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Post by JustJohn or JJ on May 7, 2013 3:53:41 GMT -7
The Wall Street Journal
March 26, 2013, 7:02 p.m. ET
Juan Williams: Race and the Gun Debate
The No. 1 cause of death for African-American men between the ages of 15 and 34: being murdered with a gun.
By JUAN WILLIAMS
This week much of the talk about gun control concerns New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's $12 million ad campaign to put pressure on senators in key states to support legislation that he backs. Or the talk is about the National Rifle Association's pushback against the Bloomberg campaign. Then there was last week's mini-tempest over Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's decision not to include Sen. Dianne Feinstein's assault-weapon ban in a comprehensive gun-control bill the Senate will take up next month.
One thing you don't hear much about in the discussions of guns: race.
That is an astonishing omission, because race ought to be an inescapable part of the debate. Gun-related violence and murders are concentrated among blacks and Latinos in big cities. Murders with guns are the No. 1 cause of death for African-American men between the ages of 15 and 34. But talking about race in the context of guns would also mean taking on a subject that can't be addressed by passing a law: the family-breakdown issues that lead too many minority children to find social status and power in guns.
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New York City police commissioner Ray Kelly on whether stricter gun control laws really help prevent crime. Photo credit: Getty Images.
The statistics are staggering. In 2009, for example, the Centers for Disease Control reported that 54% of all murders committed, overwhelmingly with guns, are murders of black people. Black people are about 13% of the population.
The Justice Department reports that between 1980 and 2008, "blacks were six times more likely than whites to be homicide victims and seven times more likely than whites to commit homicide."
The dire implications of these numbers is evident in a Children's Defense Fund report that included a chilling historical perspective: The 44,038 black children killed by guns since 1979 (when national data on the age of gun violence victims was first collected) is "nearly 13 times more" than all the black people killed by lynching in the 86-year period of 1882 to 1968.
This awful reality explains why support for gun control in the black and Hispanic community is overwhelming (71% among blacks and 78% of Hispanics, according to a recent Pew poll). That is a marked contrast with national polls on new gun laws. Those polls show 46% of Americans of all races backing the right to own guns versus 50% who agree to the need for more limits on gun owners. Apparently, the heart of opposition to new gun regulations is in the white community. Yet white people face far less daily violence with guns.
The debate over gun control too often seems a matter of abstractions about the meaning of the Constitution and the permissible capacities of ammunition magazines. Why is so little time spent on a question of more immediate concern—namely, why are so many young black people using guns to kill their neighbors?
President Obama, a hero in black America as the first black president, has been remarkably quiet on this issue until recently. It was only in December, after the mass killing of mostly white school children in Newtown, Conn., by a white man, that the president took the political risk of backing new gun-control legislation.
Young blacks' violent deaths from handguns hadn't moved him to such action. The president spoke publicly about that matter only after the recent gun murder of a 15-year-old girl from his hometown of Chicago who had performed at his second inaugural. "Last year there were 443 murders with firearms in this city and 65 were people under 18," Mr. Obama said. "That's the equivalent of a Newtown every four months. This is not just a gun issue. It is also an issue of the communities that we are building."
In speaking about social breakdown in those minority communities, the president put the gun issue in the context of high rates of out-of-wedlock births that lead to high rates of childhood poverty. "I wish I had a father who was around and involved," the president said, in words that echoed loudly through black and Latino neighborhoods nationally because he revealed a pain so common, yet so rarely confessed, among young people of color.
The shame and silence is enforced by civil-rights leaders who speak in support of gun control but never about a dysfunctional gangster-rap culture that glorifies promiscuity, drug dealers and the power of the gun.
"Loving, supporting parents . . . [are] the single most important thing," the president told his audience of young, mostly minority children at Hyde Park Academy High School in Chicago. He made the case for parents as the key to giving children a sense of self-esteem beyond the barrel of a gun.
Almost 50 years ago, when the 1964 Civil Rights Act was passed, the national out-of-wedlock birthrate was 7%. Today it is over 40%. According to the CDC, the out-of-wedlock birthrate for white children was just 2% in the 1960s. Today it is 30%. Among black children, the out-of-wedlock birthrate has skyrocketed from 20% in the 1960s to a heartbreaking 72% today. The Hispanic out-of-wedlock rate, which has been measured for a much shorter period, was below 40% in 1990 and stands at more than 50% as of the 2010 census.
When President Obama tried to speak to this crippling dynamic in 2008, he was basically told to shut up by Rev. Jesse Jackson. The Chicago-based activist said: "Barack was talking down to black people," then he added a vulgar threat about what he wanted to do in response. The moment revealed the high cost of speaking honestly about social breakdown in black America.
I support gun control. But speaking honestly about the combustible mix of race and guns may be more important to stopping the slaughter in minority communities than any new gun-control laws.
Mr. Williams is a political analyst for Fox News and a columnist for the Hill.
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Post by pieter on May 9, 2013 2:31:17 GMT -7
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Post by JustJohn or JJ on Jul 25, 2013 5:27:52 GMT -7
Here it is in plain English. !!!! |
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Post by Jaga on Jul 25, 2013 10:24:03 GMT -7
John,
Bill O'Reilly make some good points, but he appears too often as a man who knows it all. He does not live in black community, he does not understand all aspects of black community, he is a millionaire. So he should also sometimes listen not just talk and insist that his point of view is always the only right one.
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Post by JustJohn or JJ on Jul 26, 2013 7:17:37 GMT -7
BUCHANAN TO OBAMA
Finally...It is Said Publicly. I have never seen the white side explained better!
Pat Buchanan had the guts to say it. It is about time!!
BUCHANAN TO OBAMA
By Patrick J. Buchanan
Barack says we need to have a conversation about race in America .. Fair enough. But this time, it has to be a two-way conversation. White America needs to be heard from, not just lectured to... This time, the Silent Majority needs to have its convictions, grievances, and demands heard. And among them are these:
First, America has been the best country on earth for black folks. It was here that 600,000 black people, brought from Africa in slave ships, grew into a community of 40 million, were introduced to Christian salvation, and reached the greatest levels of freedom and prosperity blacks have ever known. Jeremiah Wright ought to go down on his knees and thank God he is an American.
Second, no people anywhere has done more to lift up blacks than white Americans. Untold trillions have been spent since the '60s on welfare, food stamps, rent supplements, Section 8 housing, Pell grants, student loans, legal services, Medicaid, Earned Income Tax Credits and poverty programs designed to bring the African-American community into the mainstream. Governments, businesses and colleges have engaged in discrimination against white folks -- with affirmative action, contract set-asides and quotas -- to advance black applicants over white applicants. Churches, foundations, civic groups, schools and individuals all over America have donated their time and money to support soup kitchens, adult education, day care, retirement and nursing homes for blacks.
We hear the grievances. Where is the gratitude??
Barack talks about new 'ladders of opportunity' for blacks. Let him go to Altoona ? And Johnstown, and ask the white kids in Catholic schools how many were visited lately by Ivy League recruiters handing out scholarships for 'deserving' white kids...? Is white America really responsible for the fact that the crime and incarceration rates for African-Americans are seven times those of white America ? Is it really white America's fault that illegitimacy in the African-American community has hit 70 percent and the black dropout rate from high schools in some cities has reached 50 percent?
Is that the fault of white America or, first and foremost, a failure of the black community itself?
As for racism, its ugliest manifestation is in interracial crime, and especially interracial crimes of violence. Is Barack Obama aware that while white criminals choose black victims 3 percent of the time, black criminals choose white victims 45 percent of the time?
Is Barack aware that black-on-white rapes are 100 times more common than the reverse, that black-on-white robberies were 139 times as common in the first three years of this decade as the reverse?
We have all heard ad nauseam from the Rev. Al about Tawana Brawley, the Duke rape case and Jena . And all turned out to be hoaxes. But about the epidemic of black assaults on whites that are real, we hear nothing.
Sorry, Barack, some of us have heard it all before, about 40 years and 40 trillion tax dollars ago. This needs to be passed around because, this is a message everyone needs to hear!!!
OK...........will you pass it on ?
YES. I did but will you?
Because I'm for a better America
I am
Not racist,
Not violent,
Just not silent anymore.
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Post by Jaga on Jul 26, 2013 8:09:23 GMT -7
Pat Buchanan is known for his very strange views sometimes. I agree that white folks suffer also, but it is not pres. Obama fault. Here is one of strange comments of Buchanan: 8. Argued that Poland and the United Kingdom had it coming in World War II. Buchanan seems to suggest in a 2009 column that World War II—and all the atrocities that accompanied it—was really the fault of Poland and Britain, for refusing to engage in diplomacy with Germany. “Why did Warsaw not negotiate with Berlin, which was hinting at an offer of compensatory territory in Slovakia? Because the Poles had a war guarantee from Britain that, should Germany attack, Britainand her empire would come to Poland’s rescue.” from: Why MSNBC Dumped Pat Buchanan: His 10 Most Outrageous Statements thinkprogress.org/media/2012/02/17/427875/why-msnbc-dumped-pat-buchanan-his-10-most-outrageous-statements/ |
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Post by kaima on Jul 26, 2013 21:24:58 GMT -7
BUCHANAN TO OBAMA
Finally...It is Said Publicly. I have never seen the white side explained better!
Pat Buchanan had the guts to say it. It is about time!!BUCHANAN TO OBAMA By Patrick J. Buchanan Barack says we need to have a conversation about race in America .. Fair enough. But this time, it has to be a two-way conversation. White America needs to be heard from, not just lectured to... This time, the Silent Majority needs to have its convictions, grievances, and demands heard. And among them are these: I think the fellow is off base in referring to his opinions as representing the "Silent Majority". Let us put things to a vote if the TRUE silent majority is to have a voice! I believe the way he expressed his opinions he is in a distinct minority. Using that term is a good old commie trick, one the commies used in the Russian Revolution, taking the title of Majority Party, even though they were a minority party. Thus came the Bolschevicks. But it is a start toward discussion, whatever the tone,and there are false tones expressed on the other side as well, but calls for freedom and equality were always seen as revolutionary by the establishment. Go back and ask the European barons of old. I was just talking to a European the other day and had this as one of the Forbidden Topics in America today. I hope we can get beyond shouting and truly establish a dialogue. My personal question would be: should we limit Affirmative Action? To 3 or 4 generations, perhaps, and then say everyone is on his own? Then we can declare we have a clean slate to govern this nation by, and we can address whatever problems face the People at that time. But then some questions are never truly answered, much as life itself has no "answer" and is constantly changing. We should adapt a perspective like that and get on with life. |
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Post by kaima on Jul 27, 2013 11:40:07 GMT -7
EVEN GOD ENJOYS A GOOD LAUGH!
There were 3 good argument
that Jesus was Black:
1. He called everyone brother.
2. He liked Gospel.
3. He didn't get a fair trial.
But then there were 3 equally good arguments that Jesus was Jewish:
1. He went into His Father's business.
2. He lived at home until he was 33.
3. He was sure his Mother was a virgin and his Mother was sure He was God.
But then there were 3 equally good arguments that Jesus was Italian:
1. He talked with His hands.
2. He had wine with His meals.
3. He used olive oil.
But then there were 3 equally good arguments that Jesus was a Californian:
1. He never cut His hair.
2. He walked around barefoot all the time.
3. He started a new religion.
But then there were 3 equally good arguments that Jesus was an American Indian:
1. He was at peace with nature.
2. He ate a lot of fish.
3. He talked about the Great Spirit.
But then there were 3 equally good arguments that Jesus was Irish:
1. He never got married.
2. He was always telling stories.
3. He loved green pastures.
But the most compelling evidence of all - 3 proofs that Jesus was a woman:
1. He fed a crowd at a moment's notice when there was virtually no food.
2. He kept trying to get a message across to a bunch of men who just didn't get it.
3. And even when He was dead, He had to get up because there was still work to do.
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Post by Jaga on Jul 27, 2013 13:16:06 GMT -7
Kai, this was a really good complication of Jesus features  |
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Post by Jaga on Jul 27, 2013 22:15:01 GMT -7
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Post by JustJohn or JJ on Jul 29, 2013 3:54:59 GMT -7
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