I would bet going house to house and conducting a search of every house would be an effective law enforcement technique but like racial profiling I believe it's illegal.
Now let me qualify myself. I'm an educated black man raised by two educated black parents (born in 40 and 41). My only sibling has a PHD and is married to a black man who has the same. My wife, RIP, was also educated as are most of my friends, who are mostly black. One of my good friends happens to be a Nigerian native who I worked with for many years and there is no animosity between us. My twenty-two year old son, who just graduated college is best friends with a young man who's parents are Kenyan natives. In my forty plus years of life, I've never heard one group say something disparaging about the other but maybe they're just more open with Asians they work with.
As far as black on black crime goes I haven't met one African american who doesn't acknowledge the problem or even worse, deny it. It makes me wonder if any of you actually even KNOW a black person besides casual work conversations. My best friend, who is also educated and married to an educated black woman, is a Pastor and runs a mentor-ship program for underprivileged youth in impoverished areas in Atlanta. There are many churches in Urban areas with similar programs. He wants me to get a program started here in the Dallas area but as a single parent raising a little girl without a mother, I just haven't been able to find the time. I assure you that African Americans, like everyone else, are concerned with what happens in their communities. In the last 20 years, there has been a sharp drop in homicide among blacks. The homicide rate for blacks in the 90s was very high, it's going to take more than one generation to correct that problem. Over the last few years there have been many protests against violence in major cites such as Chicago, Gary and New York.
Lastly, as a white collar African american who knows many other African Americans, I don't know any, educated or not, who doesn't support the players right to peacefully demonstrate. In fact, two of them aren't watching the games because Kap hasn't been signed, I'm sure jrumann59 knew that since he's all buddy buddy with a few. We all a have good lives, better than the average white person, and we sure as hell aren't looking to be victimized as some have claimed. Talk to anyone one of us, which again you obviously don't, you'll know that our beliefs are based on experiences and not any agenda pushed by MSM or whoever the big bad boogie man is.
I will now let you and jrumann59 get back to telling everyone how I have little respect for African natives and how they have poor opinions of me.
Great post.
Very sorry to hear about your wife.
This is the type of dialog I'm hoping to achieve here. I don't expect you to agree with me but I expect that there can be a dialog.
Maybe blacks acknowledge the crime issue to each other but you're the only one that I've seen here that has come close to acknowledging it and then only very subtly. I would expect you to scream loudly about the black crime problem. Get the black crime rates down near the overall average and profiling will go away. If crime is equally likely white or black, then profiling no longer works.
Do you really believe there is widespread racism by police in 2017? Police are basically blue collar workers and likely tend to be Democrat. Their ranks are more racially diverse than the makeup of the general population.
What is the point of the protests? Why not tie the black crime rate to the protests even if they blame that crime rate on the establishment for having too many blacks below the poverty level?
The black kid in the ghetto is in a bad situation and it's not because of the cops. His chance of being murdered or becoming a murderer is radically higher than his chance of being unjustly killed by police.
The protests are making that kid become anti-police which increases his chance of resisting and therefore his chance of being killed by police.
I've done a lot of research and analysis of this issue over the years. If you've followed any of my football analysis, then you likely know that's my mode of operation. I'm not just mouthing off because of the protests.
I like rap music and I understood the need by NWA to express themselves in 1988 with F the police. At the time and based on their background it made sense. That was 29 years ago and things have changed radically in terms of decreased racism and improved tolerance. Certainly the election of Obama didn't solve everything, but it signified a huge leap forward. Blacks are 13% of the population so they didn't elect Obama by themselves.
Opportunities are there for black kids. College acceptance and funding are significantly in favor of minorities. The same goes for hiring quotas and favorable treatment for minority owned businesses.
Even without college, a young black person without kids can move to the suburbs away from the crime just by getting a entry level job. People from Mexico come here and live in the suburbs where I live and seem to thrive. Many do it just as day laborers. The kid in the ghetto as an American citizen has way more opportunities and options than the young guy coming here from Mexico. The problem is that the prevailing attitudes surrounding that kid in the ghetto often prevent him from getting out of his situation when he is 18. The protests are part of that surrounding attitude.
I got into construction industry for about 10 years and developed a strong empathy for immigrants from Mexico and other areas south. Most just want an opportunity for a decent job and life. There are a lot of complaints about them but they tend to take jobs that Americans don't want.
The city here organizes the day labor workers and construction guys come by and pick them up at the city's little day labor office. The contrast between the Hispanics and the American black guys is obvious. They completely follow the sterotypes. We and many of our sub-contractors tried hiring the American black guys but it never worked out. They tried to circumvent the city rules about getting in line and waiting their turn, they didn't want to work, complained all day, wanted more money than agreed to and waited around the little city office at the end of the day trying to get money from the Hispanic guys when the contractors dropped them off and paid them.
By contrast we had a couple of guys from Cuba that were as black as any black person and they were some of the best workers we ever had.
Is it racist to make these observations? I think you would be disturbed by it if you witnessed it first hand.
As an educated and successful black man it's not your responsibility for black crime rates but your in the best group to really speak out about it. The government can't solve the problem (See affirmative action, welfare, government housing desegration, etc.). White people can't succeed by speaking out about about it. The young men in the ghetto killing or getting killed are not going to speak out about it. That just leaves financially successful black people like yourself and Kaepernick as the only real options to speak up. The potential to save black lives is about 1000 to 1 or higher by improving this issue as compared to focusing on the police.
I've donated directly to some young black single mothers because it seemed like the best way for me to help. They, unlike people without kids, would really struggle to move out of their situation without some help. The high crime rates and low income levels are tied to the high birth rates to single mothers. It's another issue that should get more attention and national exposure than the police issue. It's another area where principle overshadows practical solutions. Sadly principle does not help that Mom whose son just died from a bullet by another young black man.
