I was watching a video clip on Facebook where an African American woman was talking about white privilege. She was brow beating a white, Jewish male trying to get him to agree with what has taken off as the new buzz word regarding African Americans in America—white-privilege. The male tried to get in some words during the eight person group discussion, but the woman talked over him and pretty much only let him say what she agreed with.
The woman seemed straight out of academia and was cold, smug and seemingly, like she had stumbled on the Holy Grail in helping African Americans with their problems in America which was all about dealing with the white privilege phenomenon. The discussion never left white privilege and I didn’t hear any other topic brought up that might help African Americans. The woman seemed to want the people on the panel to agree with her and acknowledge that blacks are screwed—that there’s no real way for them to succeed without ugly white Americans acknowledging it and doing all kinds of special things to make sure that they have an easier way to succeed.
Honestly, I hear more white people talk about white privilege than black people. It’s one of the new mantras for the Far-Left. Well, what about white privilege? Of course there’s white privilege. White America has been the power base since its founding. The power has the privilege. Years ago Irish didn’t get jobs because Poles or English had the power and literally there were signs out and about that said, ‘Irish need not apply for jobs.’ The same thing happened to Italians and they had several generations of struggle before things started going easier for them. The main difference with African Americans is that they have a markedly different color and where Irish and Italians could blend in easier with other white colored peoples in power, blacks stand out and are more of a reminder to some in the power base that they are different than ‘them’.
It’s life. It has been life since the beginning of time. Being different than those holding more power can be a chore. However, African Americans have more problems than dealing with the white power base to help themselves. In fact, as you’ll see later in the article African Americans are doing worse in areas now then when racism was much worse and even legal in America. According to a 2011 Federal Census Bureau statistics, black children growing up in single family homes was 67%. Whites were 25% and Asian Americans were at 17%. And there are a host of studies that show kids growing up in single family homes having a much harder time getting their lives together than those with two caretakers. And there are some standout studies that show a father missing in the home can cause a host of problems in male child rearing as well. Can a single mom, or dad, or grandparent raising children or boys work out well? You bet it can and often does but the fact of the matter is that it is much harder and not every caretaker can do it well. Most cannot.
And what happens when kids don’t have that parental direction? Youth violence. And youth violence turns into young adult violence. Bureau of Justice statistics show that African Americans are about 13% of the population yet from 1980 to 2008 committed 52% of the homicides. Bureau of Justice Statistics also show that in 2009, ‘Blacks were charged with 62 percent of robberies, 57 percent of murders and 45 percent of assaults in the 75 biggest counties in the country, despite only comprising roughly 15 percent of the population in these counties.’ And according to famed African American economist Thomas Sowell, “Black poverty was far worse, and white racism was far worse, prior to 1960. But violent crime within black ghettos was far less.” Moreover, according to author Dean Kalahar in his article, The Decline of The African-America Family, “Prior to the 1960’s the unemployment rate for black 16 and 17-year olds was under 10 percent.” In 2015, according to The Bureau of Labor Statistics, unemployment for black youth is 19.2%. And according to the author of “War on Cops”, Heather Mac Donald, “A straight line can be drawn between family breakdown and youth violence.” And with youth violence comes the lack of concentration on schoolwork, mass incarceration and the lack of mature people growing up to help their own communities.
White privilege occurs. It’s real. However, it’s not the main problem the African American community is dealing with.
Some white people and talking-heads from academia ought to offer real solutions that can help communities and people grow, not find the latest soup du jour in helping themselves feel better or worse yet, distract against the very real issues the African American community must deal with. African Americans have great talents and abilities and have helped America be what she is today in areas such as music, athletics and leadership just to mention a few. Real solutions need to be found to help stop so many of them who are slipping steadily into a morass of quicksand that will continue to lead to poverty, distrust, prison and death.
Steve’s latest book: http://tinyurl.com/zcbkkyy
Steve's a three-time survivor of violence in his youth, a former police supervisor and a graduate of The Police Executive Leadership College (PELC) and was also an award winning part-time college Criminal Justice instructor.
For several years, Steve did written and radio political and current event commentary and was the former host of the long running 'The Kovacs Perspective' Internet radio and TV talk show.
Steve presently owns a small businesses in Ohio--The Mayfield Academy of Self-Defense.
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