Systemic Racism and Violent Communities

Who is really to blame?

According to statistics compiled by an opinion writer in the Carroll County Times, nearly 50 percent of convicted murderers in the US are black. Blacks are also more likely to be involved in violent crimes as both perpetrators, and victims.

Most thinking people agree that much of this violence is due to the life situation too many African Americans find themselves in because of the misfortune of being poor, and too often born into a broken family.

But is the problem systemic racism or something else?

What one draws from these statistics often depends on their perspective and political agenda. The left wants more government and believe welfare works. They say the statistics support the need for government intervention.

On the right, people see personal responsibility as the cost of freedom. Those people interpret the exact same statistics as proof that there are problems inherent in the black community such as single parent homes and little encouragement toward education – things that only families and communities can fix.

Is there truth in both points of view? Maybe the destruction of the traditional family has created a sort of community level systemic racism – defined here as an environment unhealthy to success. While the government can help by ensuring quality education and safe streets, the community must also step up to create a culture that studies and history suggest will give children the best chance of success.

Both initiatives are happening – just not quickly. And the reason progress is so slow is because too many black leaders and politicians need the problems to justify their reach for power.

So instead they work on silencing reasonable voices.

PHASE ONE

Unfortunately for them, their true radical agenda is often unpopular with the majority. So instead, following the pattern of previous tyrants, they first come out in defense of ideas the majority can easily accept. The goal of this phase is to become the champion of the people and to firmly establish labels for anyone who opposes the plan. The labels must be demeaning, insulting, and embarrassing – labels such as bigot, racist, homophobe, transphobe etc.

Example of something the majority can easily agree to:

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Result: Radicals become community leaders.

PHASE TWO

They conflate the original agreeable goal into something more in line with their true agenda.

Example: statement the 2020 goals from the Black Lives Matter Website.

BLM’s #WhatMatters2020 will focus on the following issues:

• Racial Injustice
• Police Brutality
• Criminal Justice Reform
• Black Immigration
• Economic Injustice
• LGBTQIA+ and Human Rights
• Environmental Conditions
• Voting Rights & Suppression
• Healthcare
• Government Corruption
• Education
• Commonsense Gun Laws

They accuse anyone who disagrees with their new goals of being a racist, regardless of whether you still support the original goal of MLK’s Dream.

With huge masses of uninformed, out of school and out of work young people looking for something to do, they can quickly punish the slightest infraction of their aggressive brand of political correctness.

Results: Statues get torn down, communities burn (mostly black communities), local economies are shattered (most black community economies) and  Aunt Jemima gets taken off the syrup bottle – and few complain out of fear of being labeled. Now, even folks who recognize that tearing down a statue of Ulysses S. Grant does nothing to further equality say nothing. It’s the new normal and seems easier and safer than fighting back against a rising tide of craziness.

Their power has grown.

PHASE THREE

To test and grow their power, leftist leaders now demand that silence is not enough, that only positive and public actions can truly demonstrate your dedication to the cause of Dr. King.

Example: Protestors demand that police officers and politicians take a knee before them to prove their support for ????

Results: Many take a knee. Practically every school in the nation announces new efforts to fight systemic racism. These various declarations prove (so the organizations believe) they are not racist. Yet even as they make these insincere gestures, they do nothing to address, or even talk about the real problems facing children in black communities.

Radicals no longer hide their power. Now, even the bastions of government take a knee to avoid the ultimate career ending insult of being labeled racist. Everyone is afraid of losing their job or business if they speak out.

Sadly, this new won power is not used to better the situation in black communities. Instead, it is used to push a broader agenda. One that just happens to mirror, almost perfectly,  the agenda of the left and much of the Democratic Party.

Meanwhile, the dream of Martin Luther King goes unrealized and no one seems to care.

Kevin D. Williamson writing for National Review expressed his feeling about the current raft of worthless actions this way, “Forbes has announced a change in its in-house stylebook and will henceforth honor the woke convention of uppercase Black vs. lowercase white. And George Floyd is still dead. Jacob Frey is still mayor of Minneapolis. Medaria Arradondo is still the chief of police.

As I finished up this piece, A new story of racial violence came across the news. Apparently, a white Macy’s employee was beaten by a black customer who claimed he called him the “N” word. Store cameras seem to show that the insult never occurred. However, even if it did, what shook me most was the attitude of the perpetrators – and it goes straight to the heart of the question asked at the start of this essay. The brother of the man who beat the store employee, who was also at the scene, said of his brother’s reaction, “ In this age and time, he didn’t know what else to do. That was just his instinct.”