“The majority of young men involved in these violent crimes are having a sort of crisis in their identities and their sense of being part of this community and being valued and valuing others.” – Ursula Price, Exec. Dir. of Community Relations for the New Orleans Independent Police Monitor in Spike in homicides in major US cities draws alarm from Obama administration [at startribune.com]
[h/t TS]
Whatever happened to Midnight Basketball?
It was a “racist” program that was cool until Bush tried to further it , because it was reducing some crime (property crimes).
Someone jacked the ball.
I’m sure this identity crisis has nothing to do with single parent homes, the war on drugs, welfare, public schooling and lack of discipline in the homes.
After talking to a black man recently who, while agreeing with me on some issues, basically made it clear that the consensus within the black community is that the white man is to blame for everything. I was surprised to hear this. Or should I say, surprised how prevalent the victim mentality still is. And apparently it doesn’t matter that most of us (whites) have nothing to do with any atrocities or injustice that were visited upon the blacks in the past. Essentially we are all to blame, no matter what we do. Guilty by association. Blaming the white man is the blanket justification for all their wrongdoing. Now, if you’re white and try to argue against that, then you’re a racist. And if you’re black, then you’re an ‘Uncle Tom’ and get ostracized. So I’m not sure how to change their mindset on this.
If you combine this with the government telling mothers that it’s ok to be single and have multiple kids, because somebody else will pay their bills, then no wonder that dads don’t stick around. Dads who grew up in similar broken families, for whom there’s more pride in joining a gang than in getting a real job and providing for his family. But no worries, since it’s the white man’s fault. The white man will pay.
The white man is responsible or should I say some white men and women who promote the welfare culture as a way of keeping black people down and on the reservation.
“Now, if you’re white and try to argue against that, then you’re a racist. And if you’re black, then you’re an ‘Uncle Tom’ and get ostracized.”
Modern political discourse, in a nutshell.
How many acres and mules has welfare already paid for? Gtfo
Didn’t you get the memo? We white men are gods. We can do anything we want to blacks by using merely our minds whilst we’re sipping our mint julep and reviewing our world-dominating stock portfolios in the evening. Of course it is our fault. Everyone knows that the black man is powerless in the face of this white superiority.
(That’s dripping with sarcasm, for those of you who are so challenged to not see it…)
It goes beyond all of what you listed. In my humble (and sometimes wrong opinion) the main reason is not what you have listed but instead it is the glorification of the “THUG Lifestyle” and the “they have that so I should have it also” mentality.
There is no stressing of the fact that to get ahead and improve your lot in life you must work at it, and that nothing is owed to you except what you work for. Not sit on the couch and shoot out another baby so you can get more money from the government…and don’t tell me that that is isolated cases, isolated my arse…I have heard it too many times from too many different people on assistance for it to be isolated…I have seen people attempting to sell they government assistance for 50 cents on the dollar (most times successfully others not so much).
I’d say combined you both summed it up nicely. The demise of the intact black family is a tragedy inflicted by liberals and their welfare state. It gives fertile ground to the thug culture where everybody demands respect and possessions, but nobody is willing to do anything constructive to earn it. So out come the guns to punish the unadmiring and to extract unjust enrichment from the productive.
Personal responsibility? Nahhh, that’s too difficult and just plain unpopular.
This sounds like projection or rationalization on the community leaders part. If there young violent men/boys don’t feel valued, ask who has conditioned them since toddlerhood to believe they are always the victim of a racist society and that they’ll never be given a chance because racism. The only identity crisis they are having is that they don’t think they’re high enough in the gang or drug hierarchy. Sometimes community leaders reap what you sow.
Cough… Cough…BS!
Clean up the corrupt cancer that is government in NOLA, enforce the laws that you have on books for violent felonies, attract and keep business there to employ the cutizens and end the poverty/drugs/gangs and welfare based culture.
Their identity crisis is simply from the fact that they aren’t filling body bags yet.
If I was raised by my single grandmother, never knew my father and only saw my mother when I visited her in prison, I would have identity issues, too.
My original comment would have made me to appear to be an A$$&ole, accusing her of being an idiot. That said, she has no earthly idea of what she is talking about.
Plus 1 on the single parent rants.
Still, not much of an excuse, both our current POS Pres and the previous POS Dem Prez came from single momma households, and look at them! They went on to be the two most corrupt in American history!!!!! YOU CAN BE ANYTHING, AS LONG AS YOU CAN DREAM!!!!!
I imagine that she is just trying to put the best spin on it that she can.
Community Leaders. Lol
There isn’t one fix.
Lock up those who wield illegal guns.
Reinstate Midnight Basketball.
Give tax breaks to businesses so they can afford the insurance and armed guards to bring good fresh food to urban food deserts.
Poor nutrition, lead exposure, toxic chemical exposure make for underperforming children who become difficult to employ adults.
Continue and expand those mentor programs for the 2% who are the trouble makers. They lead by example.
Teach personal responsibility? That can’t be a law. There are good parents teaching personal responsibility in every zip code. There are weak parents spoiling their kids in every zip code. These parents prevent their kids from feeling the effects of their choices. These kids contrary to popular opinion are often suburban middle and upper class kids. They are a part of America’s resource we are wasting. They are bailed out daily. Helicopter parenting is very harmful.
Stop believing that any group is intrinsically “bad.” Facts don’t show it. In Baltimore there is a large community of poor whites that are economically, educationally and employment challenged. Single parenting, unwed mothers, and missing fathers exist in mainstream America. It’s just easy to miss it if you want to.
Everyone needs some kind of help sometime. Be generous and ask what kind of help actually helps.
While this is my opinion and your mileage may vary, I was a foster parent for juvenile offenders, taught school in affluent and challenged areas.
“crisis in their identities and their sense of being part of this community and being valued and valuing others.” Really? Think you can thank the Dems from LBJ down, that destroyed the black family with policies of the Great Society. In fatherless families, boys look to fill that vacuum by joining street gangs. Black Culture needs to be addressed by the black community. by Stop this “baby momma” nonsense. Growing up in the 50’s 60’s early 70’s, being an unwed mother was a shameful thing. Now it’s considered normal in all races.
Killers seem not to fear the legal system we have, haven’t we heard that they fear thier peers more than cops or jail.
Why do so called brilliant minds not see the simplicity of locking up murderers for life?
You kill= you fry……after a while these disenfranchised youth will slow down.
It’s just stupid people doing stupid things.And that’s why the rest of us stand guard and look out after our own communities.
Alot too late mr. Obama, why didn’t you do something on day two of your time in office to “do something”.
Barry just wants to write his legacy beyond the facts .looking forward to him returning to the hood in Chicago.
Might happen. But if we could remove his forever SS protection, he would never again set foot in the STATE, never mind the city.
“The majority of young men involved in these violent crimes are having a sort of crisis in their identities…” Says the Exec. Dir of Community Relations… clearly that is in your job description to FIX. NOT make excuses for.
If they are having an identity crisis, what about the “identity crisis” the rest of us are having now that it is no longer appropriate to identify the race of the perp? “Be on the lookout for a _____.”
“Be on the lookout for a _____.”
Off kilter, middle aged Caucasian woman, impersonating a woman of color. Last seen running a chapter of NAACP in the Pacific NW…probably not armed, but certainly different.
Associates include a white gay male who identifies as black, often has a spray tan. Currently writes for New York Daily News and member of Black Lives Matter…
Interesting read you probably won’t see on the major media, testimony before congress regarding the move for deincareration, but a tidbit I think is relevant:
http://www.city-journal.org/2015/eon1022hm.html
“Violent crime is currently shooting up again in cities across the country. Police officers are backing away from proactive enforcement in response to the yearlong campaign that holds that police are the greatest threat facing young black men today. Officers encounter increasing hostility and resistance when they make a lawful arrest. With pedestrian stops, criminal summons, and arrests falling precipitously in urban areas, criminals are becoming emboldened.”
Also interesting:
“The most dangerous misconception about our criminal justice system is that it is pervaded by racial bias. For decades, criminologists have tried to find evidence proving that the overrepresentation of blacks in prison is due to systemic racial inequity. That effort has always come up short. In fact, racial differences in offending account for the disproportionate representation of blacks in prison. A 1994 Justice Department survey of felony cases from the country’s 75 largest urban areas found that blacks actually had a lower chance of prosecution following a felony than whites. Following conviction, blacks were more likely to be sentenced to prison, however, due to their more extensive criminal histories and the gravity of their current offense.”
it’s all true, but it doesn’t give liberals the target that they need. There have been studies, for example, that show that whites are MORE likely to get the death penalty for heinous crimes.
“The majority of young men involved in these violent crimes are having a sort of crisis in their identities and their sense of being part of this community and being valued and valuing others.”
All technically true, but not a valid excuse for violent behavior. Lots of people grow up in tough circumstances and don’t become violent criminals. Crime is ultimately a individual choice. There may be extenuating circumstances in a person’s life, but it’s still a choice. There is also a big difference between a starving person who steals a loaf of bread and a person who makes a decent living selling drugs and murders their rivals to maintain that living.
Or maybe we should take a hard look at the community that doesn’t include these young men, doesn’t value them, and doesn’t teach them to value others. It starts at home and it expands to the metaphorical village. If your culture teaches young men that their only paths to success are sports, music, or gangs, and that doing well in school is somehow unfitting for them, then what do you expect? If the community accepted, valued, and taught young men to work hard at an everyday career, maybe their outcomes would be different.
Making problems into excuses is the most self defeating thing you can do. No amount of help from the government can ever overcome a culture that teaches people to fail because the world doesn’t offer another option.
In order for the Black Community to address these issues they, collectively, would have to admit they have been doing it all wrong in the past 50+ years. Then, they would have to turn to the White Man for help to change. Both these requirements are anathema to the Blacks. As long as many Black Americans are content with their “victim identity”, dismal schools, “Project” housing, nonexistent prospects for a better future and Government stipends, nothing will change. But, then, recent studies have shown that more and more Americans are falling below the poverty line, so if the Blacks stick to their self-defeating view of reality, they will eventually achieve rough parity with everyone else. This is what the Democrats really mean by “redistribution of wealth”. Imagine that…do nothing and wait for everyone else to become as miserable and poor as you are and that’s what counts for progress in the U.S. today! Of course, don’t expect the Clinton’s to give up their multi-million dollar lifestyle, or any other wealthy Leftist, for that matter,. After all, those who comprise the Ruling Class deserve their lavish lifestyles because they do such a good job of running the Plantation…and don’t forget they really can “feel your pain”…
Then, they would have to turn to the White Man for help to change.
They will not change until they themselves reflect deep down and want to change on their own. Relying on white people to change their society will fail.
I don’t think their “Community Leaders” would agree to all that introspection.
@Danny Griffin Yes, to turn Oprah Winfrey’s remark against her, maybe we have to wait for the older Black Community Leaders who thrive on the “victim of the White Man” meme to die off and hope the younger people see a better way forward for Black Americans.
@Indiana Tom You are inferring “relying” as in “dependence”. I said “help” as in “assistance” and “support”. So, no, I do not believe the changes needed can come from anywhere but within the Black Community, but White People can and will assist.
No crisis at all, they want to be thugs.
#thuglifematters
They want the gang life so its not an issue for the criminal, just us. It’s our problem because we can’t accept that someone may want to be bad.
I can’t figure out why educated adults can’t wrap their minds around the thought of someone who blindly fires into a crowd and kills a 3 year old playing is just a bad guy and not someone who just needs a little self esteem and self worth.
Bad guys are bad guys…get used to it, some people just suck! If they didn’t exsist then we wouldnt have crime, let’s just get real on this!
BS. Personal responsibility is the key. My beautiful wife was raised by a single mother in a crappy neighborhood-and she turned out great. Taught by her minister mother to be the best she could be. Plenty of lowlifes in her ‘hood(male and female) who turned out badly. Hell Barry Soetoro was abandoned by his african pop and look how he turned out(LOL)…
I feel this statement is true, and not just in the U.S.. The difference is in other countries the male youth in crisis try to join ISIS, here they join gangs.
Maybe those young men wouldn’t have identity problems if their fathers were actually around.
I don’t know if the black community has become utterly and completely delusional, or if the madness is confined to its so-called leadership. Either way, we are headed for a nasty crisis, possibly as bad as the community paroxysms of the mid- to late-1960s. Those episodes made Ferguson seem like a weenie roast.
There’s no better way to feel like part of a community than to kill another member of it over a gang feud…
Yep! Ask the Hatfields & McCoys. ?
“There’s very little (the federal government) can do,” Roman said, “other than acknowledge that America seems to be at the moment where violence is increasing and to shine a spotlight on that.”
How about having the President stop his demonization of the police, and his encouragement of riots, looting, and killing the police as a way to “express the discontent of the black community”?
Traffic Cop: Sir, do you know why I pulled you over?
Me: No, sir.
Traffic Cop: Well, you were doing 68 in a 55.
Me: Well officer, you see…I’m having an identity crisis.
Traffic Cop: Oh! I’m sorry to hear that. Take care and be on your way. I’ll give your ticket to the next guy.
Me: Thanks for your tolerance and understanding of my plight. Have a good day, Officer.
Missing fathers (and their butts in the pews) is the fundemental change over the past 50 years. Obama is such a leftist stooge that he had neither the balls nor brains to try to make a positive change by speaking the truth to the problem. He could have been a hero to try to turn things around but istead he’s a zero for making race relations worse (because that was easier to do….it’s always easier to tear down).
Would love to vote for Carson to have a crack at it. Seems pretty clear he ain’t gonna be PC about the problem. If he had any success it might be the start of a fundemental political shift that would terrify thr Left. Oh no…blacks leaving the Democrat reservation.
Blacks voted 95% for doofus. Was that because he was black or because he was Dem? We know it was not because he had any brains, or any experience, or any ideas. Carson as the candidate would answer that question. Particularly against Hillary!
Spoken like a Social Work major.
More like a Social(ist) Worker.
National Socialist Worker?
A culture of nihilism is no place to seek a feeling of belonging… Embrace your individuality and stop trying to be part of something that requires moral bankruptcy and self-destruction to fit into…
Another way to say it; You have to be disgusting trash to fit into a society that values only disgusting trash. So, if you fit in, you’re trash and you know it. If you don’t fit in, you’re decent, but everyone else hates you and you’re alone.
Jerry Springer’s show went of the air, not because people got tired of seeing it, but because those showcased failures became the norm and nothing about it seemed wrong anymore.
They are all aspiring rappers who were just getting to changing their lives around.
Well, that excuses everything then.
Universal background checks for everyone who wants to move to New Orleans would be “common sense people control”.
If you don’t pass the same check that gun buyers must pass you would not be allowed to move to the city.