers to integration. In time, those barriers did disintegrate but with the new found freedom to live as we wish, and where we can afford, Black people have chosen to live with each other in self-induced segregation. But, with this apartheid has come a distinctly liberal point of view that allows for aberrant behavior to be acceptable when it wasn't acceptable when we had no choice but to live with each other.

Dr. Frances Welsing, has postulated that Black people have given in to the notion that they are inferior by nature and that White people are superior and this mindset manifests itself in Black people being "undervalued, underestimated, and marginalized."

But, does it have to be this way? Who says so? Who do we blame for this? Are we THAT malleable?

We have adopted a live-and-let-live mentality that says that no one can comment on behavior which, when you really think about it, brings everyone of us down. We allow the thought that it is OK to just live together, create children out of wedlock, or worse, have children out of wedlock and penalize a father who wants to be there with his family because they wouldn't be "poor" any more, just not poor enough to escape the paternal influences of the welfare state.

When a man can be an in-home father and husband to his wife, the money they earn is kept in the house and is used to build a better life if possible. He and she are there to be good examples of how important it is to be mother and father AND husband and wife to their children's impressionable eyes.

But, no...this can't happen. The Welfare State will actually pay the woman to keep the man away but then cripple him with excessive (albeit necessary) child support payments as he is now forced to find a place to live on his own under this unnecessary burden. All of the lives involved are now diminished and marginalized.

One need not be a conservative or even a libertarian to see the damage that this brings to a community.

So, with this onerous poverty pervading their daily lives, the focus is on mere survival rather than advancement. The stress can be palpable and little time can be spent then on helping children to be better students, and proper citizens with an appreciation of their neighborhoods as worthy places to live and to raise a decent family.

You force people to be heroic when just being parents might be enough. You have children developing a street think which glorifies getting over but all too often at someone else's expense through burglary, larceny, or pushing vile and destructive drugs. To be sure, people choose to use drugs but what are we doing to make that choice one that is not an option?

There's no time for school. There's no time for extra-curricular activity because there's no time to do well enough in school to qualify for them. There's no time to develop life skills because there's no time to learn how to show grace and courtesy to other people while you're trying to get over on them because there's no time for school because your parents' attention is forced to be elsewhere. Profanity, sexually expressive dress, and the propensity to underachieve become the norms...and you don't care who hears, sees, or knows it.

Meanwhile, our poverty is masked in bling and the hottest overpriced clothing styles. We have, sadly, the best-dressed poverty in the world.

Also, meanwhile, people are so quick to point out the gross domestic product of the "Black" community if all of the dollars stay in house. And, we elevate drug dealers and criminals to cult hero status.

A conundrum exists because, given the chance, Black people with a strong work ethic and achievement focus, don't want to live around people who do not share this same thought process and who will often care little about their own neighborhood while blaming people who don't live there for its condition, and who they would would rather blame for what has been their own doing.

Not everything is the result of racism and not every one is racist and only cares about keeping a foot on your neck!

So, when one looks back to find out why today is what it is, must we always point to external causes or is a lot of what has happened a question of choice? For far too long, the cause of our conditions have been the result of our choosing to listen to people who may appear well-intentioned but who have seduced us into believing that we can't do anything on our own. We have chosen to move away from our moral centers towards relativism. We have chosen to live only in the moment and not live lives of thrift.

The devil may be in the details but the devil has became ourselves when we have developed a certain level of victim-think when we have enough internal resources and, hopefully, the resolve to lift ourselves from the mud of despair and into a position where advancement, achievement, and accountability are normal. This is not to say that there are no victims by any means but are ALL of us victims? We are not that homogeneous and this diversity can be to our overall advantage.

Today, we suffer from a poverty of the spirit that erases all sense of self-respect and self-esteem. We fall prey to the defining influences of people who do not have our best interests at heart. We listen as people try to show us that God is no longer necessary; only them when it comes to our improvement. The morals has evaporated as we seek to be gods and make Him in our image rather than the other way around.

The Causes and Effects of this nasty dilemma can only be addressed when we take a long and critical look at what we have chosen to be and hopefully decide that enough is enough.

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