[ghrrbac-vtaa] Interesting Read! "From Du Bois to do-rags"

From: "Michael A. Chapman" <Michael.A.Chapman@xxxxxxxx>
To: (Recipient list suppressed)
Date: Sun, 08 Jan 2006 16:36:47 -0500

This is an interesting read. We should all ask ourselves, "are we guilty as charged?"

Mike Chapman
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From Du Bois to do-rags

<http://www.dailypress.com/news/columnists/dp-columnist-wlaveist,0,1899905.columnist?coll=dp-news-columnists>
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<http://www.dailypress.com/news/columnists/dp-columnist-wlaveist,0,1899905.columnist?coll=dp-news-columnists>Wil LaVeist

Published January 8 2006

Black Community. This is a formal charge against our culture.

I charge it with nurturing black males to be thugs.

Yes, we live in a society that has been bent on destroying black men. From slavery to Jim Crow and now, there is more than 400 years of evidence. But we've dwelled on that enough. The black community - my community - has become co-conspirators in crime.

"CHESAPEAKE, NORFOLK OFFICERS SLAIN"

"JAIL CELL INTERVIEW: 'I DIDN'T MEAN TO KILL HER"

"17-YEAR-OLD SUFFOLK BOY SHOT BY ANOTHER TEEN DIES"

"MISSIONARY KILLED, 2ND WOUNDED"

Black community of Hampton Roads, how many of you read or heard these recent headlines and hoped the assailants weren't black men? How many of you said "damn" when you saw the mug shots? We must own up to a culture that encourages black male thuggery.

Throughout America, our community has bought into the stereotypes that black males are deviant and destined for the prison system (the new slavery) on the way to an early grave. This credo is becoming our norm. Many of us even want to be imprisoned to gain "street credibility," as if it's some cultural rite of passage.

Sure, the overwhelming majority of black males are not criminals. And yes, our culture assigns positive attributes too, but even those are warped. Relegated to us by the broader culture, we believe that our most redeeming qualities are being athletes and entertainers. We run faster, jump higher and rap harder than anyone does. We feed this intellect depressant into the minds of our black boys.

Become a surgeon, architect or journalist? Nah, that ain't us. We ain't supposed to be able to think. Black boys learn this from a culture that fronts a good game for education but doesn't value it. If this weren't so, adults would file into school buildings for parent-teacher conferences the same way we do school sports and entertainment events.

So of course our worshiped athletes get caught up too. Like Marcus Vick of Newport News being kicked off of Virginia Tech's football team after "thuggin' out" in the season's biggest game by stomping an opposing player. This less than a month after he and his family blessed several community kids with Christmas gifts.

Once a young man embraces the culture's lies, there's little the family's values can do to right his thinking.

It wasn't always this way for us. We descend from great black thinkers: men such as Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. Du Bois, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X. Yet, our culture no longer stresses that black boys must pursue academic excellence first. So if we begin floundering by the fourth grade or get labeled "special ed," no wonder many of us drop our books by high school and end up on street corners clutching guns and drugs.

Sure, white males and others commit violent crimes too, but what do we expect, black community? Of course black men shoot cops and Mormon missionaries on bicycles. Of course we do drive-bys and gun down innocent children. Oh, you think our thug culture is just for the underclass? Many middleclass teens with college-educated parents who are professionals are also falling off, saying things like, "I don't need an education to make it." Success is having a slick cell phone and a pimped ride, sittin' on 24s with shiny rims, our culture tells them.

I know. I have two sons. I'm at war with my own culture.

I file charges particularly against the black church. Our culture's moral compass has become so self-serving that there's little difference between preachin' and pimpin'. Of course there are churches, mosques and temples, ministers and laypeople who are doing great works that please God.

But how can we be pleased with our many disparities? For example, a dwindling number of black males attend college while we make up 60 percent of Virginia's 34,000 state prison population. Since most crimes are not interracial (contrary to common fears), black people are the main victims of black male violence. We personally stand to gain the most from a Cultural Revolution.

Unless we reformat our culture's message to the black male through our institutions and individual efforts, we can expect to own more of the same thuggish headlines.

Black culture - my culture - is guilty as charged.

<mailto:wlaveist@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>Wil LaVeist can be reached at 757-247-7840 or by e-mail at wlaveist@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Copied from the January 8, 2006 edition of the Daily Press: http://www.dailypress.com/news/columnists/dp-51052cm0jan08,0,7700988.column?coll=dp-news-columnists-------------------------------- Michael A. Chapman, P.E. Michael.A.Chapman@xxxxxxxx 757-864-4687 (w) 757-827-9971 (h) ----------------------------------------------------------- "The Secret Of Your Future Is Hidden In Your Daily Routine"

[ghrrbac-vtaa] Interesting Read! "From Du Bois to do-rags"

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