There are lots of angry people today.  Starting in the center of the circle of anger is George Floyd’s family, who are, tragically, justified.  Next out from them are kindreds of Floyd; inner-city blacks.  The fact that he, a black man, was killed by a white policeman has, also predictably, energized his racial brothers and sisters.  And surrounding their circle is the even larger circle of all other people who are fervently sympathetic with the narrative that America in general, and police forces in particular, are purveyors of “systemic” racism against blacks, despite police departments becoming increasingly black and being subject to an increasing degree of civic management over the past many years.  Despite the actual data, the visceral appeal to the sympathies of increasing numbers of otherwise uninvolved people of a viral video of this one incident (which has led to the death of 4 black police officers or former officers, and the destruction of countless black-owned or run businesses) has created a groundswell of sympathy for radical change.

The problem these incidents create for society is they completely take our eye off of the problems that have led to the sense of helpless victimization within the black community.  The foremost of these is the promoted myth that blacks are helpless to help themselves.  They believe this because that’s the way their “handlers” want and tell them to think, for the handler’s benefit, be they politicians, or race spokesmen, or anarchists.  How many stories have you seen recently of a single black Mom working a job, getting an education at night, and demanding that her kids live responsible, productive, respectful lives?  I’ve seen a couple and they are praiseworthy.  But they don’t fit the establishment’s narrative so they don’t get widespread airtime.  The narrative is designed to elicit black votes and guilty whites’ votes.

Second is the fact that single-parent black households constitute nearly 70% of black households today.  The vast majority of black children, therefore, grow up without a father present.  No dad to set a model for the dads being raised; no dad to read to his little ones; no dad to establish discipline and standards in concert with Mom.  No other single statistic correlates more strongly with kids’ probabilities to fail academically, get involved with drugs, commit crimes for which they are arrested, and do jail time.  Three of these conditions generate police activity.  Until we get serious about helping heal black suffering caused by this one sociological pathology, everything else we do is just noise and virtue signaling designed for votes and to make observers “feel good”, as it has been for 60 years.

Third is the problem alluded to earlier, and that is that there is now an entire racial-political industry (politicians, community-based groups and their leaders, social charities, University professors, etc.) whose existence depends on the perpetuation of the status quo – that of demanding “justice” from the political system and society at large and excusing themselves from any responsibility whatsoever for the conditions and problems they have helped to create and promote.  These are the “race hustlers”. They need “racism” to be a top-of-mind issue in order to exist — to keep the votes and donations coming in.  Of course, the young, black Mom feels helpless.  This is what she has been told she is since childhood.  And what message does she get from the establishment that her children should expect or aspire to anything different?

Fourth, and perhaps most destructive, is the narrative that black people’s plight is caused by white people’s “systemic racism” that deprives promising young blacks the chance to succeed and thrive.  One of the positive effects of this type of event is that it can cause us to sit down and ask why the conditions we see today in America’s black communities are little, if any, changed from the previous 60 years?  Why are we still here?  What have the issue’s “leaders” done?  Has there been, and is there still in isolated pockets, racist discrimination against blacks in America?  Yes, there is.  But is it of the pervasiveness and magnitude that qualifies it as the primary black issue?  Apparently not, when the majority of BLM protestors are white.

When entertainers, the NFL, and virtually every corporation in America comes out with a sympathetic-to-the-establishment marketing message, you know that we’ve gone from thinking seriously about real problems to just selling “concern” and “sympathy” in hopes our fans and customers will buy more of us.  Have we completely switched off our hypocrisy detectors?

Yet the narrative is incessant.  And it is incessant for one central reason:  It is essential for the preservation of the myth that the only hope that blacks have for the future is to support the establishment that has been “fighting for” them (without noticeable results) for 60 years.  If anything, the average black man or black family is worse off today than their counterparts were 60 years ago (family formation, education attainment, drug use, crime victimization, incarceration, etc.)  Who’s the “racist” here?

Lastly is the reaction of white people, young and old, who are sympathetic that “something is wrong and hurting the black community”.  Their visceral reaction is good.  Their sympathy is good.  But most have completely bought into a media narrative that only wants more of the same.  It’s time for people to think as individuals and take the time and the responsibility to take the problem seriously and figure out what they can do personally, and what policies would actually help, to undo the failures and hypocrisy of the last half-century.  Our black brothers and sisters deserve nothing less.