Culture Matters!

[Boss]

Everyone is well aware of Black Lives Matter... White Lives Matter... Blue Lives Matter... ALL Lives Matter... etc. We're constantly inundated with often heated rhetoric for all sides in what has become a hot national debate on race relations, police actions and public policy and perceptions. But there remains one aspect that no one seems to want to discuss. It has become somewhat taboo to even bring it up... Culture.

I am sure there are many instances where black people feel they've been unfairly treated or discriminated against, and I am sure there are some racist police officers who genuinely hate black people. In a country of 350 million people, there will be all kinds. But the problem we face is not related to racist cops or a broken system that inherently discriminates against black people. Quite simply put, the problem is cultural.

Immediately, as I say that, there will be some who cringe or feel uncomfortable with the topic and others will outright challenge me as to how I can possibly criticize someone else's culture. This is because we've been programmed to believe it's not cool to question someone's culture. Yet, when it's someone's own culture that is causing the problem, it behooves us to raise legitimate questions and challenge political correctness.

Let us take, for an example, the typical 20-something year old black youth who finds himself in a puddle of blood on the pavement, victim of a police shooting incident. Is it white people's fault or the cop's fault? Let's explore this...

Chances are, in fact it's a 75% chance, that this black youth was born illegitimately and never knew a father. he was likely raised by his mother who was a terrible role model and didn't really care about his upbringing. He learned to be self-dependent at an early age. He was born into a neighborhood full of violence. His role models were thugs and gang members. Eventually, he finds himself in some sorry public school which is full of teachers who don't want to deal with him. By the time he is a teenager, it is clear that he isn't going to excel in academics because no one has taken the time to instill those important values of study and hard work. He can barely spell his bastardized English name his dysfunctional mother tagged him with because she thought in her own ignorance it was "African." All around him, his peers are pressuring him to join a gang, be a thug like them. The music he listens to seems to promote this lifestyle and even glorifies it.

White people don't even know he exists until some cop has to shoot him. The problem is not white people or racist cops, it's the culture he was raised in. He has been taught his entire life to hate white people. He has been taught that if he is ever going to "be a man" he has to be willing to break the law and take what he wants. He has zero respect for authority because, again, that was never instilled in him growing up. If he turns on a TV, he finds Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton or some other liberal goob, reinforcing his beliefs that white people hate him and they are the source of all his problems. The system is all rigged against him and he'll never get a fair break. So, when he eventually ends up in a confrontation with a police officer, he doesn't comply or resists arrest and then he is shot. And here come the hoards pouring in to loot and burn the city because... hey, it's all white people's fault.

The problem... the 800 lb. gorilla in the room... is CULTURE! Whether it is politically correct to address it or if we even can address it, is anyone's guess. But until we resolve THAT problem, we're going to continue to see these incidents pop up.

 

[Jackson]

That is a very thoughtful post, Boss. One of the best I have ever read understating the plight of many (or most?) black youth. I do want you to accept the fact that it many times the culture of poverty rather than race.

Having taught in a mixed inner city with 1/3 of the population white, 1/3 Mexican American and 1/3 black with a smattering of Asian, I found many black parents which surprisingly had fathers in the home the most effective parents or grandparents (being guardians). Grandparents in this culture were more willing to take on the role of parent when the actual mothers had gone awry.

Mexican American generally were the least effective, many even refusing to learn our language and were frequently not interested in the teacher and parent working together to help the student.

White poverty parents, I felt laid on more excuses than the other two, claiming that the gov't. was against them because the gov't wanted them to work instead of being home for their children. So many cop outs there.

But, in reality that is painting with a wide brush, for in all of the classes, there were terrific parents that definitely care for the welfare of their offspring. They just weren't sure how to accomplish this.

But again, I was teaching mostly in elementary. Big difference, there.

We do have to change these cultures and the best way to accomplish that is stop enabling parents to be lazy, non productive and self indulging where their children often seek dangerous ways of feeling accepted and belonging to a culture where they fit in.

 

[PK1]

The problem... the 800 lb. gorilla in the room... is CULTURE! Whether it is politically correct to address it or if we even can address it, is anyone's guess. But until we resolve THAT problem, we're going to continue to see these incidents pop up.

Yes, it's culture/subculture, sociology, psychology, economics.
ACADEMIA 101.

As a "conservative", what's your view on how to
"resolve THAT problem"
with limited government funding?

 

[Boss]

The problem... the 800 lb. gorilla in the room... is CULTURE! Whether it is politically correct to address it or if we even can address it, is anyone's guess. But until we resolve THAT problem, we're going to continue to see these incidents pop up.

Yes, it's culture/subculture, sociology, psychology, economics.
ACADEMIA 101.

As a "conservative", what's your view on how to
"resolve THAT problem"
with limited government funding?

I didn't agree that it's sociology, psychology or economics. It's culture. No one can solve that problem but the people of the culture itself. It just so happens that humans are reluctant to change unless they have to or want to change. All government "solutions" and social programs do is prop up a myth that something else is the problem. They effectively enable a lack of any motivation whatsoever to change. To a large degree, that's exactly how we've gotten to this problem.

In one of his books, Thomas Sowell discusses this in some detail. He explains how the black community was somewhat prospering prior to LBJ's Great Society programs. They were the most entrepreneurial demographic for years, their graduation rates were rising, illegitimate birth rates were down. It wasn't until we offered a cradle-to-grave social safety net that we started seeing generational government dependency. And yes, I know there are more whites on welfare and food stamps than blacks, but blacks are only 14% of the population and it's what these programs have done to their culture.

 

[PK1]

The problem... the 800 lb. gorilla in the room... is CULTURE! Whether it is politically correct to address it or if we even can address it, is anyone's guess. But until we resolve THAT problem, we're going to continue to see these incidents pop up.

Yes, it's culture/subculture, sociology, psychology, economics.
ACADEMIA 101.

As a "conservative", what's your view on how to
"resolve THAT problem"
with limited government funding?

I didn't agree that it's sociology, psychology or economics. It's culture. No one can solve that problem but the people of the culture itself. It just so happens that humans are reluctant to change unless they have to or want to change.

Motivation is psychological within a cultural, sociological, economic, and subcultural framework.

 

[Boss]

Motivation is psychological within a cultural, sociological, economic, and subcultural framework.

Well that could be true but the bottom line is, this isn't the fault of white people. Nor is it a problem with cops in general or our laws. We can't pass a law that excuses black people from being detained by the police while they wave their guns around willy-nilly and threaten to shoot at the cops. We've got to have law and order and people posing a public danger have to be dealt with regardless of their skin color. We can talk about police policies all day long, that's not the problem. The problem is cultural and we can't fix it.

 

[Godboy]

I've been saying this for years. Inferior cultures produce inferior people. The good news is cultures CAN be changed. The question is, will they work to change their culture or will they continue to blame everyone else for their problems?