..should we make a sound? Of course we should. We owe our children that much.As my man Reggie Warrington [Dave Chappelle] told Buddy Love [Eddie Murphy] in the Nutty Professor; "it's time to attack black."
So here we go again. It seems like every now and then I have to go on one of these rants. My Killadelphia murder count on the sidebar of this blog is not enough. Black folks, unfortunately, have become numb to the senseless killing of our children by our children. So what if three more young men were murdered this past week in Philly? Or if well over thirty school aged children have been murdered in Chicago this year? (How come Oprah doesn't have a show about that? I guess Dr. Phil doesn't do grief counseling) We have come to expect it.
But every now and then there is a murder that shocks our collective conscience and plays itself into the national psyche. Instead of a line or two in the metro page of the local paper, it makes national news. Bryan Williams is talking about it, and middle A-merry-cas is watching it with their hands over their mouths. In the hood people are wondering what's the big deal. How come this one made the national news and all the others didn't?
Well maybe it's because this one played itself out on video like a twisted reality television show for all of us to see. -And in the president's hometown no less- Urban terrorist beating a young honor student to death. No remorse, no heart, and no hesitation. Like a pack of animals who have strayed far away from their human DNA. You have all seen the video by now. If you haven't maybe you should. And when you do, take a long hard look at those those urban terrorist and try to find something. Maybe a clue as to why they act the way that they do. Something. Anything. I looked. In fact, I am always looking.
Here is what I see whenever I look: Children-wait, I take that back; boys without fathers. Young men with no men in their lives. Young men being raised by the streets and all sorts of negative influences. Most of them are here compliments of some sperm donor who just kept getting up. Absent fathers who thought that mom had a fat ass and was a "hell a nice shot".
I never see those sperm donors in criminal court when the cases are being called and the defendant's are being led into the courtroom. Only girlfriends, grandmothers, and mothers. The only black males I see in the court rooms are the sheriffs. When I go into the home of a potential client, the only people I negotiate with are mothers and grandmothers. Again, there is never a sperm donor in sight. That is my reality, and it's better than any scientific study you can cook up from some fancy Ivy League school. Oh field, stop it, what do you expect these men to do? What about the women who hook up with them? What about them? I can't speak for the women. All I know is that more often or not she is the one left to raise the child by herself. The sperm donor is always long gone and nowhere around. Regardless of who zoomed who.
I am so sick of seeing the vigils, the teddy bears, and the prayer groups in front of crime scenes. Because the sad reality is that tomorrow, just like clockwork, some poor child will be snatched from us by an urban terrorist all over again.
Today, Al Sharpton,Newt Gingrich, and Education Secretary, Arne Duncan, toured the schools here in Philly. (Talk about strange bedfellows)They were here to praise the charter school system in our fine city and push for longer hours in school. That's all fine. But our schools could stay open twenty four hours a day and it wouldn't make a damn difference to the urban terrorist out here. The kids who want to learn will be there, and the others will keep doing what they are doing now: be disruptive, make it harder for the other kids, and create a poor overall learning environment.
But let's keep it real with each other. The schools can only do so much. Everything starts at home.
I know that I am preaching to the choir here, because most of you who read this blog with children don't need to here this. I am sure that your children are fine. But what about the rest of them? All of our children. A-merry-ca's children. (Well, black A-merry-ca's children, because I am quite sure that the rest of A-merry-ca would never claim them. They would much rather adopt a nice little Asian or Russian girl...let me stop.) How do we get to them? How do we stop the sperm donors? It's, for the most part, a question that is orotund in nature. Because as much as I have tried to figure it out, I swear that I don't know the answer.
231 comments:
1 – 200 of 231 Newer› Newest»The hip hop chickens continue to come home to roost.
Hip hop has been preaching the gospel of violence, baby-daddy-ism, drug dealing and gang violence for the last twenty years.
So is it any wonder that so many Black kids have been indoctrinated by it? And now these kids act out hip hop culture on the streets every day.
I know there are a lot of hip hop apologists that would disagree but the evidence seems to be irrefutable.
I'm sure there are other causes but hip hop culture has to be at the top of the list.
Field, "How do we stop the sperm donors? It's, for the most part, a question that is orotund in nature. Because as much as I have tried to figure it out, I swear that I don't know the answer."
It's too late. Minds have been immorally warped over the generations. We have irresponsible minded folks producing more irresponsible minded folks. It's not just the men, it's the women also. People of same mindset with same irresponsible lust go to bed with each other and spawn more irresponsible people.
If I recall rightly, you and others were advocating sterilization the last time there was a ghastly murder. What happened to that idea? Was it just more bs Blacks like to do?
There will be talk, more talk, and more talk. But there will be no action. The biggest and weakest excuse Blacks have for the problem of young boys being murdered in the streets is the same old dumb response:
"I don't know what to do about it."
That let Blacks off the hook for their indifference. Basically, Blacks should admit the truth:
"They don't care." --just like their white counterparts.
Kids look to the rappers in the music videos and on television and aspire to be them...why? Because they don't have anyone else to take their hands and lead them. They don't have anyone at home to teach them that what they see is "fantasy" and not reality...they don't have anyone to say that the bullshit that they hear is entertainment, and should not be how they live their lives.
It's easy to blame the Hip-Hop culture, and I would agree that the bunk that we hear nowadays is contributing to the downright ignorance of some of our society as a whole.
But explain how some kids are able to tell the difference? How are some kids able to discern right from wrong, truth from fiction, and leave the music in the mp3 player as they try to live their lives right?
It all begins and ends at home. We are losing our children because the children are not being parented...they are being left to their own devices to find a foundation to build their live on. If they don't find that at home, then off to the streets they go...
And THAT is a tragedy...
When adults stop fearing children, guns are not easily available and adult stop wanting to be adolescents all their lives. Five year old children's bad behavior will annoy adults, but to speak to those children is a no no. I am so tired of hearing adults say they are afraid what their parents might do, which in some cases may be justified, when a seventeen year old uncle with a gun is sent out to defend the family honor.
It may be that a father's presence is required, but parents have to actually parent. Never understood why two and three year olds could not be in the house and put to bed at 7:00pm. Or that we do not have any expectations of teenage mothers when most mothers before the mid 20th century were teenagers and they manage to be responsible.
While the welfare state was increasing, American middle class values were liberalizing and influenced the welfare rules and pushed a psychology on Black folk, that didn't work for our community. One example, any type of corporal punishment became child abuse. I think 99.999% of the time we know when the line has been crossed.
Blaming hip hop, prison culture worship or entitlement mentality, et al will not solve the problem. Parents need to get on their jobs and actually raise their children. Whether that parent is a single mother, a bachelor father, grandparents filling in for whatever reason. It is time to say enough; and mean it. Enough buying $150 Air Jordans on home budgets supplemented with food stamps and welfare; enough looking the other way when a child shows up with an expensive gadget that the parent knows they did not buy; enough screaming about no child left behind when the parent knows their child can neither read nor write; enough of the hero worship of professional athletes, rapper and other entertainers. Parents, teach your children they can excel in a court room as well as on a basketball court! This need to happen immediately. Enough is enough!
Field:
Thanks for the post and your courage in stating it...what to do ? Start with what you show in the right hand column...become a mentor, or encourage someone who can...
@Marvalus
I completely agree with you that parents should be intermediaries between hip hop and their kids. That's the ideal. But in the real world that is many times not the case. Many parents embrace hip hop culture, prison culture, etc. just as much if not more than their kids.
So since this is the case and neither you nor I can change parents who are already being bad parents why not try to change what we can?
I'm a pragmatist. It's easy to blame parents because that lets us off the hook. We aren't the parents so we can sit back with Bill Cosby and talk ish about those terrible ghetto parents.
But acknowledging the damage that hip hop has and is doing requires action on our part because we do have the power to change that.
We can challenge the corporate structure that is responsible for the hip hop we see and hear. We can challenge our government to regulate radio as they should be doing. We can do things if we decide to.
We can't save this generation of bad parents. we just can't. but we can intervene and stop the spread of propaganda from the media giants that threatens to spit out a next generation of bad parents.
IMHO
o field. I so glad u touch this tonight. It hurt my heart that our children act like beasts and kill each other omn the street daily. And then others video tape it...smh
I do believe it stems from the lack of family stucture, namely fathers.I love rap music, but I grew up a a two parent home, meaning teh music did not raise me at all. I can see how pop culture can impact people that lack the parents to tell them how to behave.
As a law student and a student of black history, I can imagine what you see daily in you profession. I really don't think there is any hope for the future and no Black-ish President can solve it.
The anti-gay marriage creeps are gearing up in Jersey, & guess who will be among the most vocal supporters of the movement to stop couples who want to get married?
The Democrat lead welfare system has destroyed the black family unit.
The role of the black man was replaced by the federal government.Black men no longer felt wanted or needed so they turn to other things that gave them a sense of belonging.
As usual, the federal government failed to live up to its promises and left black woman alone in raising their children.
Without a black man in the home,black women were helpless.So they let their kids run wild,join gangs,sell drugs, rob,rape, murder and pimp.
What you saw in that video was something that goes on everyday in areas that are controlled by Democrats and populated by blacks.
For the 2nd or 3rd straight year,more Americans will have been killed in Chicago than in Iraq.
We must tell Obama and the Democrats ENOUGH!! We must release the innocent black men from the physical and emotional prisons we put them in.We must put them back into the black family unit and let them discipline their black wives and children anyway they want.
Only than will we see hope make a comeback in the black community.
"Well, black A-merry-ca's children, because I am quite sure that the rest of A-merry-ca would never claim them. They would much rather adopt a nice little Asian or Russian girl...let me stop.) "
Field, i'm sure you just forgot to mention that in a lot of cities in this country white familes are discouraged from adopting black by adoption agencies. Also,sometimes, its easy to adopt children from overseas than it is here in America.
Monie,you know I love you. But I can't blame this all on hip hop. (Although, I agree, Hip Hop has some issues) I co-sign with Gwhizz, and with Marvalus when she says this:
"It all begins and ends at home. We are losing our children because the children are not being parented...they are being left to their own devices to find a foundation to build their live on. If they don't find that at home, then off to the streets they go..."
Vixen, you grew up in a two parent home, and there you are in law school. Gee there is a surprise.
And before someone gives me the plenty single parents raise good kids speech,save it. Of course they do. But we are talking about the majority of these kids who come from homes without fathers.
"The anti-gay marriage creeps are gearing up in Jersey, & guess who will be among the most vocal supporters of the movement to stop couples who want to get married?"
Ahhh let's see now....BLACK FOLKS? *shaking head*
Hathor, you are going old school and I can't blame you. Hey, I am ready to try anything at this point.
field, your writing in this post is especially compelling. I haven't seen the video, on purpose. I can't. I work with teenagers every day, and I'm heartened by them. They're good people, with good ideas. They deserve respect.
Now I may be talking out of my ass, here, and you're welcome to tell me so, but I get really tired of the tendency to blame the least among us for problems that are way bigger than they are. Violence by children is a symptom, hip hop is a symptom, losing your head or your body for love or comfort is a symptom.
They're all symptoms of a much bigger problem, the way I see it. Those who perpetuate the biggest violence on the largest group somehow manage to escape accusation. All those powerful puppeteers at the top of the heap that keep the status quo steady--when do they get held responsible?
I'm not excusing the actions of these children, or mothers, or fathers. I'm just not buying the "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" bullshit that Obama is laying down to Black folks everywhere. There are fucking bigger fish to fry that never get on the hook for the violence they engender.
"Now I may be talking out of my ass, here, and you're welcome to tell me so, but I get really tired of the tendency to blame the least among us for problems that are way bigger than they are. Violence by children is a symptom, hip hop is a symptom, losing your head or your body for love or comfort is a symptom."
Race Traitoress, I understand that school of thought. (I know my man uptownsteve will be on in a few to let us have it from that side of the coin)But here is the thing; at some point we have to make folks take some responsibility for their actions regardless of their station in life. Look, when the least among us is f&^%$d over, no one will fight harder for them than moi. But damn it they have to help us with the fight as well.
I know about all the obstacles, but these men out here know about them,too. And they shouldn't be bringing more kids into the world to face them if they aren't going to be willing to be there with them to guide them through it. That's all I am saying. Forget all the other political and social implications for now. The individual must do his ( I say his for a reason) part as well.
Just watched the Derrion Albert video. I heard someone say "Put that nigga to sleep!!!" after Derrion was sit. It wasn't a white person that said it either. Where is Al? Jesse? Jeremiah?
People try to blame while folks for getting black people to hate themselves, yet they conveniently forget woman and gays have been taught self hate and don't act like that.
If it was white people that did this it would go down in history. Since it's black folks... it will be forgotten
"was sit" meant "was hit"
Now I may be talking out of my ass, here, and you're welcome to tell me so, but I get really tired of the tendency to blame the least among us for problems that are way bigger than they are. Violence by children is a symptom, hip hop is a symptom, losing your head or your body for love or comfort is a symptom.
There's absolutely nothing wrong with blaming fathers for abandoning their children; nothing in the world excuses that behavior.
I know that I am preaching to the choir here, because most of you who read this blog with children don't need to here this. I am sure that your children are fine. But what about the rest of them? All of our children. A-merry-ca's children.
Field,
You are right my daughters are doing well; I did my job with them. They are educated beyond high school and four years of college. As a person who lives with a chronic illness, I am also fighting the battle to help children in the urban area. If I can help one child survive the concrete jungle a year, I feel as if I am doing my part.
Too many of us who made it in life become self-centered and turn a blind eye on the many children who are in desperate need of role models to guide them in the right direction. Home is where dysfunction of a young life begins. I have several examples I can give you, but I am going to tell you about the one that happen this past weekend.
I am a board member and volunteer of a non-profit. Our vision is to develop and/ or improve communication, public speaking and leadership skills; develop and/ or improve self-esteem and self-confidence; and teach discipline through the use of theatre arts as our foundation. Although we use theatre arts as our foundation, our focus is not on creating actors. Rather, we focus on individual self-improvement and self-esteem building by enabling children to analyze problems they encounter in life and to discover practical solutions to deal with them. All of our participants gain an enhanced appreciation for theatrical and cultural arts by the end of the program.
I have been picking up a young boy at the public housing complex because his mother will not bring him and she has a brand new car. Come to find out the mother do not spend any time with him. Yet, there is another mother who has been walking from the public housing unit to bring her daughter to the program. I notice the mother walking with her daughter when I was on my way to pick up the young boy. (I was driving a smaller car that day and I could not offer to pick her up) When I arrived to the Community Center the young girl was there with her mother. This is an example of it begins at home. One mother will not take the time to get in her car and bring her son to the program and another mother walk miles to bring her daughter. I asked the mother had they been walking every week to get to the Community Center and she said they have been. Of course I offer to pick them up and she accepted.
Bottom line it is bad in the urban jungle for many young people, but it is of no fault of theirs and we all should do our part because all these young people want is someone to give them some attention, but we have to catch them while they are young before the streets devour them.
@Monie,
I agree that Hip-Hop these days is garbage. It is not the Hip-Hop I grew up with, nor is it the Hip-Hop that I listen to today.
But if you completely take it away, will the problems go away? If you no longer have that influence, these children simply find something else to turn to.
I am not one to sit and point out bad parents; I am the mom who is sitting outside telling those young men to pull their pants up and asking them why they are standing outside instead of doing their homework. I am the mom that is at the school, not helping my own son usually, but helping the kid who doesn't think anyone cares about him so he doesn't think he has to learn how to read. If no one wants to give him that foundation, I will gladly do it.
We have to do more than just point fingers at what we think is the problem...we have to dive in the middle of it and get dirty in order to know how to clean up the shit.
Someone SHOULD talk shit about these "ghetto parents" (as you say); but after talking, do something. Teach them how. I don't agree that they can't be saved; maybe not all, but some.
@field
I know about all the obstacles, but these men out here know about them, too. And they shouldn't be bringing more kids into the world to face them if they aren't going to be willing to be there with them to guide them through it.
You're right, of course. That's a front lines issue and there's no question it's the right thing to do.
Have you read Tim Wise's Between Barack And A Hard Place and his discussion of Racism 2.0? That's what's got me so fired up. I don't mean to suggest that Black people are incapable to stepping up to take responsibility for their own lives--far from it. But the powers that be are immense and very well insulated.
I heard about this story over the weekend and it took me twenty-four hours to gather the courage to watch the video. It sickened me. And I've seen guys race cars and die on live television since the mid-70s so you know that doesn't happen often.
Everything starts at home. Back when I grew up I learned real quick to respect authority. It was called the belt. Get that a few times and you'll learn real quick what the difference between right and wrong is.
Whoever thought time outs work never watched a hockey game. Especially games between the Flyers and Leafs. :)
@FN
Yeah I agree that parenting is an issue, the main issue in fact. I just wonder after we identify that then what? How do we take action if we only identify bad parenting as the cause for this sort of behavior.
I don't have access to any mechanism to change parents but I can certainly fight the negative messages from the media.
I'm just looking for solutions.
@Marvalus
"We have to do more than just point fingers at what we think is the problem...we have to dive in the middle of it and get dirty in order to know how to clean up the shit."
It seems that although we may be looking at this from different vantage points that we aren't really disagreeing.
I certainly agree that pointing fingers has to be followed by action otherwise nothing changes.
Co-sign Hathor.
When I demand that the young single mothers that I know control and discipline their children they look at me as if I'm being mean. Their children are disrespectful and ungrateful. I don't tolerate that from children at all. I feel the tension from my friends when I try to discipline their children. So I avoid being around them at all. I see the path that these children are taking because there are no rules and boundaries set in the home.
I can say the childrens fathers are quicker to discipline them when they are with their children, because they're more easily annoyed, but even then they shower their children with expensive gifts. It seems as though young parents would rather be their child's friend than be their parents.
Well, black A-merry-ca's children, because I am quite sure that the rest of A-merry-ca would never claim them. They would much rather adopt a nice little Asian or Russian girl...let me stop.
One of my brothers is also gay. He and his partner have adopted five children. All but one of them are "of color." Two are African American. So, it is not necessarily true that A-merry-ca doesn't want the black ones.
"It seems that although we may be looking at this from different vantage points that we aren't really disagreeing. "
Each issue that everyone has pointed out plays a role in what we see going on with today's youth. Single parent homes, poverty, hip hop, bad parenting, etc.
I work with teens, and there have been times when they have walked past singing the raunchiest lyrics to a rap song. I cringe listening to them because I know that they are programmer to see nothing wrong with these lyrics. I'm young, and admittedly I listen to some of the music (I refuse to buy it) and I am uncomfortable with our youth listening to certain kinds of music. Some hip hop is a soundtrack to the madness that goes on in the streets.
I remember when I was younger and my brothers walked in the house with a quote on their tshirts from I think it was Snoop, stating "bitches ain't shit but hoes and tricks". My father went ballistic! He made my brothers take of the shirts and he gathered up all of their music and burned it in the middle of the street. My brothers still listened to the music but never in the presence of my father after that. I say that to say, my father raised 15 kids (12 sons) in Bedford-stuyvesant at a time when gangs were exploding in NYC. Not one of them ever joined a gang or got involved in the street life because they feared my father more than the gangs. At times my father was brutal, but it was needed.
I know many are fed up with this generation. Believe me I am too. But when you see the parents and conditions that they come from you understand why they are the way they are. Some of these parents drop children like they are puppies with no means of properly caring for them. They provide no guidance to these children. It's easy to write these kids off because there is so much work to be done, it seems impossible. And honestly, maybe it is. But I've talked to these kids one-on-one. They have the same hopes, dreams, fears and insecurities as any other kid. But they're written off as throw-aways. Some are far more intelligent and talented then you could ever imagine. But they are battling their enviornment and circumstances. Mentoring can play a huge part in giving these children what they aren't getting at home.
There's a single Black woman downstairs raised two good sons on the other rougher side of town before housing authority moved her over here to a good private building. How did she do it? I have theories. I think she kept the kinds of routines she has now, she was sober, helped them with their homework, sent them to Sunday School. It's hard but not impossible to do the job. There's help & social services if you want to take advantage of them. But it's a job, no getting around it.
Everything starts at home. You got that right Field.
To "Race Traitoress", FN, and others: You're correct - there are larger issues and more powerful forces at work here: Like the state/government sanction and support of violence inflicted globally. For one, the worship and support of corporate/personal greed at the expense of bazzillions of Americans. Remember how MLK's PoorPeople'sCampaign got him killed? If we really look around us, every day, we would see the emotional, spiritual, and physical violence of poverty and denials of opportunity.
In the meantime, our children will suffer and act out PTSD (if) when they become adults. Our collective future is more at risk than any "threat" posed by international terrorists. I struggle to resist the allure of cynicism; especially after a 30-year career waging war on the black hole of anti-intellectualism and ignorance - particularly the gritty urban kind that infects our communities (and can we even call them "communities" anymore?).
We need immediate triage. The urban war zones of Newark, Oakland-Richmond, LA are experimenting with high-tech camera/sound devices and getting measurable results. How about exchanging the non-violent, victimless criminals for the irredeemable predators and domestic terrorists plaguing our neighborhoods? Make no mistake: The prison industry ain't goin' nowhere, the more, the merrier; we need to get the predator/terrorists off our streets; put them away for a very long time. How long? Long enough for them to be too old to prey on our community.
I've stated this before and I'll state it again: we as Black people have FAILED our children. I wish it was as simple as to blame it on the hip-hop culture, but it's really not. There are several factors involved. We started seeing cracks in the “foundation” long before hip-hop. Absentee Fathers started happening back in the 70s as so many brothers were ill-equipped to deal w/ the ramifications of Vietnam. But there are other effects that we’ve been unable to rise above and as a result our children end up looking like the Child-Soldier from Liberia.
Like we could say that ever since Desegregation and the destruction of the Black micro-economy might have been the ‘beginning of the end.’
Others could say the majority of Black neighborhoods who rioted in the late 60s and 70s (& 80s w/ Rodney King) have yet to recover. You could go to almost ANY major Black city or neighborhood in the US and still see remnants of those riots.
Most others would say that drugs single-handedly did more damage to our communities than almost ANYTHING else. People like Nicki Barnes who essentially destroyed untold numbers of Black families and basically supplied the entire East Coast – killing the family structure that Black folks struggled to institute following Post-Slavery.
That gansta rap, the misogynistic rap videos and magazines are only symptom. This child-soldier-like violence is a symptom. Rampant Illiteracy also qualifies as a symptom is creating a generation of Black kids who will be ill-equipped to compete in today's job market and the progression of knowledge will continue to decline - leaving us w/ people like Larry Elder. I also believe paying 10% of your income to Black churches is also a symptom – maybe it makes us feel better because we’ve failed so spectacularly w/in our communities, maybe it’s way to ‘hide’ our short-comings. Since the 80s Black folks have doled out more than 20 BILLION to Black churches or mosques, so while these churches get bigger and these ministers look “wonderful” in their $5000 suits while our communities have only worsened.
I wish I had answers but my sisters work in welfare and like FN they see the mother and grandmothers all day long. They have little to no knowledge about the world around them except how it impacts (often incorrectly) their checks and food stamps. We’ve reached a sad state of affairs and seeing Bill Cosby moderate and half-ass panel on “Our Children” makes me more disheartened.
Finally, let me say this it’s time for some drastic, innovative, harsh-real-life lessons for problem children who HAVEN’T committed a violent offense. I think they should start a program where they’re sent to do some kind of Habitat for Humanity or Emergency Assistance in a poor country—Liberia or India. One where they can barely understand the language, take them right out of their environment. They’d have to stay for as long as their juvenile sentence lasts. I bet you many if not most would be changed for life.
amen fn:
it is exhaustingly dejecting and increasingly fatal, and eternally tragic...
see more:
OUTLOOK
http://aliciabanks.blosgpot.com
may god bless us all IMMEDIATELY!!!
It's not just poverty or intact families. A child raised poor with a grandparent or single mom who loves him often turns out fine. It's about kids who are surrounded by people who don't give a damn about them and they know it. It's about living under threat (a reality in inner cities as well as in poor neighborhoods in small cities and towns across the country). A child needs security. You combine all that with the violence and depravity they see all around them and very few will make it. We humans aren't as self-contained as we like to believe. We need love from someone, anyone, to make it out of childhood with any real chance of a normal life ahead of us. Many of us require more than just one.
As far as adoptions go, I think it's far past time we expedite the process. Americans run overseas because it's too hard to adopt at home. Paper bag tests still play a role at times but not as much as red tape. In the meantime, the kids age and become less adoptable with every passing moment.
And another thing, these are all our children. Americans may try to wall it off but that doesn't change the fact that poor blacks, poor whites, and poor latin@s are every bit as much our children as rich or middle class blue-eyed and blonde ones.
--j
cosign Hathor.
In the South our communities started to fall apart when 2 things happened, Intergration and Welfare.Intergration killed community buisness and welfare killed families ambitions.
With wefare, a young woman could get an increase in her check for each baby she had, but could not have a man living in her house or her Benefits! would be lost..family breakdown..
When I was a child my great grandmother was old! Now we have and in my family too, women that are 40 years old talking about their great grand babies..
None of this is by accident..
I'm sorry that's $400 BILLION to Black churches from their parishioners (http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-33814395_ITM). From Creflo Dollar to the Nation of Islam who've somehow managed to set up a structure that's misogynistic and exploitative and have done too little to progress our communities. It's easy to sprout religious rhetoric it's much harder to actually do something.
This is not to say EVERY church is exploitative because some have done important work: they're inclusive - particularly around issues of sexuality and are doing some awesome work around social justice activism.
But it's clear that too many others aside from pimping out their wardrobes and "Praising God' won't tackle the hard stuff -- like our children or the HIV rates. Instead they focus on stuff that SMELLS of intolerance and doesn't even RANK as crucial -- like anti-gay marriage stuff. What "marriage institution" are they fighting for? Because Black folks aren't getting married!
And Anon: adoption only works if people are adopting or have easy access to adoption. Because NOT every woman or girl for that matter should be "parents" and resources are running low. State orphanages are over-run with Black children. This is why having a comprehensive reproduction education and options and gay adoption are important. But states all over the US are attempting to pass legislation to deny either option.
But in the end as always it's always the children who suffer.
interesting... this reminds me of something Marvin and Tammie T sang: "it takes 2 baby, it takes 2, to make a dream come true..." and cause the devil finds work, lemme play devil's advocate or solicitor for those legally minded..
how come in this day of all sorts of STDs a plenty and promiscuity at the checkout counter on 40 percent off, black woman and girls still fall for lame donkey behind pickup lines from no nothing brothers enough to have unprotected sex anyway? is this a lack of self-esteem, self-love or just plenty ignorance. i mean as a queer 40 something black male who can cut through some of these brothers bovine organic by-product like an argon laser when they cross me with that "low down, dirty, might be your neighbor, back stabbers" down low monologue [yeah, i got my phaser on double freeze] why is it that women cannot decipher and see through it.
Did i get something from my granny whose keen insight and wit could cut across pews and around hats and fans to eagle eye spot who the Reverend rambling in the pulpit about morality had trysted with last week and it was not his wife. Did I? it was hard not to bust out laughing when i leaned over and whispered her? you jiving? her?
segue.. Sly Stone now.. "Babies making babies" now that is the problem. Kids trying to be parents but still kids. Recall the numbnut in Tenn. with what 21 kids by 11 different girls [i cant say women or mothers since they are just girls to me]. Maybe we have systemic problem of single female parents attempting to rear boys into men without any guidance nor template as to how but a lot of internalized aminosity towards their sons' fathers that manifests itself in marred discipline and rearing to such an extent as what we have today. Not to say that in some instances, single mothers dont do a good job but for every one good rearing there are 15 not so good. And when these 15 not so good get old enough to procreate the problematic expanses 15 fold.
what to do? Black women should start to consider not having any children until they have been in a solid relationship for at least five years and should be over 28 years of age. By considering to use such parameters, one should have run the course of college, partying and one night stands. Maybe also have a solid career objective and/or plan in the works and not be deviated by the deviants with all the sparkle and no substance. [Geez, this sounds way too much like Bill Cosby i bet]. In other words, by such time one should have developed and perfected your Eye of Horus insight and common sense.
Obviously, black men are too far gone and too messed up in general [barring a few] with chasing this elusive eurocentric demon called success and its vicious drug of a cousin called money to be in a position to wake up and smell the espresso and drink it straight. And even if they do have those two last things [moola and success], it does not preclude them from acting immature. Look at the comical relationship life of one black comedian by the initials EM. How many marriages and how many failed relationships and in the end one had to go and add Spice to what? for what? I dont know maybe he is trying to get to his 21 hit too, i digess. But it aint representing stability and healthy relationships laugh all ya want. I wonder what his kids will turn out like? i wonder like to be the fly at the picnic when they all convene at family meeting... could be a good movie
"one mo card and its 22, unlucky for him again, he never had respect for money its true..." copyright O+>
From the outside, I think the culture of fatherlessness preceded the culture of hip-hop. And of coure, if there's one particular legacy of slavery, fatherlessness is it.
"I've stated this before and I'll state it again: we as Black people have FAILED our children."
That's the bottom line. Of course, we will look elsewhere for the problem. Hip hop is a convenient one even though it was OUR children doing the degrading shameful rapping. Responsible parents would have stopped that a long time ago. But they didn't. It was ok for Blacks to demean our women, mothers, etc-we said nothing about that. But we went ballistic when Imus said it. Go figure.
grinder "From the outside, I think the culture of fatherlessness preceded the culture of hip-hop. And of coure, if there's one particular legacy of slavery, fatherlessness is it."
yes, that's true. that means this problem is "everyone's" problem, not just Blacks. I also know several Whites who have adopted black children and those children are beautiful and feel loved.
i see them with their children at church on Sundays. However, I believe that they are the exception.
I don't know what the answer is.
I couldn't finish watching the video.
And I agree that this is everyone's problem. These directionless children will grow up (those who aren't killed) and then what happens to them?
it may just a place to start, but america needs to find a way to market kids to dads as bling.
There are a lot of good points already made so I don't have much to add.
I think that things like absent fathers or deindustrialisation are factors but still most people who grow up without fathers do not beat people to death with railroad ties or watch it being done without calling police.
So that is all on the individuals. I think it is also poor impulse control and lack of ability to associate actions with consequences.
Maybe if prisons were even worse hellholes than they are now or the death penalty didn't take decades to carry out? I don't know.
Media depictions of violence probably play a role but there again, most people can watch, listen or read about violence without seeking to act it out.
So I don't know that there are easy explanations.
Ok we all know what the problems are,so are we really ready to do the dirty work?Are we really ready to hold people accountable?Are we ready to call out our leadership in our communities? Or are we still sure it's White Folk who are holding us down?We have met our problem he or she is in the mirror!
Let's talk honestly.
Sex is a powerful force. It's so powerful that it has brought down, in recent days, some pretty powerful Republicans. You know who they are, so a recounting of them here would be redundant.
Having kids out of wedlock doesn't carry the stigma it once did, and that's not entirely a bad thing, but it certainly not a prohibition, if it ever was much of one, to having kids out of wedlock.
Contraception could reduce unwanted births, but that's a one-sided proposition, because too many men are opposed to male contraception, even in this age of an awful large number of STD's.
And sex is good, but not the burden of raising kids. I had a young man in prison tell me once with more pride than sense: "Diaspora, I've fathered a lot of babies, and I have some other nigga raise them."
The problem: Too often, another nigga is not raising them. The state is.
And if there's a money angle to the number of kids, then the greater the number the greater the money.
And even that would be all good, if the kids were receiving what every kid needs to grow up healthy, strong, and self-reliant.
But we know that's not always the case: abuse of some sort or another lead to kids misbehaving and seeking refuge and acceptance wherever they can find it.
I've read any number of case files of young men who have ended up in juvenile detention. You know what they all had in common? Abuse. Physical abuse. Sexual abuse, and what have you. And these were young men, and not young girls.
These young men were there for every imaginable crime, and they all weren't in gangs. Some were.
Many were bright, intelligent, and well-spoken, but had the values of the street.
One thing that stood out: Many knew little or nothing about their black history, but were eager to learn.
Many couldn't read well, but novels that focused on black life on the streets incentivized them enough to learn very quickly while in prison.
Prison life was often the only structure they'd known, outside of the gang, and they thrived inside that environment. They were given attention never before received, and many would have turned their lives around had the streets not enticed them back upon leaving.
The recidivism rate was high, despite their promise that they would never return.
Here's what I heard often: "Diaspora, prison ain't so bad. It's better than the streets."
These kids left healthy and strong, and returned frail, and underweight--too much street life, and not paying enough attention to health, and a healthy lifestyle.
And they had values of a sort, but they were pimp values. Women were to be used, and abused, not loved and cherished.
And they measured their manhood by their sexual conquests, and many, by the number of babies they fathered.
Hell, some of those values held just as much for many of the men that got paid to guard them.
Folks, what I saw is this: The values these young men used to direct their lives is what landed them in jail in the first place, and kept bringing them back, but don't forget, many were the victims of abuse--by mothers, their mother's boyfriends, and their biological fathers.
The problem is multifaceted, but a good, strong man who would take a fatherly interest in these young men, could turn many around.
The hardcore, gang types, not so much.
"400 billion"? I am in the wrong business.
BTW black grl#1, if you are a little sore right now it's because I am soooo feeling you.
BigmacinPit, that mirror can be a bitch, and it can be very unforgiving. That's why many of us won't look.
Blinders Off, thanks for that story and the work that you do.
grinder, you are right about some of those adoption agecnies. There is a post in there somewhere. I will save that one for another day.
BD, that's why I am all for sex education in schools.I wonder why it is as a nation that we are so afraid to talk to these kids about sex? It's not like we would be telling them something that they don't already know.
so sign with "oh yeah I said i would.."as well.
You all are on FIRE!
Another thing I'm so sick of is the candle light vigils after another child is killed!Just last night another candle light vigil for a senseless killing of a five year old kid asleep in his own home.This maddness must stop,if it requires locking up every little hoodlum who is terrorizing our community then so be it.It seems no one wants to do the dirty work,so let's just go ahead and warehouses these out of control kids!
Hey folks you know I have done my share of things in my life that I'm not proud of. I drank alcohol for 35 years before I understood what damage I was doing to myself and family,then it took another five years for me to get to know who I really was in my gods eyes.I say all that to say I'm sick and tired of Al Sharpton,I'm not even using the title Reverand,I have listen and watched him most of his public life and I'm convinced he is a disservice to our community.He is a example of a person who claims to be doing the dirty work,Big Al Sharpton is a PIMP and I'm SO SICK OF HIM BEING PORTRAYED AS A SAVIOR.
Go look at the UN stats of guns and human development.... those countries that value life, ie.... provide a safe "bottom" have better quality of life and fewer homicides... until WE decide that we want that as a priority for our society, nothing will change...
Almost one year ago, people were deciding that the priorities of our government were fucked up. We were tired of seeing social infrastructures falling apart and said we wanted that to change... One year later, we are fighting and clawing for one of those changes...healthcare..... people are howling that it will cost money. Well, how much was this boy's life worth? How much are our children's lives' worth? If we want this to stop, we will have to suck it up and keep our eyes on the prize, which is a changed infrastructure.... and it will mean that people's security, their basic human security MUST be secured, and pull yourself up by your bootstraps mentality (which anyone knows if you literally did that you would fall on your ass) MUST GO!
Hey Idiots,
That boy in Chicago was killed with a 2x4 and whatever shoes those apes were wearin...
I know, if shoes are outlawed only the outlaws will have shoes...
Seriously, good post Field.
Frank, "you'll get my 2x4 when you pry my cold dead fingers off"
Drackman
amen dco & bg1:
NOTHING WILL FIX CHILDREN UNTIL WE FIX PARENTS!!!
the number one problem is toxic parenting and turbo breeding!!!
too many horrid parents with too many kids by too many dads/moms are being reared worse than stray puppies!!!
too many tired old abused grandparents are barely making it...being stressed to early graves when they once were the timeless glue that held us all together
too many children are BUCK wild because they are growing up like wild weeds...with too many parents who are drunk/high/in jail/at the club etc...
droves are born mentally defective due to drugs and alcohol baths in wombs...then they are scarred FURTHER emotionally by parents who expose them to toxic lives/amorality/filth/poisonous
"diets"...
so many children today do not even get basic lessons in hygiene/nutrition or human values etc...
this crosses all boundaries of race and class...but poor kids of all races fare worst!
most children today have no books at home/NEVER do homework or read anything/or are allowed to FLAGRANTLY fail and clown at school while playing xxx/violent video games etc all evening...
young parents do not even lock the doors etc anymore while engaging in sex acts...
yet ALL these evil illiterate bigoted preachers and their sheeple flock dare to do is bash gays/or stop 2 gay attys/ 2 lesbian doctors from adopting a child....shame!!!!
PARENTING MUST BE MONITORED AND RESTRICTED LIKE FISHING & COSMETIC LICENSES/TATOOING/DMV ETC!...INCLUDING FORCED STERILIZATION!!!
until parents care as much for kids as they do cars/hair/nails/hating on gays, children will only WORSEN...
"I never see those sperm donors in criminal court when the cases are being called and the defendant's are being led into the courtroom. Only girlfriends, grandmothers, and mothers. The only black males I see in the court rooms are the sheriffs. When I go into the home of a potential client, the only people I negotiate with are mothers and grandmothers. Again, there is never a sperm donor in sight."
They're probably dead or in jail themselves.
This is a situation that has perpetuated itself for 50 years in urban America.
Where do you think the sperm donors are Field?
Living with white women out on the Mainline?
For 3 generations in the inner city we've had unsocialized, uneducated children producing children.
And it's not just the boys acting irresponsibly.
How many times have you seen a 28 year old mom tell her 14 year old daughter "Don't end up like me. Get on the pill or make sure he's wearing a condom."
Never.
In the hood, teenage girls giving birth is considered a rite of passage even when she knows the baby daddy doesn't have a hs diploma, job and no way to support his child.
Bootstrap speeches and finger wagging is not going to change this abomination.
Nothing short of a Marshall plan for American inner cities will change conditions and behavior amongst ghetto people.
ps dco & gb1:
it is easier to bash gays than fix het parents...and THAT is why weak evil preachers and amoral politicos will always ONLY do that!
see:
NO KISSING MEN SEEN
ON WARREN G & DERRION ALBERT
Kissing gay men are not destroying Black America. Kissing gay men are not feeding the increasingly lucrative and insatiable Prison Industrial Complex. Kissing gay men are not impregnating and abandoning droves of women who impoverish Black progeny financially and spiritually. Kissing gay men are not legendarily slaying children in Chicago …
http://aliciabanks.blogspot.com/
Just wanted to tell Field that his post inspired me to sign up for Big Brothers Big Sisters this morning. I've had enough armchair moralizing and need to take action. Boys go crazy when their fathers leave, maybe I can help one.
Thanks Field.
cn:
thanks!
i live in ar and il...and in both states the DUSTY waiting lists for kids needing big bros are LOOOOOOOONGG and foster care agencies are OVERFLOWING with kids....
we need millions more like you...
We're often unable and unwilling to criticize ourselves and each other, because after all, Whites do enough of that already. As a result, all problems facing the Black community are external, never internal. Pointing out internal problems runs you the risk of being labeled a "race traitor".
"The anti-gay marriage creeps are gearing up in Jersey, & guess who will be among the most vocal supporters of the movement to stop couples who want to get married?"
No offense, but gay people can, when pressed, become pretty vindictive. One way to hit back against Black opponents of gay marriage is to pull the Welfare rug from under them. After all, gay couples don't need Welfare....but Blacks "benefit" from it. Constricting welfare may be a silver lining, as no one can game the system by dropping kid after kid. Requiring parents to be married before receiving benefits will be an irony to end all ironies, since some facets of the feminism movement used to discourage marriage....I wonder if anyone will attack that plan...
As far as the social and psychological aspects of the problem.....not much we can do. Probably the most effective thing to do is to use the media to drum out the rap/hood culture and encourage a different form of Normality. Some people think hood and rap are normal, as are the killings, wedlock and gangsterism that comes from it. Time to drum into people's heads via the power of the media machine that it isn't. The only problem comes from the corporate heads who are making money hand over fist from our community's stupidity. Only when it is no longer "financially viable" to keep up the current hood/rap message will the corporate heads take their hands off the controls. Sad, yet true.
"PARENTING MUST BE MONITORED AND RESTRICTED LIKE FISHING & COSMETIC LICENSES/TATOOING/DMV ETC!...INCLUDING FORCED STERILIZATION!!!"
Now that's a slippery slope that harkens back to the days of eugenics, when racists were looking for scientific ways to "solve" the "Black problem".
Ya cause Hip hop, video games and movies turn kids into killers. You know what as a product of a single mother and having grown up around crime whilst listening to the evil Hip Hop, watching violent movies and playing violent videogames I can probably safely tell you to shove that opinion up your posterior. Its lazy logic and it's tired.
I touched on that very same issue in my blog and similar questioned the parenting that results in kids like this. Psycho Banks put it quite correctly when she referenced the turbo breeding. These kids having kids after not being taught anything by their parents cannot be expected to know any better with their child. This, is why it's futile.
My contribution to this debacle will be to raise kids who are in my life to be human beings and not animals with a pack mentality. Outside of that I won't sit here and LIE on a blog anonymously that I am going to go out and change the world.
http://halloftheblackdragon.com/reel/893/too-old-for-hip-hop-jazz-and-rock-n-roll.html
Btw Alicia Banks... DITTO! Lol!
slacklying:
only moronic gay bashers like you blame gays for the sins of hets!!
ie
your gay "problem" is fabricated
as
there is nothing "vindictive" about self-defense...it is only victorious!
and the hard HET truth is that fertile illiterate hedonists obsessed with irresponsible random sex will NEVER voluntarily stop breeding the black race into oblivion
vindicate that and the black race will be saved!
"Some people think hood and rap are normal, as are the killings, wedlock and gangsterism that comes from it."
All due respect but this is nuts.
There were killing and out of wedlock births in the hood long before hiphop.
Check for yourself.
There was more violent crime in America in 1978 than 2008.
http://www.disastercenter.com/crime/uscrime.htm
This is about abnormal CONDITIONS.
gregsloth
what is psycho is for you to arrogantly embrace this ignorace as a valid point:
"i did not go crazy doing something, so no one else in the whole world has ever gone crazy doing WORSE things"
wtf????
intelligent people know this:
children today play psycho games and listen to psycho music and watch psycho films that elders could not even imagine!
psycho parents are absent and do nothing to balance such psycho hobbies
too many macho morons and bimbos like you are too busy checking to see if their kids are gay rather than checking to see if they are illiterate/homicidal
shame on you you slimy snail!!!!!
Thanks Alicia.
I live outside of Durham, NC and I thought about doing it while watching Christopher "Kid" Martin's poorly done documentary "Welcome to Durham" last night. It presented ol' "where are the positive male role models" argument and this post gave me a shove in the right direction.
I'm not sure what type of things I can do with the lil’ guy... my hoop skills are minimal (there’s always a basketball game going on in the commercials) but they did list cooking as an activity. Hopefully I can request a nerdy kid.
cg:
ANY attn is priceless
a healthy meal and a convo about what he does at school each week will save him...
god bless u
peace,
ab
cn:
check free local kids' events mags/calendars...
i share free fun ideas with parents:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=free+things+to+do+with+your+child&aq=f&oq=&aqi=
best wishes!
ab
cn:
nerdy is cool
most great ball players never make it to the pros...
but most of us nerds run the world!
ie
a weekly day dual surfing to fun educational sites on a free pc at a local library is a real treat for a kid who has no pc at hm
have fun!
smile
Thanks AB, we do rule the world!
Oh Shiznit: Don Samuels, yes our house negro councilman representing the North Side. Minnehopeless, Minnesoldout. They've gerrymandered part of downtown (think Target Center, Target Field, entertainment district (tax base)) out of his control but left the garbage burner in with ner a peep. The police chief straight out the north side catching hell over officers whooping ass and tasering folks. Its a mess.
FN,
I haven't read all of the comments here but I definitely agree that everything starts at home.
I like your below comment:
"I know about all the obstacles, but these men out here know about them,too. And they shouldn't be bringing more kids into the world to face them if they aren't going to be willing to be there with them to guide them through it. That's all I am saying. Forget all the other political and social implications for now. The individual must do his ( I say his for a reason) part as well."
As a woman raising a young black male, I am going to tell him what my mother told my brother. She would say to my brother, "Boy, I don't told you about wanting to lay down with every big butt you see. You got to remember that every woman you lay with could be the mother of your child and you don't want every woman out there being your baby's momma." Today my brother is 38 years old and married with kids and he says that he will never forget my mom's words.
Also, Field, I feel that it's very important that black women raising young black men, with or without their fathers present, should talk to them about respecting themselves and young women. Too often, we black women because of the heartaches we have had with men and marriage are very negative about marriage or relationships and raise our children to seek alternatives or to be less committed to making relationships work.
I agree it starts at home and not just black men but black women have a huge role to play as well.
I have no anwsers just questions;
1) Was there a GODDAMMED HOMEPOT around, where did they get the 2x4's?
2) Relating to quetion 1, where were the police and/ or school secuirty? Did the not see the BIG ASS 2x4's, did they think they were for shop class?
3) Is this the chicken (1980's) coming home to roost? Is this the result of Crack momma's and their babies with unstable brain chemistry?
4) Is it not time to call all gangs terrorists and have them on work release in Alaska moving the snow from one side of the mountain to the other?
I want to know.
Zeesmom
uptownsteve said...
This is about abnormal CONDITIONS.
Or abnormal black people? All those crack babies are all grown up now.
Anonymous 12:13
Crack babies don't only come in black. I bet when you are adjusting your white hood in the mirror you can't help but read that sign that says 'objects in this mirror are dumber than they appear'.
"And in the president's hometown no less"
Yeah I'm waiting for the White House statement about how shocking, SHOCKING the violence on this video is. While 54 percent of the federal budget is military spending...
Some of you guys need a fact check. Hip Hop wasn't born out of socially deviant behavior. It was born out of the need to cope with societal oppression.
When Hip Hop became a highly lucrative and commercial entity, that's when it started to go the direction of ho's, bling, and baby mama drama.
Anonymous said...
Anonymous 12:13
Crack babies don't only come in black. I bet when you are adjusting your white hood in the mirror you can't help but read that sign that says 'objects in this mirror are dumber than they appear'.
Who was on that video? Dumber indeed.
but let's keep it real with each other. The schools can only do so much. Everything starts at home.
CHUCH!! It takes a man to teach a man to be a man just like it takes a woman to teach a woman how to be a woman but whats just as important is teaching these children that they don't need to pick up a weapon every time they have a problem the need to solve and there is no need to get offensive at everything and harbor ill will towards
..its about something we call down here home training and how can you expect the children to behave if the mama is sittin up in the club with 4&5 boyfriends running in and out (I'm talking about small children) and the daddy out skirt-chasin and not coming home and acting a fool on the block just like them?
School is/was the only other place where they could get an inkling of an idea and the concept of how to behave.
Not so many years ago in high school If there was a problem between somebody and someone else, we didn't go to a damn payphone and call the school making terrorist threats or bring guns on the property like a certain group of people we know, we had it out in the park behind the school, in the parking lot by the track, in the hall or in the cafeteria or at your house.
We didn't need to go and make threats on peoples lives..a good ass whoopin would do the job just fine.
I have never seen so many men and women transformed into punk asses in our society, damn the second amendment, first learn the right to life that other people have, and think about the lives destroy all because you are not man/woman enough to agree to disagree. The value of life is stronger and worth more than any amendment ever penned.
Wake up to the devils tricks and his devices...the devil legislates against the already failing schools in urban communities have practally taken away sources and opportunity for intellectual and social expansion for not accepting federal funding or misusing it, taking books out of our children's hands and putting guns and misogynist music into them..
however yet the devil is a defeated foe for separation between church and state was the most brilliant form of legislation he could have ever shot himself in the foot with. The Church in the black community is a means of organization and source of structure they can't seem to dismantle.
There are a lot more laws that the devil shoots himself in the foot with too and that's why the race war that those 'going rouge' are pining for will not materialize. This is not the '50s or '60s. The writing is on the wall and not just in books.
BIG PROPS to Minnie & Oh yeah I said...
Field, your question was , "how do we stop the sperm donors?"
GIVE THEM NO DONATION RECEPTICLE!!!!!!!
Hold on, I'm a Black Father of 3 girls and my mantra to them is, "WIVES HAVE CHILDREN!!!!!!!!!"
We can focus on, criticize, marginalize and complain about Black men all day long. You could base an entire sermon, article, blog and seminar on it, however it takes 2 to tango. The women in these relationships aren't always victims.
Here's an aside: I have a long time friend, solid brotha, has worked at his job for over 15 years,and is a homeowner. He meets a lady, the hook up and she tells him she is pregnant. Well it turns out she wasn't preganant when she said she was, but later did get pregnant by him. He has resisted marrying her because he doesn't trust her, but does support their daughter both financially and emotionally.
My point is, there are extreme cases on both sides. For every "sperm donor" who runs out on a "good woman" there is an "egg donor" who decieves a "good man." Our Black women bare as much of the RESPONSIBILITY for the state of our children as our men do, its just more convenient and expedient to lay blame on one side
Crack babies don't only come in black.
Truth!
The terrorists seemed to be armed only with boards and their fists.
They also appear to be outnumbered.
Outnumber and armed only with boards?
Why didn't step up to defend the young man and take out the terrorists?
A little civil courage from the onlookers might have helped.
I'm guessing that the neighbourhood lives in fear of these young terrorists.
We live in a society that promotes violence as being an acceptable solution to every problem. Kids are immersed in violent television shows, movies, music, games, from infancy on. Then when you add in being part of a segment of society that figures it has absolutely nothing to lose because they don't expect to live to adulthood anyway, mob violence isn't much of a surprise. Before we can save the kids, we need to save ourselves -- and, sadly, I don't see that happening any time soon.
Meant to say, too, that there have been equally horrific incidents involving white kids out in surburbia -- with a few exceptions (remember Columbine HS?) they just don't get the media attention because they don't fit the stereotypes of what the ruling majority in this country would like us all to believe.
"I've stated this before and I'll state it again: we as Black people have FAILED our children."
Speak for yourself.
My wife and I have raised two fine, high performing young men.
uptownsteve said...
"I've stated this before and I'll state it again: we as Black people have FAILED our children."
Speak for yourself.
My wife and I have raised two fine, high performing young men.
Steve everyone knows your not black.Stop pretending.
When a black male turns 15, the government should offer every one of them $25K to castrate them. It would be cheaper & slow the cycle to hell down just a bit.
FN, this was hard and very painful to watch...sorry still crying...
yay!!!
chicago's villagers are fighting back as obama/gwb 2.0 ignores the village while pimping the olympics so many miles away!!!
the people are waking up...thank god!!!
only AWAKENED elders can tame these wild kids!!!
http://newsone.com/nation/gallery-chicagoans-protest-2016-olympic-bid/
For every "sperm donor" who runs out on a "good woman" there is an "egg donor" who decieves a "good man."
I doubt very seriously that the stats are one-to-one (at least with non-celebrity folks).
But whatever the case, this reaction misses the point of the post. If a "good man" has been deceived by an "egg donor" and is raising someone else's child (or his own child who he has been "tricked" into having), then most of these children are unlikely to end up in this violent situation. But the opposite often does result in the sad stories like we see here.
That should be the focus. Or at least one of the many foci.
My wife and I have raised two fine, high performing young men.
You are fast becoming the exception; the illegitimacy rate among African Americans is 70%. Single motherhood is the norm, not the exception.
Anonymous you racist piece of shit.
Hard illegitimnacy stats don't factor in couples who aren't married when the child is born but eventually do get married or fathers who pay child support and have visitation rights.
There are plenty of both.
Sorry folks, I'm not buying that everything is going to hell in black America.
We have a serious problem in the inner city. A stagnant, dysfunctional, self-perpetuating underclass.
THAT IS WHERE OUR PROBLEM LIES.
At the same time we have an expanding, flourishing and succeeding black middle and professional class.
It seems that many achieving black folks can't enjoy or appreciate their success for they think they are being stigmatized by ghetto blacks.
Those of you who believe that violent ghetto crime and dysfunction is "our" (black people's) problem regardless of what your personal situation is, I'll ask "What are doing about it?"
Because just yapping that the problem exists and you recognize it ain't doing jack.
us:
i find it horridly callous and collectively suicidal when i hear anyone dismiss the NORMS as they harp on the exceptions, as you do incessantly!!!
if you did not evade the ghetto, you would know that those of us who are screaming DOOM are being far too kind and reticent!
it is worse than a proudly segregated classist like you can ever know/imagine...worse x 1000!!!
your cocoon will never protect you or the usa
at some pt, the ghetto you ignore will enter your family/wk place/gated community/extended public spaces/malls/kin/genes...
beware:
it will then be far too late to suddenly care about the ghettos you now erase with new apathy and old stats!
Birth Control. BIRTH CONTROL. Everyone needs to give these girls, young mothers, mothers, grand mothers, and great grand mothers a break! A good birth control program, that cannot be evaded, like pills religiously monitored by the mother? or Norplant or Deprovera. There are even newer ones that work for three months at a time. or even RU42. Condoms should be handed out like candy. I don't see that it will encourage having sex anymore than the rest of our "cultural milieu."
If we could just get the girls through high school and maybe into jobs or college without having to juggle childcare, diapers and trying to have a life. Let the hormones cool off, so a girl/young woman could look at the guy in front of her with a little perspective and self respect. I remember being dumber than a brick in high school and obviously I was not and am still not alone.
Girls and boys, teenagers don't have babies! they have sex!! the babies are just a result. Around the break room at work the mothers used to discuss when to get their girls birth control. Grown ups with jobs can buy their daughters birth control or morning after pills or abortions. Pick the answer you can live with. Would that our nonexistent health care system make birth control etcetera available to everyone.
to Anon at 1:13 pm. ...I'm a Black Father of 3 girls and my mantra to them is, "WIVES HAVE CHILDREN!!!!!!!!!"" If you are serious you will have them protected AND pass out fresh condoms to them to protect their very lives. A great relationship with you, where they can talk and that they know that you are checking up on their whereabouts really really helps. Teen sex is frequently very spontaneous. The girls usually start out with thinking that they will not, but are then over persuaded by whatever it is that overpersuades.
Too great a fear of a parent(s) can lead to abortions and tossed away babies or baby murder. I am sure you have seen those stories too.
ab
If you really believe that violence and dysfunction is the norm for black people and that decency and responsibility are the exceptions then you are even more fucked up in the head than I thought.
us:
your persistent denial about MOST black youth aged 18 and under and their toxic parents is even more transparent than your changing the subject by forcing your own delusions into my posts...
that denial will do nothing to save one child in chicago or anywhere else...
shame!!!!!!!
Please excuse my stupidity.
I finally watched the video. Then I watched it two more times. The video quality was jerky and perhaps deliberately fuzzed out but I didn't see a lot of focused violence. In just a couple of minutes with a bit of board waving and kicking and a kid was dead? there was a lot of shouting and milling about.
It did not appear to me that those kids sounded all that angry or were trying to really do real violence. They almost appeared to be playing with those boards, like they did not realize what one single whack could kill.
It is almost like that poor boy died accidentally, unintentionally.
Not like in the movies where there are a few decorative bruises or in a video where you get a whole new life.
WOW! Uptownsteve- that's alot for a blog response bro. I'm just giving another perspective on a issue that effects us all. I did read the post bro and in as much as "sperm donors" not fullfilling their responsibility, we need "egg donors" fullfilling their's. MATING and SELECTION are a 2 way street. As much as we celebrate Michelle Obama for "getting" a good Black man let's also realize that she was prime "mate" who cme from a strong family with values. Obama came up also. There are many high powered, "successfull" sistas that are still BABY MAMAS, that's just a fact. And no, being raised in a traditional nuclear family doesn't gurantee that a child won't fall astray, but it does decrease the odds. Part of our "inner city" problem is the breakdown of FAMILY, but bro MAMA trying to raise 2 sons even with child support and visitation rights ain't a family in the traditonal sense. Our community needs to look at ALL aspects of this issue, not just the Black Nationalist rant about the Black Middle Class abondoning the lower class. "we have a serious problem in the innercity...That is where our problem lies!" I agree and disagree. We have a problem with identifying what manhood is, and in the inner city it is generally depicted in the hyper masculine, thug life , baller, rapper. Unfortunately, not James the postman who lives in the hood with his wife and two sons. We celebrate women who "catch" a baller or rapper, but do we celebrate Denise who married Brian the Busdriver?
And for the record, I'm not just yapping about the problem, My wife and I ...let me say that again, my WIFE AND I are raising our 3 daughters and I always tell them, "WIVES SHOULD HAVE CHILDREN!!!" no ifs, ands, or butts.
PPR Scribe- I feel ya, but its all connected in some way. I illustrated that point to highlight the responsibility that both genders have in the creation and raising of our children. And Field's original statement was about "sperm donors" and their responsibility.
Hope it sheds a little perspective, but really no need for name calling over the internet, lett's elevate the discussion. This isn't a town hall meeting.
A famous child psychologist, Dr. Brazelton said something like "Parents take too much credit and too much blame for how their children turn out."
The longer that I live the sadder I feel about parents that try to do everything to make their children turn out right and fail dismally. Then I am also much more impressed by people who claw their way out of our cultural basements to live lives of promise and fulfillment.
It would be a vast improvement for everyone in our society to diminish as much as possible the failures of individuals to do well; by at least offering to everyone the means to succeed. We need a decent floor for our society so that 9 year old's do not die from bad teeth or grow up to kill almost whimsically one of their school mates.
Nan is absolutely right. We live in a violent culture. Your average American has no problem bombing children in Iraq or frying innocent people in the electric chair. Unless there are STRONG opposing influences on a child, they are doomed to be accepting of violence.
Its true that too many people have kids without the means (or maturity) to take care of them, but in a society where so many people are kept in poverty through policies that funnel our money to defense contractors and out of schools, are we really going to say that poor people can't have kids?
And as far as all this goes about "without a black man in the home,black women were helpless" and similar comments, I call bullshit.
The nuclear family is a recent invention and the figment of 1950s imagination. There are societies where the biological father has never had responsibility for the child and they manage just fine.
We are all in this together. It isn't just the sperm donors failing these kids. We are all failing these kids.
Here we go again indicting the entire Black community as a result of the depravity of a few..
I am not taking one once of responsibility for the behavior of criminals nor will I trash and indict Black parents all over the world for insanity of a few..
Gang problems are American problems not the problem of Black families and parents..our culture cultivates the depravity of gang activities...
Please spare me the usual sirens of Black family pathologies... Sorry but that tired excuse not working in my venues..
us:
fatal truths cannot be cursed/denied away
i am not lying abuot the doom
i am in the ghetto daily
bill cosby is not lying
he was also not talking about morehouse men in his classic book "come on people"...
and millions of teachers and role models in the ghettos are not lying
YOUR OWN PARENTING SKILLS AND TWO SONS ARE EXCEPTIONS TO THE RULES/NORMS WE SEE DAILY!!!!
millions of young black people are elite and saved...MILLIONS MORE ARE NOT!!!
____
this is the norm for most black kids 18 and under in america:
Toxic parenting is universal in America. It knows no boundaries of race or class. Reality television proves that rich white parents are often even more toxic than poor black ones. Toxic parenting entails: Parents who begin abusing children chemically in their wombs, with recreational drugs and toxic diets; Parents who poison wombs that leave permanent damage inside childrens brains and nervous systems; Parents who do nothing to give lonely fatherless boys mandatory male role models; Parents who routinely physically and verbally assault teachers, but never spank or reprimand their children; Parents who buy children breasts and noses, rather than teach them to become surgeons; Parents who buy students expensive designer clothes, but never show them how to obtain free library cards; Parents who abuse drugs and dress like whores and thugs, as they actively encourage their children to become consummate mini clones; Parents who never attend a teacher conference, but never miss a field trip or party; Parents who are always on time at hair salons or nightclubs, but never bring children to school on time; Parents who harass or ignore teachers as they coddle or neglect children; Parents who brazenly place schools'/teachers' phone numbers on "call block", so that they are not bothered when their children bother others during school hours; Parents who hijack schools as babysitters, even on days when classes are not in session; Parents who brazenly enroll their children in first grade classes, fully aware that these children have never attended Pre-Kindergarten/Kindergarten; Parents who never read any books, and never read to their children; Parents who never teach children any moral intelligence, because they are amoral themselves; Parents who never teach children to sit still, behave, listen, and concentrate; Parents who hate children and dare to demand that teachers and other surrogates fully parent their own children; Parents who never teach children to do their homework; Parents who are intellectually incapable of helping children, or seeking tools/tutors to help children, with their homework; Parents who have no concept of proper child nutrition or sleep patterns; Parents who neither do or assign any chores; Parents who are irresponsible and incapable of teaching children to be responsible...
http://www.geocities.com/ambwww/schools.htm
THANK YOU THRASHER.
I am so sick of this self-hating bull$hit.
LADY CRACKER- I AM SOOOOO FEEELING YOU!!!!
And to your point, YES. Even though "wives should have babies!" is my mantra I recognize that children will be children or more importantly teens will be teens, so yes BIRTH CONTROL if a dicussion we will be having with our oldest (13). And hey, believe me I knw anything can/will/might happen, but we are hoping that by discussing the options openly and their CONSEQUENCES that her logical mind will win out in the end.
Thanks for your input!
Field can worry all day long about losers but not me nor should the Black community tolerate these unwarranted indictments of Black parenting by Field and others who seek to make this a racial issue for Black folks to beat themsleves down over..
Sorry but not today..I will continue to push back and reject this tired theme of indicting the entire Black community becuase of the insanity and depravity of a few..
From my vantage crime is an American issue not a Black issue..I am going to demand accountibility from our police departments, our social workers, our medical experts all of those inside the criminal justice system that have for to long been impotent and excusing making machines who deflect thier failure and incompetence on Black communities as a matter of course..
No fuck that..I am not holding on to this tired script..
us:
if i hated black people i would distance and delude myself precisely as you do
i would pretend that all black kids are safe clones of sasha and malia
or at least
no worse than their equally doomed white peers
but i do not
i never have
and
i never will!!!
elitists like you see a black child die and erase that death by praising your own living children...
i am childless, yet i see every black child, even the lost/dead/gay ones as my very own losses...
and that is what makes me human and you a rabidly elitist hypocrite!!!!
you should be partying with your fellow soulless rich black peers oprah and obama!!!
Talk to 'em Thrasher.
For some reason so many black folks never racialize SUCCESS but seem almost eager to smear the entire community with the failure of a minority.
I will not be a part of it.
And ONCE AGAIN..to all the black Chicken Littles like AB screaming that the sky is falling on negroes................
WHAT ARE YOU DOING ABOUT GHETTO DYSFUNCTION???!!!!???!!!!
I made this same argument after Obama got into the white house far to many Black folks do not want him to make any waves as if our issues are not American issues..
Even today this sorry ass happy negro president of ours had the white house issue another press release only after negative shit occurs in Black venues..Where was the white house press release when the white boy murdered the asian student at Yale?
Where is the post racial president press releases when white folks, asian, hispanics, jews, east indians, etc fuck up and cause havoc in our nation..
What drives the pathology of whites folks who lead the nation in serial killings, domestic abuse, corporate crimes, incest, internet porn, etc..No the white house has its whipping boy the usual coloreds and negroes who rush to be doormats for Obama's Black attacks..
Not me not now not ever..
us:
see a great column on blacks like you who have much black blood on your elite hands!!!
You see, Negroes who promote the “Post Racial” lie are unwilling to admit that their benefits in life are the direct result of compromise, which has little to do with those people on the bottom who face welfare, gang warfare, drugs, alcohol, racial profiling and hatred from some of those above them.
The problem is that after the Civil Rights movement, some frightened Negroes were deathly afraid of having to do any real work for the race, having become comfortable with taking the benefits earned on the backs of many, while pretending that their progress is all about the individual.
What we are dealing with is the same attitude felt by the country Blacks when intermingling with the city Blacks, which isn’t really a Black thing, but cuts across all color lines, as city whites neither have any real desire to interact with their rural brethren who they view as less civilized. Part of the inheritance of integration is that now, many citified Negroes take on that same attitude about their brethren in impoverished areas of the same cities.
Because finally, for the first time since our arrival from slavery with the empty promise of freedom, a generation of Negroes has abdicated their responsibility of breaking through and going back to pull up others.
This abdication of responsibility is why we see gangs swell, even following concerted efforts to abate their activity, as if breathing—in with a breath of swelled membership, and out with the deflated exhalation of unsustainable efforts from those around them, but not many above them.
http://www.eurweb.com/printable.cfm?id=56376
"if i hated black people i would distance and delude myself precisely as you do"
Sweetheart I live in a 90% black neighborhood, mainly socialize with black folks, patronize black businesses and professionals.
Which is exactly why I reject your asssertions of dysfunction everywhere.
People like you see failure and dysfunction everywhere because that's what your life is about and you're trying to project your misery on the community.
@ the Crazy Woman with the fancy hat:
"only moronic gay bashers like you blame gays for the sins of hets!!"
I have no idea what a "het" is, but I, for one, am not a "moronic gay basher" or whatever description that came from of your fucked up mental processing.
@ uptownsteve:
"All due respect but this is nuts.
There were killing and out of wedlock births in the hood long before hiphop.
This is about abnormal CONDITIONS."
So I misphrased myself. I didn't mean to say that rap caused the conditions we're faced with today. Only that these conditions are maintained by a desire to partake in the hood/rap culture.
@ Greg Dragon:
"Ya cause Hip hop, video games and movies turn kids into killers. You know what as a product of a single mother and having grown up around crime whilst listening to the evil Hip Hop, watching violent movies and playing violent videogames I can probably safely tell you to shove that opinion up your posterior. Its lazy logic and it's tired."
Good for you. You had a parent that cared. We're talking about kids whose parents don't give a shit about their kids, leading them to become consumed in violent hood culture.
slacklying:
your limited vocab is more appalling than ylour lame slurs
het = heterosexual?
i wear long lovely natural locks
i do no wear hats
and nothing is as crazy as your gaybashing drivel you hatless slug!
I have no problems calling the police on criminals....truth be told the orgins of no snitching comes from backward christian dogma which gives honor to insane notions like "let no man cast the frist stone..."
No I am demanding from every criminal justice person I encounter. I will confront them and demand from them results not more of thier fear extortion driven threats about the crime wave in the hood..
Facts are most folks do not commit crimes there is no crime wave in our venues, we have accepted and tolerated the propagands of so called 'rime waves' ..The very slugs who are invoking such fictional schock tatis are those in the crimal justice system whose worthless effots over the years have been CRIMINAL!!!!!!!!!!!
Excuse my spelling I am dictating my posts into a machine..
us:
you have bragged often herein about your elite enclave
and about never even visiting the ghetto
YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD IS NOT THE WORLD!!!!
visit the real world and you will see that the doom is pervasive and much worse than anything i have described
the sky already fell and you are still dreaming about chicken little fairy tales...
see the fallen sky in national academic stats/prison pops/any college campus etc....
@ Thrasher:
"Gang problems are American problems not the problem of Black families and parents..our culture cultivates the depravity of gang activities..."
I'm not gonna argue that, but will "America" own the issue of Black gang violence as "their problem"? Hmm....
"From my vantage crime is an American issue not a Black issue..I am going to demand accountibility from our police departments, our social workers, our medical experts all of those inside the criminal justice system that have for to long been impotent and excusing making machines who deflect thier failure and incompetence on Black communities as a matter of course.."
I can safely tell you that most of these entities either do not give a good shit about Blacks and their problems or "help" them in a patronizing manner by assuming that they are incapable of doing anything unless "helping (white) hands" give them a little push.
Well, at least not until their problems hit too close to home. Then comes the call to "get tough on crime" (i.e., "incarcerate more Blacks, indescriminately").
@ uptownsteve....again:
"For some reason so many black folks never racialize SUCCESS but seem almost eager to smear the entire community with the failure of a minority."
Good for you. Too bad other groups are content to judge the Black community by the actions of a few. We need to get it in their heads that we aren't some monolithic block that thinks the same way. Until then, you're gonna continue to see those "smears".
"Excuse my spelling I am dictating my posts into a machine.."
Wow. I know someone who writes articles and journals, and she's looking for a program or machine to dictate her works. Care to say what you use?
us:
shame that you have a crusty old gizzard wrapped in a flimsy plastic us flag where your missing heart should be
your colorblind patriotism is false
and
your monied denial is fatal
tragic!!!!!!!
Bottom line is this.. Criminal Justice people need to get off your excuse driven asses and make a difference....
We have seen growth in almost every major social and public insitution in our nation except the crimnal justice system which still operates under a tired morality based principles..
Our cops, judges, correction officals have been impotent for decades..They not parents have failed our communities..
We are victims of shitty law enforcement efforts not the shortcomings of ill prepared parents...
Like the 911 saga... Criminals blew up the WTC not Terrorists yet we have spent billions chasing after the wrong boogeyman..
Mack,
SONY and others make a number of voice recognition machines even wireless units..
@ The Mad, Hatless Black Woman"
"your limited vocab is more appalling than ylour lame slurs"
Rest assured that my vocabulary will take yours and thrash the living daylights out of it, before putting it to sleep with a reverse choke hold. You seem so eager to hammer that out that you managed to fuck up on the spelling. I'd advise you slow down. This post and blog will still be here by the time you're finished spellchecking your work.
"het = heterosexual?"
Thanks for that. On the other hand, you seem to find something wrong with heterosexuality. I'm not about to entertain the various reasons for that.
"SONY and others make a number of voice recognition machines even wireless units.."
Thanks. This will come in handy.
us:
my life is about revolution
not "dysfunction"
funny an amoral and twisted elite like you should hurl such a slur
i am a child of rich buppies who had souls and i am certain that my own/my family's assets are still worth much more than yours...
my family is filled with legendary teachers and profs, even
my grandmother was a professor...
but they taught me to be an educator and to help others, rather than to be a snob who ignores others like YOU!
Alicia black kid's do not need to be TAMED! for we may be Upset with what happened, because this put Black America on Front Street! and that's where we should be! for the entire world had to witness one of our young Black men beaten to death, by other young Black men!
Now, we use every excuse in the book, but, we cannot blame the White man for this! what we were forced to witness was a Revolt!!! we were forced to witness a Hate Crime! not white against black, but, BLACK against BLACK!
Now, some try to Blame the never ending Culprit! RAP MUSIC!!!!! NO!! the Blame lye's with the entire Black Race as a whole! our Race is in need of Reconstruction, or shall I say a Cleansing, a Purification!
Black men answer to no one! Black men say and do as they please! it was a time when Black men had Respect for God! not any more, Black men will support Gay Marriage before they will support Heterosexual Marriage! it was a time when Black men would frown on Two men carrying on like two Women! but, now we have Black men marrying White men! and the so called (MACHO BLACK MAN) will not blink an eye! they have become comfortable with the Spirit's of (JUST do anything and everything you want)!!!! but, what about God?
Our people have become Contaminated, for it was never God's plan for our people to excuse Wrongdoing! for if it was any Race God could depend on to fight against Wrong doing, it was the Black Race! when the going got tough, God knew he could depend on the Black Race to cry out in behalf of the people and the land! for when there is pain and suffering, people will cry out, our people was forced to learn this from Slavery!
It was a time when Black men would get Drunk on Saturday night, but, the black man would make sure his entire family would be in Church on Sunday morning! but, these day's, the Black man will lay on the couch on Sunday's and watch Sport's all day long! no thought of giving God a mere Two hour's of Reverance in Church!
Black men were never suppose to adapt to Carnality the way the White man has, God expected more from the Black man! men are men, but, the burden the black man is forced to carry, is far Greater than what God has given any man to carry, Black men should seek to connect to God on this very day! for our people are in need of Godly Black Men!! Men that are not ashamed to cry out for direction from God!
iseeisee
Today I was tuned into sports talk in Detroit and the black co-host read an ad on the air about criminal defense lawyers his entire delivery changes he went into a slang hip-hop voice over as if only Black folks are in need of criminal attorneys..of course the white lawyers he mentioned were white jewish lawyers in his voice over...
There are entire industries who partner with our impotent criminal justice system to make a living off of Black criminals..Like the arm forces slick adds they seek to cultivate and solict criminal behavior for a profit..
AB
"you have bragged often herein about your elite enclave."
Not bragging. Just illustrating the real black experience.
Most of the people I live among are just like my wife and I.
Mack Lyons,
"Too bad other groups are content to judge the Black community by the actions of a few. We need to get it in their heads that we aren't some monolithic block that thinks the same way. Until then, you're gonna continue to see those "smears".
That's my whole point Mack.
We cannot allow others to define who WE ARE.
First we have to accept what we are.
And if we listen to the ABs of the world, we might as be watching Pat Buchanan and Glenn Beck on cable.
I KNOW what my reality is.
Grew up in the inner city in working class families headed by Southern immigrants.
We're mainly first generation college grads.
That's today's black middle class and it's becoming the black majority.
You will never convince that the majority of black Americans are dysfunctional ghetto dwellers.
I know damn well you can't produce any data to support that assertion.
It's what you WANT to believe.
and about never even visiting the ghetto
slacklying:
proof of a weak debate is focusing on typos and hurling juvenile irrelevant slurs about psychoses/hats/spellchecks
unlike you
i do not bash sexuality
what i find wrong is your incessant gaybashing and generic trifling herein
like calling gays who defend themselves for being scapegoats for het sins "vindictive"
or feigning that anyone with a decent vocab would be unaware of the meaning of "het" in context etc...
Black people lead the nation in gang violence and gang murders.
In order to stop this,Obama must fully fund Planned Parenthood.
There must be abortion clinics on every corner in the ghetto-just like liquor stores.Abortions should be give free of charge to black woman in order to lower the crime rates.
You can take the black person out of the jungle,you can't take the jungle out of the black person.
us:
you and your wife and friends are not the world!
i am 4th generation college...and???
how will that help the babies i tutor who have yet to see one gen in college????
i drive to the ghetto and back from an exclusive area daily....and????
you are hopelessly heartless
and
proud of it!!!
"You will never convince that the majority of black Americans are dysfunctional ghetto dwellers.
I know damn well you can't produce any data to support that assertion.
It's what you WANT to believe."
Mack that was directed AB not you.
Somehow my paragraphs got inverted.
I ignore notions and phrases like BLACK on BLACK crime..In Salt LAKE UT.. phrases like WHITE ON WHITE CRIME are never employed..
When catholic priests were on a crime wave many never invoked the phrase of WHITE ON WHITE CRIME
When ERON did thier crimes no WHITE ON WHITE CRIME verbaige was employed...
Backward and political phrases & phony sci-fi math terms like "proportional"committed by Blacks" is another phrase I ignore..
All of these tatics are nothing more rthan disinformation and propaganda designed to indict the usual suspects and the usual doormats..
"i drive to the ghetto and back from an exclusive area daily....and????"
How the hell can you be cruising the 'hood when you're on here 24/7????
Hey Alicia, do you have diarrhea of the mouth, or is shouting in text your only method of discussion? You don't even answer the questions that are aimed towards you but instead paste 10 paragraphs of crap that you think reiterates your point. so why don't you answer Uptown Steve's question. The question he asked is probably one that all of us "elitist" blacks wish to know from internet heroes like yourself.
What exactly are YOU doing about it Alicia? besides typing that is, seriously I really want to know.
P.S. DITTO!!!
us:
like most intelligent people,
i do not need stats to know that MOST PEOPLE in america are poor and uneducated...
and i do not need stats to prove that i see more men in prison documentaries/local jails than i do in my own college classes...
those stats you seek have no faces...or guns....
dregworm
you are late
fix that
us:
you are RIGHT here EVEN MORE than i am!
dual hypocrite that you are!!!
and i have a car and computers than go beyond my gated community with me daily!
FACT: The most lethal aggregate in our country is white males from serial killers to wall street criminals to slugs who have killed and tried to kill our presidents..
Quick Crime Quiz I used in speaking in front of cops and others..
Situation: White cop on elevator with his white wife a lone Black male enters the elevator the lights go out and the elevator stalls for a few minutes a crime takes place and the white wife is the victim..
Query: Who is the perp?
Remarks: I always use the latest FBI Index of Major crimes to answer the question..
Summary: In our nation a white woman is safer with a black stranger than her own hubby..
Good evening Uptown, Mack and others..
I will return again..
dregflamingfeces:
try making ONE pt that even comes close to the wisdom i paint
you trifling moron
ab
"like most intelligent people,
i do not need stats to know that MOST PEOPLE in america are poor and uneducated..."
Given that the official American poverty rate for 2008 was 12.7% I have to ask...what in the wide world of sports are you talking about?
us:
your america is utopia
i get that
mine is in a crisis like never before!
i am talking about an educational gap and an employment gap in america that are both much wider than your sprawling lawn
and getting wider each day as you contentedly watch grass grow
wages for millions have been declining for decades while you wallow in your own trinkets!!!
wake up!!!
Prison Profit Props Up Ailing U.S. Economy
Today more than 7.5 million people—nearly half of them African—are tied to the US prison system. As big as the current government stimulus package is, it is nothing compared to the massive government investments building new prisons in every state.
This proved to be the key economic stimulus for white America over the past 30 years. It was prisons and illegal drugs that saved the US economy during all of the previous economic downturns of the 1970s, 80s and 90s.
Prisons spawned jobs in multiple sectors, such as lawyers and prosecutors, guards, court and prison administration, computer programming, along with construction, housing development and retail malls that often transformed backwards rural towns into bustling metropolises.
Wall Street banks float the loans to cities and states that are used as municipal bonds to finance prison building. These loans are basically mortgages on prisons and rake in the money for the bankers.
Private prisons profit from African slave labor used by a wide range of corporations, essentially a modern form of Convict Leasing.
Additionally, private prisons are traded on Wall Street. Their stock goes up every time another law such as Three Strikes is passed, because these laws guarantee that prison beds will be filled for the long term and that there will be an ever-increasing prison population. Wall Street makes sure that prisons remain a good investment.
wake up!!!!
Nearly 6.2 million students in the United States between the ages of 16 and 24 in 2007 dropped out of high school, fueling what a report released Tuesday called "a persistent high school dropout crisis."
Although the gap narrowed slightly between 1992 and 2007 -- about 7 points on a 500-point scale -- the disparity remains wide, with black students still scoring about 28 points behind whites. Consequently, black children also have a far higher high school dropout rate and a lower rate of college enrollment.
A new report on high school dropouts in the United States calls for a national re-enrollment strategy.
The total represents 16 percent of all people in the United States in that age range in 2007. Most of the dropouts were Latino or black, according to a report by the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, and the Alternative Schools Network in Chicago, Illinois.
wake up!!!
Racial Gap Increases in Advanced Placement Scores
Black students score a whole letter grade lower than White students, the journal reported. Data showed that Whites are more than twice as likely as blacks to receive a qualifying grade and only 2.8 percent of Blacks received an “A” grade, compared to 14.1 percent of White test-takers.
Damn! AB - you're all over this blog! Don't you have a job, or something else to do? Your rants about parents are mind-numbing. These parents are our neighbors, daughter/sons; cousins; sisters and brothers. I'm not quite prepared to condemn or judge. There's not much we can do about them. We, all of us in Amerikkka, desperately need triage; some kind of Marshall Plan. The cynic in me says, "It's too late; these are the symptoms of a dying republic and civilization."
Again, we better build more prisons - warehouses - for the hopelessly lost PTSD children of today because there is no cure; and they are gonna become adults who will inexorably breed and expand their gene pool. We're woefully ill-prepared to deal with our returning war veterans, much less the millions whom we see everyday viciously and fatally acting out their desperation and righteous ANGER at a culture/civilization that cares little-to-none about its children. The miracle is that they, so far, only cannibalize and devour each other.
FN: Would be refreshing to see just one or two practical, shovel-in-the-ground solutions here. It deeply saddens me that, while our recent not-to-distant ancestors triumphantly faced monsters that make today's urban/domestic terrorism look like child's play, we, their descendants, seem weak and lost; unwilling to look "...in the mirror". Extreme and desperate times call for equally extreme counter-measures. We used to "Scare our kids straight" by taking young pre/teen-age boys on periodic visits to San Quentin penitentiary for a day with convicts who would "...scare 'em straight." Some cities are experimenting with high-tech video/sound tracking equipment in high-crime areas with measurable success. More foot-patrol police on our streets getting "up in the face" of young gangsta wannabes is do-able. Where and when did we, the children of The Movement, lose our will? Or, must we, indeed, witness and suffer the death gasps of this dying civilization/republic?
anon:
i have 3 jobs
and a pc for each
u/multi-task???
i call all as i see them
no matter who they are or where they live
pleae excuse me if i do not give someone a pass for being my neighbor or us's kin...
the homicidal heathens who slew derrion albert are someone's neighbors too...
and????
The problem with most black folks in this situation is their lack of responsibility.They have been told from day one nothing is their fault and they have people who will defend their bad behavior.
The classic defense is the "look at whitey defense". Bring up what white people do doesn't do anything to change whats going down.
Thrasher said...
Summary: In our nation a white woman is safer with a black stranger than her own hubby..
Looking at those same stats you can say black women are safer around white males than black males.Look up WM/BW murder, rape, assualt rates and compare them to BM/BW rates.
Thats way,way to easy.
hey us:
you have a nice ritzy evening...and wake up!!!!
40 million fellow americans will NOT!
http://www.infowars.com/us-census-bureau-report-40-million-living-in-poverty/
climbed from 21.5 percent in 2007 to 23.2 percent in 2008. Non-Hispanic whites saw poverty rise from 8.2 percent in 2007 to 8.6 percent in 2008, while poverty among Asians was up from 10.2 percent in 2007 to 11.8 percent in 2008. African-Americans were the only group where poverty remained statistically unchanged at a staggering 24.7 percent, or about one in four people.
uptownsteve,
How many times have you seen a 28 year old mom tell her 14 year old daughter "Don't end up like me. Get on the pill or make sure he's wearing a condom."
You are assuming that the 28 year old mother will know that condoms work. Her education might be worst than her daughters. I was shocked to find out that myths that were in existence when I was 14, still exist.(50 years later)
Lady Cracker.
Birth Control, Exactemant!
My point remains the same White Males not Black Males are the most lethal aggregate in our nation..
It is a simple and easy observation and you are correct a real easy one to make...
assnon/useenothing:
your posts sound like an old retarded and drunken griot on crack...
wha????
watch the killing of derrion
do u see tame?
most black children have 0 coping skills and fight like it is breathing
many lost black kids are indeed inhumane and need to be tamed
visit any poor urban public school and spend a day in any class
that will be all you need to see
the curse of MOST UNTAMED children who have no desire to learn only to fight and play and eat and harass etc!!!!
watch them after school
most will not even bother to don a backpack or pencil...why carry unused items?
assnon/icu?:
are you the long hidden ghostwriter for shahrazad ali?????
u sound like it...always!
@Thrasher:
Was the radio co-host Drew Sharp or was it Terry Foster?
Anyone who really DOES work with youth knows that most youth are not thugs, are trying to do the best under the circumstances.... and that if you show a little respect for THEIR basic human dignity by virtue of them being a human being on the planet, and LISTEN to them, my experience has been that respect is returned, especially if they see that you are trying to help.
I deal daily with the ones that are charged with crimes.... and I am constantly stunned at how far treating them with kindness and respect matters to them, more so than most adults, who often take it for granted.
What I see missing from their lives is, Hope. They do not believe in their futures.... that is devastating.
jody:
ever heard of michael baisden?
his new radio shows are online
listen to them this week
he has actual sane young people talking about the NORM of violent illiterate toxic young people!
he is also talking to mothers whose children have been slain by the less than angelic teens you allegedly mentor...
Lady Cracker at 3:17 pm, well said. And at 3:32 pm, I'm glad you mentioned that. It was note worthy. I don't think it was meant to turn out that way (not that I'm saying it makes it better).
Thrasher at 3:50 PM, you made a good point.
MackLyons, if you notice, all the harsh talk and mean resentfulness is always based on, or compared to what society or someone is doing against gay people. How can thou expect to be taken seriously?
@Jody: "I deal daily with the ones that are charged with crimes.... and I am constantly stunned at how far treating them with kindness and respect matters to them...."
Although the young men I worked with had done some pretty damn awful stuff, you'd never know it in a one to one discussion.
And you're right: Many just wanted their humanity acknowledged and respected. When I treated them with respect, I got respect in return.
The answer is simple: Society has to stop seeing these young men as hopeless, and "throw-aways."
They, like all the rest of us, want to be seen as valued members of society, and not as rejects.
See my post upthread.
li/kola:
only a lying gaybashing shrew like you would deny all the info i have posted herein and reduce them to one valid point about gays
shame on you
got glasses whore?
ps:
li/kola/global trick:
i stand by all i stated about EVERYTHING and gays!!!
Heterosexuality and homosexuality are equally innate. Unlike sexuality, violence is learned. Like hatred and ignorance, violence is highly contagious indeed. Ironically, Warren is famous for violent videos and gangsta rap lyrics. Warren is curiously unaware that his children should not be watching his own work on TV!!!
http://aliciabanks.blogspot.com/
Honestly I don't have a clure. All I know is that when I get life organized in a couple of years. I'll be adopting two or three kids from the South Bronx. I might not be able to help everyone but I can help them.
Shady,
Both are impotent slugs always playing the anti-Black role..Today it was Foster in his usual Black face role....
I keep forgetting they are sports writers they have zero depth and credibility outside of that arena
It is tragic yet playing up to the demograpics of white males sales type I never expect much both have not matured nor evolved in years..
Alicia, I am not a gay basher, honest... I have a gay friend and a gay neighbor. Ok let me stop, I'm in a playful mood tonight. I have nothing against you, or gay people, I can't worry about pleasing everyone. Just the other day, one of those phony church loitering co-workers of mine near damned me to hell, and questioned my motherhood. All because I told her I would support my daughter if she told me she was gay.
It's just that I find it humorous how you somehow find a way to incorporate being gay, or you drag the deeds of gay bashers into the debate on non-related topics. That's all.
(And I'm still flattered that you still think I'm Kola Boof :)
i will post my comment and then go back as time permits to read the others.
the answer:
bm need to behave as men. period.
bw need to REFUSE in words and deeds to have babies with bmales that demonstrate a lack of understanding of what it is to be men. MEN PROVIDE FOR AND PROTECT THEIR WOMEN AND CHILDREN. FULL STOP. PERIOD.
anyone arguing, making excuses, and grading bm or bmales on a curve are doing bfolks a disservice. they are the enemy. this message is for the bw/bgs that seek to live abundantly and freely. embrace the truth and live. now is NOT the time to become emotional and wax poetic about days long gone. blk skin is not a friend these days much less a "brotha". bskin will kill your quality of life if not you and make an excuse rather than amends and/or a change.
i originally posted this comment over at WAOD. i will re-post it here.
thanks for letting me share.
"i had to comment on this one.
BlkSeagoat, you hit the bullseye with the following comment:
“He should spend more time trying to figure out how he intends to make TIMELY child support payments of 45K per month to Kelis AND should resolve to FATHER his child so that his son doesn’t end up like Eugene Riley, Eric Carson, Salvonus Shannon, and Eugene Bailey. ”
IF these clowns were writing open letters to the legion of MIA bm, that are needed to socialize their sons into men, rather than leaving men’s work to women, a lot of what we see would be different. period.
bw, STOP having children with these fools for the love of God, self and life!
bmales are the weapons that are being used to take out bw, bgs, and other bm. they are doing this to the back drop of so-called hip hop “music”, which is no different than the chants of violence on the radio that precipitated ACTUAL violence in Rwanda. DE-population is in full effect. it is pure wicked genius because NO MATTER WHAT OR HOW HEINOUS it will ALWAYS be SOMEONE ELSE’S FAULT AND AN EXCUSE!
the masses listen to this “hip hop” garbage and treat it as “entertainment”. but then it has ALWAYS been “entertaining” to see the degradation, denigration, and outright destruction of bfolks. think pick a “ni#@er”( and we know that idiot nas thinks this is an honorable word DESPITE the history and origins. no doubt these teenaged criminals ROUTINELY call each other this word or the new trendy “gga” version) from which we get the word “picnic” today, and the big “bbq” which were sold out “entertaining” events aka lynching enjoyed by wm AND ww in this country.
as a bw that unapologetically WILL live abundantly and thrive, if the providers and protectors (men) are not in the business of handling their business and see the human rights era (aka “civil” rights movement) as the vehicle for effing the rainbow and becoming post racial as opposed to self sufficient, self determined and free men—why in the WORLD would i spend an ounce of breath arguing with them?
i was talking to my new beau who happens to be a russian jew about what i see around me so clearly. he freely acknowledged that the reality for bw and bpeople is laid bare for the world to witness and shake their heads at and asked a simple question which shut my mouth. my mouth will FOREVER remain shut to bm on the subject. i will open my mouth only to bw/bgs that demonstrate their understanding that help is NOT on the way and seek to save themselves.
his question, “who/what do you expect to save you when it is your own men that destroy you?”
the rest of the men of the world are focused on saving their women, children and themselves…"
blessings all,
focusedpurpose
"it may just a place to start, but america needs to find a way to market kids to dads as bling."
LMAO!!!! HILARIOUS!!!
whoever wrote that just made me laugh hysterically.
THANK YOU.
well, i read all the comments, and what i still thinking, why, since this type horrible stuff already been happening, that it's now news, and i can't help it, i think it is because of the Olympics, this video make it look like violence is a Black problem when the truth is, violence is a problem all over the world. why are men violent, i dont know, how to solve the problems i don't know. but i do know that when was a kid, being poor didn't mean being violent, being poor was different, for evry color.
Shut up!
It is too much. We go over this, and debate this issue over and over and over until the next heinous act by our children or one of us!
This "whoa is me," stance we take everytime something of this nature happens is ridiculous!
Most everyone has their valid points....
Why do we keep doing this?
Yes it is true... our pathologies are not as bad as those of most our counterparts - and the truth of our lives are intentionally misconstrued or we are just totally lied upon - and many times for sport. And many of Us are not saavy enough not to feed into it.
We know Oprah is not going to lead the media in trying to understand why these kids did this... they will not have 100 people lined up in court to say how good they were and it really was not their problems... 60 minutes will not do a where are they now segment on them...
Honestly, the act,played over and over and over ... right now I....
We can pawn off all of this on single mothers, hip-hop (how lame), deadbeat dads; whatever!
What are we going to do?
Let's start a do list. What do each of us, as individuals want to do?
And for those of us who don't know how to do, what we want to do - we need a How to list!
denise-
Well, Yvette/denise, you can always lead the way. Tell us what you want to do.
Hey Focusedpurpose!
@focusedpurpose: "[H]is question, 'who/what do you expect to save you when it is your own men that destroy you?'
"the rest of the men of the world are focused on saving their women, children and themselves…'"
This is true, but most of the time these "men of the world" are living in a culture of approbation, not of disapproval.
Now, don't get me wrong: This, in itself, is not a cause for failure, but I'm realist, too.
If you're a black kid, boy or girl, growing up in the innercity, you quickly realize your social standing alongside the all- enveloping outer culture.
It doesn't take long to realize that the larger society doesn't hold you in high esteem, and that you're nothing more than a bother to it.
Everything in their small world reinforces this point. Blacks kids and black women rarely receive the same media attention as Asians or whites if they come up missing, unless they step outside of their world and make themselves visible by attacking whites.
The innercity can be a deathtrap for the soul, the spirit, and the aspirations of young black people.
And many have no one to tell them that it's not a dead end.
Martin Luther King said we shall overcome. If our youth can overcome the negative images they see each and every day, and know something of their unconquerable spirit, they'll have a chance.
If not, they'll fill up the already overcrowed jails, and follow in the footsteps of the negative images they see around them.
To save the next generation of black youth will require a massive intervention on the part of blacks. Although whites should pitch in as well, many don't see it as their problem, and will slough it off on us.
Now here's a sobering thought:
More than 1.2 million African-Americans left the labor force from August 2008 to August 2009, blackmoney.com reports based on the latest employment situation announcement by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The employment situation for blacks was already bleak. This news is devastating for black men and black women, and those families that depend on them.
This makes it twice as hard for black men to "save" their women and their children, even if their hearts are in the right place.
"To save the next generation of black youth will require a massive intervention on the part of blacks. Although whites should pitch in as well, many don't see it as their problem, and will slough it off on us.
This makes it twice as hard for black men to "save" their women and their children, even if their hearts are in the right place.
9:33 PM
Black Diaspora
that is so true!
"proof of a weak debate is focusing on typos and hurling juvenile irrelevant slurs about psychoses/hats/spellchecks
unlike you
i do not bash sexuality
what i find wrong is your incessant gaybashing and generic trifling herein"
Actually, monopolizing a debate with longwinded diatribes, false accusations and ALL CAPS SHOUTING is the hallmark of a person who cannot effectively debate. If you have to crowd out all the other voices in the room, making yours the only one that's heard, that's not debate.
For a long time, I've demurred in engaging in any sort of discourse with you, since that would be like throwing myself into a briar patch swarming with hornets. Or convincing a crackhead into putting down the pipe for good during a high. Or trying to stop a MTA subway car with your own body.
I don't think anyone else here heard me bash homosexuals. Except you. But God only knows what voices you've manufactured in your head over the years. Makes it hard to hear anyone else clearly.
Slack Lyin? Come on, you can do better than that! That in itself shows a clear lack of creativity.
"To save the next generation of black youth will require a massive intervention on the part of blacks. Although whites should pitch in as well, many don't see it as their problem, and will slough it off on us
So, you want whites to raise black children now too? You can't handle that?
@Kathy. "Black Diaspora
that is so true!"
Thanks Kathy. Although I'm a realist, I'm also an idealist and an optimist. How's that for a contradiction. I sincerely believe that it can be done. We can turn it around.
And I'm going to give some thought to it, to see if I can come up with a mechanism to make it happen.
I'm working on another project to bring several efforts together, but I'm going to give this some attention as well.
On my blog, I discuss a project already in place, but it's broader in scope. I may be able to incorporate some of the elements of it.
Anonymous said...
"So, you want whites to raise black children now too? You can't handle that?"
If you're the result of white parenting Anon, maybe not. You should leave that part to us.
hi La!:-)
BD-
seriously and with all due respect. save it. especially this:
"This is true, but most of the time these "men of the world" are living in a culture of approbation, not of disapproval."
BW that don't look white are not meeting with approval in society at large and most definitely not in all black constructs. in fact, the dark-skinned bw has not EVER been "in" in this country. THAT fact has not stopped us from moving forward powerfully in increasing numbers.
we do this facing BOTH racism AND sexism, though our "brothas" can't seem to believe or stop focusing on themselves long enough to care. when there is care for issues facing women, somehow that concern gets re-directed to ww. it is that darndest thing i tell you.
you said:
"If you're a black kid, boy or girl, growing up in the innercity, you quickly realize your social standing alongside the all- enveloping outer culture.
It doesn't take long to realize that the larger society doesn't hold you in high esteem, and that you're nothing more than a bother to it."
yep. and as a bg coming up anywhere, if one pays attention to the non stop messages, she is held, BY HER OWN, in lesser regard than other non bw and girls. the oow/baby mama births are the collective dishonoring of bw and evidence of the low/no value placed on bw/bg.
yes,bw have been complicit in our own disrespect, this is why i teach my sisters and daughters to give it a rest. STOP having babies with males that don't esteem you enough to marry you. STOP.
the non stop message to bw/bg is that we are the mules responsible to do the heavy lifting for the so called bcommunity. i reject it and urge other bw/bg to do the same.
as noted in the initial essay, bw are present. doing a crappy job of socializing bb to be men and carry bfolks pretty much solo. please note ONLY bw are expected to do this task by themselves on planet earth. ALL other nations hold their men accountable. yet you say:
"To save the next generation of black youth will require a massive intervention on the part of blacks."
ok. just can't fix your mouth to say bm need to get their poop in a group, huh? yep. save that stern talk for the women and little girls.
and based on WHAT do you think whites should save bfolks? seriously? wfolks should care more for bchildren than their own fathers? really now?
okey dokey.
keep making those excuses and treating the completely out of order bm collective like lady boys that are too fragile to hear the truth.
the friends of fools shall suffer. how much more so the women and children. they suffer and die...daily. to my sisters/daughters i say pay attention and save yourselves. help is NOT on the way!
i will continue to teach bw to reject the lies and strive to live abundantly with MEN that will stand and build.
for the commenter that indicated that ww were safer with a black stranger than her husband, i say, yep. however such is NOT the case for bw and bgs.
#1- on my to do list is to continue to make sure that bw/bg do the work of wrenching their heads around so that they will STOP engaging in the backwards thinking that keeps turning out more black babies to be abandoned, unprovided for, unprotected and ultimately destroyed. NO sis, you don't need to "help a brotha out", you need to save yourself.
#2-continue to take blows at the bm protectionism that makes us look at everything/everyone but the obvious. it is that protectionism that allows this wickedness to go unchecked. studies have been done to know that bfolks will accept the damndest things from other bfolks. make it a bm, because bfolks don't value nor esteem bw, and in the name of all that is holy, it is SOMEONE ELSE'S FAULT! (in most cases a bw who has replaced the wm as the reason for bm's failures)
#3-refuse to accept or make excuses for inexcusable behavior.
#4-get back to basics. the average bg is having a hard time distinguishing between a compliment and disrespect. she needs to be told and know her worth that she might embrace it and command the respect and recognition that is hers.
yes. folks are losing their jobs and homes left and right. in more numbers than not bw are still doing what it takes to stand. as head of the household if two incomes are needed, bw get two jobs. i refuse to believe bm are somehow unable. i believe they are unwilling and more inclined to do what is easier for them personally/individually. LIFE IS NOT EASY, how has the bm in america missed that memo?!!!
further, those bm with resources are in greater numbers racing AWAY from bw and children. can folks just tell it? not telling the truth and refusing to act according to the truth is killing people daily in large numbers.
it is not my or any other WOMAN's job to save bm. as a group they seem preoccupied with EVERYTHING else...so as they head the way of the moors...i commit myself to addressing my sisters and daughters and...moving forward...powerfully.
blessings all,
focusedpurpose
UptownSteve:
In all seriousness - I am glad that this was not you who was the man that was murdered in Bowie MD. The fact that you are still posting today tells me that it was not.
While I think that you are a prick I would not wish death upon you.
Father Of 4 Murdered In A Home Invasion in in $500K House In Bowie Maryland.
http://www.viddler.com/explore/ConstructiveFee/videos/891/
Tired of the bullshit.
It ain't Obama's place to be a role model. It ain't the pro sports guys to be a role model. And you damn sure can't find many role models in the hood. There the main role model is the banger, the pimp, the ho on the corner,the dealer, the crackhead, the welfare cheat, the welfare mother who can't keep her legs closed, the preacher with the Caddy's, and don't forget the no snitch rule, and you wonder why these kids act the way they do.
You should not expect the black middle class to do for the hood that which they can do for themselves. First of all, the middle class is out-numbered and out-gunned. Second, if you won't take the time to do what is necessary to clean up the hood, why should I take my time, money, and energy and piss it away on someone who doesn't appreciate it?
You will not get these single, non-working, welfare cheats to volunteer in the schools so they can see how badly their misbehaving, no respect having, foul mouthed, ignorant children behave. Oh! that describes the baby mamas also. Don't give me that shit about "Thy brother's keeper" either because organized religion is one of the largest pile of bovine fecal matter ever foisted on humans. And I don't feel in any way obligated to these people.
Face it! Those gangs are truly "URBAN TERRORISTS" and they are a clear and present danger to the welfare of these imperfect states of America and should be treated as such because until there are serious consequences and repercussions for their attitudes and actions, they are not going to change. They are not afraid of jail and you can't do anything else to them. To them, jail is three free hots and a free cot and free cable and a store and free exercise and a free graduate school of criminal education.
The real problem is the crabs in a barrel lifestyle. Too many people in too little space, too busy keeping it real to clean up the mirror and really see. No respect for themselves and no respect for others who might want to give them respect and a helping hand.
Fuck 'em.
Show that you want to change and won't tolerate the destruction of your family and your neighborhood and I'll help in any way I can. Until then KMA!
My verification word is hater.........
AB, you are either an egotist of some magnitude or deeply ashamed of something. No matter what is posted, you either have to one-up and/or let us know what gender you like to fuck. Personally, I don't give a shit how you get your jollies, but I think you need to get them more often.........
Race Traitoress:
Can you SPECIFICALLY tell me how "THE LEAST OF THESE" that you mentioned above become the "UN-least of these" one day?
While you may have reverence for Tim Wise I think that he proves to be a direct assault upon the "Black Cultural Consciousness". He feeds us the notion that REGARDLESS of how many FAVORABLE PEOPLE in in control over the KEY INSTITUTIONS THAT WE LOOK TOWARD for our civic services there is ALWAYS a grand, enveloping force around us that are THWARTING OUR EVERY MOVE.
This has a DESTRUCTIVE RESULT in the CONSCIOUSNESS of a given community that they CAN and that THEY MUST MANAGE THE HUMAN RESOURCES THAT THEY HAVE CONTROL OVER SO THAT THE FAVORABLE 'DIRECTED OUTCOMES' CAN BE HAD.
Instead Wise and others would have us doing the PERPETUAL EXTERNAL STRUGGLE against forces that have LONG MOVED THE HELL AWAY FROM that location in Chicago, SouthWestPhilly, SouthWest Atlanta and many other places that are problematic.
HE, Jonathan Kozol and several other Black & White Progressives believe that THE LEAST OF THESE are going to be "healed" as a result of change in the SYSTEM......all without EVER ASKING BLACK PEOPLE TO SEE INTRINSIC VALUE IN OUR "CHANGED STATE" and thus looking upon the people who will be the CONSUMERS OF THE TRANSFORMED STATE to be the central vehicle doing the heavy lifting toward their own salvation.
There is inherent STULTIFICATION resident in these theories that have failed our community thus far.
Again how does the LEAST OF THESE become the UN-LEAST OF THESE via the process that you propose?
Jody - though you frustrate me I am going to try and be more empathic to your view per your interactions with those who SEE no hope from where they stand.
[quote]people are howling that it will cost money. Well, how much was this boy's life worth? How much are our children's lives' worth? [/quote]
Jody WHY do you transfer the VALUE OF THIS KID'S LIFE to forces OUTSIDE of those which were seen on the STREET?
Clearly YOU want SOCIETY to bear the burden of the VALUATION of this and other people.
Jody - AREN'T ALL OF THE PEOPLE SEEN ON THE VIDEO A PART OF SOCIETY? You must not have THESE PEOPLE in mind, bearing the COST in the expression of the VALUE of this murdered kid and many like him.
What makes these people INFERIOR in their ability to express such valuation - in your mind?
[quote]
If we want this to stop, we will have to suck it up and keep our eyes on the prize, which is a changed infrastructure.... [/quote]
WE!!!!!!!!!!!
WHO IS WE - Jody?
If my wife and I want to make sure that the ELEPHANT in the zoo that we visited on Labor Day was going to be treated to a more realistic scenery of the AFRICAN TUNDRA - then WE HAD TO "SUCK IT UP" and provide a donation so that these elephants can ENJOY their new infrastructure.
All the elephants had to do was STAND THERE and CONSUME this new INFRASTRUCTURE.
WHO IS "WE" Jody?
Why doesn't the WE who are seen in the VIDEO asked to KEEP THEIR EYE'S ON THE PRIZE?
Not surprisingly that PRIZE that will be focused upon will be an attempt to CHANGE OUTSIDE FORCES to their own domain.
Of course that fact that Chicago is, at least on paper, a FAVORABLE political environment to YOU and yet this is still going on - is of no consequence to you.
WHEN WILL YOU HOLD THE LOCAL ESTABLISHMENT ACCOUNTABLE?
[quote]
and it will mean that people's security, their basic human security MUST be secured[/quote]
JODY!!!
JODY!!!
JODY!!!!
WHO IS VIOLATING THEIR SECURITY?
The Klan?
The Council of Conservative Citizens?
The Republican Party?
WHO IS IT? Please be specific - (If you listen to NPR "Tell Me More" you will hear WHO was the key THREAT to this kid's SECURITY as they merely walked through the community to catch the bus.
[quote]
, and pull yourself up by your bootstraps mentality (which anyone knows if you literally did that you would fall on your ass) MUST GO![/quote]
Jody - Which is more damning to "The Least Of These"????
1) Being told to 'PULL YOURSELF UP BY YOUR BOOT STRAPS' in an attempt to make you CONSCIOUS about the impact of your CHOICES
2) Being constantly called THE LEAST OF THESE - thus solidifying your INFERIORITY and need for EXTERNAL HELP?
Please tell me which is more damning and stultifying?
[quote]
I deal daily with the ones that are charged with crimes.... and I am constantly stunned at how far treating them with kindness and respect matters to them, more so than most adults, who often take it for granted.
What I see missing from their lives is, Hope. They do not believe in their futures.... that is devastating.[/quote]
JODY!!!!!!!!!
Do you think that their CRIME VICTIMS were TREATED WITH RESPECT by the CRIMINAL DEFENDANTS that you are working with?
You don't get it do you?
YOU see them as CONSUMERS who are constantly IN RECEIPT of YOUR GRACE that you hand out.
JODY - WHAT DO YOU ASK OF THEM - as civilized and EQUAL human beings?
Do YOU see them as EQUAL human beings Jody?
Can they bear the same burdens and responsibility to MAKE THIS SOCIETY A BETTER PLACE - just as YOU shoulder Jody?
JESUS!!! I need a drink. She just deflated the HOPE out of me.
hey Anon 11:04 PM-
any chance you could suggest bm pull their pants up and stop becoming the racist stereotype of mindless, depraved, sexual beasts one would need to be to continue to father children with women unworthy/desirable for marriage that they have no intention of providing for nor protecting?
i mean, you already suggested that bw are on welfare and incapable of keeping their legs closed hence the cause of the carnage we see. you addressed the ill educated baby mamas and hos... or? were bm addressed when you spoke of pimps? wt...
thanks.
slacklying
dregslug
li/kola
misc. assnons...
and all of the other haters herein:
i love how you always attack gays/get vulgar....and then as soon as i slay you...you feign innocence and nobility...
it is so tired and so transparent!
you claim gays are being "vindictive" when we refuse to let you blame us for your own sins in silence
you blame me for dragging gays into this debate when it was warren g who did so...i refused to be silent as he did so...so you blamed me for his het homohating bs
you drag your own twisted and envious fantasies about what you imagine to be my sex life as a constant tangent in all frays...
you are weak, envious, insane, unfair, ignorant, amoral, illiterate, dishonest, transparent, weak, trifling...
but most of all
you are perpetually slain by all truel warriors like me
and that is really your only problem
get used to me
deal with that
it will ALWAYS be the case herein
and anywhere else i run up on you or any other morons who look like you!!!
assnon:
i see a lot of people one upping and speaking of spouses and lovers and lusts herein and on every blog...ever!
even fn speaks of his wife and lark often
so why are you selectively annoyed by me?
and does that not reveal more about you and your actual celibacy than your lying about me???...
_____
slacklying:
i would never brag about my lack of a vocabulary and my ignorance of punctuation...especially simultaneously as you do.
you ignant insecure illiterate gaybashing fool worm!!!
Thank you for this... so worth it to wait for your insight and experience on what lately seems to be a permanent crisis for too many black children.
I think the last 8 years of decadence and unseriousness has been damaging to all Americans but truly damaging to POC. We are paying the price for some regressive thinking and policies.
I understand how pop culture (esp hip hop) is getting the lion's share of attention for the nihilism masquerading as normal that we call contemporary American life, but it can't only be that. Because last time I checked hip hop didn't exist when Roman Polanski decided that drugging a 13 year old with a Quaalude was his idea of fun.
And hip hop didn't exist when Charles Manson and his band of murderous loons decided that killing a house full of people would start a race war.
We have always had the capacity for cruelty.
The difference now is that we can record it via cell phones. (An aside: should the person taping the beating used it to call the cops first?)
What needs to happen is to acknowledge that families from the hollers of West Virginia to the South Side of Chicago to Dunbar Village in Florida need round the clock teams of nutritionists, tutors, life coaches, tutors, personal trainers, therapists.
Not social workers who drop in but people who are a constant presence --- teaching parents how to be parents and letting children be children again.
Crazy idea, right?
Well something has to be done because we are already living with the crazy idea that it's normal for kids to beat someone to death.
I think the last 8 years of decadence and unseriousness has been damaging to all Americans but truly damaging to POC. We are paying the price for some regressive thinking and policies.
Blaming the rampant self-destructive mayhem in the ghetto on "the last 8 years" is about as unserious as unserious ever gets. This is not whitey's fault. Black people are slaughtering each other and it's been getting worse and worse for 40 years. Wake the fuck up.
[quote]Blaming the rampant self-destructive mayhem in the ghetto on "the last 8 years" is about as unserious as unserious ever gets. This is not whitey's fault. Black people are slaughtering each other and it's been getting worse and worse for 40 years. Wake the fuck up.[/quote]
C - you are spot on.
The way I see it - They have what is like a drug addiction.
When faced with the painful truth THEY NEED TO LASH OUT at something as a means of expressing their pain.
I read through every one of the posts above and was amazed that only a few of the "usual suspects" made this into a POLITICAL situation. These are the ones that can't help themselves.
(No offense) But then I notice that 2 people who are I to be White females on this board (which I responded to above) made the problem with the Black kids that were fighting on the street a matter of THE SYSTEM and how THE SYSTEM made them that way. This kids being THE LEAST OF THESE. (I want to SLAP everyone who makes use of this ignorant term - including Black Civil Rights leaders who still use it today). Why not just call us "boy" and "auntie"?
WHEN CONFRONTED WITH THE REAL WORLD DELIVERY OF THAT WHICH THIS COMMUNITY HAS CONSTRUCTED - SOME PEOPLE DON'T LIKE WHAT THEY SEE AND ARE IN DENIAL.
If these kids were a maximum of 19 years old then they were BORN IN 1990 or there about. Indeed there was a strong Klan presence in Chicago during their lives. (Sarcasm).
Not to get political but to DISMISS the notion that politicization is the CURE do you all realize that the City of Chicago
* Has 49 of 50 Aldermen as Democrats
* A Democratic mayor
* A Democratic Controlled State House
* A Democratic Controlled State Senate
* 2 Democratic US Senators
* Every US Rep from Chicagoland is a Democrat
* THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES COMES FROM CHICAGO AND IS A DEMOCRAT!!!!!
IF POLITICS WERE THE SOLUTION TO THE SPECIFIC PROBLEMS SEEN IN CHICAGO.......WHAT BETTER LABORATORY TO PROVE THAT THIS IS THE CASE???????
Instead this favorable (to most of you) alignment and yet:
* Still there are massive problems
* Still SOME blame it on the other guy!!
* STILL wage an EXTERNAL FIGHT for Progressive change.
The truth is as you left your positions INSIDE of the fort to fight the EXTERNAL FIGHT AGAINST YOUR FAVORITE ENEMIES the results that you see today is quite telling of the consequences of such abandonment of your INTERNAL OBLIGATIONS.
The Black community of 2009 has a HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT PROBLEM.
The specific knowledge of how to nurture a newborn so that he is properly positioned at the starting line of his independent life. Inculcated as a youth through school and the community so that he will be both given a PURPOSE and then prepared with the mental tools while he is within the nest that the ADULTS must maintain. And finally as an adult himself he has assumed a productive role WITHIN the community - spending more time BUILDING UP WITHIN than on fighting a battle with old ghosts of the past or working with OUTSIDE FORCES so that they might one day RAIN DOWN EXTERNAL RESOURCES that will wash the film of ignorance that has built up upon our people.
People like Tim Wise confuse what is an UNWILLINGNESS of others to yield what they have built up (regardless of the honor or skulduggery that was used to accumulate it) with the ABSENCE OF THE FORCES OF TRANSFORMATION within the Black community that make maximum use of the one thing that WE DO CONTROL IN 2009 because the MASTER IS DEAD and can no longer steal this resource from us: OUR OWN HUMAN RESOURCES RESOURCES that we produce via our own genetic material!!!!
Our community will only MANAGE our way out of this situation by focusing upon MANAGING these human resources. Jody sees this management as one of external resources from the OUTSIDE society.
I see this management of resources as first ALIGNING THESE SAME PEOPLE with their own PERMANENT INTERESTS and then having all else fall into place.
Since only 12% of the entire world live in "Industrialized Nation and this is only a bit over 1 billion people - I contend that the other 5 billion people who CAN'T VOTE ON THEIR STANDARD OF LIVING will see no benefit in Jody's methodology.
What better place to build up a more ORGANIC (non-dependent) culture for the transformation of people than in these UNITED STATES where so many of the basics are taken care of? Then with a model is constructed, fortified and then cast into the CULTURE that is communicated to subsequent generations - it CAN BE TRANSPORTED to other lands and recreated. The wealth of the central government being IRRELEVANT because this is not what is looked toward for development.
ps:
li/kola et al:
FURTHER proof of your gaybashing hatred that blurs your grossly flawed vision herein is that i was NOT the first one to bring gays into this debate!!!
the black churches' fatal distractions from ridding young black corpses/assisting with the doom is PRIMARILY DUE to their SINGULAR amoral obsession with hating/harping gays...
YOU CHOSE TO BLATANTLY LIE AS YOU FALSELY ACCUSED ME OF INTERJECTING GAYS!!!
as if i did so initially
as if it was not indeed relevant
____
as if warren g is not an equally ERRONEOUS and ruthless gaybashing moron just as you are!!!
again haters:
you are inept gaybashing unofficial blog police herein
i get that
and i will continue to slay and ignore you...
Constructive Feedback
"Father Of 4 Murdered In A Home Invasion in in $500K House In Bowie Maryland.
http://www.viddler.com/explore/ConstructiveFee/videos/891"
What is your point?
Shall we list all the home invasions in affluent neighborhoods throughout America?
And PG county police believe that this was an inside job. The people who invaded this man's home either knew him personally or worked with him.
Yo CF, a white guy in Mt. Airy, MD killed his entire family and then himself about the same time of the home invasion.
I'm sure that won't change your adoring view of white folks though.
What a clown.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/26/AR2009092602514.html
AB must have been saving ghetto souls while blogging all night.
"Blaming the rampant self-destructive mayhem in the ghetto on "the last 8 years" is about as unserious as unserious ever gets. This is not whitey's fault. Black people are slaughtering each other and it's been getting worse and worse for 40 years. Wake the fuck up."
BULL$HIT
There was more violent crime in America and in the urban ghetto 30 years ago than there is today.
us:
your repuslive and failed stab at saracasm is redundant
you do not have to make jokes about your apathy for ghetto dwellers' souls herein...
especially since you are so clearly and proudly devoid of a soul yourself
i do take great pride in the noble work i do...day and night
thanks for noticing!
30 year old stats will save no souls today...fyi
A recent post at "Sociological Images" covers some of these topics. There's a short and sweet history of the rise of gang violence:
http://contexts.org/socimages/2009/09/30/tickle-me-elmo-and-the-gangster-meme/
assnon:
"ashamed"
????
the only thing i find shameful is your miserable attempt to say something intelligent in your psychotic, cowardly, and deeply confusing rant...
you sound like a self-loathing closeted gay in heat... and on prozac...
fix both asap!!
"30 year old stats will save no souls today...fyi"
That's not the point AB and you and that pathetic buckdancing fraud CF know it.
You two have been bleating "the sky is falling on black America" and it's a lie.
It's the coonservative rendition of the white rightie (Trent Lott)refrain that "all these problems" happened after the Civil Rights movement.
Dummy, you had ghettoes and gang warfare in NYC and Philly, two cities I am very familiar with, back in the 1950s!!!!!!!
The problem is that for the last 3 generations in the inner city there has been no upward mobility.
Stagnation and perpetuating dysfunction.
At the same time you have had an exploding and expanding black middle and upper class which you self-hating Toms refuse to acknowledge because that fact blows your Chicken Little" bull$hit right out of the water.
And so I'll ask for the 4TH TIME, since internet heroes like you and CF are sooooooooooo concerned about what's happening to black folks in the 'hood, WHAT ARE YOU DOING ABOUT IT????????
us:
you are late and lame
but more than anything you are a blind elitist
the middle classes of all races are being swiflty eradicated globally
poor youth are less educated and more impoverished/incarcerated than ever
and you are screaming that we should all ignore it because you have a nice home and educated pals?????
and then you dare to question what we do as you encourage us to ignore all that ails and dooms our race???
do you send such insane email to bill cosby or mike dyson too????
us:
THE SKY FELL LONG AGO
YOU ARE BLINDED BY GROUNDED WHITE CLOUDS OF DELUSION!!!
your blissful life is not the NORM!!!!
america is not utopia!!!!
there are way more ghettos and trailer parks in america than gated communities!!!
and unlike u
and the wise people behind the gates know they may be ejected anyday!!!!
visit a ghetto and wake up!!!!!
In a nation in which fairness was respected, children of the poorest and least educated mothers would receive the most expensive and most costly pre-school preparation, not the least and cheapest, because children in these families need it so much more than those whose educated parents can deliver the same benefits of early learning to them in their home.
The inequities in educational provisions that we give, or do not give, these children from the starting gate are given less attention
Certain people tell us that we are picking on the poor. Many of those who accuse us are scholars and intellectuals, upset that we are not blaming everything on white people as they do. Well, blaming only the system keeps certain black people in the limelight, but it also keeps the black poor wallowing in victimhood.
A mother can usually teach a daughter how to be a woman. But as much as mothers love their sons, they have difficulty showing a son how to be a man. A successful man can channel his natural aggression. Without that discipline, these sons often get into trouble at school because many teachers find it difficult to manage their "acting out" behavior. If you think we're exaggerating, talk to a teacher.
One advantage that African-American kids have over most people in the world is the ability to speak English. It's the international language of business. To be a success anywhere on the globe, you have to speak it. But we're letting this advantage slip away too. Many of our kids don't want to speak English. In our day, we used to talk a certain way on the corner, but when we got into the house, we switched to EnglishWe used to blame the kids for talking this way until we heard some of their parents. Some black parents couldn't care less
[The elites] are buying things for their kids $500 sneakers for what And wont spend $200 for Hooked on Phonics!
The lower economic people are not holding up their end in this deal. These people are not parenting.
zb:
ditto
but
toxic single parenting =
"poverty
no education
apathy
desensitization
&
loveless community"
so i still say that turbo breeding is the root of all ills...
i mistakently deleted it.
we cannot blame the media.
we cannot blame hip hop.
we cannot blame single black mothers.
we can not blame white folk.
the root is poverty.
the root is education.
the root is a loveless community.
the root is being desensitized to what plagues our community.
we cannot rely on our president or mayors. or any other capitalist structure. they were never meant to protect us. did we even have demands?
obama - power of policy
oprah - power of various mediums.
lets see how 'our own' deal with what is in their backyard.
we have to stop thinking as victims and blaming others. even though we are oppressed we can't be complacent. we must be constructive & reject with pseduo black/poc leadership.
peace&progress
z.bediako
some of y'all are on some serious Moynihan report type bs. blaming the black family & all.
please read patricia hill collins critique of this ridiculous report.
-
also a good read is
Connecting Social Problems in Popular Culture: Why Media is NOT the answer
by Karen Sternheimer
"the root is poverty.
the root is education.
the root is a loveless community.
the root is being desensitized to what plagues our community."
Thank you.
Why is the community loveless? Why was it not similarly loveless during much worse decades like the 20's, 30's, 40's etc. ?
Because idiot,
Prior to WWII the majority of black America lived in the rural South.
Southern blacks were the last great migration into the rust belt and the industrial urban centers.
And just about that time was when the industrial was fading, and low skill factory jobs where an uneducated man can earn enough to support a family.
Leaving the inner cities with large swaths of poverty and unemployment.
Also about the same time the US government financed white flight to the suburbs.
anon:
a lot of it is that misogyny and illiteracy and amorality are all worse than ever
you can hear the hatred between the generations in their music...see it in their videos etc
u hear it in the ruthless slang they use to refer to each other:
"baby mama" drama/pre-nubs/buggaboos/jump offs etc"
there is so much loveless hatred even within families
many babies tell teachers daily things like "3 of my sisters/bros are so lucky...they have their own daddy etc"
they idolize celebs who are also unwed turbo breeders who abuse women like lil wayne/chris brown/rae caruth...
these turbo breeders even despise their mates...they breed babies with men they hate and then pass that hatred onto them...
see more here:
Clearly, gender wars are bloodier than ever. There is a hatred between heterosexual men and women that is tangible in every arena. The intensity of such hatred was epitomized by 26 year old Rae Caruth’s murder of a pregnant 24 year old acquaintance, Cherica Adams. Cherica is most accurately referred to as his expectant “baby mama”. This unique hatred has spawned its own vocabulary. Baby mama is a common noun used to describe an emotionally detached incubator that is unloved and uncommitted. Baby daddy describes a biological sperm donor that is rarely a father. It is profound that both terms seem to be deliberately incorrect grammatically. They imply no formal possession. Even a mere apostrophe s is forbidden as an implicit suggestion of any iota of ownership or attachment
tupac was a prophet:
"we'll have a race of babies who'll hate the ladies"
that has come to pass
and girls are hated and abused even more than women
shame!
http://www.geocities.com/ambwww/rcaruth.htm
ps:
the fallout of this lovelessness also fuels homohatred as the gaybashers herein display daily...
things are so hateful between hets that many hate gays simply because they envy our alternative
they are so blinded by hatred they assume are gay relos are easier/better...all human relos are equally hard and flawed
so their twisted envy is just one more unfair reason they hate gays
ie
rabid fertile whores in the nfl/nba like lebron james/tim hardaway etc... bash and torture closeted gay peers because they do not have to fret over child support etc....
us:
wha??????
racism and genocide are not restricted to any single region of the usa!
and us:
many would credibly argue that racism in nyc is worse than ms.!
today
more blacks are executed by police in the north than lynched by kkk in the south!
Uptown Asshole,
"Also about the same time the US government financed white flight to the suburbs."
Whites were leaving areas with large numbers of black before "white flight" was even coined. That was going to happen no matter what. Secondly, most of the manufacturing jobs were not open to blacks except at the absolute lowest level. For example, there were not large numbers of blacks in the steel industry until about a decade before it bottomed out. Widespread poverty has been present in the black community to much higher degree then the present time (think Reconstruction) however, the family structure did not collapse like it has now.
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