"I am a victim of social oppression: crime, poverty, racism, family, unemployment and drop-out. I have no choice. I am full of anger...at white people, who dominate everything*. And I'm not doing anything wrong If I smack someone, like it's 'cause they got it comin' to 'em, y'understand?."
The behaviors and attitudes on exhibit day and nightnear bus-stops at 3rd & Pine and 3rd & Virginia in Seattle, modestly characterized as "unruly" or "loud" are an insult to all the decent, hard-working African-Americans in this country.
The screaming epithets and threats--"You mother-fu----, I'm gonna kick yo' ass jus as soon as ya come ove' here"--are not the result of poverty, racism, or low levels of education so much as a unwillingness of parents and community leaders to curb or proscribe violence as a way of life.
Changing small behaviors would be a start. Shouting and fighting in public should not be something considered benign by blacks--or whites.
No need to denounce the recent film "Precious" as inimical to the image of black Americans as "The Birth of the Nation" when the reality gives lie to the rhetoric.
All the talk of diversity and emphasizing our similarities, or local productions of Lorraine Hansberry's "Raisins in the Sun" or showings of the film "To Kill a Mockingbird" or "Django Unchained" seem only to have led to an ostrich-in-the-sand attitude and a relinquishing of responsibility within African-American communities to distinguish between language that diminishes others, destroys human property, provokes hate...and that which builds bridges and helps others.
"And hey man don't talk to me of what those Indians [South Asians] or Chinese do. They ain't got anything to do with it. I'm talkin' of THIS COUNTRY, get it?"
* Even if Caucasians represent up to 70% of the U.S. population and it would not be surprising that demographically speaking it would be statistically reasonable to expect that one would see more white faces than black faces in the cinema, in advertisements, etc.
* * * * *
Kindness and honesty are the birthright of all human beings, no matter what the color of their skin, their religion or political creed, past, present circumstances, or station in life.
Reclaim them for they cannot be taken away by any.
The behaviors and attitudes on exhibit day and nightnear bus-stops at 3rd & Pine and 3rd & Virginia in Seattle, modestly characterized as "unruly" or "loud" are an insult to all the decent, hard-working African-Americans in this country.
The screaming epithets and threats--"You mother-fu----, I'm gonna kick yo' ass jus as soon as ya come ove' here"--are not the result of poverty, racism, or low levels of education so much as a unwillingness of parents and community leaders to curb or proscribe violence as a way of life.
Changing small behaviors would be a start. Shouting and fighting in public should not be something considered benign by blacks--or whites.
No need to denounce the recent film "Precious" as inimical to the image of black Americans as "The Birth of the Nation" when the reality gives lie to the rhetoric.
All the talk of diversity and emphasizing our similarities, or local productions of Lorraine Hansberry's "Raisins in the Sun" or showings of the film "To Kill a Mockingbird" or "Django Unchained" seem only to have led to an ostrich-in-the-sand attitude and a relinquishing of responsibility within African-American communities to distinguish between language that diminishes others, destroys human property, provokes hate...and that which builds bridges and helps others.
"And hey man don't talk to me of what those Indians [South Asians] or Chinese do. They ain't got anything to do with it. I'm talkin' of THIS COUNTRY, get it?"
* Even if Caucasians represent up to 70% of the U.S. population and it would not be surprising that demographically speaking it would be statistically reasonable to expect that one would see more white faces than black faces in the cinema, in advertisements, etc.
* * * * *
Kindness and honesty are the birthright of all human beings, no matter what the color of their skin, their religion or political creed, past, present circumstances, or station in life.
Reclaim them for they cannot be taken away by any.
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