I have no idea what actually happened when Martin was shot. I sincerely hope justice is done, one way or another, but would like to take the opportunity of this ruckus to ask one question: at the end of this process of demonstration, recrimination, verbal assaults, and purposive acrimony, will anyone have pointed out that black children from two parent homes have rates of criminality on par with the rest of the population; and that black children from single parent homes have rates of criminality on par with that of white children from single parent homes?
And that the LARGE gap in the rates of criminality between whites and blacks is entirely attributable to black cultural patterns that only emerged in this country following the so-called War on Poverty?
No, of course not.
At 12% of the population, blacks are some 40% of our prison population. This fact alone means that it is quite rational, in some neighborhoods, to watch black people more carefully than others. If you knew that people driving red cars were more than three times more likely to be criminals, it would be reasonable to watch the red cars more. The problem is not an unempirical, prejudicial racism based on a misunderstanding of black people; but rather a very real, easily verified FACT that black people commit crimes at much higher rates than everyone else.
The problem is not racism, but that this statistic is TRUE. The solution will not lie in forcing police to abdicate–or pretend to abdicate–their own daily experience of the world, but rather in addressing this higher rate of criminality, which as I have implied should in my view begin with addresssing rates of single motherhood and particularly teen pregnancy.
And to be clear, while no doubt rich white collar (as opposed to blue collar) criminals get away with crimes poor people would have been convicted of, there are far more white people living at the poverty level than black people, and they don’t commit crimes at the same rate. Not even close.
I was thinking today that clearly there is an element of paternalism in the treatment of the left towards black people in this country. The converse of paternalism, of course, is infantilization, which is the demand that that community not grow up, not develop, not demonstrate a sense of self apart from that permitted by their self appointed leaders.
In all this, I see not just paternalism, but demented, narcissistic, ABUSIVE paternalism, or what I have often termed maternalism.
I would like to quote an excerpt from the book “The Drama of the Gifted Child”, by Alice Miler:
What happens if a mother not only is unable to recognize and fulfill her child’s needs, but is herself in need of assurance? Quite unconsciously, the mother then tries to assuage her own needs through her child. This does not rule out strong affection; the mother often loves her child passionately, but not in the way he needs to be loved. The reliability, continuity, and constancy that are so important to the child are therefore missing from this exploitative relationship. What is missing above all is the framework within which the child could experience his feelings and emotions. Instead, he develops something the mother needs, and although this certainly saves his life (by securing the mother’s or father’s “love”) at the time, it may nevertheless prevent him, throughout his life, from being himself.
Could we not argue that this basic process is happening on two levels, that of the infant born, as so often happens, to an emotionally immature mother, who uses the child to meet her own emotional needs, creating inexplicable anger and sadness in the adult child, which is expressed either in misogyny (in men) and masochism (in women); and that this basic process ALSO describes the self defined “Liberals” who claim to be able to speak to the black condition and remedy it. They have been at this for 50 years, and things have gotten steadily worse. Poverty has not lessened, and some of the cities they have tried to “bless”, like Detroit, more closely resemble the war zones of primitive and undeveloped countries.
I was reading the other day that a teacher told a black student to read some poem he had prescribed in a “more black” tone of voice. There is this great concern on the part of so-called black leaders to make sure that things remain a certain way, that black people devalue education, speak in ways likely to hinder their job prospects, and above all that they not follow the standard path of progression, that of the American Dream, that of hard, inter-generational work, with an eye to economic and social improvement.
It is my sincere opinion that no worse blight has ever befallen black America, or COULD befall black America, than the people who claim they are trying to help them. These are people whose OWN identities DEPEND on certain, definitions of “blackness”, and which react in abusive and violent ways to anyone who wants to redefine them. Look at Spike Lee calling Clarence Thomas “A handkerchief-head, chicken-and-biscuit-eating Uncle Tom”.
Clarence Thomas is a symbol of what we should all strive to achieve. And he happens to be black. Because, however, he happened to have followed the path of hard work, self discipline, and higher education, he is not black.
What parent, I ask you, does not want their child educated? What parent does not want their child to be successful and admired for visible and useful achievement?
An abusive, narcissistic parent, that is who. This is who is running the so-called “civil rights movement”, which might more accurately be termed the “let’s keep blacks dependent on us forever” movement.
People solve problems, given the chance. The question is not why the black community has not advanced more than it has, but rather: what is preventing the formation of a GENUINE black community, able to address responsibly its own problems, and that is not based on the posturing of fools like Jeremiah Wright, Bill Ayers, Barack Obama, or Al Sharpton? Given the chance, this is exactly what would happen and it is to PREVENT this that there is so much demand for government intervention in the lives of black Americans.
Black Americans do not need their “leaders”: their “leaders” need THEM.
Plainly, clinically, there is a strong dose of sadism in the narcissist, and that is nowhere more clear in the failures of the last 50 years to raise up the living standards, and overall quality of life, of black Americans. It is shameful. Absolutely shameful and disgusting.