Black on black crime, or, at last, a blast of frank admission and open honesty

[Osiris]

This really struck me. The "ghetto mindset" is much more than an economic condition. I guess at a certain level it involves embracing the wider values of what could be perceived as one's oppressors.

Throughout American history, the latest arrivals have been treated abysmally: The Irish in the mid-19th century; Italians and Jews at the turn of the 20th; Latinos today. They only found real acceptance by renouncing their ethnicity and embracing the wider values of the American middle class.

The one exception to this is African-Americans, who've always been here and (with the exception of very small pockets) have never found acceptance from greater society in their quest for assimilation and greater opportunity.

Unlike the Italians and the Jews, it is a bit hard for a black person to renounce their ethnicity. Now on the upside, more Black Americans are holding positions of power due to the civil rights movement of the 50s and 60s. Since we didn't really have the ability to renounce our ethnicity, we had to make a bitter nation accept us for who we are. it is only due to the efforts of the NAACP, the Late Medgar Evers and The Late Dr. and Mrs. Martin Luther King, Jr. that we enjoy a lot of the success we have now. They along with the more militant factions (Black Panthers & Malcolm X) made the nation realize we were not going away and we would NOT be ignored.

It is the actions of those groups and individuals that afford a growing number of us the affluence and status we now hold. We are getting there as a people, but we have a long way to go.

 

[b.c.]

This really struck me. The "ghetto mindset" is much more than an economic condition. I guess at a certain level it involves embracing the wider values of what could be perceived as one's oppressors....

Yes, but a twisted mindset nonetheless. There is something, I think, wrong with a mindset that has our African American boys in high school thinking that one is "sellout" to one's race for aspiring to excel - something awry in the notion that those who would think nothing of robbing and killing us are worthy of our sanction because they are of like color and of common experiences in some broader scheme of things - something amiss in the idolization of thuggery and gangsta mentality.

Demoralizing to me are all of the thousands of fatherless children, childless mothers, victims and victimizers, all as one - the loss of so many lives that we ourselves have not held as dearly as we should. And why not? Because we are (racially) akin to those who prey upon their own? Because we share a common sense of some greater “social injustice” perpetrated upon us?

If some other entity, of some other race caused even a fraction of the loss of life we have perpetrated upon each other, would there not be an outcry for justice? a million man march? So where is the outcry here? Where are our leaders? Where is our outrage?

Or is it that rather than lose what we perceive as our racial/cultural identity, rather than be lost in the great cultural assimilation, we choose instead to embrace values, a mindset, and those among us, who are both reprehensible and destructive to ourselves?

 

[simcha]

That was tried forty years ago. Surely you're old enough to remember the Panthers. That experiment was a disaster from which race relations have yet to recover.

A racist split is not along lower/upper class lines, despite attempts by academic Marxists to portray it as such. Violence by the "disenfranchised" will be met by violence from everyone else, not just twits huddled behind their gates. Do you seriously think that the "disenfranchised" can possibly win that war?

Have you ever heard of The Battle of Little Big Horn and a man named, General Custer?

 

[Osiris]

Yes, but a twisted mindset nonetheless. There is something, I think, wrong with a mindset that has our African American boys in high school thinking that one is "sellout" to one's race for aspiring to excel - something awry in the notion that those who would think nothing of robbing and killing us are worthy of our sanction because they are of like color and of common experiences in some broader scheme of things - something amiss in the idolization of thuggery and gangsta mentality.

Demoralizing to me are all of the thousands of fatherless children, childless mothers, victims and victimizers, all as one - the loss of so many lives that we ourselves have not held as dearly as we should. And why not? Because we are (racially) akin to those who prey upon their own? Because we share a common sense of some greater “social injustice” perpetrated upon us?

If some other entity, of some other race caused even a fraction of the loss of life we have perpetrated upon each other, would there not be an outcry for justice? a million man march? So where is the outcry here? Where are our leaders? Where is our outrage?

Or is it that rather than lose what we perceive as our racial/cultural identity, rather than be lost in the great cultural assimilation, we choose instead to embrace values, a mindset, and those among us, who are both reprehensible and destructive to ourselves?

The more I read of your posts b.c., the more I admire and respect you. You said that VERY well brother.

 

[Mr. Snakey]

"Before we can openly embrace other races and cultures, we must repair the problems within our own community. Then and only then can we fully embrace other races without prejudice."

--Malcolm X after his journey to Mecca.

Was he so wrong? Is Mr. Whitlock in a more convoluted way not saying the same thing? We all know this is a problem.

My muffler is damaged. I'm going to take my car to the muffler shop and not to Detroit to the auto maker. Why? Because it is a localized problem that doesn't need the larger wider system to repair it.

That said, why should all of society repair a problem that is most prevalent within the black community?

Malcolm X understood the journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. Healing our community is the frist step to the journey to greater unity.

How few know about malcom's writings after his journey to Mecca. Where he saw Men of different colors holding hand's and living in peace. An Amazing man. :smile:

 

[rob_just_rob]

Have you ever heard of The Battle of Little Big Horn and a man named, General Custer?

Um, the battle went well for the Amerindians, the war, not so much...

 

[b.c.]

The more I read of your posts b.c., the more I admire and respect you. You said that VERY well brother.

And thank you my brother. This coming from one as insightful as you is quite an honor.