Perspective from Dr. Ben Carson
Race relations in the U. S. today are the worst they have been in many years. The frustration in minority communities is currently highlighted by the Black Lives Matter movement.
So here’s the perspective as seen by a prominent black leader. This is an editorial by Dr. Ben S. Carson that was printed in the August 25 edition of USA Today. It was titled “Black Lives Matter Can't Shoot Straight.”
“The idea that is disrupting Sen. Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign will change what is wrong in America is lunacy. The Black Lives Matter movement is focused on targets that mean nothing for the problems facing our community. We're right to be angry, but we have to stay smart.
“Of course, racial policing issues exist. Add some rotten police officers killed innocent people. Those actions were inexcusable, and they should be prosecuted to deter such acts in the future.
“But unjust treatment from police did not fill our inner cities with hopelessness. Young men and women can't find jobs. Parents don't have the skills to compete in a modem job market. Far too many families suffer from self-inflicted wounds.
“I grew up in neighborhoods most Americans were told to never drive through. I saw bullets, drugs and death in the same places I played tag and ball with my friends. My older cousins died on the streets where I lived. I thought that was my destiny.
“My mother didn't. She saved my brother and me with nothing but a library card. I can tell you she wasn't worried about socialist senators from tiny rural states. Black Lives Matter could learn from her focus on the real sources of our hopelessness.
“This is where she would march:
“To the board of education
“Teaching is a tough job, and thank God there was a teacher who convinced me that I was not dumb. Even so, our schools are failing, and we have no power to abandon them.
“The actions of rogue police officers take black lives one at a time. Our public school system has destroyed black lives not in ones and twos, but in whole generations.
“To the entertainment executives
“They line their pockets glamorizing a life where black men are thugs and our women are trash. Let's tell them we plan to talk with our wallets. Demeaning women is not art, and it shouldn't be profitable. Neither is glorifying violence and equating prison time with authenticity. Straight Outta Compton. No.1 in theaters, is the latest example.
“To Washington
“For decades it has fought the War on Poverty. Poverty won. We lost. More than $20 trillion has been wasted while we failed to help the poor ‘lift themselves out of the ruts of poverty,’ as President Lyndon Johnson promised.
“To the Democratic Party
Let's tell its leaders we don't want to be clothed, fed and housed. We want honor and dignity. We don't want a plan to give tis public housing in nice neighborhoods. We want an end to excuses for schools that leave us without the means to buy our own houses wbere we choose to live. We want the skills needed to compete, not a consolation prize of Section 8, food stamps and a lifetime of government paperwork
“Finally, to the Republican Party
“We need to tell its leaders they have ignored us for too long. They need to invite us in and listen to us. We need to communicate and find a different way.
“There are many things to be angry about when you are consumed by hopelessness. Bernie Sanders isn't one of them.”
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