Black History Month

LaShawn Barber has a great column at The Examiner.com which suggests that instead of focusing on the past and the wrongs that were committed against blacks, let's look at the state of blacks now and work to strengthen the black family. Barber examines the life of the man who began the observance of Black History Month, Carter G. Woodson. And then she asks what he'd think if he saw the state of black society today.

First, I believe Woodson would be appalled by the rate of black-on-black crime. Black men kill other black men at disproportionate rates. At 13 percent of the U.S. population, blacks commit more than half the reported murders. White lynch mobs from back in the day have got nothing on modern day black thugs, who make sport out of preying on their own people.

Second, Woodson would shake his head in disbelief at the devastating collapse of the black family, caused by immorality, not white racism. In 1963, more than 70 percent of black families were headed by married couples. In 2005, 35 percent of black children were living with two parents, compared to 84 percent of Asian children, 76 percent of white children, and 65 percent of Hispanic children.

Seventy percent of black boys in the criminal justice system come from single-parent homes. Fatherlessness is correlated with criminality, poverty and low academic achievement. Fatherless children are more likely to beget fatherless children — and the cycle continues.

Third, the institutionalized and deeply ingrained system of government-mandated lowered standards for blacks would infuriate Woodson. Born in 1875 during Reconstruction to a poor family with nine children, Woodson couldn’t attend school regularly because he had to work to help support the family.

After years of working and going to school when he could, the son of former slaves received a B.A. in literature and became a teacher. He studied at the Sorbonne University in Paris, received a master’s from the University of Chicago in 1908, and a Ph.D. in history from Harvard University in 1912 — all accomplished without race preferences.

Woodson would be ashamed, I’d imagine, to see blacks advocating race preferences and fighting to maintain the position that blacks cannot be expected to compete with people of other races.

He would be deeply disappointed to hear them tell the world that blacks living in the greatest country in the world are the weakest people in the world, unable to achieve anything without the help of a patronizingly paternal central government.

The key phrase was that the collapse of the black family has been caused by "immorality, not white racism." By saying that, Barber forces blacks to take responsibility for their own failings and doesn't let them blame someone else. It's always easier to blame someone else for your own screwups. But in the end, God calls each of us to account for our own lives and won't accept "but look at what they did to me" as an answer.