In the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, rapper Kanye West used the widely-broadcast “Concert for Hurricane Relief” to tell an international audience that “George Bush doesn’t care about black people.”
Might West have the same perception today, as black America crumbles under the leadership of the first black president?
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"Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act."
—Dietrich Bonhoeffer In an alternate reality, 54 million blacks would be alive in America today. When adjusted for abortion, the number is 39 million. The National Black Prolife Coalition says an average of 1,000 black babies are aborted every day. Nationally, nearly one in three black pregnancies ends in abortion each year. In New York City in 2009, 47%, or 40,798, of the city’s 87,273 abortions were performed on black women. This led Alveda King, Martin Luther King Jr.’s niece, to declare that, “The most dangerous place for an African-American is in the womb!” Recent reports reveal the harsh reality of hope and change. According to CBS News, while the national average is a depressing 9.1%, black unemployment stands at a dismal 16.2%. Worse still, black teens 16 to 19 face 41% unemployment. CBS News, noting the historical disparity between black unemployment and the national average, adds that these are “Depression-era levels.”
The fact that most black uplift is held hostage by a confluence of cultural cancers that are constantly overlooked is part of the problem. But black America’s enduring conflict—a hesitancy to address deep historical contradictions—is the real culprit.  As the White House lobbies to raise the nation’s debt ceiling, why not instead raise its moral ceiling? After decades of rewarding bad behavior, it is in the government’s best interest—and perhaps even its duty—to promote the morals and values that made our nation great.
The Obama administration wants Congress to raise the debt ceiling so our government can borrow more than the almost $14.3 trillion currently allowed by law. Conservatives want any debt increase tied to spending cuts, and a recent vote shows Obama lacks the political capital to ram through an increase as he might have in the past. But an increase in borrowing authority is no solution to our nation’s woes. How will a little bump curtail unfunded entitlement liabilities some estimate to cost more than $100 trillion? Instead of raising the ceiling for more debt to support policies rewarding unwed motherhood, broken families and failing government-run schools, we must instead raise America's moral ceiling to promote the institution of marriage, hard work and quality education. In the long run, reinvigorating these virtues could effectively cut spending by lessening the need for government entitlements now certain to bankrupt our government. Conventional wisdom suggests a precipitous moral decline in America since the 1960s. Consequently, no subgroup has been affected more than the black family. The notion of family has changed. Marriage no longer seems to hold the same appeal and divorce rates have skyrocketed. Two-parent homes and academic performances suffer chronically, while crime and illegitimacy flourish. But the liberal elite apparently considers all this a series of social non sequiturs. The African American experience is one of great tragedy and immense triumph. But, for more than half a century, far too many journalists, priests, preachers, television and radio personalities, public school teachers, columnists and many more, have focused more on the tragedy and have all too often ignored the triumph.
The Origins of the “Black Agenda” “Losing the Race: Self-sabotage in Black America” author, Dr, John McWhoter writes, “when the process of bringing blacks to equality with whites began, the concept of blacks as a race of victims was logical and appropriate, for the simple reason that it corresponded with reality.” Contextually put, in fact, this was a time wherein many blacks were poor, undereducated, and underemployed and had to live with and often times accept brutal racism and segregation from most public services, in many parts of America almost exclusively because of the shade of their skin. The harsh realities of that turbulent time period, reluctant societal transformations, all coupled with a legislatively mandated and culturally susceptible moral authority shift, created a uniquely human dichotomy during and after the civil rights era. As Dr. Shelby Steele, Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, at Stanford University has written: “Whites in America (during the 60’s and 70’s) were fearful of being considered racists in one hand and in the other hand, blacks were fearful of being considered inferior.” These dueling de facto and de jure conflicts generated outgrowths that have helped shaped the political, economic and social paradigm of our generation. Here are the two most visible catalysts. We Whites Are Guilty, Equals the Welfare State As public tensions over the civil rights movement began to dissipate and more blacks began to take full advantage of job and educational opportunities, while saving their money, raising their families and owning more and more homes and businesses, there was also a growing body of blacks accepting more and more government assistance. Landon B. Johnson and the Great Society established Aid to Families with Dependent Children for “women unwilling to get jobs”, Medicaid, for doctors bills that “weighed too heavily”, Rent Supplement Programs for those “having trouble paying the landlord”, and the first permanent Food Stamps Programs for “people unwilling to buy their own groceries.” Eventually though, as “WWI ended Woodrow Wilson’s “New Freedom” and WWII brought FDR’s “New Deal” to a close, “the Vietnam War crushed the loftiest ambitions of the Great Society” but not before it successfully turned Aid to Families with Dependent Children recipients from 3 million in 1960 to 8.4 million in 1970; when Uncle Sam in effect, became the ‘babies’ daddy.’ These and other innumerable statistics are a direct affront to the many who marched, died, bled, and sacrificed for blacks to have the opportunity to lift themselves out of poverty. But the do-gooders who suffer from “White Guilt,” (which is also the title of Dr. Steels 2006 publication), and must “make things right” through the “power of government,” would soon receive some help from an emerging industry of “poverty pimps.” Whitie Owes Me, Equals the Industry of the Victimhood Vendor Decades after the ink had dried on the pieces of much needed civil rights acts; legislation which helped produce a culture where even the most subtle instances of racial discrimination ended in class action law suits, we still don’t have to go far to find a “civil rights activist” fighting tirelessly for the “little man.” For years the good Rev. Jackson and Sharpton, Julian Bond, Maxine Waters and the ‘crew’ have all cashed in greatly from political usury and are all CEO’s of the Liberal Exploitation Political Action Group.” Their mission: “To keep 90 percent of blacks voting Democratic, thereby rolling up huge wins for the liberal exploitation agenda.” What’s more, “if you vote for ‘us’ we will supply you with more cookies, cake and ice cream than you can handle.” Simply put, many blacks fell for the lines pushed by theses race hustlers who constantly reminded America that “the white man owes us and we won’t stop reminding him of that until his debt is paid.” The sad irony and the political paradox behind the unholy alliance between the race baiters and the Democratic Party—in which I can’t wait to chronicle in future posts—is that; why after more than four decades of voting 90 percent Democratic, do we still need a…well, “Black Agenda?" | Jerome Hudson
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