s,” while pimps and hustlers are celebrated and education is devalued? How can we in the African-American community ever demand respect from others when we show so little of it for ourselves?
With few exceptions, leaders in our community hesitate to hold one another accountable. We fear that we are blaming the victim or letting whites off the hook. We talk endlessly in our policy conferences about discrimination and racism and say relatively little about the malignant hip-hop culture that is rapidly growing and destroying our communities?
The elites in the African-American community use every form of tortured logic to explain, rationalize and excuse what only can be described as dysfunctional behavior by many young African-Americans. Do we really expect white America not to notice how we present ourselves in public or via popular culture? Do we really think that the country as a whole accepts the rationale of racism as the primary cause of black criminal behavior, rather than the deeply dysfunctional homes and communities in which many of our children live?
While racial profiling and stereotyping can never be defended, the sad truth is hip-hop culture and rap music create, perpetuate and deepen existing stereotypes. We in the black community must understand that racial profiling, like stereotyping, is simply the application of statistical probabilities to situations in a hurried world.
The majority of African-Americans who reject this new culture in silence pay a heavy price in the unjust stereotypes they often are subjected to. But when a young black male is watched closely in a store, is it a racist action by the clerk or a rational action based on experience?
More important is the fact that young African-American men are internalizing the images our cultural leaders are modeling for them.
It is appropriate for President Obama to continue to focus on the legal issues of gun control, “stop and frisk” and stand-your-ground laws, as well as on policy questions pertaining to education and jobs. But if he really wants to move the needle, he should ask his wife to spotlight the cultural challenges facing our black youths.
As my parents used to say: “If you don’t respect yourself, no one else will.”
We in the black community must understand and embrace that simple truth.
Peter Bell is a senior fellow at the Center of the American Experiment.
© 2014 Star Tribune