Posted by
Bill Crawford on Monday, July 26, 2010 10:19:33 PM
We all seem to be looking for the "teachable moment" on this, and we never seem to find it. The left uses it as a sledgehammer, the right uses it as a policy scare tactic, and the two sides never seem to meet.
In North Carolina, Wake County and it's new School Board keep having the issue shoveled at them, as if parents tiring of having their children used as diversity experiments was akin to wanting to raise segregation anew.
John Edwards had it partially right: there are, indeed, "two Americas". But the two are separated by values more than anything else.
If I were a Black person, and I grew up with single parent families, graduation rates, crime rates and unemployment well off the national norms, I can't say with any certainty that I wouldn't reach adulthood wondering if life's deck were stacked against me.
What is happening is tragedy, and both sides have solutions, based on their values. I grew up colorblind, as many of my generation did, but this tragedy doesn't allow the issue to pass. My problem is, when I do raise the issue, all too often, I am told I am racist, and the discussion ends, You see, I have no way of proving my state of mind, so there is no use talking.
That is the part of the national discussion that turns the subject into the equivalent of spending the afternoon getting my teeth drilled. So, where do we go from there? Look at Wake County: get out the vote, get your politicians in place, ignore the protesters the best you can, and drive forward with your policy changes.
None of which helps foster constructive discussion. I have it easy there, I don't think there is much possibility of any constructive discussion, because of the gap in values. So many out there hope for more, and get thrown off the cliff with regularity.
I am an analyst first, and I like to think I have the center of the problem pinned: it all starts with so few families out there with Fathers present. Single parent families not only bring more poverty, but they create all sorts of problems with misguided youth- especially with young males. If your solution is to throw money at the problem, there isn't enough money out there (the Great Society should have taught us all that), and it doesn't do a thing to fill the development issues stemming from missing Fathers.
You want to talk? Let's start there. The problem is, the Black community takes this as a form of value indictment, and then constructive discussion ends again.
The pity is, I don't think this will get anywhere close to solved in our lifetime.
Part of the Obama mystique in 2008 was that he presented himself as post-partisan on race. The notion that was passed around was that he was basically saying: hey, one of the worst issues we have in front of us is race, and I've got that covered. Imagine what I can do with everything else? It was a romantic thought for the electorate, and when stubborn mules like myself asked how he could do all that when he hung out in a church for two decades pastored by a Black Nationalist, I was accused of throwing buckets of cold water on everybody.
So, here we are. I am still color blind. Those who agree with me on my core vaules take that as a given. Those who disagree all too often think it is an impossibility. Where do you want to go from here?