Mike Seccombe, MVGazette (Edgartown, Massachusetts), August 14. 2009
The myth that America has somehow become post-racial with the election of Barack Obama to the presidency was most succinctly nailed by the Rev. Eugene Rivers, in a fire and brimstone address at the regional high school on Wednesday.
“There is one black man in the White House and a million black men in prison,” he thundered.
The big question, though, for Reverend Rivers, along with 30-odd other speakers—judges, lawyers, academics, media personalities, a couple of actors and a Congressman—was who bears the responsibility for that, and all the other manifestations of continuing black disadvantage in America.
{snip}
The consensus was that the cause of the problems of continuing black disadvantage were a mix of personal and structural, with the emphasis on the structural. But the solution would depend most heavily on individuals, particularly those members of the black community described by Reverend Rivers as “high and lifted up.”
{snip}
He attacked—there is no other word for it—the black elite “who celebrate themselves” while ignoring the plight of “the wretched of the earth.”
As evidence of the black elite’s self-concern, he cited its focus on the recent arrest of Harvard Prof. Henry Louis (Skip) Gates in Cambridge.
Yet just five days after that, a young black girl was shot in her home when “an AK 47 was used by a 17-year-old terrorist” to spray a city building with bullets. One of them passed through three walls before hitting the girl.
“There was not one word said. There were no invitations to the White House,” he said.
“All across this country, the black underclass is suffering. There’s been no discourse or conversation about our moral responsibility to those whom we left behind. Shame on us, after we’ve achieved everything we’ve achieved.
“The great moral challenge for black America is not about a black in the White House, but we reconcile with the fact that there are now two separate black nations: those who live and die in the ghetto and those of us who celebrate our beauty. . . .”
He warned that within a decade those ghettos could produce unimaginable problems. He suggested home-grown terrorism. Saudi Arabian money was financing Wahabist Islam chaplaincies in inner cities and jails, to politicize alienated young black men.
{snip}
Reggie Walton, a judge of the U.S. District Court, said Reverend Rivers had his numbers wrong: in reality there were probably two million black men locked up on any given day in one penal institution or another.
As evidence of the structural unfairness of the justice system, he noted the disparity between the sentences imposed for possession of crack cocaine—mostly used by people of color—and powder cocaine—mostly used by whites.
He admitted to being a tough-sentencing judge, but said he also was troubled by such unfairnesses in the system.
Another federal judge, Nancy Gertner, noted such unfairness was inseparable from politics.
What she called “the greatest incarceration of African-Americans since reconstruction” had served to “de-racialize the race debate” by redefining imprisonment—which results in most cases with a denial of voting rights—not as an issue of civil rights anymore, but simply as a matter of “these people are bad,” she said.
And Democratic Cong. Barney Frank pushed the political aspect one step further, arguing political conservatives used race as a weapon in their efforts to maintain inequities which affect not only black Americans, but all Americans.
{snip}
Original article
(Posted on August 17, 2009)
Comments
1. Why are federal judges commenting on poltical issues? They should both be bounced from the bench.
2. What a hoot this outraged writer who wants to release millions of black criminals making his position known from the multimillionaire redoubt of Edgartown. Lots of po bruthas in Edgartown?
Trouble is brewing. Knowing the capabilities of Blacks for violence, this is going to spill into the street, and I’m afraid we (White people) are by and large going to be the victims of it.
Obama has been President for 7 months already and every Black person is not King of the World yet. This will never do. Time for Blacks to go out and get the White man because as we all know it’s ALWAYS the White Man’s fault.
The cocaine issue is a major laugh because it illustrates just how short the time period is for Black Americans. In the 80s crack was destroying Black communities at an alarming and even amazing rate. Powder was not having the same effect on White communities (even though to even admit there is a white community is considered to be racism).
Grobbbbbbbbbbbbb
To what extent is that (A) responsibility a personal one, or (B) to what extent is it collective?
ANSWERS:
(A) 100%
Whenever I read these remarks, I’m reminded of the satire of Monty Python when a criminal is caught and he says, “It’s a fair cop but society is to blame”. To which the policeman replies, “Agreed. We’ll be charging them too”.
” One black man in the White House and a million in jail.”That needs to be changed!! How about “None in the White House and a million and ONE in jail”??
Amazing, they’re blaming THEMSELVES! I never thought I’d see the day!
They must have the racial make up of Obama and Henry Louis Gates, and have half a portion of white guilt.
Yes, these mixed-race blacks are blaming the white part of themselves, the part that accounts for the prominence they’ve achieved…now it makes perfect sense!
This minister complains on the one hand about so many black men in prison, and then on the other hand about how nobody paid attention to a black girl being shot in the back because of a “17-year old terrorist.” By “terrorist,” they mean friendly local thug.
He can’t have it both ways.
Also, the disparate sentences for crack compared to powder cocaine were asked for and received by black civil rights preachers way back in the 1980s, because of the impact crack was having on black communities. As if the crack has the power all by itself to impact people.
Yes indeed, black incarceration is a serious problem. There may be only one effective solution: Black people need to stop commting crimes! Why isn’t this strategy being discussed by these black ‘intellectuals’??
http://stuffblackpeopledontlike.blogspot.com/2009/08/5-republicans.html
Black people and Hispanics don’t like Republicans, but they sure do enjoy white people who pay taxes!
In a free county you will be free to succeed, or free to fail.
Failure will probably always be the least work.
Although dollars and the perceived color of envy, are
equally green, in a free society only one will buy groceries.
Race has little, or nothing to do, with all of the above.
“What she called ‘the greatest incarceration of African-Americans since reconstruction’ had served to “de-racialize the race debate” by redefining imprisonment—which results in most cases with a denial of voting rights—not as an issue of civil rights anymore, but simply as a matter of ‘these people are bad,’ she said.”
I am soooooo tired of hearing this very same doggerel through the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, 90’s, and now.
Statistically, these people ARE bad with regard to crime, illegitimacy, lack of school achievement, and maintaining their property.
‘Structural problems’? What the heck does that mean?
The Blacks who succeed in America are the ones that speak proper English, go to school, don’t get pregnant at 14, don’t rob or hurt innocent people, and otherwise act like a civilized HUMAN BEING.
When are Blacks going to take responsibility for their OWN lives and their OWN communities? Quit blaming Whitey and take care of your own ‘structural problems’.
RobChapmanOnline.com
I have noticed that some of you over the years have posted that there are two Black Americas. One that is prosperous and upwardly mobile and another that is embroiled in a cauldron of drugs, out of wedlock births, violence and other regressive pathologies.
It seems like some of us knew this before Blacks themselves did.
On the subject of race, the headlines today was about yet another of the innumerable cases of black US soldiers stationed overseas raping and murdering the local women: This is the case of a black by the name of Robert Brown or Baltimore who, as a 43 year old, raped and murdered a German teenager by the name of Nicola Stiel in 1984 in Germany. (And while there he also fathered illegitimate child with another German woman that, in typical fashion, he abandoned.) He is just now being extradited to Germany from a US prison (where he is serving time for some other crime). DNA technology not available in 1984 is now able to prove the semen found on the victim was his. He was a suspect at the time and fled Germany.
And Democratic Cong. Barney Frank pushed the political aspect one step further, arguing political conservatives used race as a weapon in their efforts to maintain inequities which affect not only black Americans, but all Americans.
Barney Frank has to be one of the most dispicable human beings in Congress. The left uses race as a weapon all the time. Can Frank cite any instance where the conservatives do?
“There is one black man in the White house and a million black men in prison”…..
Hmmm,,,,could it be that if perhaps those million black men had simply obeyed the law they wouldn’t be in prison? One could just as easily say:
“Despite a clear propensity towards crime demonstrated by the presence of a million black men in prison, America, a majority White nation was fair enough to elect a black man to the highest office in the country”.
Aside from being virtually the same tired nonsense to a word that we’ve all heard a million times before, I cannot believe they continue to trot out the old crack vs. powder cocaine cannard! Crackheads receive different prison sentences because, unlike the foolish white powder user, they almost invariably have a record as long as the Hudson River and a violent and terrifying one at that. American Blacks have become as delusional as they are predictable.
There they go again. This Judge Walton who is black and Judge Gertner who might be, making excuses why there are so many useless wretched black bum’s in jail. This is so typical of the so called Black Elite. While saying that he is a tough sentencer he ties himself in knots railing about the unfairness of the system. Just one more example of the Black Elite circling the wagons to defend the bruthas.
Feh. Another day, another vague, baseless, impossible-to-define-or-demonstrate ghost entity cooked up to explain black failure.
The usual psychotic irrationality.
I’ve heard welfare workers describe how, to the mostly black underclass women, “life happens”. There is not planning, no steering…pregnancy, drug addiction, etc, “just happens”.
This minister is saying the same thing. “prison” “just happens”, kids shooting eachother “just happens”.
He is completely oblivious as to cauase and effect.
Interesting how a million black men in prison is characterized as a “tragedy.”
Given that black men commit crimes at eight times the rate of whites and Hispanics combined, one would think that having a million of them behind bars, as opposed to running around loose, would be considered a social benefit.
And it’s not as though their criminal conduct in this country represents some inexplicable abberation in black African behavior. In fact it is the immutable behavioral pattern of black Africans throughout the entire world, wherever they’re found in significant numbers. There are no exceptions to their anti-social criminality and destructiveness.
The real tragedy is not that so many of them are incarcerated but rather that we are afflicted with so many of them in the first place.
As Abraham Lincoln once observed, “They are the rock upon which this country is breaking apart.” If only John Wilkes Booth had known of Lincoln’s firm intent to remove them from our country perhaps America would be a very different place today.
the black underclass bring the misery upon themselves with their own destructive actions. only when they take responsibility for their actions will they advance as a group. it seems to be a knee-jerk reaction for them to yell racism or discrimination when things go wrong. today the lack of structure is lamented and this will be the case 50 years from now.
Let’s look at this calmly for a moment.
What can anyone else ever do about individuals who make a lifetime career of acting out eagerly internalized bitter resentment of other races, and waywardly pursuing selfishness and greed as righteous acts of self-justification?
Such people will forever be damaging to civil society and a debasing danger to everyone in it.
As Abraham Lincoln once observed, “They are the rock upon which this country is breaking apart.” If only John Wilkes Booth had known of Lincoln’s firm intent to remove them from our country perhaps America would be a very different place today.
“I have noticed that some of you over the years have posted that there are two Black Americas. One that is prosperous and upwardly mobile and another that is embroiled in a cauldron of drugs, out of wedlock births, violence and other regressive pathologies.”
Exactly. Please, let’s stop treating the good and the bad as the same kind of people. Enough of bashing blacks as a group, while forgetting the good ones. Let’s remember that blacks (or Hispanics or Asian or whoever) in general are not our real problem. Our real problem is our traitorious politicians of every color, mostly WHITE.
However, if we have to or could separate along racial lines, the absence of black (and Hispanic) criminals and welfare queens would be worth the absence of the rest, however unfair that might be.
