How do we deal with the many issues facing the black community?

I guess I'm looking for an honest conversation here. The vast majority of you know me as a leftist and I would think one would assume I'd be more liberal on social matters, but when it comes to issues concerning black Americans, I am perplexed.

I guess it all started with a close friend of mine for whom I've known for decades. Yes he was black, and no this was NEVER something I factored in during our entire childhood and friendship. We became friends in the 6th grade, I remember the exact day when we did, that's how close of a bud he was to me. To me he was a friend, a brother, somebody almost family to me. As of recent I've been alarmed with the recent attacks against Asian people and this almost seems to be prevalent within the black community. I've also been looking into a lot of social sciences and I'm just astounded that even after 300+ years of integration, of Americanization, there continues to be this stark difference between blacks and the rest of America. Lowest average earners, a major issue with single parent households, the highest per capita of crime, you name it. What gives?? I innocently wanted to get perspective from what I thought was a dear friend whom to me seemed intelligent enough to put his personal feelings aside. No I didn't hint this was anything racially caused. I felt it was good to get his perspective as a person of color. He flipped off at me. Told me I was given into some racist agenda. I get it, I really do. Slavery, segregation, yes history wasn't the best to blacks, but how many times are we going to escape to that excuse? He just cut me off... and now I feel we're just standoffish. He hadn't been speaking much to me since. I was like Jesus man, you know me better then that. I'm a seeker of information, that's it, and these issues within the black community are real.

How are we supposed to rectify these issues if we don't get down to the core reasons or the cold hard truths? The truth hurts, we all that saying, but we're able to better ourselves once we address this. What gives?

I guess the point of this thread is to get perspectives from others. I KNOW there are some outspoken blacks out there not afraid to speak the truth about issues within the community. What are we missing here? All cards on the ground? And can we fix it? Can we all just be AMERICAN? One people? Christ, we can't keep of sweeping these hard talks under the ground because of feelz.

Can't believe it but I'm at this point where I'm wonder. And NO I don't, once again, believe in the genetic inferiority or any racist crap like that. What I do know is that there are hard truths we're not addressing..... this is 13% of our population. Steps have to be made.

Simplist answer...

Stop voting for democrats.

You wanna know how to fix black communities?

Read Thomas Sowell.

a reply to: JAY1980

So we're thinking welfare and entitlement?

I'll have a look into that author. Thanks.

Kind of suspecting that may be one of the factors.

a reply to: JAY1980

In Intellectuals and Race (2013), Sowell argues that intelligence quotient (IQ) gaps are hardly startling or unusual between, or within, ethnic groups. He notes that the roughly 15-point gap in contemporary black–white IQ scores is similar to that between the national average and the scores of certain ethnic white groups in years past, in periods when the nation was absorbing new immigrants.

Thomas Sowell

Really trying to avoid the race thing... which Sowell partly alludes to... but look I'll continue to look up literacy. He seems like a smart fellow. Never heard of him before...

The only way to change is communication. We (as whites) can't "deal" with issues facing the black community. Only be open to them and not exacerbate them.

You mention your friend being stand-offish when it was brought up. May have been just a knee-jerk reaction, and if you are good friends, it will come back at a later time when he has had a chance to think about it. If you've known him so long and this was the first you brought it up - that may be the cause of his reaction.

I don't have solutions, just ears and my own day-to-day actions. I can't solve others' issues but I'll help if I can.

a reply to: Southern Guardian

After looking up Sowell you should look up karma.

originally posted by: JAY1980
Simplist answer...

Stop voting for democrats.

You wanna know how to fix black communities?

Read Thomas Sowell.

True.
What have the Democrat’s ever done for the black communities that was substantive?
Anyone would be hard pressed to name 2 or 3 rock solid, tangible things the Dems have done to help blacks.
But yet somehow they still keep voting for the Dems?

a reply to: Southern Guardian

First of all, SG, I applaud your thread, so S&F for that. Thank you for an open and honest question about a serious topic.

Much like you, I had a similar friendship as a younger man. It didn't deteriorate like yours, but there were times when I thought it could have.

I honestly think there is one single answer to your question about why this mentality exists.

That answer is...THE MAIN STREAM MEDIA! Period.

They market hate. It's a commodity to them, and it sells advertisements. They will do absolutely ANYTHING to sell advertisements, and if that means driving a wedge in all of America, then so be it.

I'd honestly like to say the democratic party has a lot to do with this too, but honestly, I think they realize the media will run with these topics so they use the divides as a matter of convenience.

Bottom line...it's the MAIN STREAM MEDIA! Period!

I grew up around black communities, if a black student does well in school, they are ridiculed for "acting white". I believe if we could get them to stop holding themselves back, they would find much more success in life.

There is nothing else anyone can do, until the self sabotage ends.

a reply to: Southern Guardian

The best thing that could happen to the 'black community' is if everyone, including black people, stopped lumping them as a 'community based on their skin color. The issues faced by poor black people are the same issues faced by poor people of every color.

Lack of decent jobs, living in run down neighbourhoods controlled by criminals, growing up with no prospects of a better life, corruption across all levels of government that takes money from those who are most poor with the promise of giving it back to them as 'free money' of some kind, no investment by those same governments into schools or infrastructure in those areas, partly due to the above mentioned cycle of crime.

The best thing the 'black community' could do is educate the young people and work to get those people out of that endless cycle of crime and poverty.

a reply to: Southern Guardian
Victim and entitlement mentality handed down from politicians to media to parents to children generation after generation. What does anyone expect the result of that would be? It's a perpetual nightmare for the black community, because the people that keep claiming they want to help end up doing the most damage.

Listen to Candace Owens talk about these issues. She's not afraid to tackle the hard questions and topics.

a reply to: Southern Guardian

Can't fix anything untill the basics are dealt with . Single motherhood , Culture , welfare state , victim mentality etc .

You can't reason someone out of a position they didn't reason themselves into . Its a waste of time.

There was a complaint made about why certain franchise businesses won't relocate into the urban core here. The complaint was something along the lines of our money is the same the money in other areas or something like it.

And it's true, it is the same money. The problem isn't the money. Their money is just as good, and that's proven every time they patronize one of those establishments outside the core. The problem isn't that; it's the other intangibles hounding the urban core communities. Crime is the big one, and the losses to crime, especially theft, can't outweigh the money brought in for a lot of stores.

But it's much simpler to boil these issues down to race and blame an element outside the difficult ones like crime.

a reply to: Jason79

...if a black student does well in school, they are ridiculed for "acting white".

As much as I hate to say it, this is very true! I've actually witnessed this on many occasions personally.

When I was in HS (a very small HS, with a very limited minority population) we had a girl who couldn't get a date to go to any of the proms or dances. Why? Because all of her ethnic community thought she "acted white" with her 4.0 GPA.

She was a valedictorian...and she was beautiful too! It was a shame.

I think a great first step would be to STOP referring to it as the "black community".

It's more than obvious over a myriad of encounters and situations that the few represent the many and that's EXACTLY why nothing gets done or gets better.

The worst are held up as the best and the best for the most part are overlooked and ignored.

Look at the short list:

Trayvon Martin
Michael Brown
George Floyd
Breonna Taylor
Jacob Blake

To name a few...

These folks are the EXACT opposite of decent people and yet they are held up as heroes. However, when they are seen as individuals and not representative of an ENTIRE race, you can isolate the damage to that person ONLY. BLM is a complete and utter scam it's sickening. Most will attribute that to, again, an ENTIRE RACE.

I'm of color, but these scumbags are not my folks!! I'm not a part of any community or group. Those things are for cowards and lazy asses who can't stand up for themselves or even think for themselves.

Nevertheless, because I share the same pigment, I'm a part of everyone who has the same shade.

BULL F*KING SNIP I am.

a reply to: Southern Guardian

Just leave it alone would be my way of dealing with it.

I don't understand what is going on Maybe the south of my West Canadian province is some kind of anomaly but any kind of I'll respect towards another race, has been really not cool since the 90s, at least.

I'm not ignorant. I spent the 80's in Alberta. But I still stand by the claim that it's not that hard.

a reply to: EternalShadow

It's also manifest given the high rates of intracommunity crime that the "community" really isn't all that much. True neighbors wouldn't prey on neighbors.

Now at one time before the breakdown of the family, they were likely a very strong community because they had to be, but it seems less true now.

originally posted by: Southern Guardian
a reply to: JAY1980

So we're thinking welfare and entitlement?

I'll have a look into that author. Thanks.

Kind of suspecting that may be one of the factors.

The fact you aren't familiar with Thomas Sowell is a crime by itself. He is one of the preeminent economist and intellectuals if our time. He is black and was a student of Milton Friedman. He has been dropping elbows from the top rope on liberals for 50 years. He is 90 now, but still publishes.

Sowells YouTube clips are golden.

Others you can look up are Walter Williams. Shelby Steele. Jason Reily. John McWhorter. These are real blaxk scholars who have written extensively on these issues and also happen to be conservative.

a reply to: Edumakated

Even if one never reads anything Sowell writes on any other subject, they should look at his writings on economics. He has a gift from making the subject clear like no one else. He certainly puts Paul Krugman to shame.

a reply to: Southern Guardian

I'm not sure Me as a White man can speak to what Black people should or should not do But Maybe read these quotes .

" “The white liberals, who have been posing as our friends, have failed us. The white liberal is the worst enemy to America and the worst enemy to the black man.”

“White liberals are those who have perfected the art of selling themselves to the black man as our ‘friend’ to get our sympathy, our allegiance and our minds. The white liberal attempts to use us politically against white conservatives, so that anything the black man does is never for his own good, never for his advancement, never for his own progress, he’s only a pawn in the hands of the white liberal.”

- Malcom X

“I only cite these things to show you that in America the history of white liberal has been nothing but a series of trickery designed to make us think that the white liberal was going to solve our problems. Our problems will never be solved by the white liberal. The only way that our problems will be solved is when the black man wakes up, cleans himself up, stands on his own two feet, stops begging the white liberal and takes immediate steps to do for ourselves the things that we have been waiting on the white liberal to do for us.”

- Malcom X

“The media’s the most powerful entity on Earth. They have the power to make the innocent look guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that’s power. Because they control the mind of the masses.”

“The Democrats are playing you for a political chump and if you vote for them, not only are you a chump, you are a traitor to your race.”

- Malcom X