Among my longest-running squabbles with far too many people on both side of the tracks is about Black-on-Black Abuse, Neglect, Violence and Crime. Some of the “conversations” have been quite malicious, and quite often resulted in my being declared a persona non grata because I refused to compromise on truth or telling it.
The core of these squabbles is this admonishment: we don’t air our dirty linen. However, everything about African Americans is already known by our worst enemies and has been used for decades to further harm us, directly and indirectly.
I have seen white political and educational officials excoriate white leaders for ineffectiveness but tolerate Black leaders’ failures that harmed Black students. The effect was not the devil made me do this evil to my people, but rather the devil let me get away with it! The people who were attacked by both sides were the people who exposed these travesties.
Nothing can corrupt and disintegrate and People’s culture as thoroughly as the precept of moral agnosticism, the idea that one must never pass judgment on others’ behavior, that one must be morally tolerant of anything, that good consists of never distinguishing good from evil.
Silence empowers, encourages and cloaks wrong-doers. Sunlight kills bacteria, viruses, fungi and EVIL!
Silence today is akin to depraved indifference. Silence with regard to the harm inflicted must be assessed and condemned in the same manner as direct, deliberate and intentional actions. Moreover, we have to treat all abuse the same irrespective of perpetrators.
The rate of Internecine abuses among all ethnic groupings is always higher than the rate inflicted by outsiders. The chance that a white person will be killed by a Black person is 11%. The chance that a Black person will be killed by a Black person is 94%. That is about 11 points higher than white rate. And Black men assault Black women at a rate that is 35% higher than the rate at which white men assault white women.
It is plausible that our “silence” is in part responsible for the fact that 20% of Black men voted for a white misogynist. Clearly, far too many Black men have lost sight of a major tenet of African American culture – respect for and protection of Black women, and are completely disconnected from our heroic ancestors.
All descendants of slaves, including Black women — whom Malcom X labeled the most disrespected, un-protected, neglected people in America — have been subjected to racism; but not all have turned their personally defined victimization, anger and frustration into self-victimization and victimization of innocents within their own families and communities.
Many of the rationalizations about direct causes and related “blame-laying” imply that Black people are helpless victims of externally induced emotions and are genetically incapable of controlling our behavior. That is an absurd, racist
implication. Data about the National Black Community in 1950 — when we were far better as a people and the upward trajectory for our lowliest was still evident — belie distortions of our truth.
The disproportionately greater rate of Black-on-Black incidents does link to Slavery and Racism, or remote antecedent causes. However, the hands that directly convey drugs in Black communities, the fingers on the triggers of Uzis during drive-by shootings, and the fists that assault Black women are Black. Neither the descendants of the remote originators, e.g., the founders; the subsequent perpetrators, i.e., racists; nor the champions of the victims have been able to fix this monumental travesty. If we, the champions of the victims, demand prevention and punishment for our victimizers, we must demand the same for those who have become Proxies for our enemies.
We have long been aware of direct harm done to our people by our enemies who are clearly identifiable as They. Nevertheless, to the extent that we studiously avoid acknowledging the harm done to our children, our families, our communities, our people, and our culture by our own people, we have become, in effect, instruments of our own degradation and subjugation, no matter how much we blame historic and current evil forces, and rationalize the internecine harm perpetrated by Black evil-doers.
The danger posed by enemies within the community, irrespective as to how they became such, is extremely worse than that posed by enemies from afar. Although the percentage of Black Proxyists is low, their danger is high because they look like and live among their victims, speak words familiar to their victims, and espouse their victims laments.
The only justification for silence about the crimes against our people, i.e., dirty laundry, even if it were possible, is the development of a comprehensive plan to stop the harm that is being done. Nothing else is in the least way honorable or justifiable.
