"The Butler" and Lost Opportunities

When my oldest daughter was in high school she asked me to go with her to a beauty pageant in which her best friend was an entrant.  When we got to the Washington University campus that evening the way from the parking lot to the auditorium was crowded with students protesting the event.  My daughter stopped, confused and dismayed.  I said, “Don’t worry; your Mother is a barricade runner from the ‘60’s.  Grab my hand and stay close.”  We ducked, ran and got in without incident.  My daughter looked at me like I had two heads.  

Memory becomes history so very quickly.

My daughter’s friend in the pageant happened to be Black.  We lived in a community that was at least half Black.  They were our friends, our neighbors, and our guests.  It took little effort to see why it was a good neighborhood.  Our families were essentially the same.  Both parents worked.  There were few professionals, but lots of skilled workers.  Kids were expected to do well at school, mind their manners and get the chores done.  We were different political parties, different religions, and different cultures, but all three of those civilizing components were present.  I admired the Black families my children grew up with because they were making good lives for themselves, despite facing daily racial prejudice.      

I’m a Republican and constant critic of this administration.  Contrary to MSNBC’s mantra, that criticism has nothing to do with the President being half Black; it has to do with his being a Democrat who is leading from a far left instead of the centrist position he promised.  This weekend I saw, The Butler, and it is a great movie.  I am recommending this movie to all of my friends, and particularly my children, who only know the horror of the Civil Rights movement from textbooks.  No, it isn’t historically dead on (it’s a movie!!!) but it is still excellent, thoughtful entertainment.

What bothers me most about this rendition of the Civil Rights movement is that so many people (with the encouragement of their leadership) have traded their grandparents’ hard won rights for the servitude to ignorance, welfare, violence and drugs.   

We have all heard the statistics of Black youth unemployment.  Going to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, I found that in July the number of unemployed youth was 3.8 million which is actually less than the number a year before.  Percentages of unemployed youth were as follows:  whites: 13.9%, Asians: 15%, Hispanics 18.1%, and Blacks 28.2%.  

What are Black youth doing differently than Hispanic and Asian youth that produce so high an unemployment rate?  If you ascribe it to prejudice then how do you explain the 71.8% of black youth that are employed?  I think the difference can be found in one word: fathers.  No father in the home means a child is twice as likely to have emotional and behavior problems, to be suspended from school, to be arrested for juvenile crime and a third more likely to drop out of high school.

 The children that my children grew up with are educated and employed.  They came from families who raised them. 

Does the 72% rate of unwed births in the Black community, compared to 52% in the Hispanic community, 11% in the Asian community make a difference?  Yes, it certainly does.  I think that Dr. Martin Luther King, walking through the inner cities today would not want to know why the government wasn’t doing more for African-Americans.  He would want to know why they weren’t doing more for themselves. 

Go see The Butler.  It will help you keep the faith.