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Earl Aagaard’s opinions about everything that interests him. Og also enjoys gardening, travel, reading, woodbutchery, and lots of other stuff.

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MY LATEST NOMINEE FOR THE OUTSTANDING MORAL COURAGE AWARD…...

Is Juan Williams, who commentates for both NPR and Fox News, and who recently wrote a challenging book: ENOUGH, subtitled The Phony Leaders, Dead-End Movements, and Culture of Failure That Are Undermining Black America—and What We Can Do About It.

Called “Cosby’s Bulldog” by some, and “Uncle Tom” by others, Williams gathers a mass of evidence indicating that much of the devastation of the black community is self-inflicted, owing much to the embrace of victimhood, the counter-productive messages of the “black leadership”, and the failure to take advantage of opportunities that other minorities use to sieze the American Dream.

The Washington Post’s review of the book illustrates the finger-pointing, and blame-gaming that Williams decries:

Beyond Williams’s polemics lies a more complex story about the political economy of racism whose effects on poor neighborhoods elude those who romanticize ghetto and “gangsta” culture. His discussions of the “stop snitching” campaigns that discourage cooperation with police and Cosby’s outrage over the epidemic use of the “N” word are worthy of serious debate. But that would require the kind of rich analysis, penetrating insight and layered narrative that Enough lacks, as well as a hard look at the impacts of unemployment, racial profiling, police brutality and other features of modern-day racism, along with the lingering effects of slavery and Jim Crow, which continue to disfigure the lives of blacks and distort the shape of American democracy.

Unlike The Covenant With Black America, a bestselling anthology with concrete proposals for community empowerment, Enough concludes with a flurry of righteous condescension, preaching that youngsters can best avoid poverty by finishing high school, getting a job and postponing marriage and child-bearing until at least 21. Williams’s praise for African Americans’ creative resilience during the rough road from slavery to freedom is commendable, as is his ardor for the achievements of civil rights activists. But even as civil rights victories opened doors of opportunity, white backlash, the decline of industrial jobs and fatigue over racial conflict helped blunt the movement’s more ambitious dreams: ending poverty, forging genuine racial integration and eliminating social, political and economic disparities based on race.

No other group is waiting around for “the man” to finish “ending poverty, forging genuine racial integration and eliminating social, political and economic disparities based on race”, which explains why other groups move ahead at a much faster rate than the people Williams cares about most. It’s true that black Americans have a unique history here, but blaming the “lingering effects of slavery and Jim Crow,” ignores the strong family structure and thriving business communities, newspapers, etc. that characterized the black community in the first half of the last century. It also fails as an all-purpose explanation when others enter this country from much worse situations and succeed despite their more recent and more difficult handicaps. Continuing to make these excuses only assures that the ghettos of America’s largest cities will remain places of mortal danger and blasted hopes for almost everyone who lives there.

CHECK IT OUT, and don’t miss the Reader Reviews.

Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 10/20 at 06:05 PM

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