

Yin_Yang

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Yin_Yang by doloread

Okay, Colorado State Sen. Vicki Marble (R) who claimed that poverty is higher among blacks because they eat too much chicken -- even though "it's really delicious" is a nutcase.

And then there's the brainiac, Bryan Fischer who expounded on his show, Focal Point, "Christians have no rights which this court is bound to respect. So to me this looks like Jim Crow is alive and well, we've got Jim Crow laws right back in operation, Christians are the new blacks."

But I do agree with Fox News analyst Juan Williams, who praised the progress of African Americans since Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech fifty years ago this week, but reminded the panel that there were still considerable challenges facing the black community on familial and cultural levels.

After commending figures like President Barack Obama, former Secretaries of State Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice, and Supreme Court Justices Thurgood Marshall and Clarence Thomas, Williams denounced the breakdown of the African American family and the undue influence of hip hop culture.

"If you look at the realities of today, you've got to talk about things like family breakdown," Williams said. "You've got to talk about the fact that 70% of blacks are born out of wedlock--I think Dr. King would cry. You've got to talk about the fact that there is a horrific dropout rate in the country, failure of urban schools. That's the civil rights challenge of this generation."

"And the culture!" Williams continued. "Think about the culture for a second. Jay-Z, on his latest album, he's using the "n-word' repeatedly. It's pornographic! It invites people to think authentic blackness is, you've got to be hip hop, you've gotta be hard. Education--not valued. To me, this is the tragedy of our day."

Isn't this another side of the story of racism in America? What I mean is, did any of the high achieving people he mentioned above reach those positions by embracing the kind of "authentic blackness", of which Mr. Williams speaks? Or did they break those rules, value education and in their words, "act white" so they could realize their innate potential.

I know, to some I sound like a White bigot and have no place telling Blacks how to act or what they should do. But I found out early in my life, that there is a set of rules about how to be a functioning member of any culture. And the price of admission is conforming to those rules. When we do, we are allowed to demonstrate our stuff. Until we do we are simply irrelevant.

But you say this is White culture and I don't have to conform because I'm (fill in the blank). No! This is the American functional culture, and with all its faults, is the one that offers the most potential for what's possible in America.

So you don't need to love it. I certainly didn't and still don't care for much of it. But I realized I had to join in to have any possibility of success.

You see, you can ignore, reject, counter it as much as you want. But you can't be successful without it. No one is going to hire a young kid, black or white, who shows up for an job interview in hip hop dress, dripping in bling, with no work experience or formal education and tattoos all over his face. No one is going to enroll you in a college if you didn't finish high school. Talk trash to your friends but it won't get you a break in main stream America.

Aren't there enough obstacles in the way. And yes I agree that are far more for Blacks than there are for Whites. But it seems to me, creating more is not going the make the others easier to contend with.

Here's a formula: Stay in school until you have marketable skills. Don't have babies out of wedlock because it will be more difficult, if not impossible, to stay in school. Learn to read, write, dress, speak and comport yourself properly in public. Then if you don't get an even break, cry racism.

Please read this article carefully again before you label me a racist.

Robert De Filippis