by Roger Claig
DetailsPublished on Monday, 27 May 2013 08:05 Written by Roger Clegg
Heres an excerpt from a recent column I wrote (you can read the whole thing here) and that I thought you might enjoy:
Race relations in the United States are good, have never been better, and in all likelihood their future is even brighter. And the key for continued progress is not complicated: dont discriminate, and dont screw up.
Martin Luther King, Jr., dreamed of the day that his children would not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. The first part of that statement gets the most attention these days, but the last part is important, too: isnt it stating an expectation, a hope even, that we will have standards and that we will judge people by them?
As W.E.B. DuBois wrote in The Souls of Black Folk: Draw lines of crime, of incompetency, of vice, as tightly and uncompromisingly as you will, for these things must be proscribed. Again: color line, definitely not but character standards, definitely.
Or, to look at it another way, for black advancement there is a legal side (the color of your skin should not be an impediment), but also a cultural side (the content of your character mustnt be an impediment either).
It is ironic tragic, really that just as opportunities began dramatically to open up for African Americans in the 1960s, the ability and willingness of too many African Americans to take advantage of those opportunities began to decline, and in particular with the implosion of the black family.
[And not] to sound too Andy Rooney-ish, but why is it that so many young African Americans adopt hoodlum-style dress, demeanor, and music, and then complain that people profile them as possible hoodlums? Many go to a lot of trouble to pin a very specific label on themselves, and then are surprised and indignant and demand our sympathy when people read it.
This is not the first time this has happened, of course. Teenage boys have always wanted to look tough and menacing, and teenage girls have always wanted to look, um, available. But they want the labels read only by their own cohort, and not by their elders. Sorry, kids, but it doesnt work that way. Never has, and never will, and its not blaming the victim to point out that fact.
Consider: in the late 1960s, adolescents would grow their hair long to show their rejection of authority and the war and all that, and then complain when the less enlightened looked askance at them. A popular song back then implored: We shouldnt care about the length of his hair.
DetailsPublished on Monday, 27 May 2013 08:05 Written by Roger Clegg
Heres an excerpt from a recent column I wrote (you can read the whole thing here) and that I thought you might enjoy:
Race relations in the United States are good, have never been better, and in all likelihood their future is even brighter. And the key for continued progress is not complicated: dont discriminate, and dont screw up.
Martin Luther King, Jr., dreamed of the day that his children would not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. The first part of that statement gets the most attention these days, but the last part is important, too: isnt it stating an expectation, a hope even, that we will have standards and that we will judge people by them?
As W.E.B. DuBois wrote in The Souls of Black Folk: Draw lines of crime, of incompetency, of vice, as tightly and uncompromisingly as you will, for these things must be proscribed. Again: color line, definitely not but character standards, definitely.
Or, to look at it another way, for black advancement there is a legal side (the color of your skin should not be an impediment), but also a cultural side (the content of your character mustnt be an impediment either).
It is ironic tragic, really that just as opportunities began dramatically to open up for African Americans in the 1960s, the ability and willingness of too many African Americans to take advantage of those opportunities began to decline, and in particular with the implosion of the black family.
[And not] to sound too Andy Rooney-ish, but why is it that so many young African Americans adopt hoodlum-style dress, demeanor, and music, and then complain that people profile them as possible hoodlums? Many go to a lot of trouble to pin a very specific label on themselves, and then are surprised and indignant and demand our sympathy when people read it.
This is not the first time this has happened, of course. Teenage boys have always wanted to look tough and menacing, and teenage girls have always wanted to look, um, available. But they want the labels read only by their own cohort, and not by their elders. Sorry, kids, but it doesnt work that way. Never has, and never will, and its not blaming the victim to point out that fact.
Consider: in the late 1960s, adolescents would grow their hair long to show their rejection of authority and the war and all that, and then complain when the less enlightened looked askance at them. A popular song back then implored: We shouldnt care about the length of his hair.