The dark side of black people

LET ME START by saying that if I had my life to live over a thousand times, the one thing I would not change would be my race. I am proud to be a black man. There are times however, when I wish that certain people and I did not share that trait.

For the past few days, the whole world ... well, at least those who have access to satellite and cable television, have been seeing pictures of the virtually total devastation of the cities of the U.S. Gulf Coast by Hurricane Katrina. An estimated 90 per cent of homes in New Orleans have been destroyed by flood waters and more than 100 people have been confirmed dead.

We see people standing on the roofs of their submerged homes desperate to be rescued, others being airlifted to safety, and we have heard tear-jerking stories of families losing their loved ones. But in all of this, we have also seen the really dark side of black people.

The day after the hurricane passed, there were reports of looting but network reporters had been saying that people were looting out of desperation, in search of food and water. A lot they knew.

The pictures I have been seeing are of people - black people - stealing shoes, diapers, and television sets. Not food and definitely not water. Not unless the armfuls of clothing, shoes, and appliances I see people wading through the streets with count as food and water.

Now, if all the looters were looting out of desperation, how desperate were the guy and girls I saw toting several boxes of size 13 Nikes? How desperate was the fellow with the stack of diapers? What, is it that he has several babies at home suffering from loose bowels? What am I talking about, what home? Everything is under water and what isn't, has been totally destroyed.

And just what are those guys stealing the plasma television sets going to be watching when there is no power in the entire city?

Desperation? Yeah, right. I am beginning to believe that black people, no matter where in the world they are, are cursed with a genetic predisposition to steal, murder, and create mayhem.

The entire firearm department at a Wal-Mart department store, for example, was cleaned out and the looters used the stolen weapons to rob people. How low is that? Everybody is suffering and the black people would seek to rob people who are suffering just like themselves.

And it has nothing to do with poverty. Where are the white people in all this? I am sure there are poor white people living in New Orleans, Biloxi and the other towns affected by what has been going on. Is it that the media are not showing pictures of them looting and robbing? Or is it that they are too busy trying to stay alive, waiting to be rescued, and hiding from the blacks.

And you know what? Even if the poor whites were looting and robbing, wouldn't it be nice if the blacks could have made them the only ones doing it

Just once, I would like for us blacks to take the high road in situations like this, where instead of showing our darkest side, we put our best foot forward. But I guess that would be too much to ask, too much of a case of wishful thinking.

It is culture and history and the slavery of low expectations that hurt those people more than anything else.

Problems can not be solved if we are not even allowed to talk about them. For the past 40 years, to speak or write anything negative about blacks automatically marks you as a racist. As long as this is the case, the problem will get worse.

All humans have dark sides, but these are controlled by society, first family, then friends, then your neighbors and society as a whole. That is the purpose of society, to make rules, customs and laws so we can work and live together.

But when there are no controls, and we are allowed to do what ever we want, anarchy becomes the norm. So why isn't anarchy the norm? Simple, we have been raised to respect other, the law, and ourselfs. One definition of an honest man is the guy that will stop at a stop sign in the middle of a desert when no one else around to see him. That is, you obey the law even when you know you will not be caught.

But if all bad behavior is quickly excused because of some treatment your ancestors received, then there is no reason to behave. Today, in 2005, for anyone to point out any destructive behavior by blacks will result in that individual to be demonized. Don't believe me, ask Bill Cosby, or Justice Thomas. We now have a large segment of our population that do not feel they have to conform to societies standards.

If someone else is going to pick up the cost of your bad decisions, then there is no reason not to have fun, and not worry about the consequences.

The "Great Society" is a failure. Welfare, as a government obligation is a failure. The ideas that blacks can not make it in America is a failed idea. There is no reason a black American can not be educated, learn a trade, get married, enter middle class American and reap the rewards this nation has to offer for hard work, except for those that want to keep them poor, and uneducated. There was a large black middle class and rich class before the 1960s and the Great Society. Don't believe, think Harlem in the 1930s and 1940s.

If the United States is as racist as some would paint us, how is it that poor blacks from the Caribean and Africa can come to this country and achieve success? Is it a special form of racisim that is only evoked for American born blacks? Or is it a lie to justify bad behaivior, and lack of will?

I have news for you, those that want blacks "kept in their place" are not in the Republican party, they are the Race Pimps and Democrats that would sacrifice a whole segment of our people to keep them voting for them.

The first thing that must occur is that we must be able to point out and condemn bad and destructive behavior when we see it, regardless of the race of the person without automatically being labeled as a racist.

As Freud would say, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, and sometimes criticism is just that, criticism, and not racism.

here's the situation. Fatherlessness, the romanticization of thug culture, lack of education and liberalism is what's on trial. Race was injected into this debate by the Left. That's why Mississippi has been ignored-- because in MS white and blacks are suffering and their is a better sense of "we're all in this together" in Mississippi.

Business as usual needs to stop in the inner city. Black leaders cannot continue to elevate guys like Kanye West and others who have nothing positive to contribute.

I think you are a Bill Cosby like figure. You love your people so much that you are willing to get in an argument with them. Unfortunately you're not winning the argument. You've been marginalized with Uncle Tom accusations. I really, really hope you can win the argument.

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