MLK Day ~ My Thoughts: Part Two

(Ever had too many thoughts at once? How to make a coherent unit of them~ that is the question... )

Martin Luther King. The man whose face is stamped across the civil rights movement, whose death sparked the fires of passion in his followers, whose legacy is skewed and unclear. Some in the older generations have told me of how happy they were on the day of his assassination~ even those who were just children. Just think, one less communist. One less troublemaker, one less rabble-rouser. One less womanizing loser. I don't pretend to be an expert of the history of MLK, but this was the perception of him in the White South. Whatever else he was, he seemed to stand for equal rights and opportunities for all, regardless of race. That I can agree with. So what has become of his legacy?

Let's talk reality here. The black community in America is suffering. The social ills are documented and disturbing. The statistics on fatherless homes, illegitimate births, crime, recidivism, market value in their neighborhoods, and drug-abuse are staggering. The oppression of the past certainly doesn't help. The victimization mentality adopted by many doesn't either. Certainly the government's attempts to repair the situation have gone awry. Affirmative Action. Government hand-outs. Reparations. Apologies. What good have they done? Take affirmative action as an example. It goes against all the civil rights movement stood for. Equal opportunities, equal rights? How about preferential treatment because of the color of your skin? To say the blacks need this hand-up implies they can't intellectually compete in our society. Posh! Condoleeza Rice, anyone?!?

One of the most damaging movements in black America is hip-hop. Gangsta rap, whatever you want to call it. The black community has allowed these people to step in and become their main identifying movement. Saggy pants may be annoying to some, and rap may not qualify as 'music' to me, but this is barely the tip of the iceberg. It's a whole generation moving to a soundtrack of glorified casual sex, public profanity, violence, rejection of authority, drug abuse and prostitution. I tuned in by chance (while lost in Cincinnati) to a black Muslim radio station around Christmastime. The hatred toward authority figures, white people, and cops that I heard spewing out over the airwaves shocked me. And this wasn't music. This was just people who now believe this stuff. It was positively scary.

The truth of the matter is that the black community has lost their leaders, and subsequently, their youth. I've been pleased to hear black evangelical leaders courageously stepping into this volatile situation. Books, such as Can I Call You Soldier? by Dr. H. Davis, encourage black men to take a positive role in their families and in society. So much of the repair of the black community has to be done internally by themselves.

More to come...