Race

The Emancipation Proclamation was signed in 1863.  Jackie Robinson signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers and played his first game in 1947.  The U.S. military was officially integrated in 1948.  The Civil Rights Act was signed in 1964.  We elected a black man as President of the United States in 2008.  If you're counting we've had 151 years as a country, as a society, as a people to get our shit together on race.  So why do we find ourselves still fighting the battles of race?  It defies logic that we are still, as a people, not able to come together and figure out how to live together.

Unless you've been living under a rock you've seen the high profile cases that have sparked the recent outrage.  We've had marches in many major cities, "die-ins", shutting of bridges, and disruption of transportation in an effort to shine a light on what is called "police brutality".  First there was the Michael Brown shooting.  You know, the guy who did a strong arm robbery, challenged and beat up a police officer, and wound up attacking him and getting killed.  At least that is the official narrative that the grand jury got.  The story was that there was so much contradicting testimony that they couldn't produce an indictment.  But the evidence sort of points to a bully who thought he could get away with more than he could...and wound up getting himself killed.

And then there was the Eric Garner fiasco in New York.  This guy is selling loose cigarettes and the police challenge him.  The difference here is that the whole thing was caught on video.  It seems to me that this guy was in the wrong, but the police way overreacted.  By any measure he didn't deserve to die.  And the grand jury didn't return an indictment.

Then there is the case of 12-year old Tamir Rice who was fatally shot by a cop responding to a 911 call.  The kid was waving a very real looking pellet gun around and the cop killed him.  The thing is that the cop took the shot 2 seconds after arriving on the scene.  And we heard later that the policeman had a very suspect past.  This was a tragedy that didn't need to occur.

All of these incidents have produced outrage, especially in the black community.  Now, I get that black people have suffered under what can be termed egregious police harassment in many instances. I have black friends who have suffered.  They have recounted for me the harassment of themselves and their friends over the years.  There is sometimes too much suspicion, too much profiling, too many stops for nothing, too much blaming a person because of the color of his skin.  And it is irrefutable that there are way too many black men in our prisons, sometimes for crimes that are suspect.  And once you get in that system, it's tough to get out.

I get why people are out marching.  It certainly was effective when I was in a kid in the '60s.  Getting attention and shining a light on a  problem is very American.  It's our right.  And I'm happy that so many of the marches have been peaceful (except for a few knuckleheads up in Berkley.  But that's Berkley!).  So I have no problem with the marchers.  But here's what I do have a problem with.  Listening to and following the likes of the hustlers and hucksters Sharpton, Jackson, et. al., giving credence to looters who are clearly out to get something for themselves, and characterizing all police as harassers is just wrong.  I think the comments by Mayor DeBlasio were particularly egregious.  His generalities and disdain for the police is unwarranted.  I really do worry that New York is going to slide backwards into the crime riddled city that it was in the 80s.  This kind of behavior just hurts their cause.  Many, many people are hurting and want change and their voices need to be heard.  But it's difficult to hear them through Sharpton and the looters.

But...and it's a big but, it seems to me that there is way too much stereotyping going on.  Not all cops are bad.  Not all blacks are criminals.  We've got to get to the point where we can treat each other with respect and treat every incident as an individual occurrence.  I know that's easy for me to say.  I'm an old white guy who has never really had any interaction, much less negative interaction, with law enforcement.  So maybe I can't relate.   And maybe the problem is more widespread than I think. Not sure.

But as an old white guy and a citizen of the country, I do have a few thoughts.  First, I respect the police tremendously.  They are the first responders.  They put their lives on the line every day to protect us and maintain a lawful society.  In so many situations, they are heroic.  But they aren't perfect.  And maybe this is regional, I don't know. But it seems to me that there needs to be some increased training and oversight on race relations within law enforcement as a whole.  Are they getting enough training?  Not sure.  Is it ongoing?  Don't know.  Maybe it is in many places, but clearly more needs to be done.  Of the three incidents I described, I think there was a problem with the police in two of them.  That's not a good track record.

Second, personal responsibility needs to be more strongly emphasized in the black community.  It's no secret that there are not enough black men taking personal responsibility to be role models.  It's verifiable that there are too many single mothers in the black community.  Black on black crime is a terrible problem that society hasn't addressed.  We need to get this subject on the table and solve it.  It is not going away.  A partial solution is economics.  More opportunities have to be available for the black community.  But you don't get more opportunity by wishing for it.  You have to work for it.  And don't tell me it's too hard or the deck is stacked.  I know it is.  But there are many, many success stories out there.  We've got to help the black community achieve the American dream.  Not a hand out...but a hand up.  That the number of people (a large number of whom are black) on welfare and getting food stamps has at least doubled under Obama is something he ought to be ashamed of.  I give Clinton all credit in creating Welfare to Workfare.  Giving people a handout achieves nothing.  We need programs targeted at getting this community to work!

Which brings me to number three.  The black community has to get to the point where education is valued and of paramount importance.  I think that is the key to everything.  We've seen that attitude in immigrant cultures for generations and it's been a huge determinant of success.  We see pockets of it so we know it can be done.  We see charter schools experiencing great successes.  But for every successful charter school, there are many public schools which are a disaster.  The black community, local governments, and the teachers unions have to step up to the plate and work harder to create successes in schools.  That will mean a shift in culture and a shift in priorities.

As I said in the beginning, we've got to get our shit together on race.  It's been too long.  We've had many successes but it's still a huge problem.  I was in the military of 25 years, which is one of the biggest (if not the biggest) meritocracies in our system.  So I've seen it work.  Give a person respect, train them to do a job and hold them accountable, and expect success.  And above all...remember that greatest line in the greatest document of all time..."We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal...".

BTW, I've been using the term "black community".  That's a pejorative term and I hope someday we will not have to use it.  I hope someday we can just say people.  But we're obviously not there yet.  Not even close.  And you'll notice I don't say "African-American".  I personally thinks that's BS.  I don't get and I don't use the "dash American" terminology.  We're all Americans.