I recently read about the program in Richmond CA - a high gang & violence area where the young gang members were enrolled in a program that PAID them to attend meetings, attend school and not engage in criminal activity.
For nominal amounts of $ the young men shifted their life focus to engage in positive behavior and move into support rather than destruction for their neighborhood!
I would urge mayors and other city officials to review and move ahead with the Richmond CA model.
As horrific are the forces weighing upon the neighborhoods, this is a small step in remediation.
For nominal amounts of $ the young men shifted their life focus to engage in positive behavior and move into support rather than destruction for their neighborhood!
I would urge mayors and other city officials to review and move ahead with the Richmond CA model.
As horrific are the forces weighing upon the neighborhoods, this is a small step in remediation.
13
"Concentrated poverty is a direct result of structural inequity, and that concentrated poverty is attended by hopelessness and desperation, all of which are a prime breeding ground for violence."
The above is the best Mr. Blow will allow in commentating on the black on black murder rate which far surpasses anything perpetrated by lone white deranged killers like Dylan Roof.
In other words, when a lone deranged white person kills balcks, it is time for a national debate on the morality of the Confederate flag, and its banning from public forums becuase it will "end the pain."
But when blacks murder other blacks, in joust one city on one weekend, in a number exceeding that of the 'worst racial crime" in recent memory in S.C., then those murders are not attributable to individual white racism, but to "institutional racism," blacks apparently have little or no individual responsibility for the murder of each other, or even of seven year children.
But I have an idea. Since the weekly uptick in urban murder and mayhem is not the fault of the residents themselves, but attributable solely to the racism of white institutions which created "concentrated pockets of poverty" from which no one escapes, in part because the public libraries also notoriously prohibit minorities from entering and studying , how about I get my money back for all the extra taxes paid for failed Great Society programs?
I do not want my tax money associated in anyway with "institutional white racism."
The above is the best Mr. Blow will allow in commentating on the black on black murder rate which far surpasses anything perpetrated by lone white deranged killers like Dylan Roof.
In other words, when a lone deranged white person kills balcks, it is time for a national debate on the morality of the Confederate flag, and its banning from public forums becuase it will "end the pain."
But when blacks murder other blacks, in joust one city on one weekend, in a number exceeding that of the 'worst racial crime" in recent memory in S.C., then those murders are not attributable to individual white racism, but to "institutional racism," blacks apparently have little or no individual responsibility for the murder of each other, or even of seven year children.
But I have an idea. Since the weekly uptick in urban murder and mayhem is not the fault of the residents themselves, but attributable solely to the racism of white institutions which created "concentrated pockets of poverty" from which no one escapes, in part because the public libraries also notoriously prohibit minorities from entering and studying , how about I get my money back for all the extra taxes paid for failed Great Society programs?
I do not want my tax money associated in anyway with "institutional white racism."
23
A question that the black community needs to answer is whether black lives taken by other blacks matter, or if that only applies to lives taken by police? Yes, it is outrageous when police kill someone needlessly. But where is the outrage, where are the organized protests, the street marches, when black criminals kill black people? Whites can, more than likely, influence police activity for the better. But the violence in black communities, black neighborhoods, on black streets is something that the black community is going to have to each change, or live and die with. That's a sad situation but waiting for someone outside the community to fix it is going to work about as well in the future as it has in the past.
25
BLACKS MUST TAKE CONTROL OF THEIR LIVES AS WELL . . .
No matter the history of slavery and Jim Crow and the fact that most heterogeneous societies do evidence some forms of prejudice ... African-Americans must change their cultural values. In both Baltimore and Chicago this past July 4th weekend a record number of black on black shootings and killings were committed.
Yes, the U. S. has a gun problem but blacks must take charge. And. the fact that Bill Cosby is alleged to have raped X women does not make his comments on cultural values wrong.
No matter the history of slavery and Jim Crow and the fact that most heterogeneous societies do evidence some forms of prejudice ... African-Americans must change their cultural values. In both Baltimore and Chicago this past July 4th weekend a record number of black on black shootings and killings were committed.
Yes, the U. S. has a gun problem but blacks must take charge. And. the fact that Bill Cosby is alleged to have raped X women does not make his comments on cultural values wrong.
22
When following the Black experience from slavery to now, it is a miracle so many escaped socialized oppression to be doing well. So many racial policies (from local to our national government) dehumanized Blacks as subhuman and their lives did not matter. And through "Red Lining" Blacks were forced to live in depressed areas because they were not allowed to live in White areas.
Then when you add in dense populations, no jobs, and poor schools with liquor stores, drugs and guns easily available, carnage is the results. This did not just happen, this was done by design.
There is a solution, but because of the cost to improve the school, to train and retrain those living there to get jobs, the tearing down of old building and creating a positive attitude replacing the hopelessness, has stopped major cities from trying to do anything.
Every life matters...this includes Black lives. Racism is the killer not to mention guns.
Then when you add in dense populations, no jobs, and poor schools with liquor stores, drugs and guns easily available, carnage is the results. This did not just happen, this was done by design.
There is a solution, but because of the cost to improve the school, to train and retrain those living there to get jobs, the tearing down of old building and creating a positive attitude replacing the hopelessness, has stopped major cities from trying to do anything.
Every life matters...this includes Black lives. Racism is the killer not to mention guns.
5
Let's change the slogan to "black lives only matter when taken by a white policeman in self defense." Black lives do not matter when taken by other blacks
23
"You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. "
-Dr. Suess
-Dr. Suess
25
"People didn’t simply wake up one day with a burning desire to live in the poorest, most violent parts of our cities. Generations of discriminatory housing, banking and employment practices created those powder kegs."
I suppose we are to believe that "Generations of discriminatory housing, banking and employment practices" forced guns and drugs into the hands of children, convinced them that although millions are being pumped into urban school districts they should "hang-out" and not attend school. Absolutely no responsibility for their own welfare, is that what we, all Americans regardless of race, are supposed to believe?
I suppose we are to believe that "Generations of discriminatory housing, banking and employment practices" forced guns and drugs into the hands of children, convinced them that although millions are being pumped into urban school districts they should "hang-out" and not attend school. Absolutely no responsibility for their own welfare, is that what we, all Americans regardless of race, are supposed to believe?
27
If they've identified 6% of the population as being involved in 70% of murders, then that's the place to start, and I don't mean just throwing the 6% in jail forever. Turn those people around, with a combination of measures (including incarceration) that develops their hope for the future, and you might also develop some community leaders that help with the paradigm shift.
6
Why are you deleting comments that disagree with your point of view? Is this allowing for an open and honest "conversation"?
26
Keep up the good work, Charles. As long as conservatives refuse to connect poverty and crime to the economy we have a heart-breaking hill to climb. And it's not just the waste of so many black lives. It's also the waste of so many white lives that sacrificed to propaganda and political expediency.
America has such potential, yet we're still fighting the specters of the past.
America has such potential, yet we're still fighting the specters of the past.
3
We can solve these problems. It is just that we current lack the political will and the popular consensus to do so.
We know, for example, that one of the biggest mistakes of the post WW II era was building huge housing developments and dumping poor people into them, concentrating those who have not found a way up for themselves and subjecting everyone to crime and exploitation. Instead, housing vouchers or other similar programs work much better. Here in Montgomery County, Md., lower income housing is built alongside full price, market rate units. It seems to be working fine, with few complaints.
We know now that people are likely to become more successful by living around successful people (a big surprise?). So, there is an effort to assist people in moving to wealthier zip code areas, not in vast numbers, but enough so that many get to share in the ordinary "secrets", like social contacts, associated with rising.
We also know that our society creates new expansions of poverty by arresting and jailing so many people, the most in the world. Long jail terms rip apart families and destroy the earning potential of males. We have constructed money grabbing draconian systems, like Ferguson, Mo., where people become trapped in paying for petty violations, fines for not paying fines, to the point where they can't safely leave the houses, debtor prison for minor violations.
There is a lot more than can be done. Our knowledge improves steadily. We just need to decide to do it.
We know, for example, that one of the biggest mistakes of the post WW II era was building huge housing developments and dumping poor people into them, concentrating those who have not found a way up for themselves and subjecting everyone to crime and exploitation. Instead, housing vouchers or other similar programs work much better. Here in Montgomery County, Md., lower income housing is built alongside full price, market rate units. It seems to be working fine, with few complaints.
We know now that people are likely to become more successful by living around successful people (a big surprise?). So, there is an effort to assist people in moving to wealthier zip code areas, not in vast numbers, but enough so that many get to share in the ordinary "secrets", like social contacts, associated with rising.
We also know that our society creates new expansions of poverty by arresting and jailing so many people, the most in the world. Long jail terms rip apart families and destroy the earning potential of males. We have constructed money grabbing draconian systems, like Ferguson, Mo., where people become trapped in paying for petty violations, fines for not paying fines, to the point where they can't safely leave the houses, debtor prison for minor violations.
There is a lot more than can be done. Our knowledge improves steadily. We just need to decide to do it.
9
We have the statistics. We all know the causes and effects. We all know how it ends. We have the solutions and means. But all we do not have is the WILL to do right by our brothers and sisters.
3
If it is poverty and desperation, then what is the comparable homicide rate in poor hispanic or white or asian communities? One would expect similar levels of violence, considering that those communities, like the black ones, Mr. Blow describes, are isolated from the larger and surrounding mainstream.
If those communities indeed have comparable levels of violence then Mr. Blows analysis makes sense. If violence in poor Hispanic, Asian and white communities is markedly lower, than perhaps cultural reasons , not racism, do play a role. Every once in a while it would seem that first we should try to figure out if the reason for social ills are within a community, before calling society at large the culprit. An example: attitudes to educational achievement between black and Ssian communities are markedly different, which almost certainly has a cultural explanation.
If those communities indeed have comparable levels of violence then Mr. Blows analysis makes sense. If violence in poor Hispanic, Asian and white communities is markedly lower, than perhaps cultural reasons , not racism, do play a role. Every once in a while it would seem that first we should try to figure out if the reason for social ills are within a community, before calling society at large the culprit. An example: attitudes to educational achievement between black and Ssian communities are markedly different, which almost certainly has a cultural explanation.
20
"People didn’t simply wake up one day with a burning desire to live in the poorest, most violent parts of our cities. Generations of discriminatory housing, banking and employment practices created those powder kegs. "
Our neighborhood became one of the most violent parts of Detroit. It took one generation to turn to that. As it occurred residents raised concerns about the increase and crime and violence. However progressive Democratic party leaders told us we were just "afraid if the unknown" or "were afraid of losing control". Things became worse and we were accused of wanting Detroit to fail solely because the leadership was African-American. In the meantime most white liberals had moved out. When my family finally moved out the people who remained would say "see what white flight caused". And on and on it goes...
Our neighborhood became one of the most violent parts of Detroit. It took one generation to turn to that. As it occurred residents raised concerns about the increase and crime and violence. However progressive Democratic party leaders told us we were just "afraid if the unknown" or "were afraid of losing control". Things became worse and we were accused of wanting Detroit to fail solely because the leadership was African-American. In the meantime most white liberals had moved out. When my family finally moved out the people who remained would say "see what white flight caused". And on and on it goes...
29
Nothing can be done without jobs -- unskilled jobs, like factory jobs or loading and unloading trucks. Without jobs things will only get worse - -for blacks, browns, and whites.
7
"Nothing can be done without jobs -- unskilled jobs,"
Pretty soon there will be no more "unskilled jobs" due to the continuing advance of automation.
Pretty soon there will be no more "unskilled jobs" due to the continuing advance of automation.
6
It's the same Blow mantra- blame everyone and anyone, the society, the culture, the economic system, blame, blame, everyone and everything except the individual who makes a choice to be violent.
No more excuses Mr. Blow.
No more excuses Mr. Blow.
36
I used to think CB was well intentioned by misguided. I stick with misguided, but well intentioned? Who is helped by his constant rants that everything that happens to Blacks is the result of racism? Anyone? Basically, this is a tired construct that race hustlers like Al Sharpton have made careers from. It is unfortunate that CB is following Sharpton's tactics.
Abnegation of responsibility does nothing for the future. The constant harangue of racism does nothing for the future -- all it does is provide an excuse. Maybe an excuse with some truth but an excuse nonetheless. Removing flags, demonstrations, all that won't change the day to day lives of Blacks in impoverished neighborhoods. Only everyone working together,Blacks and Whites, to make things work will. And CB's rants don't do that -- he just throws cherry picked truths and half logical statements around interspersed with diatribes about White racism -- alienating Whites and Blacks alike.
Excuses don't build a future.
Abnegation of responsibility does nothing for the future. The constant harangue of racism does nothing for the future -- all it does is provide an excuse. Maybe an excuse with some truth but an excuse nonetheless. Removing flags, demonstrations, all that won't change the day to day lives of Blacks in impoverished neighborhoods. Only everyone working together,Blacks and Whites, to make things work will. And CB's rants don't do that -- he just throws cherry picked truths and half logical statements around interspersed with diatribes about White racism -- alienating Whites and Blacks alike.
Excuses don't build a future.
32
"... 6% already had some contact with the criminal justice or public health systems." There is so much truth here. Those 6% are people that are failed by the system because many county or state workers are "comfortable" in their position therefore they do the bare minimum to pass this case along and get it off their desk before 5. This 6% has marinated in the idea that their lives are worthless. They are worth nothing more than the aid that they are counted for on the county paperwork. Essentially they are taught that they will be in the system, this is their life and there is nothing more. Why do better when there is nothing more out there for you. People who are passing judgement did not grow up with this mentality. "When he pulls a gun, you can't pull a resume." When you are staring at someone in the face that does not value your life, your credentials mean absolutely nothing. In these poor neighborhoods it is about surviving. It is about making it past 25 years old and somehow managing to not get shot, a criminal record and MAYBE move out of your mother's house. That is making it. So; people want to pretend that the "Black Lives Matter" is a movement against violence. It is a movement to help America be reprogrammed about how people still pretend as if White Privilege is a myth or that Slavery was not that big of a deal. Those who want to push back the fact that lynching are STILL happening and the civil rights movement may have passed laws but didn't change minds.
2
Totally I agree - as I posited further down in my "two cents" worth, this phenomenon - if you want to call it that (maybe not the best word) - is about slavery, pure and simple.
Racism is a misdirected term - true, racism there may be - but that word steers the conversation too much away from where I think it should be.
SLAVERY - esp. ECONOMIC - is the 400 lb. gorilla in the room on this - and we really, as a country, need to start getting more serious about driving that gorilla out, once and for all. and stop kidding ourselves that maybe this is about something else.
Racism is a misdirected term - true, racism there may be - but that word steers the conversation too much away from where I think it should be.
SLAVERY - esp. ECONOMIC - is the 400 lb. gorilla in the room on this - and we really, as a country, need to start getting more serious about driving that gorilla out, once and for all. and stop kidding ourselves that maybe this is about something else.
1
In the last 10 years, we have had African-Americans serving as POTUS, Attorney General, Secretary of State, National Security Adviser, UN Ambassador, Surgeon General and numerous other senior governmental positions. It sort of affects the measurement of structural injustice, racial oppression, and aversion to otherness. Once upon a time we were told that people need role models. Now we are told that African-Americans may need to live in Africa to overcome structural injustice, racial oppression and aversion to otherness.
18
The hostility toward African Americans so evident in this and many other comments on this page is really shocking. And it proves the author's point quite well.
10
Mr Blow ... Rather than the contorted, convoluted, post-modern, deconstructionist explanation and justification for the staggeringly high homicide rates in African - American communities why not simply advocate the following: show up for school every day, pay attention in class, do the homework? Such straight forward advice is certainly worth infinitely more than the incessant pontificating to which the public is subjected.
40
I'm very impressed, bd. You wrote "advocate the following..." Not: "advocate FOR the following." Your education wasn't entirely wasted. Like.
1
Normally, I think it's obnoxious to correct other people's grammar in a comments section, but I must point out that bd's usage is correct.
15
So, the target demographic's social construct completely guides its choices, and members have absolutely nothing at all to do with its creation, its longevity, or its evolution. Interesting. Out-of-wedlock births; black-on-black criminality and murder; recidivist criminality; and drug use/crime are all higher now than before. Earlier, more overt forms of oppression...slavery,Jim Crow, near-total political/social/economic disenfranchisement...have all given way to the more sophisticated, less acute oppressive forces of "interpersonal biases, structural inequities, aversion to otherness"; and, somehow, it is those more subtle forces that have produced ever more rampant criminality, and ever more dire conditions? Charles is in the business of excuse making, and of countering narratives from the political opposition. With this article, Blow has debuted some of his shiny, new rhetorical ammunition, substituting the deliberately more abstract "social construct" for milieu (because it better supports his refutation that "racial culture" deserves any blame) , but he offers no effective answers.
21
Family, religion, work. Your personal life may be imperfect; you may have doubts about your faith; your job may be awful. But these are what hold young men together. A young man who is or feels estranged from his family, sees nothing for himself in his church, and doesn’t have a job to go to everyday really doesn’t care whether he lives or dies and is in a state of extreme tension, ready to burst, and sees life in crude terms that he himself hates, and yet has no real reason to regret bad behavior. I’m not oblivious to the larger injustices, but a person has to think about these things personally, while waiting on politicians. And put down the guns. Yes, it’s easy for me to say. If I lived there, I, too, would keep a gun “just in case,” but if you think using a gun for idiocy makes you less of a joke in the eyes of the world, then you obviously have no idea how the world sees you.
6
Correct thesis, but a faulty supporting point presentation.
The very real problems of ghettoization and its fatal consequences need to be addressed, urgently.
But despite similar backgrounds, most black people are not prone to violence. It's a subculture problem, not terribly different from the roots of the Mafia in the early Italian American community.
Arguing that black-on-black violence and crime can only be addressed sociologically from outside the black community, actually supports the prejudice that blacks are somehow different. And it negates the truth that most black people are like most white people - aspirationally and in how they lead their law-abiding lives.
The very real problems of ghettoization and its fatal consequences need to be addressed, urgently.
But despite similar backgrounds, most black people are not prone to violence. It's a subculture problem, not terribly different from the roots of the Mafia in the early Italian American community.
Arguing that black-on-black violence and crime can only be addressed sociologically from outside the black community, actually supports the prejudice that blacks are somehow different. And it negates the truth that most black people are like most white people - aspirationally and in how they lead their law-abiding lives.
17
Like Romney had 'binders full of women', Mitch Landrieu has 'binders full of dead black people', huh?
5
That is funny!
"People didn’t simply wake up one day with a burning desire to live in the poorest, most violent parts of our cities. Generations of discriminatory housing, banking and employment practices created those powder kegs. And then we blame racial culture rather than racist culture for their constant explosions."
This is the one of the most short-sighted and ridiculous comments that this columnist has written. Rather, it is generations of not completing high school and/or going to college, generations of having children out of wedlock and generations of rejecting the mores and morals of the rest of society that has led to these powder kegs of poverty.
This is the one of the most short-sighted and ridiculous comments that this columnist has written. Rather, it is generations of not completing high school and/or going to college, generations of having children out of wedlock and generations of rejecting the mores and morals of the rest of society that has led to these powder kegs of poverty.
25
It feels so good to blame the victim.
These individuals are the legacy of generations of human slavery, and the inadequate suppression of White Supremacy that lingers to this day. "Separate but equal" led to generations of black people suffering in inadequate schools, and since Brown vs. Board of Education, minority kids are many times more likely to be suspended or expelled for hijinks that are excused in wealthy white kids. And the Republicans answer is to give tax breaks to the wealthy white who want to maintain segregation.
It is the absolute truth that black people have suffered discrimination in housing, banking, and employment, despite every bearer of the Stars and Bars crying out loud to the contrary.
These individuals are the legacy of generations of human slavery, and the inadequate suppression of White Supremacy that lingers to this day. "Separate but equal" led to generations of black people suffering in inadequate schools, and since Brown vs. Board of Education, minority kids are many times more likely to be suspended or expelled for hijinks that are excused in wealthy white kids. And the Republicans answer is to give tax breaks to the wealthy white who want to maintain segregation.
It is the absolute truth that black people have suffered discrimination in housing, banking, and employment, despite every bearer of the Stars and Bars crying out loud to the contrary.
Institutional forces are killing people? The structure itself is robbing people? No amount of acting right and doing right can completely protect them? Oppressive forces? Aversion to otherness?
All this desperate double talk to separate people from taking ownership of their lives, families and communities. And once African Americans are divorced from any role in their own destiny, what is the solution? Nothing but more vague politically correct talk - condemnations of American's inherent injustice, bias, indifference and of course, privilege. Never solutions - Just empty talk that allows cloistered, wealthy over-educated liberals to feel good about themselves while raging against the machine.
You want an effective institutional response to the ugly racial inequality that plagues America? Restore the institutions of family and church. Find a way to reduce teen pregnancy and return responsible fathers to caring for their children.
Liberals pulled out all the stops to bring marriage and family to gay and lesbian people. Why not bring marriage back to the South Side of Chicago? Too "Christian Coalition" for you? Can't locate any reason to promote those institutions among those who inarguably need them even more.
Sometimes, I look at the tragic condition of America's poor black citizens and wonder if liberals like Mr. Blow don't somehow want things to stay just the way they are.
All this desperate double talk to separate people from taking ownership of their lives, families and communities. And once African Americans are divorced from any role in their own destiny, what is the solution? Nothing but more vague politically correct talk - condemnations of American's inherent injustice, bias, indifference and of course, privilege. Never solutions - Just empty talk that allows cloistered, wealthy over-educated liberals to feel good about themselves while raging against the machine.
You want an effective institutional response to the ugly racial inequality that plagues America? Restore the institutions of family and church. Find a way to reduce teen pregnancy and return responsible fathers to caring for their children.
Liberals pulled out all the stops to bring marriage and family to gay and lesbian people. Why not bring marriage back to the South Side of Chicago? Too "Christian Coalition" for you? Can't locate any reason to promote those institutions among those who inarguably need them even more.
Sometimes, I look at the tragic condition of America's poor black citizens and wonder if liberals like Mr. Blow don't somehow want things to stay just the way they are.
32
Blow is completely wrong and plays the victim. This outrageous lawless behavior by black criminals is the responsibility of the black culture and its uneducated, fatherless youth. This is absolutely not a result of discrimination ot lack of jobs. Government programs have contributed to the criminality by allowing people to exist on welfare. After trillions spent, the results speak for themselves. For Blow not to take responsibility is beyond absurd!!
29
You are so absolutely blind to the privilege afforded to you by your white white skin. People were legally not people, but property, in this nation a few generations ago. Gasp--there might be some legacy of that still present?! I am white, and your comment makes me deeply sad for the future of this nation.
Mike, the Jews have been ghettoized, enslaved, purged, oppressed and exterminated throughout the western world for over a thousand years and they still manage to succeed time and time again. There are lessons there if people are willing to see them
7
Privilege? ... I feel privileged to have had responsible grandparents and parents the former of whom immigrated from southern Europe and supported and sustained their families through the hardships of early 20th century immigration ( grandparents ), WW1 ( grandfather ), the Great Depression ( grandparents and parents as young children ), WW2 ( father ). Their credo ... meet your responsibilities regardless of where you are in life and don't blame others for your difficulties. Maybe that's privilege?
5
Poverty and ignorance lead to trauma, hopelessness, fear, and stress induced violence.
Give people jobs and schools can do better. Hopeful, educated people tend not to kill each other.
The kind of job -- private or government; significant or insignificant, productive or not -- is irrelevant. Until jobs and schools take priority over profits and corporate wars, violent poor neighborhoods will remain the status quo.
Give people jobs and schools can do better. Hopeful, educated people tend not to kill each other.
The kind of job -- private or government; significant or insignificant, productive or not -- is irrelevant. Until jobs and schools take priority over profits and corporate wars, violent poor neighborhoods will remain the status quo.
4
Mr. Blow complains that “stop the violence” rallies in black neighborhoods are no longer newsworthy, which he says is a “corporate media issue”. Yet here he is, a black man with a NYT column--- the equivalent of a national megaphone to broadcast whatever he wants across the country--- and what does he do? He spends all his time devising excuses for the 6% of the black people who killing & terrorize the 94% of black people who are participating in the “stop the violence” rallies!
I noticed that Mr. Blow didn't write a column about the tragic death of Charnice Milton, a black 27-year-old community newspaper journalist who was shot to death as she waited for a bus in Southeast Washington, DC. Her death was the horrendous act of a coward--the intended target of the shooting grabbed Charnice and used her body as a human shield.
Mr. Blow has spilt gallons of ink writing about the structural racism that he says dooms black people to lives of hopelessness & despair. Charnice Milton’s short life of accomplishment belies that narrative. Why does he stay mute about her accomplishments & the vast injustice of her death at the hands of lowlife black guys? Why can’t he admit that there are lowlife black guys just like there are lowlife white, Hispanic, etc. guys? Doesn't Mr. Blow realize that providing an endless stream of excuses to the 6% legitimizes their violence and that this leads to misery for the 94%? Please Mr. Blow, state that violence is wrong!!
I noticed that Mr. Blow didn't write a column about the tragic death of Charnice Milton, a black 27-year-old community newspaper journalist who was shot to death as she waited for a bus in Southeast Washington, DC. Her death was the horrendous act of a coward--the intended target of the shooting grabbed Charnice and used her body as a human shield.
Mr. Blow has spilt gallons of ink writing about the structural racism that he says dooms black people to lives of hopelessness & despair. Charnice Milton’s short life of accomplishment belies that narrative. Why does he stay mute about her accomplishments & the vast injustice of her death at the hands of lowlife black guys? Why can’t he admit that there are lowlife black guys just like there are lowlife white, Hispanic, etc. guys? Doesn't Mr. Blow realize that providing an endless stream of excuses to the 6% legitimizes their violence and that this leads to misery for the 94%? Please Mr. Blow, state that violence is wrong!!
45
Very well said.
8
A country where the middle class is shrinking instead of growing, manufacturing jobs, our President says they are gone forever, they are never coming back, once they were the backbone of our great nation and offered stability to countless families for generations, gone forever, not only gone forever, but gone forever with no thought or plan as to what would replace them, what would put the bread on the table, they did not disappear, they moved, they moved to Asia, they moved south of the border some to eastern Europe, but the bottom line is until we care more about enriching American lives, as opposed to enriching peoples lives in Asia nothing will change.Education and jobs are the way out, but what we are seeing is, is a deadly recipe coming to fruition, poverty, a constantly growing class of poor and a country with 300 million guns at the ready are the ingredients. It is not going to get better until we start electing people who really care about the citizens of this country, and are focused on them, instead of self-enrichment.
7
The top-down approach has been tried since Johnson's 'Great Society' and 'War on Poverty'; it can't succeed without an equal bottom-up effort. The politics of blame go both directions and neither is productive.
19
If there were jobs, I'm sure there would be lines around the block filled with people wanting to work.
Well, I think, with respect to Mr. Blow, and with note to the commenters here and other writers who try to argue that all this falls under the rubric of racism, that this is a misdirected thing. And to say what I think it really is - SLAVERY - I would observe that, IMO, slavery didn't end in 1865; it didn't end in 1965; it was not ended in FL in 1973, when I observed the confederate flag flying at a baseball park, just below the U.S. flag; and it was not ended when, earlier that year, I took a bus trip and was chastized by both blacks and the white bus driver alike for not understanding that the back of the bus was for the 'blacks", and that I was supposed to sit up front; and its NOT OVER NOW.
What needs to be talked about (and honestly, this knows no racial barriers) is the ECONOMIC SLAVERY that African-Americans are under; and which, honestly, we ALL should be worried about, regardless of what race or ethnicity we are.
Why this is is a long topic, one that can't be addressed adequately here - but its going on right under our noses, every day, and it stretches back for a long long time - all too many of us are economic slaves - and THAT'S the topic that REALLY should be being addressed - because NO ONE is immune.
Well - maybe the 1%....
What needs to be talked about (and honestly, this knows no racial barriers) is the ECONOMIC SLAVERY that African-Americans are under; and which, honestly, we ALL should be worried about, regardless of what race or ethnicity we are.
Why this is is a long topic, one that can't be addressed adequately here - but its going on right under our noses, every day, and it stretches back for a long long time - all too many of us are economic slaves - and THAT'S the topic that REALLY should be being addressed - because NO ONE is immune.
Well - maybe the 1%....
2
Please explain to me how blacks in America are under economic slavery. What does that even mean?
And while you're at it, explain it to the growing black middle class who do not seemed to have gotten the memo telling them they cannot succeed economically in America. Also explain it the the President of the United States who appears not to have been informed that he cannot get ahead because of the color of his skin.
If you fail to take the steps that prepare you for economic advancement you will most assuredly find yourself impoverished. Regardless of your skin color. If you do not get an education or training in a trade you will have nothing to offer in exchange for payment. Don't drop out of high school or trade school and then tell me that you cannot find a high-paying legitimate job and, therefore, the only option open to you is to sell poison to your neighbors. No one but the far left is buying that any longer.
And don't get a felony record for selling that poison to your neighbors and then complain that you can't get a good-paying honest job and your only recourse is to keep selling drugs.
People sell drugs and engage in other criminal activity because it is an easier way to make a lot of money than an honest job. Period. That is a as true of the Mafia as it is of every inner-city crack dealer. The difference is that nobody is trying to convince us that the Mafia exists because society is bent on keeping Italian-Americans in poverty.
And while you're at it, explain it to the growing black middle class who do not seemed to have gotten the memo telling them they cannot succeed economically in America. Also explain it the the President of the United States who appears not to have been informed that he cannot get ahead because of the color of his skin.
If you fail to take the steps that prepare you for economic advancement you will most assuredly find yourself impoverished. Regardless of your skin color. If you do not get an education or training in a trade you will have nothing to offer in exchange for payment. Don't drop out of high school or trade school and then tell me that you cannot find a high-paying legitimate job and, therefore, the only option open to you is to sell poison to your neighbors. No one but the far left is buying that any longer.
And don't get a felony record for selling that poison to your neighbors and then complain that you can't get a good-paying honest job and your only recourse is to keep selling drugs.
People sell drugs and engage in other criminal activity because it is an easier way to make a lot of money than an honest job. Period. That is a as true of the Mafia as it is of every inner-city crack dealer. The difference is that nobody is trying to convince us that the Mafia exists because society is bent on keeping Italian-Americans in poverty.
6
Thank you Mr. Blow and the editors of the NYT for your continued focus on racial issues. It is helpful to be able to weed through all the Opinion writers and find someone who doesn't address issues like the complexity of the stock market and the problems in Greece. Of course the above are important. But hugs swaths of black ghettos stream across our country. I have often commented to my husband that slavery is not gone, it's just changed its location. The issues, from my white point of view are inherent racism, segregated communities, lack of jobs and education, feelings of hopelessness, gang violence, guns and drugs. I'm sure there are more, but I mention these to emphasize how complex I think these problems are. Having you shed light on these issues puts them upfront and in our faces. It certainly educates me, a white liberal. I look forward to more columns from you addressing this subject.
There is a middle way between the tired mantra of personal responsibility (as if people made choices in a vacuum) and blaming systemic factors only (thus robbing people of agency). Cultures matter; unspoken social assumptions matter; economic factors matter. Step out of the American context for a moment and consider why Hong Kong, a colony for a hundred years and now oppressed by China, has nevertheless prospered and flourished, while Gaza, with a similar traumatic history, is a hell-hole. Anti-Asian racism was almost as bad as its anti-Black counterpart and it still exists, in the US and outside of it. So a culture can overcome the history of oppression but only if it has inner resources, the most important of which are respect for learning and strong sense of social cohesion. Both are apparently lacking in some sections of the Black community.
11
More people are realizing that in a moment of greatest distress and danger, nothing else you have ever done will matter if all the person who poses the threat sees is a body not to be valued. When he pulls a gun, you can’t pull a résumé.
------------------------------------------
Your argument would be more plausible if there were no such phenomenon as black on black killing. Are you saying that a black person pulling a gun on another black person, he does not see the other black person as having a 'valuable body and an impressive resume'? So, black on black killing is just a rage against a racist society over which the blacks have no control? Think, Blow.
When will you stop playing the victim card and start realizing that there is such a thing as personal responsibility?
------------------------------------------
Your argument would be more plausible if there were no such phenomenon as black on black killing. Are you saying that a black person pulling a gun on another black person, he does not see the other black person as having a 'valuable body and an impressive resume'? So, black on black killing is just a rage against a racist society over which the blacks have no control? Think, Blow.
When will you stop playing the victim card and start realizing that there is such a thing as personal responsibility?
27
Antonio Brown is a “ranking gang member” in Chicago which is probably why he is “uncooperative” to the police investigating his son, Amari Brown’s murder. Gang bangers have their own code and “snitching” to the police for any reason is not part of that code. That's sad but very true.
A key component to a majority of violence and gun-related deaths in Chicago are the gangs. The main attractions young kids have to gangs are the feelings of acceptance, being part of something/someone, making big money selling drugs, feeling safe and protected from dangerous elements of the streets.
If kids lived in a home where both parents were present, had legitimate and good paying jobs, felt safe and loved and their parents were engaged in their learning and welfare, I wonder how long the gangs would survive in that kind of environment? I don’t mean to get all Pollyanna, but there are real and painful reasons why kids join and remain in gangs. If those reasons could be reckoned with, perhaps that could be a first step in preventing another Amari Brown from getting murdered.
I wish Mr. Blow would address those issues and offer some insight into how family dynamics could alter the course of a young person's path.
A key component to a majority of violence and gun-related deaths in Chicago are the gangs. The main attractions young kids have to gangs are the feelings of acceptance, being part of something/someone, making big money selling drugs, feeling safe and protected from dangerous elements of the streets.
If kids lived in a home where both parents were present, had legitimate and good paying jobs, felt safe and loved and their parents were engaged in their learning and welfare, I wonder how long the gangs would survive in that kind of environment? I don’t mean to get all Pollyanna, but there are real and painful reasons why kids join and remain in gangs. If those reasons could be reckoned with, perhaps that could be a first step in preventing another Amari Brown from getting murdered.
I wish Mr. Blow would address those issues and offer some insight into how family dynamics could alter the course of a young person's path.
23
The riots that break out after killings are an eruption of anger that has been held in, day after day. People can only take so much until finally they can't take it. When the game is rigged, the machine fixed, it needs to be destroyed, dismantled and re-built. Riots are a manifestation of that need, a symbolic burning down of a system that is unfair. The rage that develops explodes into riotous destruction, because change is surface level, painting over the seeds of racism with a smile, a new school, affordable housing, an elected official. The seeds root deeper than that through segregation, lack of inclusion, separation. We are not far removed from Jim Crow.
16
Utter claptrap. From beginning to end.
2
The riots were nothing more than an excuse to steal prescription drugs from CVS that are now being sold on the streets of Baltimore...which is causing more crime and murder. There was no intent to "dismantle and rebuilt", just an opporunity to make a dollar.
4
@Bounarotti: I can only guess at why you call my post "claptrap," which I actually had to look up. It means nonsense. The ripple effect of slavery to Jim Crow to where we are now is not nonsense. It happened and is happening. A riot does not happen just because. There is build up. There are reasons. Most people just watch on TV, completely out of context of how and why. "Why would they destroy their community" they yell at the TV. To me, that view is the nonsense, judging out of a vacuum, no regard for history, no idea of what builds up. And how the dam breaks.
2
We are all saddened by these individual cases but once again Mr.Blow tries to blame inactionable phrases like “structural forces” and “mass incarceration” that mean little, as it is people’s individual behaviors that account for 90%of their situation. Of course, no one “wakes up … with a desire to live in the poorest, most violent” places. However, each action that an individual takes - completing their HS education, getting a job, building that job into stable employment , getting married before having babies – is what determines the outcomes for them and their children. And since 94% of people that do the above, NEVER live in poverty, the solution is easily understood and the policies fall from that.
The “structural inequity” he speaks of is eradicated if the individuals take the necessary actions. Instead, Mr. Blow and the Left want to continue to incentivize and create the “structural forces” that stop the above individual actions from taking place. It's time he admits that the Left’s attempt to fix the situation, starting in the 1960’s has only made it worse and MORE “ institutionalized”! Start by making long term policies that incentivize individuals to act accordingly instead of creating short term policies . It's time to change the Liberal’s institutional structure that has been so detrimental and continued the decline and stop building more of it.
The “structural inequity” he speaks of is eradicated if the individuals take the necessary actions. Instead, Mr. Blow and the Left want to continue to incentivize and create the “structural forces” that stop the above individual actions from taking place. It's time he admits that the Left’s attempt to fix the situation, starting in the 1960’s has only made it worse and MORE “ institutionalized”! Start by making long term policies that incentivize individuals to act accordingly instead of creating short term policies . It's time to change the Liberal’s institutional structure that has been so detrimental and continued the decline and stop building more of it.
14
Mr. Blow:
one of the questions that i do not see here:
why do black lives not matter to black men?
unfortunately, there are millions of poor people in the world.
far, far too many by any measure.
nevertheless, the possession and misuse of firearms to
kill and maim "neighbors" by 'blacks-on-blacks'
in american cities is disproportionate.
whose 'first-responsibility' is it to remove this violent element
from the community?
and, thus armed, any confrontations with any 'outsiders'
will require these others to also be armed.
this spiral, once started, can only continue ever downward.
and, yes, this is a variation on the conundrum:
which came first, the chicken or the egg.
however, when one's house is burning,
the first response is to stop the heat...
then,
the process of eliminating future fire-threats can be addressed.
there is much more to the work that needs to be done than
simply making file folders.
perhaps a better overall approach would be from
a public health perspective and response.
the elimination of violent premature taking of lives,
black and all others,
must first begin at home,
even desperate homes.
18
Poignant, and 100% accurate.
The question that the Black community has to answer is why Black lives don't matter enough to Black people to make better choices that save lives.
The question that the Black community has to answer is why Black lives don't matter enough to Black people to make better choices that save lives.
11
Is the white community to blame for Dylan Roof? Your consideration of the "black community" as a monolith is very much a part of the problem that this article addressing.
Without meaning to do so, we dehumanize people when we depict them as having no moral autonomy. Most victims of racism choose not to engage in wanton killing. Their disciplined nonviolence (including civil disobedience) has helped change the world. What accounts for them?
9
We are working hard to remove the Confederate flag, and get the Washington Redskins to change their name.
These steps must be very important in eliminating racism from our society, because we're spending all our time, money, and effort on them. This may explain the lack of interest in these murders down in New Orleans.
These steps must be very important in eliminating racism from our society, because we're spending all our time, money, and effort on them. This may explain the lack of interest in these murders down in New Orleans.
7
What struck me in reading this article is the study showing that 6% of the population in Chicago was responsible for 70% of the homicides.
That reminded me of the recent article in this same newspaper about the city of Richmond, California where the author of a program to stop violence reported that 17 individuals there were responsible for a large percentage of the crimes and so they focused on changing the lives of those 17 people.
That's the kind of thing that has to happen. I suspect this is a common situation. Serial rapists are known to have dozens if not hundreds of victims... Years ago I was involved in research on the costs to the city by homeless individuals and we found a small number of people responsible for a very high percentage of the total costs, people who bounced from hospital to jail to rehab over and over.
I believe that if cities could identity these small number of people and focus intensive efforts on changing their lives, it would make a big difference in costs..
That reminded me of the recent article in this same newspaper about the city of Richmond, California where the author of a program to stop violence reported that 17 individuals there were responsible for a large percentage of the crimes and so they focused on changing the lives of those 17 people.
That's the kind of thing that has to happen. I suspect this is a common situation. Serial rapists are known to have dozens if not hundreds of victims... Years ago I was involved in research on the costs to the city by homeless individuals and we found a small number of people responsible for a very high percentage of the total costs, people who bounced from hospital to jail to rehab over and over.
I believe that if cities could identity these small number of people and focus intensive efforts on changing their lives, it would make a big difference in costs..
5
Charles Blow: "one can’t simply earn one’s way up out of oppression... oppression must be dismantled from the top down."
Mr. Blow specializes in delivering regressive, self- defeating messages to the black community and this sentiment is among the most regressive. If anyone is waiting for "oppression to be dismantled from the top down" in order to advance themselves, they've adopted the losing strategy that Mr. Blow prescribes. Sorry, Mr. Blow, but whether fair or not, no one in American society (whether descended from slaves or not) will rise while waiting for (or expecting) beneficence from "the top." It is simply not coming. There is no choice but to take your fate in your own hands, and rise as high as you can with whatever you've got (or can get).
Mr. Blow specializes in delivering regressive, self- defeating messages to the black community and this sentiment is among the most regressive. If anyone is waiting for "oppression to be dismantled from the top down" in order to advance themselves, they've adopted the losing strategy that Mr. Blow prescribes. Sorry, Mr. Blow, but whether fair or not, no one in American society (whether descended from slaves or not) will rise while waiting for (or expecting) beneficence from "the top." It is simply not coming. There is no choice but to take your fate in your own hands, and rise as high as you can with whatever you've got (or can get).
44
The many comments by DCBarrister are extremely refreshing, honest and more to the heart of matters than the weekly reharsh by Charles Blow.
9
Thank you!
Even on busy days, I feel compelled to reach out and share my views with Times readers when Mr. Blow cranks up the victim machine.
I essentially made it through college and law school with little more than my mom's tears, prayers and hopes. And it had nothing to do with my skin color and everything to do with America, our values and trying my best every day.
It would serve Mr. Blow to dig a little deeper and find out how many of these tragic and senseless deaths in the Black community could have been avoided if more people just made better choices.
Even on busy days, I feel compelled to reach out and share my views with Times readers when Mr. Blow cranks up the victim machine.
I essentially made it through college and law school with little more than my mom's tears, prayers and hopes. And it had nothing to do with my skin color and everything to do with America, our values and trying my best every day.
It would serve Mr. Blow to dig a little deeper and find out how many of these tragic and senseless deaths in the Black community could have been avoided if more people just made better choices.
15
Sir, I enjoy reading your comments. They are insightful, thought provoking and not once have you ever repeated yourself. Keep bringing the great messages. You should be writing this column, not Blow
4
Well said! We agree completely!!
1
And then we blame racial culture rather than racist culture for their constant explosions.
--------------------------------------------
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Blacks are killing blacks because they live in a racist society.
Brilliant.
--------------------------------------------
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Blacks are killing blacks because they live in a racist society.
Brilliant.
22
While I agree our history has been a huge detriment to African Americans, I don't think it fully explains the problems in some African American communities.
When will there be the marches around the country for "Chicago lives matter" or "Camden lives matter"? The tshirts and social media hashtags? It's very easy to place all the blame on outside factors. It's harder to look in the mirror and say we also have to do better as a race.
When will there be the marches around the country for "Chicago lives matter" or "Camden lives matter"? The tshirts and social media hashtags? It's very easy to place all the blame on outside factors. It's harder to look in the mirror and say we also have to do better as a race.
16
When 7 year old Amari Brown was shot, there were no marches demanding that the killer be prosecuted, no newspaper editorials across the nation demanding an investigation, and the people of the Chicago neighborhood did not even cooperate in the investigation. What is the difference between the value of Ms Brown and that of Tamir Rice that led to the difference in the response to their deaths?
8
Does it seem odd to anyone else that the Mayor of New Orleans apparently feels powerless to do anything about this problem?
It seems equally odd that the Mayor would appeal to a NY Times columnist as opposed to, say, the Governor of Louisiana; the FBI; and/or other Federal assistance, if his efforts have been ineffectual.
It seems equally odd that the Mayor would appeal to a NY Times columnist as opposed to, say, the Governor of Louisiana; the FBI; and/or other Federal assistance, if his efforts have been ineffectual.
12
"Actually, the more nuanced and sophisticated position is . . . " Lately I've stopped reading whenever I see the word "nuanced," because all it means is "here come the tortured excuses."
21
What Mr. Blow refuses to tell all of you is there's another book, sitting right alongside the "Books of the Dead." It's called the Book of Life.
The values, ideals and spirit that built this country, preserves it to this day are rooted in the Christian faith. Too many in the books of the dead refused to open the book of life, or make the personal decision to write their names in it.
Nobody is perfect. We all make mistakes. The key in life is not to let your mistakes define you, and to have more good days and sound choices than bad ones. I think it would break our hearts to learn how many people in those death books in New Orleans ignored that life saving opportunity.
The values, ideals and spirit that built this country, preserves it to this day are rooted in the Christian faith. Too many in the books of the dead refused to open the book of life, or make the personal decision to write their names in it.
Nobody is perfect. We all make mistakes. The key in life is not to let your mistakes define you, and to have more good days and sound choices than bad ones. I think it would break our hearts to learn how many people in those death books in New Orleans ignored that life saving opportunity.
12
I think it's difficult to see opportunity out of despair. I wish despair on no one. But you're right. No matter your plight there is a path. The difficulty is in the choosing.
2
Ah, here we have it..."The values, ideals and spirit that built this country, preserves it to this day, are rooted in Christian faith." Black men die violently because they're insufficiently Christian. I keep thinking of the black men (and women) in Charleston AME. The word 'irony' doesn't even begin to cover it and Mr. Blow is to be commended for his willingness to continue to address the situation, Messers Pitchumani and DCBarrister notwithstanding.
Interesting take, but that's not what I wrote.
The victims of the horrific (and wrongly politicized) events in Charleston in no way, shape or form has anything to do with "sufficiency" of the Christian faith, and it's offensive to me as a Black man and a Christian to read that bogus claim.
The sane know there's a difference between a racist massacre by a deranged White shooter in a Black church and the far to routine Black on Black violence that claims around 90% plus of our youth.
The victims of the horrific (and wrongly politicized) events in Charleston in no way, shape or form has anything to do with "sufficiency" of the Christian faith, and it's offensive to me as a Black man and a Christian to read that bogus claim.
The sane know there's a difference between a racist massacre by a deranged White shooter in a Black church and the far to routine Black on Black violence that claims around 90% plus of our youth.
4
"Instead, they are developing a rage at the realization that no amount of acting right and doing right can completely protect them."
This is life - not just for black Americans or impoverished Americans, but for everybody. Life isn't fair, and luck and circumstance play a large role in how things turn out. But you know what plays the biggest role in any one individual's life? Personal responsibility, drive, passion, and will to success. Sure, it's harder for those at the bottom, but the dominant media narrative (yes, Blow's narrative is now dominant) is that blacks and the poor are simply victims of circumstance. How patronizing!
The government has issues to resolve, surely - but the most that any one person can do is take responsibility for his or her actions. That person still may end up shot, but that's life! We need to stop pretending that if only the government were perfectly compassionate, everyone would live fantastic, long lives in peace and harmony. The government exists to create a structure within which people can succeed, but it can't ensure success. You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink. Surely, we can and must do a better job building a just governing structure, but the current narrative ignoring personal responsibility encourages people to blame their problems on everyone but themselves, which keeps them in an infantile state of dependence.
This is life - not just for black Americans or impoverished Americans, but for everybody. Life isn't fair, and luck and circumstance play a large role in how things turn out. But you know what plays the biggest role in any one individual's life? Personal responsibility, drive, passion, and will to success. Sure, it's harder for those at the bottom, but the dominant media narrative (yes, Blow's narrative is now dominant) is that blacks and the poor are simply victims of circumstance. How patronizing!
The government has issues to resolve, surely - but the most that any one person can do is take responsibility for his or her actions. That person still may end up shot, but that's life! We need to stop pretending that if only the government were perfectly compassionate, everyone would live fantastic, long lives in peace and harmony. The government exists to create a structure within which people can succeed, but it can't ensure success. You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink. Surely, we can and must do a better job building a just governing structure, but the current narrative ignoring personal responsibility encourages people to blame their problems on everyone but themselves, which keeps them in an infantile state of dependence.
17
Many of these comments are defensive responses to a perceived attack or blame(?)- missing the point entirely. Most murders are not media worthy. Most murders in the USA occur within a set of conditions: poverty, gang violence, nonwhite. To the reader that described well behaved minorities that integrated correctly please educate yourself on the difference between enslaving populations and destroying cultural and family connections and immigrating. There will always be outliers and exceptional people, no matter their background. There will always be racism as long as there is more fear in the world than love
1
Right now, we live in a society where the forces support impoverishment of most, the enrichment of the few, and the means to keep that in place. Those means includes racism, sexism, dismantling of safety nets and protections, gun culture, vote suppression, ignorance, and constantly inflamed rage (a la Fox News, for example). Programs to change the violence in our neighborhoods aren't funded, or even developed, because that would empower the very people the 1% seeks to keep down. There are so many obstacles at this point. Yet, with the media coverage of racial profiling and police violence, and now the nationwide support to put away the symbols of hatred, I believe we are seeing a next step in the education of all Americans about the depth and entrenched quality of the problem of institutional racism. We're also seeing a vociferous backlash, but it seems to be a minority. Unfortunatey, that minority view is supported by lobbyists and a right wing Congress. Change has to happen on the ground, then, which means communities must share with each other what's working on the small, local level, and the movement to heal must grow through grass roots right now. Eventually, the political climate will turn, and we need to be prepared with successful examples when funding and support returns. The binders create awareness. Awareness can lead to action. We need to grasp this opportunity at the local level, but share approaches nationwide. How about a column about some successful programs?
1
Thank you for providing this information. However America has been aware quite sometime about the high murder rate in its cities, especially in the minority communities. It is a terribly unfortunate situation, that begs a solution. We can write all we want about this situation, bemoaning the underlying problems. Yes, the lives of the dead individuals matter, but the current "Black Lives Matter" movement rose only in response to white police shooting African-American males. It seems that their lives only began to matter the, but the problem of inner city violence and death has been going on for very log time. Who knows what it take to bring it to an end. More federal social programs? I'm sure the liberal left have many in mind. What's needed is personal responsibility and respect for one's self and others.
9
When the only economic activity in communities of concentrated poverty (like many parts of New Orleans) is the drug trade, why are we surprised that there is so much violent crime?
The unemployment rate among African American men in New Orleans 20 years and older (still looking for work) was 10.2% in May and the labor force participation rate for black men is 68.5%. (The labor force participation for white men in New Orleans is 72.2%.) I'm surprised that the violent crime isn't worse.
The unemployment rate among African American men in New Orleans 20 years and older (still looking for work) was 10.2% in May and the labor force participation rate for black men is 68.5%. (The labor force participation for white men in New Orleans is 72.2%.) I'm surprised that the violent crime isn't worse.
2
If you are one of twenty people competing for one job, you have three choices: you can just give up, presuming that you won't get it; you can hang in and hope you are chosen, or you can make sure that you are the best prepared, hardest working candidate for the position. Option one is easiest, option three is hardest; option one makes you least likely to win, option three makes you most likely to do so.
Live your life in a fashion to make sure option three is always on the table and you still may not succeed, but you have a better chance than otherwise. One man cannot change society, one man can change his own life.
Live your life in a fashion to make sure option three is always on the table and you still may not succeed, but you have a better chance than otherwise. One man cannot change society, one man can change his own life.
Former Harvard and UCLA professor James Q. Wilson (among others) have noted that during the Great Depression, when unemployment was at least 25% and poverty was epic, the crime rate went down. Relatively recent detailed research of local police records from the era confirms this. Poverty does not cause crime. Surely crime and social malaise have a number of causes, but in looking at American history, the African-American culture has been notoriously slow to improve and in many measures has actually regressed significantly since the social revolution of the 1960s. At least one reason must be the following: An entire hierarchy of racial activists, church leaders, support groups, think tanks and social service providers make billions by catering to an African-American culture that views itself as victimized and abused. Many huge, expensive and ineffective government programs are part of this system. Our nation has created a vested interest in not encouraging the African American culture to improve--and the first step must be for the politics of victimization to end. It is the roadblock few can avoid.
21
6% of the black community causes the mayhem may be true, but the fact that 50% of young black community never finishe high school is the biggest contributor. Without an education there is poverty. Even those that graduate, most of these unfortunate young people are not employable because they need remedial writing, reading and arithmetic instruction to be of use.
It would be refreshing if you and the NAACP raised this issue more visibly. But I understand that it is easier to blame black on black violence on the sins of the white forefathers, who truly were racial criminals, than on the failings in today's black community. To achieve and excel in high school will get you killed in the ghetto.
Please stop beating a dead horse and start addressing the real issue. Without a good education, whether you are black or white, you are helpless. Of course, the 50% that do not graduate, will always blame, like you, the long dead white slave owners and their progeny for keeping young blacks from doing their high school homework!
It would be refreshing if you and the NAACP raised this issue more visibly. But I understand that it is easier to blame black on black violence on the sins of the white forefathers, who truly were racial criminals, than on the failings in today's black community. To achieve and excel in high school will get you killed in the ghetto.
Please stop beating a dead horse and start addressing the real issue. Without a good education, whether you are black or white, you are helpless. Of course, the 50% that do not graduate, will always blame, like you, the long dead white slave owners and their progeny for keeping young blacks from doing their high school homework!
19
Mr. Blow, the "other" ways blacks die do not have to be "less newsworthy." If columnists like you dedicated the a proportional amount of column space to black on black violence, we'd have a surfeit of news.
13
"Actually, the more nuanced and sophisticated position is that personal choices are made within a social construct, and that construct is heavily influenced by oppressive forces — interpersonal biases, structural inequities, aversion to otherness."
Actually, the more nuanced and sophisticated position is that 6% of a population is terrorizing the other 94% of the population. Unfortunately, rather than focus on that fact too many make excuses for the 6%, as Mr. Blow does here.
Actually, the more nuanced and sophisticated position is that 6% of a population is terrorizing the other 94% of the population. Unfortunately, rather than focus on that fact too many make excuses for the 6%, as Mr. Blow does here.
25
“This has fueled something of a debate about whether all black lives matter — including those taken by community violence — or whether that designation is reserved only for lives taken by state violence.” “We don’t register that “stop the violence” rallies and pitches have been a staple of many of these communities for decades, so much so that news people rarely find them newsworthy.”
Indeed: I had to venture way out on the left fringe to Pacifica Radio to read this: “I think what is really the most inspiring thing I’ve seen since Reverend Pinckney was killed is when I saw young white kids in the Deep South holding up signs saying ‘Black Lives Matter.’" Rev. Al Sharpton
One thing is indisputable: high quality, accountable community policing that earns the trust of minority neighborhoods rather than merely occupying them would help to “stop the violence” of both kinds.
Indeed: I had to venture way out on the left fringe to Pacifica Radio to read this: “I think what is really the most inspiring thing I’ve seen since Reverend Pinckney was killed is when I saw young white kids in the Deep South holding up signs saying ‘Black Lives Matter.’" Rev. Al Sharpton
One thing is indisputable: high quality, accountable community policing that earns the trust of minority neighborhoods rather than merely occupying them would help to “stop the violence” of both kinds.
1
Ok, White Structural Racism and Oppression is the cause of the horrific black on black homicide rates. What next; more policing, less policing? Some form of triage; help those with self responsibility that are trying to help themselves, sustain the incapable but nonviolent with subsistance disbursements, incarcerate the murderously violemt ( i.e. the six percent )? Aside from the publishing of hand wringing dissertations and columns what next?
6
The fact that Charles M. Blow has to be the proverbial broken record for "Black Lives Matter" underscores how little they matter to Barack Obama.
Poverty, homelessness and violent crime in the Black community under Barack Obama has reached crisis stage...critical mass. It is time to stop pretending this President is engaged and active in the Black community. Reality does not bear that out.
Poverty, homelessness and violent crime in the Black community under Barack Obama has reached crisis stage...critical mass. It is time to stop pretending this President is engaged and active in the Black community. Reality does not bear that out.
13
Living in a high-violence city as I do, I have wondered how much of the violence would be avoided if the lower-income people had the same access to societal methods of dealing with disputes that higher-income people have. Access to the courts is expensive, both in times and money. The threat of fines is worse for poor people than for the wealthy, and that makes police less likely to be called in for mediation before a situation escalates to violence. We need to make these services more accessible to everyone.
3
Poverty and skin color are never valid excuses for poor choices and a personal refusal to be accountable for your life.
When I was in college, and Pell Grants were slashed, I got another job and cut back to 2 meals a day and didn't give up. I grew up as a Black man in a family that vacillated between lower middle class to working poor financially, but never in spirit or resolve.
It is never about what someone else has or what you don't have. Success is about deciding what you want and earning it. At every turn, Charles Blow tries to use my skin color to excuse problems that plague the Black community from the inside out. Don't buy it.
When I was in college, and Pell Grants were slashed, I got another job and cut back to 2 meals a day and didn't give up. I grew up as a Black man in a family that vacillated between lower middle class to working poor financially, but never in spirit or resolve.
It is never about what someone else has or what you don't have. Success is about deciding what you want and earning it. At every turn, Charles Blow tries to use my skin color to excuse problems that plague the Black community from the inside out. Don't buy it.
29
“6% of the population was involved in 70% of the murders, and that nearly all of those in the 6% already had some contact with the criminal justice or public health systems. ... the 6% had a 900% increased risk of becoming a victim of gun homicide" Mayor Landrieu showed you those binders to get you understand that when blacks kill other blacks the result still is more black lives lost & more tears for their loved ones, especially their mothers.
Regardless of how a black youth dies, the sorrow for his mother is about the same. If he is killed by a cop there is profound community support as happened in Ferguson & elsewhere, which blunts at least the immediate pain, but when the victim is just a statistic, as in black-on-black killings, the immediate pain is more intense & the despair is much less bearable.
Concentrated poverty is [partly only] a direct result of structural inequity, … attended by hopelessness and desperation, all of which are a [but not prime] breeding ground for violence.
You mistakenly argue, "Generations of discriminatory housing, banking and employment practices created those powder kegs. And then we blame racial culture rather than racist culture [but only a minor part] for their constant explosions.
To me one remedy, may not be the solution, is raise the minimum wage to $15 with $3 federal subsidy, perhaps indefinitely, for US born adults who have paid in 4 quarters in payroll tax. Also a $3/hr employer subsidy for hiring people with convictions.
Regardless of how a black youth dies, the sorrow for his mother is about the same. If he is killed by a cop there is profound community support as happened in Ferguson & elsewhere, which blunts at least the immediate pain, but when the victim is just a statistic, as in black-on-black killings, the immediate pain is more intense & the despair is much less bearable.
Concentrated poverty is [partly only] a direct result of structural inequity, … attended by hopelessness and desperation, all of which are a [but not prime] breeding ground for violence.
You mistakenly argue, "Generations of discriminatory housing, banking and employment practices created those powder kegs. And then we blame racial culture rather than racist culture [but only a minor part] for their constant explosions.
To me one remedy, may not be the solution, is raise the minimum wage to $15 with $3 federal subsidy, perhaps indefinitely, for US born adults who have paid in 4 quarters in payroll tax. Also a $3/hr employer subsidy for hiring people with convictions.
3
Those books are a great start.
Now let's study them. Really look. Analyse. Compare.
What did the killers have in common? What did the killings have in common? What did the victims have in common?
Focus attention on the things that are common to these killings. That may not be a complete answer, but it will make a good start to reducing the problem.
Work with those books. Really work them.
Who is doing that? Or are they just a political show?
Now let's study them. Really look. Analyse. Compare.
What did the killers have in common? What did the killings have in common? What did the victims have in common?
Focus attention on the things that are common to these killings. That may not be a complete answer, but it will make a good start to reducing the problem.
Work with those books. Really work them.
Who is doing that? Or are they just a political show?
8
For a clear illustration of institutional and structural bias against black lives, read "The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace". In it, Robert tries to get his dad out of jail so he can die at home. He was in the end stages of terminal brain cancer yet the NJ Prison System did not find cause to release him. The only possible reason is because he was black. The book takes place in Newark, NJ where I went to college in the 1960s. Newark was a pit then and is a pit now. I never experienced any violence in Newark even during the 1960s riots. I did experience tremendous sadness, desperation, and need in the black community that no one addressed, not the city or the state or the federal government. I did social work after that but I was too young and too naive to know it's a top down issue. If Black Lives Matter, they have to matter to big corporations for jobs and training (see Cristo Rey high school system), matter to elected officials, top down, and matter to a police force that does not shoot to kill.
13
Perhaps Mr. Blow could define some of the terms he uses like "structural inequality" and provide examples? What he is basically saying is the white man is responsible for the black on black murders. That accusation requires more evidence than what Mr. Blow provides.
So we have these violent criminals killing each other with collateral damage of small children. When police attempt to reduce crime in the crime infested areas, and violence results then it is racist police or "structural racism" at fault not the violent criminals. Blow's rationalizations are disgusting and lead nowhere but to more murders.
So we have these violent criminals killing each other with collateral damage of small children. When police attempt to reduce crime in the crime infested areas, and violence results then it is racist police or "structural racism" at fault not the violent criminals. Blow's rationalizations are disgusting and lead nowhere but to more murders.
46
There are things in the article that are hard to hear for some, but need to be said. From your comments, it seems as though the point of the article has been distorted. I believe Mr. Blow's points are valid and known by much of our society, however many only want to see the positive images of our country, and don't look at things any deeper, possibly because they are not directly affected. Racially and culturally speaking, we need to take a good hard look at these ugly facts, look at the reason for violent crimes as Mr. Blow suggests and address them rather than pushing them aside.
1
Mr. Blow and similar thinkers obviously have an unlimited supply of Race cards. Black people are not a monolith. There are millions of Black folks now & over centuries that have succeeded no matter the obstacles - they followed well worn mainstream paths(not secret) to success & took PERSONAL responsibility. There's a sub-culture in the Black community that resists & ignores those well worn paths + takes NO personal responsibility. If you think of yourself as a victim - you will always be a victim. Outside & gov't programs have a long history of failure because those that are being targeted choose not to participate - it's not "cool". Until a bottom up approach is designed & those affected choose a different path - nothing will change. Blaming others & "the system" also ensures nothing will change.
43
Ignorance of the basic injustice in American society, and a lack of empathy for the plight of oppressed people, are the real problems. I'm white, by the way, but at least recognize the fantastic privilege that my white skin affords me in America.
3
Mike, let me tell you something.
As a Black man, the worst experiences of racism in my life have come from my race. I am a registered Republican who voted for Mitt Romney in 2012. I became a Republican after meeting Barack Obama in 2004 and out of disgust at what Obama, the mainstream media (Obama's fan club) did to Hillary Clinton and yes, Sarah Palin in 2008.
I cannot repeat the words spoken to me by other African Americans who learn that I oppose and often critique Mr. Obama, not out of spite, but because the President is a 54 year old man who has never been completely honest with anyone about anything and is now the leader of the free world, continuing to lie and fail on my watch.
When I am on my way to court, or to my office on Capitol Hill in business attire, I often get comments based on Mr. Obama's failings, lies and mistakes. By declaring himself the realization of MLK's dream, Obama's failings and associations with the likes of Al Sharpton have a ripple effect on younger Black men in the professional world--we are judged by the standard (high or low) that Obama sets.
Travel abroad is often embarrassing, having to endure jokes about Obama's dishonesty and incompetence and the inevitable "why do Black people support Obama when he does nothing for Black people" question.
Racism is horrible. No excuse for it whatsoever. There's also no excuse for making choices in life that exacerbate the racial divide, like so many in our community do.
As a Black man, the worst experiences of racism in my life have come from my race. I am a registered Republican who voted for Mitt Romney in 2012. I became a Republican after meeting Barack Obama in 2004 and out of disgust at what Obama, the mainstream media (Obama's fan club) did to Hillary Clinton and yes, Sarah Palin in 2008.
I cannot repeat the words spoken to me by other African Americans who learn that I oppose and often critique Mr. Obama, not out of spite, but because the President is a 54 year old man who has never been completely honest with anyone about anything and is now the leader of the free world, continuing to lie and fail on my watch.
When I am on my way to court, or to my office on Capitol Hill in business attire, I often get comments based on Mr. Obama's failings, lies and mistakes. By declaring himself the realization of MLK's dream, Obama's failings and associations with the likes of Al Sharpton have a ripple effect on younger Black men in the professional world--we are judged by the standard (high or low) that Obama sets.
Travel abroad is often embarrassing, having to endure jokes about Obama's dishonesty and incompetence and the inevitable "why do Black people support Obama when he does nothing for Black people" question.
Racism is horrible. No excuse for it whatsoever. There's also no excuse for making choices in life that exacerbate the racial divide, like so many in our community do.
3
Mike -Thank you, I totally agree, no one, especially African Americans, wants to talk about the various sub cultures that exist. While I certainly do think that racism continues to play a big role, there is a subculture who's main goal is to avoid "acting white", which unfortunately includes many of the things like doing homework, going to class every day and paying respect to the teacher, etc, that are required to be on the well worn path to success that you refer to.
Here is an example: I worked in Seattle as a mentor. One African American kid was on the path, got great grades, was respectful of his teachers, got into a great college. But he told me that he considered himself following an "Asian" example. I took this as his way to avoid being labeled as "acting white".
I was born in Detroit, went to school in a nearby city with black kids who's families had been part of the great migration from the south after WWI. These families were some of the most abused people you can imagine, for generations. It did not produce a culture with the advantages needed to get on this path, and perhaps gained resentment to that path. But academic success it is not a "white" path, it is common to many cultures.
However, I am sure that many black readers will point out the sad fact that even those who do follow this path are too often rejected anyhow, simply due to racism. But not all are, including our president. He followed this path.
Here is an example: I worked in Seattle as a mentor. One African American kid was on the path, got great grades, was respectful of his teachers, got into a great college. But he told me that he considered himself following an "Asian" example. I took this as his way to avoid being labeled as "acting white".
I was born in Detroit, went to school in a nearby city with black kids who's families had been part of the great migration from the south after WWI. These families were some of the most abused people you can imagine, for generations. It did not produce a culture with the advantages needed to get on this path, and perhaps gained resentment to that path. But academic success it is not a "white" path, it is common to many cultures.
However, I am sure that many black readers will point out the sad fact that even those who do follow this path are too often rejected anyhow, simply due to racism. But not all are, including our president. He followed this path.
3
"Actually, the more nuanced and sophisticated position is that personal choices are made within a social construct."
True, but social constructs are also the result of personal choices. Charles chooses to focus on the social effects of personal choices, but one can also focus on how personal choices affect social constructs.
At then end of the day, what "causes" these deaths is an impenetrable mixture of so many forces. It's almost futile to try to make a convincing argument about the measured effects of these causes. What one gets instead is a revelations of an individuals sensibilities.
True, but social constructs are also the result of personal choices. Charles chooses to focus on the social effects of personal choices, but one can also focus on how personal choices affect social constructs.
At then end of the day, what "causes" these deaths is an impenetrable mixture of so many forces. It's almost futile to try to make a convincing argument about the measured effects of these causes. What one gets instead is a revelations of an individuals sensibilities.
3
Different people react to oppression in different ways. The oppression is the central problem, not the oppressed people.
Harvard professor William Julius Wilson, in his illuminating book, “More Than Just Race: Being Black and Poor in the Inner City,” argues that if we as a country is serious about addressing the poverty and dire straits impacting impoverished communities across America, we “must consider not only how explicit racial structural forces directly contribute to inequality and concentrated poverty, but also how political actions and impersonal economic forces indirectly affect life in the inner city. Also important are the effects of national racial beliefs and cultural constraints that have emerged from years of racial isolation and chronic economic subordination.”
2
The US Government has spent more money on "The War on Poverty", ie, welfare to the minority communities than any other sector of our budget, including Defense spending since the 1960's. To blame the Caucasian community for any other communities' problems is false and to cry racism is irresponsible. Other groups have not only assimilated, but thrived in America, and without the the many billions of dollars of assistance that the African American community has received. Each individual has to look in the mirror and take responsibility for their own life and their own community. What is Mr. Blow doing to help his community?
22
There is a difference between people who come here freely seeking opportunity, and people who came here enslaved in chains and are suddenly "freed" into a noman's land alien culture rife with preconditioned forces of racial discrimination.
......not to mention the fact that the problem was complicated by the 'white flight' that always occurred when the infrastructure and resources of a particular area or region is 'used up' leaving the poor and the disadvantaged on their own to 'pick up the pieces' of the crumbling city or region.
Two centuries of half arsed conservative compromises designed to treat the symptoms rather than the problem itself has only served to 'root' rather than cure the problem. In my mind, its indicative of similar conservative efforts that are used to shield their ego's through 'wish fulfillment' rather than address contrarian realities, that is, to do everything that they can to confirm that these subhumans could never be as holy and righteous as them.
Slowly, but surely, these folks have attained some semblance of 'freedom' gotten the vote, and survived the plague of lack of opportunity, compromise, and neglect. It's progress, but at a pitiful level.
We could have achieved these results a lot more quickly and effectively with a holistic campaign designed to integrate rather than alienate (even if it did bruise a few egos).
There's big a difference between the power of hope and the wish fulfillment of systemic repression.
......not to mention the fact that the problem was complicated by the 'white flight' that always occurred when the infrastructure and resources of a particular area or region is 'used up' leaving the poor and the disadvantaged on their own to 'pick up the pieces' of the crumbling city or region.
Two centuries of half arsed conservative compromises designed to treat the symptoms rather than the problem itself has only served to 'root' rather than cure the problem. In my mind, its indicative of similar conservative efforts that are used to shield their ego's through 'wish fulfillment' rather than address contrarian realities, that is, to do everything that they can to confirm that these subhumans could never be as holy and righteous as them.
Slowly, but surely, these folks have attained some semblance of 'freedom' gotten the vote, and survived the plague of lack of opportunity, compromise, and neglect. It's progress, but at a pitiful level.
We could have achieved these results a lot more quickly and effectively with a holistic campaign designed to integrate rather than alienate (even if it did bruise a few egos).
There's big a difference between the power of hope and the wish fulfillment of systemic repression.
In the half century since the passage of the Civil Rights Act and the launching of the War on Poverty and the spending of trillions on various anti-poverty programs and the institutionalization of numerous affirmative action and diversity enhancement programs the African-American, by any statistical measure, is worse off than ever. What happened? Where did the money go?
17
The money was largely wasted, but did ultimately help to 'inch' the ball forward.
As Churchill once said: "Americans will alway do the right thing......after they've tried everything else". It a function of the 'conservative drag' that impedes the progress of civilization (whether or not it needs to be impeded).
People who came here enslaved and in chains, and had their family bonds and sense of dignity and community destroyed, are not the same as people who came here with a sense of freedom hope and a drive to better themselves.
We did throw a lot of bucks at it, but overall, we didn't handle the transition well.
That said, we now seem to be at a point where enough generations have passed, and enough repressed people have shown their mettle to begin to overcome the 'conservative drag' that has bound us for the past two centuries.
We should move forward in a more holistic and integrated way.
As Churchill once said: "Americans will alway do the right thing......after they've tried everything else". It a function of the 'conservative drag' that impedes the progress of civilization (whether or not it needs to be impeded).
People who came here enslaved and in chains, and had their family bonds and sense of dignity and community destroyed, are not the same as people who came here with a sense of freedom hope and a drive to better themselves.
We did throw a lot of bucks at it, but overall, we didn't handle the transition well.
That said, we now seem to be at a point where enough generations have passed, and enough repressed people have shown their mettle to begin to overcome the 'conservative drag' that has bound us for the past two centuries.
We should move forward in a more holistic and integrated way.
I find myself somewhere between Mr. Blow and those commenters who blame perpetrators of violence in the African-American community. I believe that structural racism and violence exist and that we as a society need to actively address these horrible burdens; oppressive structures always shape the "odds" that more people will behave destructively. However, I also believe that once a human being is habituated (by structures and his/her own choices), a change in environment won't be enough to ensure a change in that person's beliefs and behavior: individuals are always partly responsible for their own behavior and will have to exert some individual will to change. The upshot: I am not going to stand with Mr. Blow and blame all violence perpetrated by African-Americans on unjust structures, but I am going to stand against unjust structures because they exist and they cause great harm.
7
Give a man hope and he'll pursue it. Give a man without hope a gun and he'll shoot somebody.
We should be giving hope, even if the recipients initially perceive it as a con.
We should be giving hope, even if the recipients initially perceive it as a con.
Poverty is often used to excuse criminality among African Americans, but while African Americans are disproportionately poor, there are nearly three times as many poor whites than poor blacks. The most recent Census Bureau poverty report shows that in 2013 there were 29.9 million white Americans living below poverty level and 11 million black Americans living below poverty level. (Source: Table 3: People in Poverty by Selected Characteristics: 2012 and 2013, Income and Poverty in the United States: 2013.) Blacks make up about 27 percent of Americans living below poverty levels, but commit far more than 27 percent of crimes in every violent crimes category. For example, in 2013, the FBI Uniform Crime Report (Expanded Homicide Table 3) show that blacks committed 5,375 murders in 2013 while whites (including Hispanics) committed 4,396 murders.
14
Being white and poor is being invisible. Political compromises driven by conservatives, and the need for conservatives to fulfill the wish that 'black is wrong and/or dangerous', has made being black and poor a 'dark spot' to move away from and avoid.
We need to get over it. It's a waste of energy and human capital.
We need to get over it. It's a waste of energy and human capital.
Yes, black lives matter. Yes, both institutional and community violence matters. But what concrete steps need to be taken, by institutions and by the community, to reverse the cycle of hopelessness, anger, and violence? I understand Mayor Landrieu's frustration. Regardless of how we got here, here is where we are. The 94% who are struggling with the mayhem perpetrated on/by the 6%. Where do we want to be, and how do we, all of us, move toward that place?
5
Careful..........Landrieu's 6% is not all black.
The lack of hope and full integration has deeply rooted mistrust and 'alternative' economics for disenfranchised and impoverished people. However, just as the Italian Mob, the Irish Mob, the Jewish Mob, and the Hispanic Mob have managed to thrive between the cracks of economic repression and discrimination here in the US, a well enabled (even if less organized) 'black mob' along with hard won access to other 'windows of opportunity' finally appears to be catapulting these folks into the mainstream of US society.
Even though it's true that 'old mobs' don't like the rise of 'new mobs', we should find ways to organize a more effective and timely transition to full integration. Unity and common interest moves civilization forward.
The lack of hope and full integration has deeply rooted mistrust and 'alternative' economics for disenfranchised and impoverished people. However, just as the Italian Mob, the Irish Mob, the Jewish Mob, and the Hispanic Mob have managed to thrive between the cracks of economic repression and discrimination here in the US, a well enabled (even if less organized) 'black mob' along with hard won access to other 'windows of opportunity' finally appears to be catapulting these folks into the mainstream of US society.
Even though it's true that 'old mobs' don't like the rise of 'new mobs', we should find ways to organize a more effective and timely transition to full integration. Unity and common interest moves civilization forward.
I lived in a lower-income black community for 15 years, and I'll be the first to admit that historical racism has negatively impacted African-Americans. However, it CANNOT be the crutch on which all problems are blamed.
In my community, the school district spent millions of dollars to build a state-of-the-art high school. It serves around 700 students, nearly all black, and do you know how many parents usually show up for parent-teacher conferences there? Less than 20.
I'd like to know how racism caused that. Or how racism will be responsible for so many of those kids not valuing education and setting themselves up for failure in life. Is it also racism that causes a local convenience store to bar its doors every day as school lets out, because these same kids are known to swarm the store and steal everything they can?
Do we blame that on "structural forces" and absolve the kids and their parents of ANY responsibility? Apparently Charles Blow thinks so. But I bet he doesn't live anywhere near a neighborhood like mine.
In my community, the school district spent millions of dollars to build a state-of-the-art high school. It serves around 700 students, nearly all black, and do you know how many parents usually show up for parent-teacher conferences there? Less than 20.
I'd like to know how racism caused that. Or how racism will be responsible for so many of those kids not valuing education and setting themselves up for failure in life. Is it also racism that causes a local convenience store to bar its doors every day as school lets out, because these same kids are known to swarm the store and steal everything they can?
Do we blame that on "structural forces" and absolve the kids and their parents of ANY responsibility? Apparently Charles Blow thinks so. But I bet he doesn't live anywhere near a neighborhood like mine.
155
Comments like this would help. Thank you, shstl. Of course, we shall not blame the victim. But personal responsibility ought to be taught.
I also think enhanced "stop & frisk" is also a must. Minorities will be undeniably targeted. racial/ethnic profiling will sadly be inevitable. But if '100 humiliations can save at least one life' it's worth it, I believe. We have "experimental evidence" in the biggest city, NYC, with some 60% drop in murder rate, from over 1,000/yr to a little over 3xx/yr, which is just stunning. True very many black & hispanic men were humiliated in the process. But if 2 lives a day are saved, that's an undeniable benefit. As they say, "No pain, no gain."
I also think enhanced "stop & frisk" is also a must. Minorities will be undeniably targeted. racial/ethnic profiling will sadly be inevitable. But if '100 humiliations can save at least one life' it's worth it, I believe. We have "experimental evidence" in the biggest city, NYC, with some 60% drop in murder rate, from over 1,000/yr to a little over 3xx/yr, which is just stunning. True very many black & hispanic men were humiliated in the process. But if 2 lives a day are saved, that's an undeniable benefit. As they say, "No pain, no gain."
2
The main problem with "stop and frisk" is simple: Ask the people who live in these communities, and they will overwhelmingly say that they don't want it. DeBlasio was elected in part because he said he would end "stop and frisk". This is where a lot of liberals would say that people who live in these poor neighborhoods do not know what is good for them, and conservatives say that you have to have the consent of the governed in order to make laws work. If the people do not want "stop and frisk", do not impose upon them "stop and frisk". If you disagree, reach out to the local community activists and change their minds. Higher crime rates in communities who shun "stop and frisk" may just be the price of freedom. Even though it sounds risky, if not insane, at the end of the day, it is not our call.
1
That is a bit simplistic. The reason the parents might show up would include:
1. father in jail
2. mother working three jobs
3. father and mother working 2 jobs or more
4. the value of education was never stressed to the parents by their parents
5. mother in jail
6. student is ward of the court
7. mother and or father are addicts
8. there are other siblings at home that need supervision.
And the list goes on. These above reasons are an output of racism.
1. father in jail
2. mother working three jobs
3. father and mother working 2 jobs or more
4. the value of education was never stressed to the parents by their parents
5. mother in jail
6. student is ward of the court
7. mother and or father are addicts
8. there are other siblings at home that need supervision.
And the list goes on. These above reasons are an output of racism.
3
"Concentrated poverty is a direct result of structural inequity, and that concentrated poverty is attended by hopelessness and desperation, all of which are a prime breeding ground for violence".
No. Correlation is not causation.
All you have to do is study the murder rate per capita in Appalachia vis a vis any large American city. Go fish.
No. Correlation is not causation.
All you have to do is study the murder rate per capita in Appalachia vis a vis any large American city. Go fish.
20
So you're saying black skin makes people commit crimes. Do tell...
Mr. Blow's point is that racism is a cause of hopelessness, not merely poverty. You can't see that a poor white person has more opportunity than a poor black person? You must be very ignorant of American history.
Mr. Blow's point is that racism is a cause of hopelessness, not merely poverty. You can't see that a poor white person has more opportunity than a poor black person? You must be very ignorant of American history.
Let's talk about "opportunity". The poor white person has a higher standard to get into better colleges. The white person doesn't have to only meet a quota threshold in order to gain a well paying government job.
Both get poor performing schools, monetary hurdles and difficult family life. I feel for anyone under those circumstances. Are you saying I should feel differently for black people?
Both get poor performing schools, monetary hurdles and difficult family life. I feel for anyone under those circumstances. Are you saying I should feel differently for black people?
Yes, I am. Is a poor white person looked at with suspicion thousands of times in their life simply because of the color of their skin? My point is that yes, in a nation where a class of people didn't have basic human rights a mere 50 years ago racism does, in fact, exist. Affirmative action is like a band-aid on a beheaded body, and you claim it is too generous. Sad.
The well known and accepted epidemiological triad can be applied.
Violence is a disease. It's ubiquitous: Race, religion, ethnicity are irrelevant. Environment is dramatically important. Our inner cities where the impoverished exist, can be better compared to violent nations in other parts of the world, than to other neighborhoods in the very same cities.
Let's say you are depressed and poor. A drug dealer, (external agent) at first pats you on the back, then gives you some free intoxicant to feel better. Then the pitch, "Hey buddy, wanna make sone easy money tonight?"
The standard model of infectious disease causation:
(1) an external agent
(2) a susceptible host
(3) an environment that brings the host and agent together for disease to occur.
Violence is a disease. It's ubiquitous: Race, religion, ethnicity are irrelevant. Environment is dramatically important. Our inner cities where the impoverished exist, can be better compared to violent nations in other parts of the world, than to other neighborhoods in the very same cities.
Let's say you are depressed and poor. A drug dealer, (external agent) at first pats you on the back, then gives you some free intoxicant to feel better. Then the pitch, "Hey buddy, wanna make sone easy money tonight?"
The standard model of infectious disease causation:
(1) an external agent
(2) a susceptible host
(3) an environment that brings the host and agent together for disease to occur.
4
Charles has finally turned his attention to the real source of the problem -- Black on Black crime. Good. Now you need to address the problem objectively and come up with some solutions, not just it's all White folks fault.
Yes, there has been discrimination. But if Charles would look at things objectively he'd note that Blacks also are the beneficiaries of positive discrimination as well. In today's wall street, an op-ed piece notes that Asians have to score 450 points higher than Blacks (and 140 points higher than whites) to be considered "equal" applicants. That's not a trivial advantage. Opportunities are there.
But I'l agree there has been past discrimination. But even if some discrimination exists today what options are available to Blacks? Quit trying? Join gangs? Drugs? Devastate their families? Or -- is it, as every group that has even been discriminated against, work hard, achieve, strengthen the community, the family.
I'd suggest we as a country do some things: Legalize drugs (eliminate gang control of the drug trade and quit sending people to prison) control the schools by police force if necessary --control the kids that act out and disrupt those trying to achieve. Education is critical and blindly throwing more $$$ has not been effective.
Then I'd demand the Black community do its part. Families need to stay together, parents need to work, money needs to be reinvested, kids need guidance. Eliminate gangs. Respect authority.
Yes, there has been discrimination. But if Charles would look at things objectively he'd note that Blacks also are the beneficiaries of positive discrimination as well. In today's wall street, an op-ed piece notes that Asians have to score 450 points higher than Blacks (and 140 points higher than whites) to be considered "equal" applicants. That's not a trivial advantage. Opportunities are there.
But I'l agree there has been past discrimination. But even if some discrimination exists today what options are available to Blacks? Quit trying? Join gangs? Drugs? Devastate their families? Or -- is it, as every group that has even been discriminated against, work hard, achieve, strengthen the community, the family.
I'd suggest we as a country do some things: Legalize drugs (eliminate gang control of the drug trade and quit sending people to prison) control the schools by police force if necessary --control the kids that act out and disrupt those trying to achieve. Education is critical and blindly throwing more $$$ has not been effective.
Then I'd demand the Black community do its part. Families need to stay together, parents need to work, money needs to be reinvested, kids need guidance. Eliminate gangs. Respect authority.
16
In the age of Affirmative Action, a growing black middle class, significant presence of African-Americans at all level of government and education, the lament of "institutional racism" rings very hollow. Enough. We have been hearing this from the apologists since the 60s and it is an old and tattered screed that people do not see reflected in their daily lives and do not believe.
If as a subculture you do not respect the values that are the building blocks of a successful life in the larger culture, yes, you will stay mired at the lowest rungs of the socio-economic ladder. As an example, if you do not get an education or develop skills to sell in the marketplace you will have a difficult time advancing materially. If you haven't done that, the fault is yours and not some amorphous institutionalized racism.
If you do not form a stable home with the mother of your children, if you are not around to guide their maturation, do not expect those children to grow into law abiding peaceful citizens.
If you decide that selling illegal drugs is an easier way to make money than hard work for 40 hours a week, don't blame institutionalized racism when you get shot by a competitor.
If you are part of a subculture whose entertainment extolls violence, mistreatment of women and drug use, and idolizes the gun, do not blame institutionalized racism when your young people emulate this behavior.
African-Americans who reject the above behavior appear to do just fine in America.
If as a subculture you do not respect the values that are the building blocks of a successful life in the larger culture, yes, you will stay mired at the lowest rungs of the socio-economic ladder. As an example, if you do not get an education or develop skills to sell in the marketplace you will have a difficult time advancing materially. If you haven't done that, the fault is yours and not some amorphous institutionalized racism.
If you do not form a stable home with the mother of your children, if you are not around to guide their maturation, do not expect those children to grow into law abiding peaceful citizens.
If you decide that selling illegal drugs is an easier way to make money than hard work for 40 hours a week, don't blame institutionalized racism when you get shot by a competitor.
If you are part of a subculture whose entertainment extolls violence, mistreatment of women and drug use, and idolizes the gun, do not blame institutionalized racism when your young people emulate this behavior.
African-Americans who reject the above behavior appear to do just fine in America.
26
Narrowing the topic to the 6% of the population who end up involved in gun violence is a start towards attempting to find a cure to the disease. I would imagine that this particular group is similar to those in Hispanic, Caucasian, Pacific Islander or Asian members of gangs or street violence. Most young men & women join gangs in order to feel a sense of belonging in a world that has closed the doors to opportunity for them. Whether there are broken homes with unstable parenting, a history of substance abuse during pregnancy and early childhood by the mother, lack of nurturance in the home including spending quality time with the child, violence in the neighborhood shattering the young child's sense of security & creating a "hardened" personality in order to survive on the streets, a sub culture that doesn't value education and often mocks those who attempt to learn as "school boys," lack of emotional bonding between parents and their children or just general neglect if not downright physical, emotional or sexual abuse. The gang respects the outcast as a full fledged member as long as the individual demonstrates loyalty to the "crew" and is willing to do anything to belong. Of course, larger societal inequities are at play including lack of opportunity to relocate due to poverty or systematic exclusion by landlords. It's almost as if society is creating a 6% binder of throwaway children who know deep down inside that no one cares about them, particularly themselves.
4
This is a bland and evasive way to claim "I care" without proposing any solution and without backing away from Blow's earlier pontifications that oppose law enforcement which is -- of course -- the only thing there is to protect the law-abiding from the law breakers who murder the innocent.
8
Your arguments are so well written and so persuasive but just as no one woke up "with a burning desire to live one the poorest, most violent parts of our cities", I doubt many woke up with a burning desire to become a police officer and ensure continued racial inequality and violence. But here is blame for racist culture instead of racial culture. Is it possible this might sometimes be reversed unfairly as well?
2
This author's theory of "trickle down optimism" is as faulty and dangerous as the theory of "trickle down economics." #1: No one does all the right things nor makes all the right decisions. This is a poisonous lie sold to social workers, politicians, investigative reporters and zealots of both the liberal and conservative stripes. Countless well-meaning grants are given out to organizations and people who earnestly believe they have the one right answer. Even EBP's (Evidence Based Practices) cannot guarantee "doing and choosing all the right things." Many efficacious programs/solutions are now in the waste basket because they cannot afford the cost of becoming evidence based. I digress.
#2: Were we all to be guaranteed "complete protection," the human race would possibly become extinct.
#3: Rage is not a four letter word. The simple explanation for the importance of anger, depression, and other "not optimistic emotions" can be seen in "Inside Out".
Eternal optimism is a recipe for oppression.
#2: Were we all to be guaranteed "complete protection," the human race would possibly become extinct.
#3: Rage is not a four letter word. The simple explanation for the importance of anger, depression, and other "not optimistic emotions" can be seen in "Inside Out".
Eternal optimism is a recipe for oppression.
1
I remember an incident that occurred when I lived in New Orleans in the 90's: Mayor Marc Morial, in response to a spike in the number of killings, reasoned that New Orleans had about the same number of murders as Houston. When a reporter mentioned that Houston was four times larger than New Orleans, which meant the murder rate in New Orleans was four times higher, Morial response was to the effect that he was focused on the number of murders, not the rate. New Orleans, like Chicago, has ignored their problems for decades. Incidentally, they both have been run by Democrats. Perhaps it's time to call a spade a spade?
9
Seriously?!
1
There is community violence, state violence and violence by terrorists, as recently practiced by Dylann Roof. All are connected and are having dismal effects on the blacks. All of them are deeply rooted in American culture and will prove difficult to eradicate. State and terrorist violence against blacks will ultimately prove more susceptible to positive change because
efforts to do so will be largely supported by whites . Black-against-black violence in the cities will be much harder to deal with, because whites generally regard this as a problem that black people will have to handle alone.
efforts to do so will be largely supported by whites . Black-against-black violence in the cities will be much harder to deal with, because whites generally regard this as a problem that black people will have to handle alone.
3
Make that:
"as a problem that black people are primarily responsible for and will have to handle alone."
"as a problem that black people are primarily responsible for and will have to handle alone."
2
What about personal responsibilities? I could be wrong, but it's as if you're either saying that back on black violence is caused by structural problems, and lack of access and it is therefore someone else's (white man?, government?) problem to fix or you're saying that being poor, honest and non-violent are mutually exclusive?
Not everyone in our poor communities is out there terrorizing and gang banging. An interesting question should be, how is it that some families are able to keep their kids from gangs give them an education whilst there are so many violent hurdles.
Those families who strive for a better future for their kids deserve our outrage against this violence. They deserve for us to be each other's brothers keeper but not just against crimes committed by the state.
Not everyone in our poor communities is out there terrorizing and gang banging. An interesting question should be, how is it that some families are able to keep their kids from gangs give them an education whilst there are so many violent hurdles.
Those families who strive for a better future for their kids deserve our outrage against this violence. They deserve for us to be each other's brothers keeper but not just against crimes committed by the state.
45
Thanks, Charles. America does once again need to 'tune in' to inner city violence and economic poverty after 'tuning out' for almost 20 years. Let's hope the lessons that those communities have learned: supporting youth leadership and youth development projects, offering after school opportunities, encouraging safe neighborhood zones, developing at risk support networks, reducing the flow of illegal firearms, growing summer job opportunities, are not forgotten as we continue to watch many of our cities regrow and redevelop their urban cores.
2
When a Scandinavian economist boasted to Friedman that "in Scandinavia we have no poverty." Milton Friedman replied, 'That's interesting, because in America, among Scandinavians, we have no poverty, either'
Its foolish and purposely ignorant to underestimate the importance of culture.
Its foolish and purposely ignorant to underestimate the importance of culture.
54
It's equally foolish and ignorant to ignore history and racism.
1
Very well. We already know what a lot of those factors are: family structure, community support, role models of decency and success. The challenge is to provide them in the context of perpetual economic disadvantage and social discrimination. Many of those who do attain a better outcome are blessed with simple, random good luck: academic intelligence, innate talent, appealing temperament, social desirability. But everyone deserves a fair chance, not just those born lucky.
3
DEJA VU Reading Charles Blow's comments carried me back jarringly and unwillingly to the 60s, when the nation first addressed the need to provide civil rights to all citizens, especially African Americans. What have we been doing all these 50 years as a society? Marching in place? Going backward? Our failure, going by statistics alone, are cataclysmic! Shameful! I grieve that there will be no easy fix. Especially since 1980 when the game was rigged, tilted toward the 1% with general disenfranchisement of the 99% To say that misery loves company is cold comfort. Insulting. But there's been a war against the middle class, who are now starting to feel the unremitting hopelessness that minority groups have endured since time immemorial. I think a first step would be more effective gun control laws. 90% of voters and 75% of members of the NRA are in favor of them. So rising up against the 25% who threaten the safety of the 100% looks like a good idea. Easier said than done. They own so many politicians and can and will kill all who oppose them. In 1973, I lost my beloved cousin, Fern Toby Newman to gun violence at age 19. She was brilliant, going to finish college in 3 years and was gunned down by an ex-boyfriend who then killed himself with a drug overdose. For me, and I suspect, for many others, gun violence is not an abstraction. Not something that happens to others. It happened to me and my family. None of us is safe till all are safe!
3
If there is American exceptionalism, then there is surely African-American exceptionalism. Bloated with the meteoric rises of cultural figures, the rest can only look up at a life they'll never lead. I reserve harsh judgment for a "community" that is so prideful as to demand from the others, yet never relinquish dependence on posing as the "other" for personal gain. A sham, and the best American myth going. Taller than Paul Bunyan and fatter than his blue ox...
According to the article, six percent of the population is responsible for the bulk of the murders. It notes that impact of these crimes is extensive, as it poisons community life.
It is is a virtual certainty that these "six percenters" are known throughout the community, yet they are rarely reported to the police. The "no snitching" culture reflects a loss of a moral compass.
The quality life in these communities would be improved overnight by purging these murderers and thieves from their ranks, but it is never done.
Mr. Blow looks everywhere but in the most likely place for an explanation. It is a pity. Since he enjoys a unique position that could help provoke change.
It is is a virtual certainty that these "six percenters" are known throughout the community, yet they are rarely reported to the police. The "no snitching" culture reflects a loss of a moral compass.
The quality life in these communities would be improved overnight by purging these murderers and thieves from their ranks, but it is never done.
Mr. Blow looks everywhere but in the most likely place for an explanation. It is a pity. Since he enjoys a unique position that could help provoke change.
24
The "no snitching" culture is born out of the relationship that law enforcement has with many poor minority communities. Inhumane treatment and structural inequality leveled against minority members via law enforcement creates a poisonous atmosphere where trust evaporates. How do you trust law enforcement when they are perceived as the enemy? More must be done to rebuild these fractured relationships. Responsibility, as always, is a two way street.
How much trust is needed when the reporting process is totally anonymous ? Answer : none.
1
Intra-community violence, particularly in black communities has been a matter of community concern for decades. The number of black community rallies marches, church programs, youth athletic projects and similar practices are, as you pointed out, so common and so numerous that they are no longer reported.
I watched a documentary of a young man in Chicago who acquired a gun and was planing to shoot another young man who had "dissed" him on Facebook. When asked why he felt he needed to do this, he responded that "when you have nothing else your respect is all you've got left, so i can't let him take that away too."
What stayed with me was the sense that he "had nothing else." No accomplishments, no future, no way out of his despair that had become a social depression throughout his neighborhood, and no way of seeing any options other than to have a shootout over being disrespected.
As I think of that young man and the many thousands like him i see an entire generation slowly committing collective suicide. A few kill themselves, but most simply put themselves in situations where they will be killed by someone else who will then follow the pattern and also be killed.
We have created communities where despair has squeezed hope and expectation out of these young men and they don't believe they have anything to live for. And so they die and take other with them and we are left with binders and photos and the lingering sense that their failures are also our own.
I watched a documentary of a young man in Chicago who acquired a gun and was planing to shoot another young man who had "dissed" him on Facebook. When asked why he felt he needed to do this, he responded that "when you have nothing else your respect is all you've got left, so i can't let him take that away too."
What stayed with me was the sense that he "had nothing else." No accomplishments, no future, no way out of his despair that had become a social depression throughout his neighborhood, and no way of seeing any options other than to have a shootout over being disrespected.
As I think of that young man and the many thousands like him i see an entire generation slowly committing collective suicide. A few kill themselves, but most simply put themselves in situations where they will be killed by someone else who will then follow the pattern and also be killed.
We have created communities where despair has squeezed hope and expectation out of these young men and they don't believe they have anything to live for. And so they die and take other with them and we are left with binders and photos and the lingering sense that their failures are also our own.
9
The Black Lives Matter movement has been almost exclusively focused on police abuses, some genuine, some fabricated, but all statistically insignificant. If the leaders and followers of the movement truly cared about Black lives and believed that all Black lives matter, then they would be focused on what Mr. Blow refers to as community violence, from which the vast majority of Black lives are lost. The bottom line is that an agenda and a narrative are more important to the leaders of the Black Lives Matter movement than are actual Black lives. While we should expect police to treat all citizens with respect and within the law, a politicized campaign against the police is counterproductive to protecting Black lives. The police in Black communities are a force, too often one of the few forces, trying to defend Black lives at risk. But the Black Lives Matter movement favors persecuting a police officer like Officer Darren Wilson, who was faithfully performing his duty at the risk of his own life, over protecting the community from a criminal like Michael Brown.
33
Sadly, too few are talking openly, candidly, and honestly about the causes and consequences of long term inequality, racism, and poverty. Even less are talking about these relative to the Black Community, except in the context of violence, and it's standard smoke screen, and grand White America Distraction and excuse: *Black On Black Violence.*
It's far too common and easy to point fingers at Black Americans and say:
1) "You cause a very high percentage of the crime in this country."
2) "*Blacks killing Blacks* is the Number One cause of death among Black Youth. Come back and talk to the rest of us when you have addressed both of these issues, otherwise, Shut Up!"
3) "Mr. Blow is Black, which of course just makes him an apologist for the ills of the Black Community and their role in their own failure to thrive..."
The systemic, structural, and historical elements in American social, political, and economic policy that have never effectively addressed America's indifference, and the overall Root Causes of the problems, just means that we will continue to try to "solve" Black inequality - while leaving the causes and constraints that perpetuate all the problems still in place. Poor Black Communities still exist, as do the policies that keep Blacks in such communities. The Prison/Justice System to corral and contain Black Poverty's consequences on the rest of us still exists too. Both need radical change - and real acknowledgement from ALL of us.
It's far too common and easy to point fingers at Black Americans and say:
1) "You cause a very high percentage of the crime in this country."
2) "*Blacks killing Blacks* is the Number One cause of death among Black Youth. Come back and talk to the rest of us when you have addressed both of these issues, otherwise, Shut Up!"
3) "Mr. Blow is Black, which of course just makes him an apologist for the ills of the Black Community and their role in their own failure to thrive..."
The systemic, structural, and historical elements in American social, political, and economic policy that have never effectively addressed America's indifference, and the overall Root Causes of the problems, just means that we will continue to try to "solve" Black inequality - while leaving the causes and constraints that perpetuate all the problems still in place. Poor Black Communities still exist, as do the policies that keep Blacks in such communities. The Prison/Justice System to corral and contain Black Poverty's consequences on the rest of us still exists too. Both need radical change - and real acknowledgement from ALL of us.
5
"Poor Black Communities still exist, as do the policies that keep Blacks in such communities. "
What policies would those be? Please be specific.
Would those policies be Affirmative Action, Head Start, or SNAP? My mistake, those are programs designed to help people out of poverty, not keeping them impoverished and downtrodden.
The problem with proponents of the "institutional racism as the cause of black inner-city evils" argument is that it doesn't remotely comport with the reality that most of us see every day. And have seen for years now. Proponents of that theory always remind me of the old vaudevillian retort, "Who are you gonna believe, me or your lying eyes?"
What policies would those be? Please be specific.
Would those policies be Affirmative Action, Head Start, or SNAP? My mistake, those are programs designed to help people out of poverty, not keeping them impoverished and downtrodden.
The problem with proponents of the "institutional racism as the cause of black inner-city evils" argument is that it doesn't remotely comport with the reality that most of us see every day. And have seen for years now. Proponents of that theory always remind me of the old vaudevillian retort, "Who are you gonna believe, me or your lying eyes?"
1
Mr. Blow beautifully illustrates the differences between racial culture & racist culture (the pull yourself up by your own bootstraps people).
Some of the latter seem to be featured among the responders to this column.
Mr. Brooks writes, "People don't simply wake up one day with a burning desire to live in the poorest, most violent parts of our cities."
My epiphany came during a diversity course I was lucky enough to take.
The people that Mr. Blow writes about were red-lined out of many communities (ie. Levittown) during the post WWII return of soldiers of color.
These African American patriots were denied the opportunity to build financial "assets" that a mortgage offered their white "brethren".
Today, Levittown is 94% white & 0.5% black. I wouldn't want to live there.
Some of the latter seem to be featured among the responders to this column.
Mr. Brooks writes, "People don't simply wake up one day with a burning desire to live in the poorest, most violent parts of our cities."
My epiphany came during a diversity course I was lucky enough to take.
The people that Mr. Blow writes about were red-lined out of many communities (ie. Levittown) during the post WWII return of soldiers of color.
These African American patriots were denied the opportunity to build financial "assets" that a mortgage offered their white "brethren".
Today, Levittown is 94% white & 0.5% black. I wouldn't want to live there.
5
Regarding the tragic killing of this young child by a bullet meant for his father, it is worth noting that, according to the Bible, the results of sin pass down through the generations. In ( Exodus 20:5) ........" I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and fourth generation of those who reject me". The best thing that could happen to these troubled neighborhoods is an old fashioned religious revival.
2
There are too many things that need fixing: ethnicity, ghetto living, job availability, education that has meaning, desperation . . . these are overwhelming problems, and when you include them in the other problems that government is attempting to negotiate, or fix, there aren't many ways to turn. I wish with all my heart that there were ready answers.
It will take incredible effort by the powers outside and inside these suffering communities to effect a change. Perhaps it is fair to say that our priorities are wrong. (I'm trying hard not to bring up guns.)
For sure, the answer does not lie in the area of Donald Trumps', "Build a Wall" solution.
It will take incredible effort by the powers outside and inside these suffering communities to effect a change. Perhaps it is fair to say that our priorities are wrong. (I'm trying hard not to bring up guns.)
For sure, the answer does not lie in the area of Donald Trumps', "Build a Wall" solution.
4
Am appreciative that Mr. Blow is talented enough as a writer and journalist to merit a column in the NYT.My criticism is as follows. Can't speak for other readers, but I find his sole emphasis that African Americans r victims of racial injustice, and that the US is a racist country to have become somewhat tiresome. Tapping on the same nail, time and time again, is tedious. I compare him to a French historian, Benjamin Stora,like Blow, advocate of the "pensee unique(political correctness)," and specialist on France's ALGERIAN WAR, who, one day, said to himself,"J'en ai le ras bol(I've had it)," and decided to find another theme besides, for example, French war crimes in Algeria and the evils of colonialism. People become tired easily of being hit on the head with the same hammer. Meeting with the Mayor of NO doesn't show initiative! Blow could also learn from another journalist, Breslin, who believed the only way to get a story was by using shank's pony, and getting down with the folk. Blow is doing himself a disservice by not doing so. Finally, a grand irony:My hunch is most of his readership is white, upper middle class, college educated. I doubt whether the majority of working class African Americans have ever heard of him.In contrast to BLOW'S incessant complaining about this country, there is my wife, Ghanaian born, with r son Alister Hall, who proudly proclaims:"Maintenant, je suis aux Etat-Unis(I am a US citizen)!"She would be perplexed, by Blow's negativity.
8
Not just blacks. On my street I heard fire works until 2 a.m. No one could sleep.
In my backyard teak furniture was turned topsy turvy and thrown into a faraway heap. One chair cannot be repaired. The umbrella and its heavy stand were toppled. I had to call a strong man to put all back in their places.
I guess I should be glad it was only furniture, but I am still angry and am weary and disheartened with such unnecessary nonsense. When I first moved here, my jack o' lanterns on the front porch were smashed, so I put them in the backyard, with the same result. I gave up.
Nice, clean fun no longer is tolerated. Seems murder and mayhem are today's "fun." The press more and more speaks only of such, in our land and around the globe, which only heightens this stuff.
In my backyard teak furniture was turned topsy turvy and thrown into a faraway heap. One chair cannot be repaired. The umbrella and its heavy stand were toppled. I had to call a strong man to put all back in their places.
I guess I should be glad it was only furniture, but I am still angry and am weary and disheartened with such unnecessary nonsense. When I first moved here, my jack o' lanterns on the front porch were smashed, so I put them in the backyard, with the same result. I gave up.
Nice, clean fun no longer is tolerated. Seems murder and mayhem are today's "fun." The press more and more speaks only of such, in our land and around the globe, which only heightens this stuff.
4
Alas, Mr. Blow, I can't go down this road with you. I'm a father. When this Antonio Brown creature is more wedded to the gang's code and culture and allows his son's killers to go in identified and unpunished, how does the mantra "Black Lives Matter" resonate with biological donors like this man? Poverty, lack of opportunity, racism, all the usual suspects of excuse and blame find no sympathy with me in this unhappy situation. Mr. Brown gives all the haters their ammunition (no pun intended). If his son's young life could be extinguished by a missed shot, one asks how a better life for the "father" would have prolonged the boy's existence. Society can't take the hit for this one, Mr. Blow.
50
After viewing CNN's "Chicagoland" last year, my wife and I haven't stopped thinking and lamenting the brutal, sad circumstance of the section of the city that was profiled.
We learned that gangs fill voids - they offer something where there is nothing. If gangs (and drugs) are the primary causes for most of the murders and gun violence, shouldn't we all be focused on creating whatever will keep that "void" from eventuating?
We learned that gangs fill voids - they offer something where there is nothing. If gangs (and drugs) are the primary causes for most of the murders and gun violence, shouldn't we all be focused on creating whatever will keep that "void" from eventuating?
6
Racism and class bias (thank you, Richard Luettgen) are major components of the problem Charles Blow so eloquently describes. Another factor, however, is the individualist ethos that forms the core of Americans' sense of identity. Our system guarantees each of us considerable legal freedom to shape our own lives and then holds us responsible for the results. This philosophy, superficially just, ignores the serious constraints that make a mockery of that 'freedom' for many people and the outside help that contributes to the success of others. The structural factors to which Mr. Blow refers are ignored by critics who cite examples of individuals who escape the cycle of poverty, allegedly simply through their own efforts. I used to tell my students that no one achieves much in this life without substantial help from others. Even in this age of widespread distrust of the state, it must be clear that the intractable poverty of our cities requires that the 'others' who will help include all levels of government. Individualism is a noble ideal, but in the context of the ghetto its promises cannot be fulfilled. Hillary Clinton is right. It does take a village.
7
Thank you, once again, for presenting a humane and complex way of understanding violence, both that inflicted by the police and by people in the community. They are connected to each other historically, and this violence implicates all of us in the United States. Black people (contrary to the assertions of some in this discussion) are no more naturally violent than any other human beings. Nor is this a case of "Blow blaming the Man" once again.
We white people need to look seriously at the history and present reality of white supremacy. I say that not to make anyone guilty or to ask anyone to apologize - but we need to analyze (and do something about) the structure of American society that has developed since the beginning of the American colonies.
I'm living in Germany this year and I've been very impressed by the culture of remembrance in Germany about the Holocaust. Children learn about it in school and go on trips to the sites of the concentration camps. Cities and towns have places of remembrance - for example, in the city where I am living, there is a memorial in the downtown area at the place where the synagogue was destroyed in 1938 by the Nazis. The Germans I have met are still grappling with what it means to come from the country that murdered six million Jews. And they are dealing with it not by turning away or making excuses. I think we in the US need to follow their lead.
We white people need to look seriously at the history and present reality of white supremacy. I say that not to make anyone guilty or to ask anyone to apologize - but we need to analyze (and do something about) the structure of American society that has developed since the beginning of the American colonies.
I'm living in Germany this year and I've been very impressed by the culture of remembrance in Germany about the Holocaust. Children learn about it in school and go on trips to the sites of the concentration camps. Cities and towns have places of remembrance - for example, in the city where I am living, there is a memorial in the downtown area at the place where the synagogue was destroyed in 1938 by the Nazis. The Germans I have met are still grappling with what it means to come from the country that murdered six million Jews. And they are dealing with it not by turning away or making excuses. I think we in the US need to follow their lead.
7
"Structual oppression" has never pulled a trigger. It's always a person,ie,"personal responsibility."
16
Instead of "“trickle down optimism” blacks are treated with overt contempt. So it is in human history. Whom men would exploit, they first dehumanize. If we deprive people of the means of self-improvement, what should we expect? I saw so much of this in Irish history that it appalls me that there are so many racists in the ranks of Irish Americans (alongside the saints).
4
Another question should also be posed and answered: how much of this inner city violence is associated with the illegal drug trade and the concurrent market enforcement which goes along with this underground economy. If a significant portion of this violence is associated with the drug trade, then another approach should be considered that of decriminalization or legalization of drugs which would eliminate the need for intercity gangs to enforce and control their turf in order to protect their illicit businesses.
1
We don't allow guns in jails or mental institutions, for obvious reasons. Unfortunately, these high crime urban areas are in the same mental universe as prisons and mental hospitals, and so perhaps guns possession should be restricted there? Most gun crimes in the US are committed by young men between the ages of 15 to 25 in these high crime urban areas. Subtract out this demographic and the US has a gun crime rate as low as northern Europe, despite the much higher rate of gun ownership.
10
These high-crime urban areas are where we already have the most strict gun control laws.
2
Is this the best you can offer? Why don't we try to remedy some of America's cultural norms (racism and oppression) rather than limiting the rights and prerogatives of a segment of its citizenry?
Those guns are all illegal to begin with. Stop & Frisk? That would be viewed as racist and is arguably unconstitutional
1
I agree with everything you said, Charles, but will add one more sometimes over-looked factor. I remember reading some years ago that New Orleans had one of the highest murder rates in the country - and the lowest conviction rate. In places like the 5th and 9th wards there was, for all practical purposes, no law enforcement and everyone knew it.
After Katrina, a significant number of people from those wards moved here to the Atlanta area and one of my sons is friends with several of them. What they described sounds like a pulp novel version of the wild west. With essentially no law, there were a lot of revenge killings and feuds between families and groups that simply never ended. One of them recalled as a pre-teen riding in a car with his father and handing him shotgun shells to re-load as he drove along firing at the houses of some 'enemy' group.
For those who think this is somehow endemic to the black population, imagine the police announcing that they are ceasing all law enforcement in some working or lower middle class white neighborhood, and then imagine what that will look like 20 years from now.
So much history and so many factors, but the "don't care" attitude of police forces in many areas has often been a huge factor.
After Katrina, a significant number of people from those wards moved here to the Atlanta area and one of my sons is friends with several of them. What they described sounds like a pulp novel version of the wild west. With essentially no law, there were a lot of revenge killings and feuds between families and groups that simply never ended. One of them recalled as a pre-teen riding in a car with his father and handing him shotgun shells to re-load as he drove along firing at the houses of some 'enemy' group.
For those who think this is somehow endemic to the black population, imagine the police announcing that they are ceasing all law enforcement in some working or lower middle class white neighborhood, and then imagine what that will look like 20 years from now.
So much history and so many factors, but the "don't care" attitude of police forces in many areas has often been a huge factor.
16
On the one hand people who hold your views on the police will decry the "mass incarceration" of young black people. ( It is referred to as a "war on black men," the implication being that they are being incarcerated for no legitimate reason and only because of there race. Proof positive, they say, of a deeply racist society.) Those incarcerated are so because the police were doing their jobs.
On the other hand, you want to simultaneously disparage the police for not doing their jobs and allowing unfettered violence in black inner-city neighborhoods.
Which is it?
The "'don't care' attitude" you allege the police practice would appear to be pretty inconsistent with the number of arrested, convicted and incarcerated African-Americans.
It's been 6 or 7 generations since slavery. When do we start to look honestly at racial culture and try to determine whether cultural norms are hindering the advancement of black Americans and not institutionalized racism.
And just for the record, can you please cite a source for the announcement by the police somewhere that they were ceasing all law enforcement somewhere. Utter nonsense.
On the other hand, you want to simultaneously disparage the police for not doing their jobs and allowing unfettered violence in black inner-city neighborhoods.
Which is it?
The "'don't care' attitude" you allege the police practice would appear to be pretty inconsistent with the number of arrested, convicted and incarcerated African-Americans.
It's been 6 or 7 generations since slavery. When do we start to look honestly at racial culture and try to determine whether cultural norms are hindering the advancement of black Americans and not institutionalized racism.
And just for the record, can you please cite a source for the announcement by the police somewhere that they were ceasing all law enforcement somewhere. Utter nonsense.
2
African American, and all lives matter. White culture in the United States is ultimately responsible for the conditions that African Americans, and other minorities, live under today. White culture was responsible for slavery, and that when slavery was legal, it was actually illegal to educate the slave population. That social premise existed for at least 200 years. The civil rights act of 1964 is not too long ago. Racial discrimination continues today. I see it first hand because I am in a mixed race relationship.
Today (I believe Jimmy Carter turns 90) we should consider, and implement federal and state programs that will put people to work, boost their level of education, and help them realize and understand that the nation cares about all of the people. Jimmy Carter tried to do so in the 70's. The nation rebelled and elected Reagan. Perhaps we have matured as a country. I certainly hope so.
Today (I believe Jimmy Carter turns 90) we should consider, and implement federal and state programs that will put people to work, boost their level of education, and help them realize and understand that the nation cares about all of the people. Jimmy Carter tried to do so in the 70's. The nation rebelled and elected Reagan. Perhaps we have matured as a country. I certainly hope so.
33
Isn't implementing federal and state programs to help people a part of white culture as much as embracing slavery as a means to an end. Are you aware in history that the British forbade the Irish to attend school or speak their native language on their native soil as well as used them as workhorses to fuel the British economy. This is an example of White on White oppression which was cruel and inhumane similar to the African chiefs who sold off rival clans to the White slave traders. How do you explain the extreme cruelty of the Japanese during WWII against the Chinese, Koreans & Indonesians interning them in cruel war camps or as slave laborers and forcing women to work as "comfort girls" for their troops. What is the Black culture of countries like Rwanda, Sudan, Papua New Guinea, Somalia, Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso, etc. that torture, rape & mutilate members of opposing tribes. What is the Black culture of Boko Haram that kidnaps young girls and uses them as sex slaves or massacres innocent civilians simply because they are Christians? I'm tired of the good Black vs. evil White scenario that is perpetuated by many liberals. Why not tell the truth that people of all races are capable of extreme cruelty, hatred & oppression, not just the evil white Europeans. If you want to see a book of the Dead, just look at the faces of dead soldiers who fought in WWI, II, Vietnam, Korea, Iraq & Afghanistan & you'll see white, black, brown & Asian faces who took up arms.
4
The recent spate of well-publicized deaths of black Americans (thank you social media) has made me belatedly aware of the fear that blacks live with every day, and have lived with since the first slave set foot on this land. Black families are never safe, and never have been. From slavery where families were arbitrarily split and sold, to Jim Crow to now - a parent never knows whether his/her child will come home again); a wife/husband never knows whether his/her partner will come home again. Leaving one's home is an act of courage, yet staying home isn't safe either. The psychic toll has to be immense. All the education and nice clothes aren't a protection, either.
This is something those of us lucky enough to have been born white do not live with. I can try to empathize, but I don't really know what this is like. And never will, due to the accident of my pale skin.
No one should ever have to live this way. We owe everyone in this country a safe life - and that does mean correcting the foundational problems of poverty and despair, not just blaming blacks yet again.
This is something those of us lucky enough to have been born white do not live with. I can try to empathize, but I don't really know what this is like. And never will, due to the accident of my pale skin.
No one should ever have to live this way. We owe everyone in this country a safe life - and that does mean correcting the foundational problems of poverty and despair, not just blaming blacks yet again.
Typical Blow. It's never the fault of the people comitting he violence, it's always someone else's.
75
As many have pointed out, there are more whites than blacks who are poor - and on welfare. (Per the USDA, in 2013 40.2 percent of SNAP recipients were white, 25.7 percent were Black, 10.3 percent were Hispanic, 2.1 percent were Asian and 1.2 percent were Native American.)
But when it comes to discussing problems with poor blacks, institutional racism is always the explanation. But how do we explain poverty among whites?
But when it comes to discussing problems with poor blacks, institutional racism is always the explanation. But how do we explain poverty among whites?
85
In the current dominant narrative it is race not class that rules. White people who have been locked in poverty are now oppressors. It's identity politics not class. Get it?
10
Or the almost complete lack of poverty among Asians who were equally mistreated as recently as the WW2 internments by then President Roosevelt?
7
They won't explain it because people like Mr. Blow could care less about them. Oh, I remember now, 'white privilege' explains it.
9
Everything makes perfect sense. So why do we have to keep ignoring the facts and do nothing to change what we know would make our country great for all of us. Bernie Sanders needs to be given the media time that Trump is given. Come on MSNBC and NYT we need you to help. I also wonder how the landlords of these places are allowed to keep collecting rent. Cities need to take them over and FIX them up so they are livable.
9
You should take a look at the deplorable condition of publicly-owned housing in many urban areas before advocating a municipal takeover of privately-owned housing to "FIX" it.
5
Deeply moving piece, Charles Blow, on Mayor Mitch Landrieu's red three-ring binders - "Books of the Dead" - murdered, New Orlean's Louisiana folk who were killed only this year, yet destroyed by structural injustices rendered since the Year Dot of American history. The conundrum is how to honor black lives which matter, while their killers armed with guns, incensed with rage, run free. Innocent people killed by murderers looking for justice in their lives. Too Horrific and common currency in our sick culture.
Concentrated poverty in big city ghettos and Southern towns is the bitter fruit of discrimination and oppression, of racist culture NOT racial culture. "Trickle down optimism" as you say, Charles Blow, no longer exists - no longer provides "the path to safety and happiness and freedom" Rage is the only protection those gun-bearers, killers, desperate people, own. All the black lives, all the innocents murdered by their fellow men in big cities, matter. How can biased structural forces existing in America be torn down - as was the Berlin Wall in 1989 - to birth a new and more fair and just nation? Our country is the most violent on the planet. Gun ownership and the malign protection of the 2nd Amendment to the Constitution, coupled with bigotry, vile racism and white supremacy's dreadful legacy leftover from the centuries of Slavery in the US, have brought all of us Americans to this foreboding passage of our history. Can "We Shall Overcome" come true?
Concentrated poverty in big city ghettos and Southern towns is the bitter fruit of discrimination and oppression, of racist culture NOT racial culture. "Trickle down optimism" as you say, Charles Blow, no longer exists - no longer provides "the path to safety and happiness and freedom" Rage is the only protection those gun-bearers, killers, desperate people, own. All the black lives, all the innocents murdered by their fellow men in big cities, matter. How can biased structural forces existing in America be torn down - as was the Berlin Wall in 1989 - to birth a new and more fair and just nation? Our country is the most violent on the planet. Gun ownership and the malign protection of the 2nd Amendment to the Constitution, coupled with bigotry, vile racism and white supremacy's dreadful legacy leftover from the centuries of Slavery in the US, have brought all of us Americans to this foreboding passage of our history. Can "We Shall Overcome" come true?
24
Mantra of the Southern GOP: "If only blacks were willing to work hard and take personal responsibility". Pay no attention to the fact that slaveholders stole the culture and labor of their victims and the descendents of those thieves have never acknowledged the debt they owe. It matters not if they don't personally own slaves; inheriting nothing more than an attitude still makes one the heir to Southern slave culture debts.
22
You seem to think taking personal responsibility and working hard are outdated and reactionary policies by older white men from the South. How sad! The United States was built on those very principles, but according to you, expecting all demographics, including blacks, to adhere to those principles is tacitly racist. Your view is actually demeaning to blacks.
And the slavery-victim explanation for contemporary breakdowns in inner cities? Please. Jews expereinced something called the Holocaust yet they have been thriving. Genocide hasn't made them riot. Vietnamese refugees escapes in rafts after decades of war. They seem to be thriving too.
And the slavery-victim explanation for contemporary breakdowns in inner cities? Please. Jews expereinced something called the Holocaust yet they have been thriving. Genocide hasn't made them riot. Vietnamese refugees escapes in rafts after decades of war. They seem to be thriving too.
7
We haven't had slavery in this country for over 100 years.
3
"Instead, they are developing a rage at the realization that no amount of acting right and doing right can completely protect them."
Charles, I still remember the column you wrote last year about "the call" you got about your son at Yale, who had ended up at the police station. If I remember correctly, his was a case of mistaken identity--but no matter, because the color of his skin fit the perpetrator of the crime. No matter--you were lamenting the fact that no matter how much your advised your son to never do anything to attract the attention of the police, he ended up at the station anyway.
I say this because of your statement that "doing right" and "right behavior" are no guarantee against bullets in the inner city. While I applaud the New Orleans Mayor for keeping those grotesque books, I'm sad he even has to.
Of all the homicides there, in Chicago, and everywhere there is gang violence or simply cultural violence, I wonder how many involved those who were simply at the wrong place at the wrong time? When sections of our cities are just as dangerous as war zones, it's not a leap to suggest that something is seriously wrong in the United States of America.
Charles, I still remember the column you wrote last year about "the call" you got about your son at Yale, who had ended up at the police station. If I remember correctly, his was a case of mistaken identity--but no matter, because the color of his skin fit the perpetrator of the crime. No matter--you were lamenting the fact that no matter how much your advised your son to never do anything to attract the attention of the police, he ended up at the station anyway.
I say this because of your statement that "doing right" and "right behavior" are no guarantee against bullets in the inner city. While I applaud the New Orleans Mayor for keeping those grotesque books, I'm sad he even has to.
Of all the homicides there, in Chicago, and everywhere there is gang violence or simply cultural violence, I wonder how many involved those who were simply at the wrong place at the wrong time? When sections of our cities are just as dangerous as war zones, it's not a leap to suggest that something is seriously wrong in the United States of America.
71
In my brief comment above, I should have added that my home is in the better part of town.
Appearance is a valid criteria for the police to be able to find possible suspects ofa crime. Meeting the description given by witnesses or victims of a criminal act is an appropriate reason for apprehension and questioning. When the hundreds of police and local citizenry were looking for the two escaped criminals in upstate New York they looked only for two white men. But that wasn't racist. If Blow's son was being questioned because he fit the description of someone who had committed a crime his skin color was a valid physical characteristic to consider him for interrogation.
4
The importance of structural oppression or enforced inequality cannot be overestimated. One only has to look at other developed countries who also have pockets of poverty but do not have the level of violence and despair in them that is seen in comparable neighborhoods in America's larger Cities. What is the difference?
In the social democracies there is access to universal health care, free education to the highest level attainable and jobs that pay a living wage. In the United States there are guns.
In the social democracies there is access to universal health care, free education to the highest level attainable and jobs that pay a living wage. In the United States there are guns.
122
What other countries? Are you referring to the Paris banlieu?
1
Marv Raps - "In the social democracies there is access to universal health care, free education to the highest level attainable and jobs that pay a living wage.
Access to universal health care will give us healthier gang members, drug dealers and shootists. Free education to the highest level attainable we have that, free education, complete with free meals, all the way up to high school and very few take advantage of it. Do you suggest that urban children be FORCED to attend school, under what penalty? Guns? In places where guns are controlled to the utmost they have guns, why?
Access to universal health care will give us healthier gang members, drug dealers and shootists. Free education to the highest level attainable we have that, free education, complete with free meals, all the way up to high school and very few take advantage of it. Do you suggest that urban children be FORCED to attend school, under what penalty? Guns? In places where guns are controlled to the utmost they have guns, why?
2
This question keeps running through my mind: What's the difference between those who as a result of feeling hopelessly "bound by bias" decide to act out criminally, and those who feel similarly but decide to become successful contributing members of society. The same start. But different outcomes. Thus, it seems imperative to identify and do something about changing the societal/familial factors that make this monumental difference between success and failure; between becoming a constructive force rather than a destructive one. Knowing those factors and then doing something about them would seem to be a prerequisite for eventually turning this sad long term toxic tide.
84
There is a line of research in the social sciences literature called risk-and-resilience research. It has demonstrated that in the face of overwhelming odds, children who have caring adults in their lives (parents, coaches, teachers), good schools and other supportive institutions are positioned to dig a path out. In inner-city communities, the pressure to join gangs for reasons of personal safety is high and starts in grade school. The choices these kids have to make very early in life are not as simple as do good or do bad. It's often make a bad choice or die. Any public policy intervention has to take these harsh realities into account.
3
Clearly, addressing structural injustices is a "top-down" affair. What confounds me, is no one at the top, including the President, places urban poverty/violence at the top of the policy agenda. Our top-down political class appears to buy into the idea that cutting benefits and privatization of public services (e.g. charter schools), will solve the problem. I only hear Bernie Sanders even mention a return to some form of war on poverty. I know, mention Johnson era poverty programs and conservatives start railing against governmental boondoggles. But a number of those 60's programs, along with a number of current social science experiments in urban areas, show real promise. There is no one program or strategy that can erase the social, emotional, and intellectual damage of institutional racism, but we do have the resources and the expertise to seek out solutions that reduce the pain and humiliation in our inner cities.
54
'But a number of those 60's programs, along with a number of current social science experiments in urban areas, show real promise'
Programs in place for 50 yrs only 'show promise'?! At what point should there be accountability for actual results?
Programs in place for 50 yrs only 'show promise'?! At what point should there be accountability for actual results?
6
"Programs in place for 50 yrs only 'show promise'?! At what point should there be accountability for actual results?"
When the finally get the funding the programs were designed for? When we stop trying to run this huge behemoth of a Nation on the cheap?
When we stop worshiping the gun culture of black and white TV and the non-existent myth of the pioneer individual?
When we decide WE are all in this together?
When the finally get the funding the programs were designed for? When we stop trying to run this huge behemoth of a Nation on the cheap?
When we stop worshiping the gun culture of black and white TV and the non-existent myth of the pioneer individual?
When we decide WE are all in this together?
2
War on Poverty never stopped since the 60's and we see how successful it has been. Just throwing bad money after good will not miraculously fix all the issues if we are not willing to look at the underlying causes of poverty and crime. One of the big ones is the breakdown of family, when 7 out of 10 kids in inner cities are born without father, they will have outside track in life from the day one. However, very few progressives want to admit and discuss it since it is considered a third rail.
4
You are right. However, the first step still needs to be to stop the killing. You can't bring jobs or create a nice community with bullets flying and killing children. And law enforcement must be part of the reapomse. What you describe is not new thinking, indeed it is very old sociology. But what is your thinking on how the police should intervene? Addressing the structural issues will take many many years. We cannot let people be gunned down in the meantime.
Despite the great injustices, that have the historical roots you describe, people like the 7 year old need to be protected. So let's discuss the Marshall Plan for the inner cities that also involves crime prevention and prosecution along with jobs and other supports. This is not either or and some advocates most definitely portray it this way.
Despite the great injustices, that have the historical roots you describe, people like the 7 year old need to be protected. So let's discuss the Marshall Plan for the inner cities that also involves crime prevention and prosecution along with jobs and other supports. This is not either or and some advocates most definitely portray it this way.
64
"First stop the killing." Amen. Let's focus on this as an ecological problem. The numbers and GIS maps tell the story. A very small percentage of people deliberately kill each other in confined areas. Where are these murders occurring? What are the settings and circumstances, and who is involved? The answers are available, and the correctives can be devised. Second, stop the collateral casualties This involves training bystanders and parents to be aware, and either safely intervene, get out, and call for help. Third, control guns. This too can be done -75% of NRA members agree to common-sense restrictions that will greatly reduce the random violence attributable to gun availability. It is most frustrating that we don't do what we know how to do. Above all, treat all participants in violent gun deaths in a humane manner, as we do medical casualties. But still we don't act. Our national latent racism, alas, is one explanation for our inaction.
So, today’s column from Blow can be reduced to a simple statement – its all ‘The Man’s’ fault.
A perfect foil to Blow's column is the slow motion disaster happening in Greece. Here we have a whole nation that has failed to properly manage their economy. And now everyone other than the Greeks are to blame for their economic implosion – that is a perfect case of its The Man's fault.
Just like with Greece, Blow offers mostly specious reasoning in making the case for ‘institutional racism’. It is sad and galling when Blow and others provide a small portion of the poor and uneducated (and not just blacks) the tropes of oppression – more often imagined than real – as the sole excuse for their own limited opportunities and abilities. It’s much easier to be a victim than to be responsible.
A perfect foil to Blow's column is the slow motion disaster happening in Greece. Here we have a whole nation that has failed to properly manage their economy. And now everyone other than the Greeks are to blame for their economic implosion – that is a perfect case of its The Man's fault.
Just like with Greece, Blow offers mostly specious reasoning in making the case for ‘institutional racism’. It is sad and galling when Blow and others provide a small portion of the poor and uneducated (and not just blacks) the tropes of oppression – more often imagined than real – as the sole excuse for their own limited opportunities and abilities. It’s much easier to be a victim than to be responsible.
45
Institutional racism and oppression of the poor is imagined? Easier to be a victim than responsible? Well you certainly have an imagination.
12
"Ghettoside", by Jill Leovy, an LATimes crime beat reporter, pointed out another aspect of black on black crime, which is that in areas where the lives of the residents are discounted automatically and seen as not worth protecting, the residents become their own law.
A system arises of vigilantism, retaliation, tit-for-tat retribution. People are killed for no reason, because they, even in their own community, have no value to one another.
According to Ms. Leovy, studies have shown this to be true in history and in every culture. Yes, the enforced housing discrimination, the lack of jobs, the whole pantheon of poverty are part of the system that proves black lives do not matter. If they MATTERED, we wouldn't be ok with said discrimination and living conditions, let alone the murder rates.
A system arises of vigilantism, retaliation, tit-for-tat retribution. People are killed for no reason, because they, even in their own community, have no value to one another.
According to Ms. Leovy, studies have shown this to be true in history and in every culture. Yes, the enforced housing discrimination, the lack of jobs, the whole pantheon of poverty are part of the system that proves black lives do not matter. If they MATTERED, we wouldn't be ok with said discrimination and living conditions, let alone the murder rates.
81
Yes, it's the wild west enhanced by drugs, automobiles, smart phones and modern weapons. People involved in this culture are living the dream of the preppers and the NRA.
2
A nation that believes that nature cares about humans has no adults in charge.
3
Poverty correlates with crime, but it's not so clear that poverty causes crime. What ought to be clear is that people who are trapped in high crime areas, whether because of racial segregation or economic status, have every reason to despair.
I live in a rural area in central New York. There are few jobs here and the population has been declining. Those who are left are either old and retired or young and poor. Crime is increasing, although homicides by gun are still rare. Gang warfare is unknown.
The invisible hand is causing this region to decline. I think it's time for us, as a society, to question how we can change that. The dairy industry, which dominated while I was growing up, has changed. It no longer provides opportunity or a good living for many people. The small villages of the area reflect the impact of that decline. It's a downward spiral.
I think the urban pockets of poverty exist in a similar downward spiral and it's increasingly hard to escape. Economic mobility has decreased. Politicians make political points by asserting it's the fault of people caught in the decline.
There's a racist element to this assertion, but the fact is that poverty encompasses all colors and ethnic backgrounds. It's also a fact that the deterioration of the middle class has become severe enough to be apparent.
State and federal governments provide programs that assist in survival, but are inadequate to really provide opportunity. Let's make that an issue in the 2016 election.
I live in a rural area in central New York. There are few jobs here and the population has been declining. Those who are left are either old and retired or young and poor. Crime is increasing, although homicides by gun are still rare. Gang warfare is unknown.
The invisible hand is causing this region to decline. I think it's time for us, as a society, to question how we can change that. The dairy industry, which dominated while I was growing up, has changed. It no longer provides opportunity or a good living for many people. The small villages of the area reflect the impact of that decline. It's a downward spiral.
I think the urban pockets of poverty exist in a similar downward spiral and it's increasingly hard to escape. Economic mobility has decreased. Politicians make political points by asserting it's the fault of people caught in the decline.
There's a racist element to this assertion, but the fact is that poverty encompasses all colors and ethnic backgrounds. It's also a fact that the deterioration of the middle class has become severe enough to be apparent.
State and federal governments provide programs that assist in survival, but are inadequate to really provide opportunity. Let's make that an issue in the 2016 election.
189
You sound like a candidate for a switch from whomever you support politically to Bernie Sanders -- if you have not already realized that. Indeed, deterioration of the middle class should be at the center of the 2016 presidential race.
1
The NY dairy industry is booming! (Greek yogurt) BUT young Americans who aren't born there don't want to work on a farm!
The dairy industry might be booming, depending on how you define booming, but it no longer provides jobs and opportunities for people. Members of my own family would love to work on a farm, and indeed own the land that used to be farmed, but it just isn't something that can support a family any more. As farmers retire, their farms go fallow producing great crops of goldenrod as the succession to forest begins.
Chobani has been a great success and it does employ a lot of people. The few dairies that remain are, I'm sure, grateful to have that market. There is also a small but growing industry for specialty crops and cheese.
Recently a consortium of wealthy businesspeople has invested in organic beef. That too has helped the local economy and provided employment for some people who do want to work on a farm even though the wages are pretty low. Despite that, it's not apparent the enterprise has ever generated a profit and people suspect it might be a tax shelter with an eye to some future profits if/when fracking is allowed in NYS.
There are also quite a few farms that have been purchased by Amish families. They keep the land in tilth and contribute to local economies, but they have no particular interest in saving the community that surrounds them.
Most young Americans who are born here don't want to work on a farm because they want to prosper and live a middle class life. It's that simple.
Chobani has been a great success and it does employ a lot of people. The few dairies that remain are, I'm sure, grateful to have that market. There is also a small but growing industry for specialty crops and cheese.
Recently a consortium of wealthy businesspeople has invested in organic beef. That too has helped the local economy and provided employment for some people who do want to work on a farm even though the wages are pretty low. Despite that, it's not apparent the enterprise has ever generated a profit and people suspect it might be a tax shelter with an eye to some future profits if/when fracking is allowed in NYS.
There are also quite a few farms that have been purchased by Amish families. They keep the land in tilth and contribute to local economies, but they have no particular interest in saving the community that surrounds them.
Most young Americans who are born here don't want to work on a farm because they want to prosper and live a middle class life. It's that simple.
5
Too many children without care. Follow the example of our President and WAIT until graduating school and getting employment before starting a family. The NYT reports very successful new birth control programs in smaller cities that support the above goals. IUD and implants for free to young women!
69
Robots replaced the automobile factory worker along with outsourcing. When you're broke, you find other means of survival. Survivorman sometimes finds unconvential means of surviving.
3
Meaning and meaningfulness are functions of a culture that accepts them. The efforts must target them through changes in people's values and beliefs reflected in changes in institutions. Example: value learning outcomes that value people instead of test scores. There many many more but the are all connected.
3
I've watched black people "acting right and doing right" but not getting the same response -- that is, not getting the reward -- for having done so but instead getting pushed out of the mainstream through mechanisms such as double standards in how white and black students were treated in school and how parents treated their kids' black friends in terms of social invitations. So I agree with the idea that negative treatment of blacks by mainstream society fosters desperation, hopelessness, etc., I believe I have seen how it works on black kids who start out in a majority-white community and get pushed out, I believe I have watched it develop (and despite my attempts to intervene in that process). It also seems to me that the negative impact on black lives, if not the intended consequence of such treatment, is a predictable one. Doing the same positive things in school and with friends but not getting the same positive feedback (and instead being told your role is this limited and lesser thing) would have a negative impact on most people and on their future outlook, I think -- in fact, one could argue that people who react to such negative feedback are learning all too well the lesson being taught.
29
Exactly what "reward" is handed out for doing the "right thing"?
1
I live in a neighborhood where parents, both black and white, demand that their children "act right and do right". Most of the children, both black and white, go on to college, some to graduate programs. They are doctors, lawyers, teachers, researchers. This is not an affluent neighborhood and these parents work hard to instill a sense of values in their children. Maybe Ms. Moses just needs to look harder for examples of black individuals "getting the reward". They are out there.
3
You had me until the statement, "acting right and doing right" and the rage at no benefits from doing so. Acting right? Is their a course or a secret password for this action? It comes quite naturally for most people despite being down ad out at times. Despite facing the challenges that Globalism and the vanishing of manufacturing jobs in the United States. All skin colors face this challenge and black people are no different until you examine education and crime. The two are linked. An understandable suspicion of authority has led black culture to over look higher education. There is where an underclass trapped in poverty and behavior that leads to crime and incarceration lies. Open discussion need to be truthful. Criticism of the system is justified but self victimization is just a way to avoid painful self examinations of behavior that society has no responsibility to. We each govern ourselves in this regard. We each have a choice. Poor does not have to correlate to crime. If Black Lives Matter, let's start talking truths without lobbing the charge of racism each time an opinion makes someone uneasy. One sided criticisms only leads to more Black lives wasted.
122
The forces involved in poverty and the forces involved in oppression are not the same set.
6
Diana: They're not, but they overlap. Strange, is it, how it is usually the poor who are oppressed?
Des Johnson,
The point I made in my comment elsewhere in this thread was something about how oppressing a middle class person can move them downward (as in, into poverty).
The point I made in my comment elsewhere in this thread was something about how oppressing a middle class person can move them downward (as in, into poverty).
I think the biggest issue is absent fathers. the three mass white shooters had uninvolved fathers. the biggest shooters tend to be fatherless males. we need to stop the senseless incarceration of males for non violent crimes so that these boys have a male role model in the home. Girls need male role models too!
10
Why do you assume that the reason the father is not in the home is that he has been incarcerated. Your source?
3
A lot of focus on "black" here, as both cause and consequence of violent behavior in some of our most dysfunctional neighborhoods. It may be the wrong focus.
If you take a similar 41.7 million whites, put them in densely concentrated ghettos, deny them decent education for generations because we PAY for decent education largely with property taxes and a ghetto apartment doesn't generate much of that, deny them work because there aren't a lot of factories or genteel office environments in ghettos, ply both the parents and the children with drugs, then make guns readily available ... well, do the math. It's not so much about race, except in the complexion of the inevitable though coincidental victims. If we did all these things to 41.7 million whites whom we'd jammed into such dystopian environments, the mourners at funerals would be white, not black.
This is our particular sin, yet we're beginning to see the same thing in some large European cities that have concentrated off-white "guest workers" into walled-off enclaves ... so maybe it's a human thing. The only real difference is the availability of guns.
All lives matter, but in such places they become invisible to the greater society outside the ghetto. A big part of the solution is education and work, and breaking down the walls that make some of our neighborhoods eternal ghettos.
We don't successfully attack the consequences of racial bias in America by focusing on race alone, but must focus more sharply on class.
If you take a similar 41.7 million whites, put them in densely concentrated ghettos, deny them decent education for generations because we PAY for decent education largely with property taxes and a ghetto apartment doesn't generate much of that, deny them work because there aren't a lot of factories or genteel office environments in ghettos, ply both the parents and the children with drugs, then make guns readily available ... well, do the math. It's not so much about race, except in the complexion of the inevitable though coincidental victims. If we did all these things to 41.7 million whites whom we'd jammed into such dystopian environments, the mourners at funerals would be white, not black.
This is our particular sin, yet we're beginning to see the same thing in some large European cities that have concentrated off-white "guest workers" into walled-off enclaves ... so maybe it's a human thing. The only real difference is the availability of guns.
All lives matter, but in such places they become invisible to the greater society outside the ghetto. A big part of the solution is education and work, and breaking down the walls that make some of our neighborhoods eternal ghettos.
We don't successfully attack the consequences of racial bias in America by focusing on race alone, but must focus more sharply on class.
70
Agreed. In America race and class are both bases of inequality, and serve as surrogates for each other.
1
"People didn’t simply wake up one day with a burning desire to live in the poorest, most violent parts of our cities. Generations of discriminatory housing, banking and employment practices created those powder kegs. And then we blame racial culture rather than racist culture for their constant explosions."
Thank you, Mr Blow. That's it in a nutshell.
Is it too much to hope that the fuller media coverage taking place of the recent terrible storm of events across our country has made the racism inherent in our society newly visible to people who previously would not see it?
Thank you, Mr Blow. That's it in a nutshell.
Is it too much to hope that the fuller media coverage taking place of the recent terrible storm of events across our country has made the racism inherent in our society newly visible to people who previously would not see it?
191
Sure. Let's just blame discrimination for everything. It makes things so much easier. Appalachia is one of the poorest areas in the country. Why isn't the murder rate the same as Baltimore or Chicago?
5
No argument exists beyond the power and potency of yours; yet, our national government abandon The War on Poverty nearly fifty years ago and selected to make war.
9
Our nation was corrupted, at birth, on the notion that country can be founded on taking advantage of the labor and entire lives of others. It was corrupted by the idea that some humanity is either worth less or not really human at all. That corrupt way of thinking has seeped into all areas of our lives and thinking and coarsened Americans in ways that other nations, as troubled as they may be, just are not.
America has more violent crime than any other nation. From the poverty standpoint, we are now in direct competition with some of the poorest nations when it comes to hunger and lack of ability to afford housing. Add to that institutional racism - policies that are designed to discriminate against specific people - in the way of lesser allocation of resources or the outright prevention of relative success, and we force people to survive in the harshest of environments. We create our own Darwinian environment.
Add to that the corruption of Citizens United and the chokehold of the haves over the have nots, and we are where we are today.
Martin Luther King's poverty initiative aimed to correct these inequities. We know what needs to be done. We have just under two years until we vote for a new president and new representatives in state houses and Congress. Let's vote for people who get it. Let's vote for people who are beholden only to us, the people.
http://www.rimaregas.com/2015/04/mlks-message-to-blacklivesmatter-moralm...
America has more violent crime than any other nation. From the poverty standpoint, we are now in direct competition with some of the poorest nations when it comes to hunger and lack of ability to afford housing. Add to that institutional racism - policies that are designed to discriminate against specific people - in the way of lesser allocation of resources or the outright prevention of relative success, and we force people to survive in the harshest of environments. We create our own Darwinian environment.
Add to that the corruption of Citizens United and the chokehold of the haves over the have nots, and we are where we are today.
Martin Luther King's poverty initiative aimed to correct these inequities. We know what needs to be done. We have just under two years until we vote for a new president and new representatives in state houses and Congress. Let's vote for people who get it. Let's vote for people who are beholden only to us, the people.
http://www.rimaregas.com/2015/04/mlks-message-to-blacklivesmatter-moralm...
51
What we do for ourselves, as a nation, in great part, comes from the education we receive, what we are taught and how we are taught to learn. We lost a great philosopher a couple of years ago when Ronald Dworkin passed away. I took a five minute segment from a panel he was on and transcribed it for an essay I am writing on education. He encapsulated a lot in those five minutes.
http://www.rimaregas.com/2015/07/ronald-dworkin-on-mistakes-the-tea-part...
Our lives, especially these last few years, have been a long series of interruptions away from the things that matter. While we were obsessed with Rachel Dolezal, some important stories were missed:
http://www.rimaregas.com/2015/06/three-blacklivesmatter-stories-while-we...
How we treat the living:
http://www.rimaregas.com/2015/06/close-angola-and-rikers-prisons-end-lon...
http://www.rimaregas.com/2015/07/ronald-dworkin-on-mistakes-the-tea-part...
Our lives, especially these last few years, have been a long series of interruptions away from the things that matter. While we were obsessed with Rachel Dolezal, some important stories were missed:
http://www.rimaregas.com/2015/06/three-blacklivesmatter-stories-while-we...
How we treat the living:
http://www.rimaregas.com/2015/06/close-angola-and-rikers-prisons-end-lon...
3
America doesn't have more violent crime than any other nation. Next to Canada, it has the second lowest murder rate (4.7) among nations in the Western Hemisphere. For example, Brazil has a murder rate of 25.2 and about 50,000 murders per year. The U.S. murder rate of is lower than the world average murder rate of 6.3 , the Americas average of 16.3, the African average of 12.5. The U.S. murder rate is high when compared to European nations, but Europeans nation's are less racially and ethically diverse than the United States.
8
According to the FBI's Uniform Crime Report Homicides Table 6 the number of murders has dropped from 16,528 in 2003 to 12,253 in 2013 That is a drop of over 4,200 murders
Second, California, with some of the strictest gun laws in the country, had 1,743 homicides in 2013, 612 than the next closest being Texas with 1,133 Can you explain why a state that has a right to carry statute would have a homicide rate drastically less than California?
Isn't it true that 18 million have been added to the SNAP program under Obama and isn't it also true that Democrats cut $8 billion from the SNAP program in the last farm bill, a bill that Harry Reid brought to a vote and Obama signed?
Isn't it also true that according to the Emory University study on domestic discretionary spending that domestic discretionary spending increased at a much higher rate under George W Bush than Obama or Clinton?
Rima. is it not true that Mission Viejo has ,9% blacks? Isn't it true that the median price of a house is over $550,000 a jump of over $170,000 in 10 years? Isn't it true that the violent crime rate is 80% below the national average and that there has only been 4 homicides in 10 years (2002-2012)
Over and over you talk about the ills of this country yet you live in a city that has .9% black and has a median income $37,000 above the state average. It's real easy to sit back and tell the rest of us what to do. What are you doing? How much does your house cost? Care to share that with us?
Second, California, with some of the strictest gun laws in the country, had 1,743 homicides in 2013, 612 than the next closest being Texas with 1,133 Can you explain why a state that has a right to carry statute would have a homicide rate drastically less than California?
Isn't it true that 18 million have been added to the SNAP program under Obama and isn't it also true that Democrats cut $8 billion from the SNAP program in the last farm bill, a bill that Harry Reid brought to a vote and Obama signed?
Isn't it also true that according to the Emory University study on domestic discretionary spending that domestic discretionary spending increased at a much higher rate under George W Bush than Obama or Clinton?
Rima. is it not true that Mission Viejo has ,9% blacks? Isn't it true that the median price of a house is over $550,000 a jump of over $170,000 in 10 years? Isn't it true that the violent crime rate is 80% below the national average and that there has only been 4 homicides in 10 years (2002-2012)
Over and over you talk about the ills of this country yet you live in a city that has .9% black and has a median income $37,000 above the state average. It's real easy to sit back and tell the rest of us what to do. What are you doing? How much does your house cost? Care to share that with us?
3
After the Iraq War, many Americans have become accustomed to the formula "Saddam was bad, but that doesn't mean the invasion was a good idea." This formula makes sense because what we witness of the aftermath of the war is so horrific. A country that once was a whole, despite the horrible and certainly unacceptable oppression visited upon some groups, is now divided against itself, with the hope of peace and prosperity likely vanished for several generations.
My parents are liberal white Southerners who would tend to disown much of the South's history. They strongly identify with the federal government and with the Union cause, and consider any criticism of that cause racist. This might have been my default understanding as well, save that I have spent a great deal of my adult life studying the aftermath of the Iraq war and the ongoing conflicts in the Middle East.
This study has taught me that war divides, impoverishes, and sows seeds of enmity and hatred. When I compare the lives and deaths of Sunnis and Shiites in Iraq with the lives and deaths of Southern whites and blacks, I discern far too many parallels. For this reason, I believe it is impossible to ignore the role the Civil War itself played in paralyzing Southern culture in an ugly caricature of mid-19th-century race relations.