August 21, 2006

BRITBOT:

Banish The Bling: A Culture of Failure Taints Black America (Juan Williams, August 21, 2006, Washington Post)

Have we taken our eyes off the prize? The civil rights movement continues, but the struggle today is not so much in the streets as in the home -- and with our children. If systemic racism remains a reality, there is also a far more sinister obstacle facing African American young people today: a culture steeped in bitterness and nihilism, a culture that is a virtual blueprint for failure. [...]

[Bill] Cosby asked the chilling question: "What good is Brown " and all the victories of the civil rights era if nobody wants them? A generation after those major civil rights victories, black America is experiencing alarming dropout rates, shocking numbers of children born to single mothers and a frightening acceptance of criminal behavior that has too many black people filling up the jails. Where is the focus on taking advantage of new opportunities to advance and to close the racial gap in educational and economic achievement?

Incredibly, Cosby's critics don't see the desperate need to pull a generational fire alarm to warn people about a culture of failure that is sabotaging any chance for black people in poverty to move up and help their children reach the security of economic and educational achievement. Not one mainstream civil rights group picked up on his call for marches and protests against bad parenting, drug dealers, hate-filled rap music and failing schools.

Where is the civil rights groundswell on behalf of stronger marriages that will allow more children to grow up in two-parent families and have a better chance of staying out of poverty? Where are the marches demanding good schools for those children -- and the strong cultural reinforcement for high academic achievement (instead of the charge that minority students who get good grades are "acting white")? Where are the exhortations for children to reject the self-defeating stereotypes that reduce black people to violent, oversexed "gangstas," minstrel show comedians and mindless athletes?


Out bitching at Republicans for trying to transfer ownership of the welfare net from the government to the poor themselves.

Posted by Orrin Judd at August 21, 2006 1:12 PM
Comments

I am no fan of Juan Williams, but it is nice to see him start to come around.

Posted by: pchuck at August 21, 2006 2:10 PM

Interesting that I don't see much of this on Fox Sunday when Juan is Brit's cats-paw during the roundtable discussion. One of the highlights of my television week.

Posted by: Rick T. at August 21, 2006 2:11 PM

Baseball caps, don't forget the baseball caps.

The un-squared away baseball caps are an expression of rebellion against reason and order: twisted caps, twisted minds.

Posted by: Lou Gots at August 21, 2006 2:20 PM

I just read the book and was surprised it was amazingly well written. Most of it is a riff on Cosby with some history thrown in. Coming to the correct conclusion and agreeing with Cosby isn't rocket science, but much as Williams sees the point as valid, he waffles back and forth as if he simply can't give up the comfortable position of being the victim of evil white folks and big corporate fat cats.

Reading about the struggles and sufferings of former slaves in the post civil war period of segregation and degradation brought tears to my eyes as did the civil rights years. It's tragic that so many of the children for whom these beleaguered people fought don't even know enough to honor them. Ungrateful wretches dis their ancestors and toss their efforts in trash by succumbing to the siren song of the poverty pimps who I am hoping will find a special place in hell waiting for them.

It would be nice to think this movement will pick up supporters, but there is entirely too much money in the poverty biz for that to happen any time soon.

Posted by: erp at August 21, 2006 4:07 PM

C'mon, if the blacks did what JW wanted them to, who's going to enrich self-anointed black leaders such as Jesse Jackson, and Al Sharpton? You don't want them to live on welfare, do you?

Posted by: ic at August 21, 2006 5:52 PM

Lou: Lou Pinella must have had the most squared-away mind, like, ever.

Posted by: Mike Beversluis at August 21, 2006 7:41 PM

Williams may have the Post's pulpit today but yesterday the paper ran a review which pretty much panned the book. The reviewer felt Williams didn't make enough references to racism.

Posted by: George at August 21, 2006 9:30 PM

Merely a continuation of W.E.B Dubois versus Booker T. Washington. Dubois has consistently been the winner, but who knows about the future.

Juan Williams has never made up his mind. One moment he's defending Clarence Thomas (in 1991) and then he jumps into Julian Bond mode. BTW his son is a Republican who got his start as a staffer for Strom Thurmond.

Posted by: h-man at August 22, 2006 5:51 AM

When the newscaster on the car radio mentioned Al Sharpton, I mentally tuned out, but my ears perked up when the rev started talking about African-Americans needing to take responsibility for themselves. Focus groups must be liking what Cosby has been saying.

Maybe a change is in the wind. It seems so unlikely, but then, there was a Polish Pope.

Posted by: erp at August 22, 2006 8:01 AM
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