The Burden of Responsibility

"Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.  Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like." James 1:22-24

There is a video going around of an answer rapper T.I. gave to a question asked by talk show host, Trevor Noah, of the Daily Show. Many people feel that the rapper's response was "excellent," including the host. Here is what was said: Trevor Noah: "[There are] people who say, 'I hear you guys saying you want justice. I hear all the hip-hop stars and fans say, 'This is not right.' But then in hip-hop people are talking about guns. People are talking about shooting. People are saying things like, 'F--- the police!' They are like, 'How is this helping the dialogue?' As a hip-hop artist how do you reply to that?" T.I.: "Well, first of all, I think that people need to take into consideration that hip-hop, traditionally, has always been a reflection of the environment the artist had to endure before he made it to where he was. So, if you want to change the content of the music, change the environment of the artist and he won't have such negative things to say." The audience applauded T.I.'s answer and Trevor Noah complimented him for giving an "eloquent" response to the question. While I can see why people enjoyed the answer given, my problem is that Trevor Noah did not follow up with at least one more question; "Who's responsibility is it to change the environment these artists live in and make music about?" Is it the responsibility of the police? Is it the responsibility of the Government? No! While the actions of the police certainly play a role and the Government has played a large role in this, in my opinion it is the responsibility of the people who live in these environments to change them. The easiest, and almost natural, thing to do when faced with a problem is to blame someone else for it. Just look at the Bible. During the Fall of Man, when God confronted Adam and Eve about their sin, what was first thing they did? Eve blamed the serpent for her transgression. Adam blamed both Eve and God. In actuality, it was their fault for being deceived into eating the forbidden fruit because they didn't believe God. But, it is hard to look at ourselves and ask, "What role have I played in this problem?" For the Black community, it is way past time for us to look at ourselves and how we are at fault for the environments many of us live in that lead to all of these problems that rappers like T.I. and other entertainers and artists talk about.

A lot of the recent conversation about race relations stems from the tragic stories of Blacks dying at the hands of the police. However, when you remove the emotion, sound bites and viral videos from the conversation, what do the statistics say? An analysis of the Washington Post’s Police Shooting Database and of Federal Crime Statistics reveals that fully 12 percent of all whites and Hispanics who die of homicide are killed by cops. By contrast, only four percent of black homicide victims are killed by cops. According to the most recent study by the Department of Justice, although blacks were only about 15 percent of the population in the 75 largest counties in the US, they were charged with 62 percent of all robberies, 57 percent of murders and 45 percent of assaults. In New York City, blacks commit over three-quarters of all shootings, though they are only 23 percent of the city’s population. Whites, by contrast, commit under two percent of all shootings in the city, though they are 34 percent of the population. New York’s crime disparities are repeated in virtually every racially diverse city in America. The real problem facing inner-city black communities today is not the police but criminals. In 2014, over 6,000 blacks were murdered, more than all white and Hispanic homicide victims combined. Who is killing them? Not the police, and not white civilians, but other blacks. In fact, a police officer is eighteen and a half times more likely to be killed by a black male than an unarmed black male is to be killed by a police officer. If the police ended all use of lethal force tomorrow, it would have a negligible impact on the black death-by-homicide rate. In Chicago, through just the first six-and-a-half months of 2016, over 2,300 people were shot. That’s a shooting an hour during some weekends. The vast majority of the victims were black. During this same period, the Chicago police shot 12 people, all armed and dangerous. That’s one half of one percent of all shootings. Police officers are backing off of proactive policing in black neighborhoods thanks to the false narrative that police officers are infected with homicidal bias. As a result, violent crime is going up in cities with large black populations. Homicides in 2015 rose anywhere from 54 percent in Washington DC to 90 percent in Cleveland. Overall, in the nation’s 56 largest cities, homicides in 2015 rose 17 percent, a nearly unprecedented one-year spike.

But, what is causing all of this criminal and murderous behavior? I say it is the destruction of the Black family. It was President Barack Obama who said, "We all know the statistics. That children who grow up without a father are five times more likely to live in poverty and commit crime; nine times more likely to drop out of school and 20 times more likely to end up in prison.” The Journal of Research on Adolescence confirms that even after controlling for varying levels of household income, kids in father-absent homes are more likely to end up in jail. And kids who never had a father in the house are the most likely to wind up behind bars. In 1960, 5 percent of America's children entered the world without a mother and father married to each other. By 1980 it was 18 percent, by 2000 it had risen to 33 percent, and fifteen years later, the number reached 41 percent. For blacks, even during slavery when marriage for slaves was illegal, black children were more likely than today to be raised by both their mother and father. Economist Walter Williams has written that, according to census data, from 1890 to 1940, a black child was more likely to grow up with married parents than a white child. For blacks, out-of-wedlock births have gone from 25 percent in 1965 to 73 percent in 2015. For whites, from less than 5 percent to over 25 percent. And for Hispanics, out-of-wedlock births have risen to 53 percent. What happened to fathers? The answer is found in a basic law of economics: If you subsidize undesirable behavior you will get more undesirable behavior. In 1949, the nation’s poverty rate was 34 percent. By 1965, it was cut in half, to 17 percent -- all before President Lyndon Johnson’s so-called War on Poverty. But after that war began in 1965, poverty began to flat line. From 1965 until now, the government has spent over $20 trillion to fight poverty. The poverty rate has remained unchanged, but the relationship between poor men and women has changed – dramatically. That’s because our generous welfare system allows women, in effect, to marry the government. And this makes it all too easy for men to abandon their traditional moral and financial responsibilities. Psychologists call such dependency "learned helplessness." And let us not forget that while Blacks are only 13% of the population, they make up 28% of the abortions. Depending on what numbers you look at there are anywhere from 1,300 to over 1,800 Black children aborted daily!

It is sad to think that in 2016 Black families were stronger 50 to over 100 years ago then they are today. You can't solely place the blame on the legacy of slavery or institutionalized racism. You have to place the blame primarily on Blacks. We have replaced faith in God with dependence on the Government and our families, specifically our children, are the victims. Even worse, we cannot depend on the local church as much to be the moral backbone of the communities. Sound, biblical, teaching has been replaced with the false gospel of selfish indulgence and the pursuit of worldly gain. And people have been robbed of their time, treasure, talent, hope and, in some cases, belief in God because of it. In an era of slogans like, "Black Lives Matter," "Blue Lives Matter" or "All Lives Matter," the question must be asked, "Does Truth Matter?" It would seem that the answer is, "No," because what a person believes is more important than the truth. And when the cost of believing the truth is too high, the comfort of living in a lie is more appealing. Until people are willing to believe the truth and take personal responsibility for their own lives and families, these terrible numbers will only go higher and more fingers of blame will be pointed in the wrong direction and the problems will only continue to get worse. As a friend and teacher of mine once said, "You can't have international peace without peace in your country. You can't have peace in your country without having peace in your city. You can't have peace in your city without peace in your neighborhood. You can't have peace in your neighborhood without without peace in your home. And you can't have peace in your home without peace with your God." Change starts by looking at the man in the mirror and taking personal responsibility.

 [Special thanks to Prager University, Larry Elder and Heather MacDonald]