Why So Many Issues in the Black Community?

Here's a post I gave in response to a white person's question about why the Black community seems to struggle so much:

Just generally...there are a few things that have tended to work against Black people, IMO. First thing was desegregation. It's perfectly reasonable that we needed to fight for desegregation and an end to Jim Crow. I get that. It's a human right. A necessity. My parents grew up during Jim Crow and my father was 17 before he ever set foot in a movie theater because he wasn't "allowed" to. So, it had to happen. It just did...however, a few things we had going for us during segregation, tended to leave with desegregation. FAMILY. Cohesive family units. When we were segregated, we stuck together and got through this world as a unit, as a community. Back then, children grew up seeing men in their neighborhoods going to work every morning. Some of them were even doctors. When a doctor lives next door to you and your father is IN THE HOME, you have a greater chance of succeeding.

With those family values came a strong promotion of educational values. The schools were separate but unequal...however, we were in such DIRE STRAITS being subjugated that we had a certain work and educational ethic that was not optional...it was survival. We were consistently, generation after generation, working to improve our standing...working to be seen as "a man" if you will. Children were raised being taught of our struggle and why it was so important to take school seriously and to be productive, law abiding citizens.

Third, ECONOMICS. Jim Crow forced us to rely on our own commerce to survive. So, we were entreprenuers. We worked and brought our money the only place we were permitted to spend it....our own community. So, the economic wealth was solid and consistent through and through. Our segregated neighborhoods would have looked much like you see a Little Italy or a Chinatown today. It wasn't much...but it was ours and we took care of it well and we benefitted from the environment...and I believe the psychic environment was the driving force that kept blacks on focus and of the most altruistic mindset toward our own communities.

As I said earlier, the Civil Rights Movement had to happen. Jim Crow was against the constitutional rights of every American. It was unconstitutional and it was abhorrent. It had to go. Additionally, equal pay, protection against employment and housing discrimination needed to happen and then BrownvBoard of Education had already happened.

Unfortunately, as the seventies hit, and Vietnam, and the Women's Liberation movement...drugs and divorce really plagued the black community. Many soldiers came home addicted to heroin and/or unable to find work. Thousands of black soldiers who came home for Vietnam COULD NOT get hired anywhere. Women began working outside the home...men were not comfortable with it...families fell into jeopardy because the change was so much, so soon, and so radical. I cannot tell you how many people in my generation (I was born in 1970) have parents who divorced in the late 70's. But, that was NEVER an issue prior to the 70's on such a large scale.

But, I believe that there were three major things that took place in the 80's that began to really CEMENT this downward spiral for the Black family and the Black community. One was crack cocaine. Another was hiphop. And, the other thing was out of wedlock births. (OOW)

Now, with the infiltration of crack into the black community, we began to see wholesale death start to take its toll. Young men were making AMAZING amounts of money selling the highly addictive drug and those addicted to it were hopelessly lost to their families and to the community. This meant babies without mothers. Babies without fathers. Robberies. Violence. Gang warfare and guns. Young men began to chase after the glamorous lifestyles of the kingpins in their neighborhoods rather than focusing on graduating high school and going to college. (remember, Daddy's gone because there was a divorce, drugs, and no job in the late 70's/early 80's) Add to that, the disparate sentencing requirements for crack cocaine offenses and you have yourself a surefire way to tear a community apart. (not blaming anyone here just saying)

And, today, though blacks only make up 30% or so of the American population, there are more black men incarcerated than any other racial/ethnic group in this country. That is indicative of problems in our community AND an unjust judicial system.

Next, hip hop, which started out extremely powerful and POSITIVE, took an unfortunate turn for the worst around about 1987. When West Coast gangster rap hit the scene and a subsequent east coast/west coast war ensued. It eventually became a heated competition between both coasts to OUT GANGSTER one another....meanwhile....this conveyed a message to our children that the harder and more gangster you are, the more respect you will get, the more valued you are. So boys are carrying guns. Selling drugs so that they can get that ride and be the man in their neighborhood. Etc. This increased the volatile nature of the lyrics. Increased the misogyny of the lyrics and the videos. And, diverted our youth's desire to seek personal power toward negativity as a path to power rather than achievement as the path to power. Unfortunately, I blame hip hop artists AND parents for this equally and there is some blame to be laid at the feet of the record labels who peddle this filth and make more money than all the artists combined. But, there is a lack of self responsibility that these rappers have taken from about 1987 on up to now...with the exception of a rare few...when they could have refused to be a vehicle to perpetuate this degenerative culture, yet, instead, they chose the cash payout and the fame.

By now, we are seeing our first MAJOR wave of out of wedlock pregnancies in our community. Girls are seeking the love that daddy couldn't give them because he was either a) strung out on drugs (which he got hooked on during the war or began when crack hit the streets) and jobless b) lost his mind after he came home from the war (was probably on drugs or an alcoholic and was jobless or c) in and out of her life because he and mommy were divorced in the late 70's/early 80's. So, we now have babies raising babies. And, the two biggest problems with babies raising babies is 1) abandonment of higher education in pursuit of having and supporting a family and 2) young mothers lack the appropriate discernment to be effective parents.

THEREFORE...you have a teenager raising a daughter who she allows to emulate the video vixens she sees on BET's hip hop videos when she's only 3 which will contribute to the cycle we see happening. That child will grow up confused, promiscuous and believing that her self worth is tied to her sexuality. You have ANOTHER absentee father because the teenaged dad is a baby himself and just as confused as she is. You have the children of these CHILDREN repeating the CYCLE of OOW births over and over and over again until now, one woman is a grandmother at 33 and another is a great-grandmother at 46. All the while...that discernment to steer a child away from a life of crime and ill-repute and towards education, achievement and productivity is largely lacking. It's not that they were lazy mothers...they simply lacked a reference point from which to develop a game plan for their OWN future, let alone their child's future.I know this to be a fact.

I have seen families where if the parents were clueless about education and college and how to get there, then ALL of the children would follow suit. Of course, there are some pearls amidst the madness...unique individuals who, despite their environment, found a way to be different and excel in the real world. But, even Freakanomics admits that children of educated families are far more successful educationally and in life.

And, fast forward to today...for sure, there are disparities in opportunity for blacks over the past 35 years that have substantially contributed as well. Institutionalized racism in education, employment and housing as well as a welfare system that discouraged families in favor of single-parent run homes. Additionally, there is a balance as well with the justice system which indiscriminately punishes black males to a greater intensity than other groups for the same crimes in question. And, once you are caught up in the penal system you are as good as dead because the recidivism rate among ex-cons is through the roof. They become a product of a penal system that is not designed to rehabilitate and a society that will not allow them to integrate back in after they have been released (you cannot vote if you are a felon in a lot of states, no one will hire you if you have a felony crime conviction) And, let's not forget the monstrous THREE STRIKES rule which put away hundreds of thousands of men for LIFE. Those problems are external but they had a real impact as well.

But, I am willing to bet that if we began to value family and marriage again, and if we put education on the top of the list of priorities again, and if our hip hop artists were to begin to gravitate toward cleaner, more inspiring music, that we could address a lot of our own setbacks. But, just like it took 35 years for us to get to this condition, it will take a while to clean it up.