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| Home Front: Politix |
| At the corner of progress and peril |
| 2006-06-02 |
| Edited for brevity. There's more at the link. What does it mean to be a black man? Imagine three African American boys, kindergartners who are largely alike in intelligence, talent and character, whose potential seems limitless. According to a wealth of statistics and academic studies, in just over a decade one of the boys is likely to be locked up or headed to prison. The second boy -- if he hasn't already dropped out -- will seriously weigh leaving high school and be pointed toward an uncertain future. The third boy will be speeding toward success by most measures. Being a black man in America can mean inhabiting a border area between possibility and peril, to feel connected to, defined by, even responsible for each of those boys -- and for other black men. In dozens of interviews, black men described their shared existence, of sometimes wondering whether their accomplishments will be treated as anomalies, their individuality obscured by the narrow images that linger in the minds of others. This unique bond, which National Urban League President Marc Morial calls "the kinship of the species," is driving many black men to focus renewed attention on the portrait of achievement and failure that hangs over the next generation. A recent spate of scholarly studies have brought urgency to the introspection, as the studies show the condition of poor, young black men has worsened in the past decade despite the generally strong economic conditions of the 1990s. Read the whole thing but IMHO perseverance, determination, personal accountability and good decision making separates those who succeed from those who do not. |
| Posted by:Broadhead6 |
| #7 their individuality obscured by the narrow images that linger in the minds of others. Nope, it's in their own minds. Their own culture that tells them they are failures before they start. And the mentioned lack of family nurture. There is no pride in being a bastard with no identity and a welfare inheritence. The sperm deserts you, what good can you be? The culture is their own oppression and doing a lot more destruction that anyone outside could do. But abandonning the "style" would be a sell-out to the "man". Much like muslims abandonning the violence and death cult of Islam. It's what they do and yet, it's everyone else's fault. |
| Posted by: Thinemp Whimble2412 2006-06-02 21:20 |
| #6 The destruction of the black family is the key issue in the black community today. Only no one will talk about it. No one will point a finger at black men who father children and take no responsibility for them. No one will point a finger at black women who tolerate/enable this behavior. It is all about personal responsibility, something that the dems and great society told the black community they did not have to have. |
| Posted by: remoteman 2006-06-02 18:15 |
| #5 BH6 - much more articulate than my point, but I agree wholeheartedly |
| Posted by: Frank G 2006-06-02 18:12 |
| #4 I grew up around blacks before welfare and they were poor, but so were lots of white people. Welfare destroyed the black family. It was a Democrat effort to put blacks back on the plantation and it succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. Maybe blacks will start to climb out of the hole they've been thrown in this November in Maryland. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2006-06-02 18:05 |
| #3 HJ, Frank, I think the real problem is that most of those communities either have no interest or don't know how to make their own members more accountable. I am not black nor did I grow up in a black neighborhood. However, I did grow up near one (the proverbial 8-mile in Detroit). What I observed was a pervasive culture exulting "the thug life" and looking down upon individual educational advancements of other blacks as "going white" or selling out. I saw feckless or absentee father's being tolerated and in many cases given a total free pass along w/massive out of wedlock births (about 70% of black children in the U.S. according to some reports). Yep, not much future. IMHO, their best hope of getting ahead is truly pulling together and realizing big govt ain't gonna help them vice slapping high-fives and calling each other "dog." |
| Posted by: Broadhead6 2006-06-02 17:50 |
| #2 and 2 out of those won't have a father around.... any connection. What do you think? |
| Posted by: Frank G 2006-06-02 13:51 |
| #1 True of everyone, B6. The problem is how to deal with the culture that results in two of those three boys not acquiring those traits. |
| Posted by: Hupolulet Jeque9498 2006-06-02 13:11 |