The courage to speak the truth
In the United States, some African Americans are angry that, as a group, they lag behind other racial groups. But rather than taking responsibility for their own failures, it is easier for blacks to lay the blame for their persistent poor performance on racism. And while some residual racism surely plays a part, most of the responsibility lies with toxic black culture.
This starts with children. Having children out of wedlock, children you cannot afford, and children with multiple partners. And then the parents do not place adequate importance and priority on the education of these children. The fathers are not in the home and they play little role in the raising of their own children. So the children grow up without immediate role models, and therefore limited exposure to authority, structure, discipline, respect, and responsibility. And they are thrust into a world which requires these qualities in order to succeed, or even to just keep up.
So where are the fathers? We also have to consider employment, crime, violence, and incarceration rates. It is a cycle and a generational downward spiral.
Look, this is not complicated. Like everyone else, regardless of race, an African American man must get an education, find and maintain steady employment, find and keep a wife, make a home with her, and then have children with only her, and finally raise and educate the children properly. In that order. If you cannot or will not do this, you will fail. If most men in a community, any community, cannot or will not do this, the community will fail.
I think it is worth pointing out that the black men who have done this are successful, by any standard. These are the quiet, unsung heroes of the black community. But they do not receive proper and appropriate credit for their role. And there are just not enough of them.
I think it is also worth pointing out that white men who cannot or will not do this also fail. It is behavior, responsibility, and culture, regardless of race. It is the same for Hispanics, Asians, Native Americans, North Africans, and immigrants from Uzbekistan. In fact, in the United States, the success of any demographic group largely depends on their willingness to follow the above formula.
If you doubt my thesis, just listen to the anger expressed by African Americans today. It is not anger that an unemployed man has six kids with five different women. No. It is, still, anger at the white patriarchy for keeping the black man down. And since overt racism is largely a thing of the past, today we blame systemic racism. But with affirmative action, CRT, DEI, and other racial frictions, if anything, today we have systemic black privilege. And yet...and yet, the black community still struggles. So it is not systemic dynamics that are the cause of their trouble. It is culture.
And if we cannot identify and discuss the source of the problem, we will never fix it. White people are scared to death to address this for fear of being labeled racist. And black people seem to believe that they get more mileage out of talking about racism, now defined as unequal outcomes, rather than the behavior, responsibility, and culture which actually cause the inequity. Short term, they are probably correct.
Long term, this is a disaster for the black community.
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