Booman has a well thought out and passionate response to a New York Times article on the plight of black men in modern day America.
Unfortunately for Booman, he’s also wrong in his conclusion:
Ending the Drug War is the single most productive thing we could do to help black men get a step up in American society.
The Drug War has swept up such a large population of black men that almost every urban black family knows an uncle, or a cousin, that has been impacted. Sometimes they are the victims of drug-related crime, other times their loved ones have wound up in prison. Doing time loses its sense of shame, and therefore the threat of doing time loses a lot of its deterrent effect. There is a certain snowball effect that has occurred. When the neighborhoods are filled with men that cannot find legitimate work because of their criminal record, a failure to look for legitimate work loses its sense of shame. And finding illegal sources of income, being the simpler path, also loses its sense of shame.
In short, the Drug War erodes the culture. It reinforces itself. It legitimizes and excuses crime.
Any comprehensive program that aims to tackle the problem of black male unemployment, must put an end to the Drug War front and center as the single most important piece.
Or, those black men could just stop selling and using drugs. You know, take some of the responsibility for their own moral failings, rather than perpetuating the “victim” excuse.
Believe it or not, every single person has the ability to make choices: the choice to stay in school or drop out; the choice to do drugs or not to do drugs; the chioce to sell drugs or not to sell drugs; and the choice to become a criminal or the chioce to remain a law abiding and productive member of society.
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I agree with Booman that the data presented in the Times story is alarming, and its a problem that needs to be discussed and solutions found…but decriminalizing their criminal behavior is not the answer.
A good starting point would be for prominent black leaders to quit attacking blacks who are trying to break the cycle:
In fact it seems that anytime a black person dares to rise above “being blackâ€â€”getting an education, thinking for themselves, getting out of the ghetto, etc.—they are attacked by their own as being “not black enoughâ€, an oreo (black on the outside, white on the inside), or depicted as a Sambo.
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MORE: Just to prove my point, Aubrey Kaplan at the L.A. Times writes this piece (which also appeared in my hometown paper, The Austin American-Statesman) that posits that part of the reason that White House adviser Claude Allen committed fraud was because he’s black.
Seriously.
Eugene Volokh wonders:
“I don’t support conservatism in its current iteration, and I support black conservatives even less.” [from the Times story] (I take this to mean “traitor to his race,” since otherwise it makes no sense: Why would holding any view be worse if you’re black, unless the theory is that somehow blacks ought not hold that view because it’s supposedly bad for blacks?) When whites are called traitors to their race for supporting policies that are supposedly bad for whites, that’s pretty roundly condemned as racism, and rightly so. Yet somehow condemning blacks as traitors to their race is seen by many as just fine.
And Paul Geary at The New Editor:
The Times won’t publish the Mohammed cartoons, but will publish an op-ed piece asserting that Claude Allen became a thief because of the natural psychological ramifications of being a black Republican. That’s breathtaking hypocrisy.
Yes, it is.
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ADDED: From ReidBlog:
The imperative now is to find some solutions. One that I could think of off the bat, is a move to change the culture of “Black America.” If I see one more commercial for a gangsta movie or CD, I think I’ll puke. We’ve got to start modeling more productive ideas to our young men, rather than just materialism, mysogyny, sexual promiscuity (including bisexual promiscuity) and the relentless pursuit of a fictional, rented house, rented jewelry gangsta lifestyle. What are you saying about yourself and your community when you finally land a record deal, and choose to call your label Murder, Inc. or Death Row? And why are you surprised when the feds pay it extra attention? (Hollywood hasn’t exactly been helpful with its glorification of pimps and gangstas both in the greenlighting process, and during the recent Oscars…)
I think Reid makes a strong case.
Of course selling and dealing drugs is a bad idea.
But does it change your opinion to know that whites use drugs at a rate greater than blacks? Evidently it is not drug use that has been criminalized but poverty.
Selective enforcement of the law violates the equal protection provision of the Constitution.
Left by Preston on March 20th, 2006 at 11:17 pm