Quote:
Originally Posted by obx!
People like to say about all the drugs in black communities well the white man brings in the drugs. Ok well maybe so, but nobody is forcing black men to sell them. We as a people, we as black men need to stop with the excuses, start taking responsibility and accountability and take back control of our communities. When you have generation after generation of black folk raised by single mothers you get this world star hip hop generation.
Until you have mass demonstrations in black communities to say no more black on black violence then all this stuff fall on deaf ears because at the end of the day if just highlights black hypocrisy. They can come together and get angry when a white man kills a black man but when it's a 1000 black on black deaths a week no one gives a shit.
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There are some tough messages that people need to not only hear, but act upon as well. That is, if there is ever any hope for true reconciliation. This is true for both black AND white people. Black people need to acknowledge the truth in what you're saying. And white people need to stop denying their racism and the damage that it has done, and continues to do even to this day. I heard about the same recent hate crimes report that the man referred to. White people commit the majority of hate crimes in this country, and they direct the majority of that racial hatred towards blacks. That's what the facts show. But, we all already knew that. The report is confirmation.
Until people (black and white) are ready to abandon the hypocrisy and stop the denials, progress will continue to be painful to achieve. People in this country don't want to talk openly and honestly about race, whether that's looking inward at themselves, or outward towards other people. So, in this way we avoid the hurtful truths. If we finally do start to talk about race, then we want to tip-toe around the subject. Then when people decide to become more direct, people become angry and start talking past one another to where nobody can hear what the other one is saying. But, this is why I use the handle that I do on this site. I want to provoke an emotion. In both blacks and whites and whoever is here. Not merely to push somebody's buttons. But to get people to
think. Why are we
really all here in this place together?
The best thing that black people can do right now is stop killing each other and take personal responsibility for improving their own communities on all fronts. That starts with each individual person. The power of one. And the best thing that white people can do right now to foster open and honest dialogue is to acknowledge white racism. Stop denying that it exists and stop saying that there is no racism and everything is equal. We're all intelligent enough to know that's not true. "Separate but equal" has already been tried and was thrown out with Brown v. The Board of Education. And we're not going back to that lie.
And the other thing that white people need to understand and accept is that you can't enslave, disenfranchise, and otherwise discriminate against a people for several centuries and then expect that when the shooting stops in 1865 (the Civil War) or when the law is changed in 1964 with the Civil Rights Act (enforced rather since Jim Crow was never legit) , that all of a sudden these people as a whole are going to be fine, upstanding citizens who contribute positively to the community. Most of them had nothing but poverty. Not even hope. And the cycle of poverty and a lack of education are very, very, very hard things to break from generation to generation. That's true for a number of reasons, including maybe the truth that "Mr. Charlie" did hold you and your family back.
I graduated from universities in the South that as a matter of law weren't open to blacks to attend until my lifetime. Think about that people. Really think about that. I'm not that old. In the span of human history, that wasn't that long ago. A blip in time. Nobody should be expecting everything to be on an equal plane between black and white just because the shooting stopped and blacks were finally granted their civil rights under the law a mere 50 years ago. There simply hasn't been enough time to allow blacks to catch up.
The bottom line is that black people need to start taking control of those things that they have control over. If you detest the killing of black men, then stop killing black men yourselves. Stop selling drugs in your own neighborhoods. Get involved in local governance. And instill within your children the importance of education. And white people need to acknowledge the depth and continued damaging effects of white racism. I know that is very difficult to do because it says something very ugly about the white race. But it's extremely important because white people still have overwhelming control of the most important institutions in this country. I don't see that changing anytime soon. And whatever you do, don't say that racism doesn't exist because it doesn't happen to you! Or you don't see it. That goes to the very heart of what prejudice and discrimination is all about. Something is happening to somebody that isn't happening to somebody else.
Until both races can openly and honestly acknowledge their faults and failures to the other, there can be no sustained open and honest beneficial dialogue between the two. We will continue to have the status quo. A lot of static that grudgingly and painfully moves along a continuum towards progress. Sometimes feeling like a step forward, and then two steps back.