Stop blaming racism

[demosincebirth]

By Paul D. White Paul D. White – Thu Oct 22, 5:00 am ET
Los Angeles – Growing youth violence in the United States will not be resolved until we find the moral courage to address the racial issues that underlie it.

During a Chicago school visit earlier this month to the site where a black honor student was beaten to death by a mob of black students, Attorney General Eric Holder stated that growing youth violence in America is not just "a black problem," but a problem for all races. The trouble with this statement is that it is statistically untrue.

Youth violence may not be solely a black problem, but it is primarily a black problem.

Consider, by race, the contributing factors of prison incarceration and school suspension. Blacks are imprisoned and suspended three times more frequently than the rest of the US population, and as much as six times more frequently than their white, Asian, and Latino counterparts.

The question is not whether young blacks, particularly males, get involved in violent incidents more frequently than other races. The question is why.

White and black liberals blame this disparity on a racist society that misinterprets and discriminates against black culture.

White and black conservatives explain these statistics as the result of less respect for the law, caused solely by poor parenting. They cite as proof that high-achieving blacks have been well-parented.

This is not a new problem. Consider a memo written in 1965 to President Lyndon Johnson from Assistant Labor Secretary Daniel Moynihan in which the secretary expressed his great concern over the high rate of out-of-wedlock births among blacks (25 percent at that time). Unaddressed, Mr. Moynihan predicted, this large number of fatherless children would result in increasing school failure, criminal delinquency, and joblessness. Sadly, because liberals across the board condemned this call for action as racist propaganda, President Johnson didn't want to risk heated public debate and so did nothing.

The recent Chicago incident, and countless others that occur daily, are the result of not heeding Moynihan's warning 44 years ago. The previous out-of-wedlock birthrate has almost tripled, and 7 out of 10 black children now grow up not only without a father, but also in disproportionate poverty. That means millions of young kids lack adequate parental guidance to make the transition to become successful adults.

So of course unparented black kids act up and get in trouble more. Any racial group would do the same. The starting point for reducing our nation's youth violence must begin at home. We need our elected public officials to acknowledge this.

President Obama – himself black, well-parented, and successful – has a unique opportunity to start reducing youth violence by addressing this key issue. The president needs to condemn the disparity in out-of-wedlock birthrates and antisocial behavior between black youth and their peers of other races. He needs to specifically address the habit of blaming racism alone for the failure to instill proper behavior in black children.

A specific call for black parental accountability would be a strong first step in avoiding future tragedies like the one in Chicago.

Paul D. White is a career public educator from Ventura, Calif., and the author of "White's Rules – Saving Our Youth One Kid at a Time."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20091022/cm_csm/ywhite

[Tim01]

1. Popcorn? Check. nt

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

2. Need some salt and butter*?

Butter actually meaning yellow butter topping... not real butter.

[Tim01]

7. You better hurry up and sit down, it's starting.

I microwaved some real butter, we should be set if you can spare some salt.

[EFerrari]

3. I thought this was The Onion. n/t

[redqueen]

4. So all the problems are due to out-of-wedlock births?

Nothing to do with peer pressure, then... or cultural issues... and *surely* not racism.

Riiiiiiiight.

[Jim Sagle]

5. Right wing hogwash!

[noiretextatique]

6. Mr. White has spoken

:rofl: if i had to guess, i'd say he's a conservative, even though he tries to set himself up as the voice of reason.

[NOLALady]

8. O My.

I have no problem with him calling for black parental accountability as long as he doesn't forget to call for white parental accountability. That could be a first step in preventing future Columbine-like tragedies.

Were any past Presidents expected to address and reduce youth violence, black or white? I also don't recall any other Presidents condemning white anti social behavior.

Jeeezus

[redqueen]

9. Yes... but it's not racist!

:crazy:

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

13. What if he calls for black parental responsibility 6X louder than for whites? n/t

[Starry Messenger]

10. WTF?

If people actually started reporting the white kids who bully and get violent these numbers would change drastically. I went to a nearly all-white rich kid school and still have the emotional scars to prove it. Anti-social doesn't even begin to cover it.

[jaysunb]

11. Mr White can kiss ALL of my fat black ass !

:evilfrown:

[noiretextatique]

14. Mr. White is the prototypical

clueless white american :hi:

[jaysunb]

19. "Cluless" and therefore dangerous w/ a platform.

:hi:

[Fire1]

12. Sorry, but I have to unrec this piece. n/t

[Brewman_Jax]

15. Well, that's mighty white of him

and the name is so appropriate. :puke: I guess the rappers made those nice young white males shoot up their schools some years ago, too. :eyes:

[eridani]

16. Sweden, mostly white, has 1 1/2 times the percent of births to unmarried women as the US

http://www.childstats.gov/datatables/unmarried.asp
OK, still lower than rates in the black community here. The increase in the percent of unwed births, however, is driven by the much more rapid decline in birthrate for married women compared to unmarried women.

http://www.nytimes.com/1998/07/26/opinion/l-education-ends-welfare-declining-birth-rate-085987.html

Geez, I wonder what the difference could be? Maybe because Sweden doesn't put huge percentages of the unmarried dads in jail? Not only that, those dads actually get a lot of support from their government for taking the oppportunity to become more involved with their kids.

http://www.thinkbaby.co.uk/news/article/mps/uan/2279

Overall, there is a total of an amazing 480 days' parental leave available to new parents, with 60 days reserved for each parent and the remaining time allowable as the couple see fit. The reason for the reserved 60 days is to encourage dads to take their share - those 60 days can't be transferred to the mum, so if dad doesn't take them, they're lost.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

17. I'm sure he lets black people use his toilet all the time

[Forkboy]

18. Sounds like he took his name too seriously.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

20. I'm guessing you will be roundly criticized for posting this.

No one will actually bother to discuss any of the points. You have brought up the undebateable subject.

[ismnotwasm]

21. Hmm, Bell Curve mentality

With a different twist.

Mr. White works at a rough inner city school, I see.

Reminiscent of "To Sir, with Love"



Didn't take away White's unacknowledged white privilege did it?

From A fairly decent review of the book;

"While these are important attributes of love and care amongst adults and youth, my view is quite different in that after teaching at a University for 32 years, I have seen the problems of youth trying to achieve clarity in writing and mathematics, and I find it difficult to understand his equations indicating that serving food is equivalent to solving a complex math problem. I would, however, recommend that those who intend to go into teaching read this book as it does provide important perspectives on one of the major social problems in our society."

http://www.peacecorpswriters.org/pages/2007/0705/705rv-whitesrules.html