THE TIMES THEY SHOULD BE A-CHANGING

There sure has been a lot of noise going on in the big cities lately. I wish I had a better idea of what the ruckus was really about. It started out about white policemen killing blacks like they were run away slaves because the police have nothing better to do. Then after awhile, anybody with brains enough to walk and carry a sign at the same time would have to have realized the Brown/Garner deaths would have happened regardless of the race of either the police or the offenders, so the protests/riots evolved into whatever they are about today. You can't tell the protesters' purpose by reading the signs because they appear to be various signs left over from a previous protest and were kept under the protester's/rioter's beds in their parents' basements until the next perceived social injustice.

The closest I can get to understanding a purpose is listening to black Liberal "leaders" in the media. What the leaders seem to be saying is the protester/rioters want, (even though I doubt half the street walkers could enunciate a reason), is significant improvement in the black/police interactions. Our completely unprejudiced Uniter-n-Chief jumped right in with the solution--more training for the police and to provide the police with less equipment (military seconds). I may be dense, and certainly not as intelligent as our President, but doesn't the term "black/police INTERACTION" lead one to the belief that more than one of the parties should be involved?

I don't care how much sensitivity training you give a policeman, today when he or she approaches a car with four black youths in their late teens early 20s in the dead of night, the officer's sphincter muscle immediately tightens up and adrenalin drips down the leg. The officer knows the statistics that show during the latest recorded time period, blacks, at 14 % of the population, committed more than half the murders. Wouldn’t it be nicer for everyone if the officer could approach that car the same way he or she would approach a car with four white women, late 50s early 60's coming home from a librarians' conference ?

To make that desired interaction occur, I personally believe whites and the police have changed plenty. It is now time for the blacks to change. Time to put on their big boy pants and alter the stereotype. For any lasting change in police/black relationship, THE BLACKS HAVE TO CHANGE!

The stereotyping of a certain element of black society by both black and white is not new. This "black changing" concept is not some crazy conservative wild hair. Read what none other than Reverend Jesse Jackson said in 1993:

"There is nothing more painful to me at this stage in my life than to walk down the street and hear footsteps and start thinking about robbery. Then look around and see somebody white and feel relieved.. "

The Rev. understood the problem, but still will not push back at that portion of the black community that creates his, and many others, fear of being followed down a dark street by a black youth. When will the black leaders take responsibility and help those looking up to them for guidance to evolve, and not spend 100% of their limited leader time providing those who desperately need help to change with excuses for their current behavior?

I saw a video on Facebook the other day that gave me great hope that the necessary change can occur not from the leaders but from the folks themselves.

http://www.ryot.org/video-people-react-to-white-girlfriend-in-a-black-barbershop/497893

The majority of black folks know change is necessary. They are embarrassed because all blacks are painted with the same brush (This next video from Chris Rock speaks to this and is well worth your time if you have high tolerance for profanity.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51vFbsZkhXU

While black leaders speak to the fringes of society (Chris Rock's n***, the ones who thrive on being victims) making them feel inadequate and incapable of change. Those looking for guidence are stuck because they are victims of something that happened a couple of hundred years ago about which nothing can be done today (but somebody other than them should certainly have to pay).

Enough has been said, and for much too long, by our politicians and self-appointed black leaders about how the police and white society can, and should, change. Let's spend some time looking at how the blacks can and should change THEIR side of the equation.

Here are 4 simple steps (not simple to do, but simple to understand) and a good start to work on the transition from being a victim to being in control. These steps are provided by Walter Williams, a black economic professor at Georgetown:

..."Williams' road map out of poverty: Complete high school; get a job, any kind of job; get married before having children; and be a law-abiding citizen. Among both black and white Americans so described, the poverty rate is in the single digits."

Let's test out the good professor's theory:

Complete high school---only 52 % of black male ninth-graders graduate from high school 4 years later, 78% of whites.

Get a job--unemployment rate: 11.1% black; 4.9% white (If an increase in the minimum wage goes through watch the 11.1 % number shoot up.)

Get married before children--In 2010 48.8% of black men and 45.2 % of black women never married in contrast to 27.4 percent and 20.7 percent respectively for whites. Sixty-seven percent black children and 25% white children are in single parent families. (A black child was more likely to grow up living with both parents during slavery days than he or she is today.)

Law abiding citizen-- blacks comprise 14% of the American population, but make up 40% of the inmates in jail or prison.

Now was professor Williams right about that poverty part?

In 2012, 27.2% of blacks and 9.7 % of whites were living in poverty. The annual median income of black households in 2012, $33,321 compared to the nation at $51,017

Consider this. The prejudice against all blacks may have little to do with skin color, but more to do with poverty and the resultant attitudes and behaviors. If we follow Professor Williams' "road map," out of that undesirable economic condition, and if Jesse Jackson thought he had following him a law abiding, married father, high school graduate with a job, he could have cranked his stress level down a few notches.

Most of the riots and the wanton destruction of local businesses we have seen on TV recently I'm sure embarrasses any self-respecting black. From this turmoil will hopefully come, not whites diminishing themselves, but blacks elevating themselves. It is essential new black leadership emerges that emphasize how special blacks are, rather than how evil whites are. We can only hope.