Perhaps the encouragement for self-reliance, personal responsibility, and individual incentive through a free market system that is left alone by the government is what the black community needs

NFL and the False Premise of Racism

If you think everyone is racist, and you think all of their actions are racist, then racism is all you are going to see, regardless of the facts I served in the military, and I don’t care how many times the protesters claim it’s not about the flag or the National Anthem or patriotism. What the NFL kneelers are doing is a kick in the gut of people like me who were willing to put our lives on the line while serving in the United States Military so that these overpaid children who play a game could kneel when they should stand, or so that they can shove their fists into the air in support of a misguided belief that is actually a call for collectivism. I am probably the last conservative in the country that has not completely boycotted the game of professional football, but I am pretty close to turning my back on the game, as well. It’s a game, and I am a fan. My favorite player, Derek Carr, not only did not kneel, he stood tall with his hand on his heart, and offered a prayer along with it. So, I am still watching the games. . . but I will not be buying any more merchandise (well, I might get a Carr jersey to show my support for him), and I will not be traveling to a stadium to see a game. That said, aside from class acts like Carr, a large portion of the NFL players have been in trouble with DUIs, arrests for domestic violence, arrests for assault and battery, and drug usage. They are overpaid kids who never experienced the middle class as adults, and have fallen for a false narrative of racism and police brutality that simply does not exist. They act like thugs, and then wonder why the police give them a second look. The players get paid incredibly high amounts of money, then act like there is something that is holding them and their brethren back. If you think everyone is racist, and you think all of their actions are racist, then racism is all you are going to see, regardless of the facts. They say the cause of all of the woes of the Black Community is racism, and so they kneel and raise their fists in a proclamation that the American System, its flag, and its National Anthem, is somehow oppressive. Really? Let’s look at the facts.

In 1960 only 22% of families in the black community were single-parent households. Now, that number is about 72%. Daily Signal

According to the 1938 Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences, in 1938 about 11% of black children were born to unwed mothers. Today about 75% of black children are born to unwed mothers. Walter E. Williams

In the decades following emancipation, poverty was widespread throughout the black community regardless of the status of the family. Today, about 22% of blacks in total live in poverty. U.S. Poverty Statistics

Two-parent black families are rarely poor. Only 8% of black married-couple families live in poverty. Among black families in which both the husband and wife work full time, the poverty rate is under 5%. Poverty in black families headed by single women is 37%. As early as 1900, when racism was rampant, the duration of black unemployment was 15 percent shorter than that of whites. Today, in a time were we just finished two terms of the first black President, and experienced the candidacy of a black neurosurgeon named Ben Carson in the last election for the White House, it’s about 30 percent longer. Daily Signal

In 2016, only 16 unarmed black men all year were killed by police. In 2015 the number was 36. Washington Post 2016, Washington Post, 2015.

The black population in the United States is roughly 47 million (43 million “black only”), or about 14.5% of the total American population. Lightning strikes about 300 Americans annually. 14.5% of 300 is 43.5, which means if one was to stick strictly to the percentages, about 43 to 44 blacks are possibly struck by lightning each year. Taking into consideration that only 16 unarmed black men all year were killed by police last year, and 36 the prior year, based on the numbers a black is more likely to be struck by lightning than to be killed by a police officer. Black Demographics

The National Review reports it’s not true that black men are constantly stopped by the police for no reason. Indeed, black men are less likely than white men to have contact with the police in any given year, though this includes situations where the respondent called the cops himself: 17.5 percent versus 20.7 percent. Similarly, a black man has on average only 0.32 contacts with the police in any given year, compared with 0.35 contacts for a white man. It’s true that black men are overrepresented among people who have many contacts with the police, but not by much. Only 1.5 percent of black men have more than three contacts with the police in any given year, whereas 1.2 percent of white men do. Only 0.6 percent of black men experience physical force by the police in any given year, while approximately 0.2 percent of white men do. To be fair, these are probably slight undercounts, because the survey does not allow us to identify people who did not experience physical force during their most recent contact but did experience such force during a previous contact in the same year. Only 0.08 percent of black men are injured by the police each year, approximately the same rate as for white men. A black man is about 44 times as likely to suffer a traffic-related injury, according to the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey. Moreover, keep in mind that these tallies of police violence include violence that is legally justified. Data from 2015 suggests that black men are three times as likely to commit violent crimes as white men. To the extent that cops are more likely to use force against people who commit violent crimes, which they surely are, this could easily explain any disparities, even though the differences are very slight.

The facts show us that racism and police brutality is not running rampant throughout the United States The facts show us that racism and police brutality is not running rampant throughout the United States as we are being falsely advised by the media and leftist politicians. In fact, based on the poverty numbers as compared to the numbers regarding the family unit, it is apparent that the problem does not lie in the Democrat Party’s false accusation of racism, but in the reality that the family unit has been devastated by some kind of interference that is plaguing the black community more so than other communities. According to the Heritage Foundation, “The effect of married fathers on child outcomes can be quite pronounced. For example, examination of families with the same race and same parental education shows that, compared with intact married families, children from single-parent homes are: More than twice as likely to be arrested for a juvenile crime,[3]

Twice as likely to be treated for emotional and behavioral problems,[4]

Roughly twice as likely to be suspended or expelled from school,[5] and

A third more likely to drop out before completing high school.[6] The effects of being raised in a single-parent home continue into adulthood. Comparing families of the same race and similar incomes, children from broken and single-parent homes are three times more likely to end up in jail by the time they reach age 30 than are children raised in intact married families.[7] Compared with girls raised in similar married families, girls from single-parent homes are more than twice as likely to have a child without being married, thereby repeating the negative cycle for another generation.[8]





Finally, the decline of marriage contributes to declining self-sufficiency and increased official poverty in future generations. Children living in single-parent homes are 50 percent more likely to experience official poverty as adults when compared with children from intact married homes. This intergenerational poverty effect persists even after adjusting for the original differences in family income and poverty during childhood. The War on Poverty and the Decline of Marriage Throughout U.S. history, marriage was the norm. Prior to the mid-1960s, nearly all children were born to married couples. When the War on Poverty began in 1964, only 7 percent of children were born to unmarried women. However, over the next four-and-a-half decades the share of non-marital births exploded. In 2013, 41 percent of all children born in the U.S. were born outside marriage. The reality is two-fold. One, the problems that exist in the black community are not the result of racism or police brutality, but instead is directly related to the breakdown of the family unit. Two, the breakdown of the family unit began to occur at about the same time as President Johnson kicked the welfare system into high gear. The Democrat Party remains to be the party of government dependency. Under the presidency of Barack Obama, by 2012 (only halfway through his presidency, mind you) federal spending on welfare programs increased by 32%. The number of able-bodied adults on food stamps doubled from 1.9 million in 2008 to 3.9 million in 2010. Washington Times, Daily Caller.





The reason black lives did not improve during the Obama presidency is because President Obama was doubling down on the policies that have been destroying the black community, and keeping some blacks from realizing the American Dream The reason black lives did not improve during the Obama presidency is because President Obama was doubling down on the policies that have been destroying the black community, and keeping some blacks from realizing the American Dream. It takes strong family units, and working to do so without government dependency, in order to activate one’s pursuit of happiness. As for the call for equality, the people kneeling at football games are calling for “equality in results”, which is Marxist at its foundation, and has no place in the American System. In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson did not write, “all men are expected to live with equal results thanks to government mandates.” He wrote that “all men are Created equal.” In other words, equality in the American System is not based on man’s communist definition of equality, but God’s definition of equality. After our creation, the equality stops, and our pursuit of happiness takes hold. Our individual talents and work ethics, combined with various environmental conditions, lead us all in different directions. Some of us achieve higher than others. I, myself, am still working to achieve some of my dreams and aspirations. Our happiness and achievements are ours to pursue, not government’s to give us. In short, while the protesters in the black community have their “black-power” fists in the air with the expectation of government to somehow fix the woes of some members of the black community, the reality is, healing won’t begin until the heart issues are resolved first. As Benjamin Franklin so wisely said, “Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom.” With an unwillingness to keep the family together, and a refusal to break away from the gifts of government that do nothing more than kill incentive, how can the percentage of blacks who remain in poverty ever expect to change their own conditions? Democrats, with leftist progressive policies in place, have been running the big cities for generations, and nothing has improved. If anything, it’s getting worse. Crime is escalating. Black on black violence is escalating. Education in the black community is in a state of dismal failure. Perhaps it is time for the black community that votes Democrat to realize that the liberal left does not have the answers to their difficulties, and if anything, are contributing to the woes of the black community. Perhaps the answer lies within themselves, and a form of government that is less intrusive than what the Democrats have to offer. Perhaps the encouragement for self-reliance, personal responsibility, and individual incentive through a free market system that is left alone by the government is what the black community needs.

Douglas V. Gibbs -- Bio and Archives Douglas V. Gibbs of Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary, has been featured on “Hannity” and “Fox and Friends” on Fox News Channel, and other television shows and networks. Doug is a Radio Host on KMET 1490-AM on Saturdays with his Constitution Radio program, as well as a longtime podcaster, conservative political activist, writer and commentator. Doug can be reached at douglasvgibbs [at] yahoo.com or constitutionspeaker [at] yahoo.com.

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