I was fourteen in 1965 when I witnessed my first riot. My dad owned a business located on Washington Boulevard not far from Watts. The riot was sparked by the arrest of a Black drunk driver. The National Guard had set up shop close to his business, so he and the business went untouched. Six days, thirty dead and forty million dollars of destruction later a degree of calm returned. Poverty, lack of opportunity, neglect, police brutality, inferior schools and racism were deemed root causes.
Just three years later cities all over the nation were set on fire by criminals using the national tragedy of the assassination of Martin Luther King as an excuse. The riotous behavior showed profound disrespect for King’s legacy. The popularized “under-lying causes” were once again asserted as the fuel for rage turned violent. I was in Baltimore shortly thereafter. Ashes were all that was left of what had once been businesses. The landscape was dotted with National Guard troops, tanks and boarded up stores. When I returned to Baltimore ten years later many of those buildings remained boarded up. I was just a teenager, but still struck by the counter-productive nature of the hooliganism. Having very little knowledge to evaluate what I had seen, the media’s explanations seemed plausible.
Then in 1992 from my vantage point in San Diego I watched violence break-out in Los Angles in the aftermath of the acquittals of police officers accused of pummeling Rodney King. Korean businesses were targeted. It was the first time I saw an organized citizen resistance to the criminal mobs. Korean businessmen armed themselves and protected their hard won American dream. Little Korea thrives to this day.
Baltimore is the latest sight of mindless violence to include the destruction of 200 businesses. Under orders from Mayor Rawlings-Blake, Baltimore police stood back and watched as the young barbarians destroyed the livelihoods of fellow citizens. The police retreated as rocks and bricks reigned down on and around them. Asian and Arab businesses were singled out for attack. The Mayor’s inaction sent a very troubling and clear message to the criminals. Patronizing pundits, community activists and cowardly politicians recycle the same old causes.
Let’s review those “causes.” What about white dominated police forces, filled with bigots who brutalize innocent citizens? Today, the majority of police forces in riot participation cities are majority minority. Minority mayors and city counsels are no longer the exception. Democratic/leftist leadership, black and white, have filled state and city leadership roles where urban violence and poverty has been the most acute for more than five decades. They have governed based on the illusion that racism, the police and a lack of investment (spending) are the root causes of inner city mayhem. As such they have poured billions into the cities and initiated prosecution after prosecution of police officers expecting positive results.
Here are the facts with reference to Baltimore. Of the six officers indicted three are Black and one female. The second-degree murder charge was leveled against a Black officer. The Mayor, most of the City Council and the lead prosecutor are Black. Baltimore has been run based on fixing faux causes promulgated by the left since the mid-sixties. In the mean time, the city has shrunk by more than 30% and it remains among the most violent cities in America.
Since the implementation of the Great Society, federal and state investment in our inner cities has exceeded nineteen trillion dollars. Per student spending in inner city schools has shot up. Baltimore spends more than $15,000 per student. That would cover the cost of a terrific private school education. Hence, spending a ton of money, changing the complexion of leadership and indicting dozens of police officers have done little to quell the violence or improve living conditions.
Why hasn’t anything improved after spending trillions and transforming the race and gender of leadership? Progress has been minimal because the causes of poverty and violence have little to do with race, police misconduct or spending. Stealing a phrase popularized by James Carvelle: it’s the culture stupid.
Problematic cultural deficits to include institutionalized victimhood can’t be altered by spending or electing people of color. When young people are raised to see themselves as victims they are much more likely to fail in school and in life. They grow with a sense of entitlement. They focus on what society owes them rather than what they need to do to improve their lives. When millions of kids are growing up with AWOL fathers; poverty, drug abuse, failure and violence will follow. Black presidents, attorney generals, Supreme Court justices, senators, congressmen, mayors, city councilmen and cops are no substitute for a father in the home. Best efforts of well meaning politicians supplemented by trillions of dollars and demonstrations can’t act in the place of fathers. Only moms and dads can play the roles of parents. In communities where more then 75% of young men and women grow up without fathers crime will soar and female promiscuity will become endemic; resulting in a cycle of dependency and poverty. These cultural deficiencies are the real root causes of decades of poverty and crime in our inner cities.
Chasing after phantom causes guaranteed failure. Logic would dictate that after fifty years of failure, the left would be willing to chart a different course. But logic has nothing to do with it.
The poverty rate among intact Black families is a mere 2%. If you marry before having a child, graduate from high school and stay off drugs your chance of living in poverty is minimal. The poverty rate in the black community as a whole is 27%. I won’t waste time arguing about the extent of racism or police misconduct. Believe whatever statistics you choose. It is largely irrelevant, if the causes of poverty and crime are found elsewhere. If what we are really concerned with is raising people out of poverty, improving schools and creating opportunity, the solution has to be found in restoring the Black family, as it existed in 1950. At that time, the out-of- wedlock birth rate was under 20%.
As the graph above indicates, poverty rates were falling dramatically until the full impact of the Great Society took hold. Many Great Society programs ushered in a culture of unwed mothers by discounting the role of fathers. As the intact family disappeared poverty and crime persisted. Uncivilized young men growing up on the streets will destroy any culture they are allowed to dominate.
The ironic and tragic fact is that in the fifties when Black kids didn’t have nearly as much opportunity because of segregation and racism, they were better prepared to exploit the opportunity that did exist.
It’s time to put fifty years of failed policy behind us and pursue real solutions. Look for my next post. I will suggest real solutions spiced up with stories of my experiences on the ground in inner city Baltimore.
Michael, Your analysis is on target! It is the culture that has been promoted by the race baiters, like Shartpon, Jackson, Ted Kennedy (when he was alive), who promote this mess, so that they can bleed our country of money to support their failed plans. The democratic party has built a new plantation. Read Thomas Sowells ” Black Rednecks & White Liberals”. He has the factors that bread this culture down pat!
I have read “Black Rednecks..” one of his many great works. He is a national gem. I wish he’d get more press. Look for my next post about what I learned in Baltimore. The part so many are ignoring involves all the people desperately trying to live good and righteous lives in our cites. They are not out demonstrating. They are too busy working and trying to raise good kids under very difficult circumstance. Dr. Ben Carson’s mother was one of those unsung heroes in Detroit.