“The system worked.”
That was one of Al Sharpton’s slim offerings after being pressured to answer to the three teens (two of whom are black males) who viciously murdered Australian jogger, Chris Lane in broad daylight. Jesse Jackson tweeted a tepid, “Praying for the family of Chris Lane. This senseless violence is frowned upon and the justice system must prevail.” Meanwhile, our nation’s first black president, expert in class warfare and racial disharmony, has decided not even to say that the teens “acted stupidly” or that if he had a son, he could be Chris Lane.
And what about World War II veteran Delbert Belton? Two young black men savagely beat eighty-eight year old Belton to death in a parking lot in Spokane, WA. In Belton’s case as in Lane’s, the silence is deafening – and telling.
As young black men go wild, Obama goes golfing, Sharpton finally relies on the system, and Jackson tweets and prays from the recliner. These same men who might have normally stubbed their toe on the way to a camera, lest it pass them by, for a chance to rant and wail on America about racism, decide that these two incidents barely warrant a response? These same men who shook their heads, raised their fists, and roared fire at America over Trayvon Martin are content to watch in silence as black men roam the streets like packs of wolves devouring innocent victims who end up at the wrong place at the wrong time? They care not about the character and integrity of a community that is in danger of being perceived as a gang of animals.
This is about more than hypocrisy related to white on black crime verses black on white crime. Their silence speaks less to the lack of empathy for the lives of all races or the false kum-ba-ya of racial harmony that Barack Obama promised, but rather it gives unspoken consent to black men gone wild, and is a sharp and cruel proclamation of their inferior expectations for the black community they purport to serve. There is indeed a system at work here. It is a system of white-collar black on black crime where an elite few excel and make their fortunes based on the peril and degradation of their own people. Killing them softly and over and over again with the “soft bigotry of low expectations” and salting their wounds of poverty and low esteem with claims of inferiority in the eyes of whites and the world when they themselves are the ones who hold the very inferiority complex of which they pretend to rebuke.
Obama, Sharpton, and Jackson are the representatives of this modern day trifecta of black on black crime. The way they ignore the plight of their people as they run to the rescue of the type of silly cases and causes that make the front page of “People” magazine is criminal. Jesse Jackson after all couldn’t wait to help redeem Paula Deen, the celebrity chef who was accused of using a racial slur some thirty years ago. Jackson quickly went to get a piece of the purse saying, “she should be reclaimed rather than destroyed.” As Jackson gets a piece of that pie, young black men, kill and slaughter without any mention of their redemption or reclamation for humanity. They don’t have a multi-million dollar culinary empire with which to woo Jackson’s affections. Is there nothing that can be redeemed in these men, or is Jackson’s stance that they can do no better?
Every time Obama, Jackson, and Sharpton speak on an issue and mention race without mentioning the destructive choices — crime rates, out of wedlock birth rates, abortion rates — that have been metastasizing into a vicious cycle of self-inflicted deterioration keeping the black community in the wilderness of hatred, bitterness, and wickedness, they kill a chance for progress and restoration. They kill a piece of what was once respected as a proud and God-fearing culture.
These men are the ones who would rather take pictures with black kids rather than feed them wisdom and nourish their souls with truth they so desperately need to return to God’s grace. Obama, Sharpton, and Jackson have not the interest, courage, or motivation for this uprising of hope.
The way to hope is back to our moral roots. God-driven morality has never failed. Generations before us led us to triumph over slavery by following His truth. This truth and guidance does not advocate the recycling of petty grievances, shakedowns over benign racial missteps, nor does it continually nourish the seeds of bitterness and victimization. This truth leads to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
It is time to turn off our TV’s in these communities and open up our bibles. These extreme instances of black crime and evil are God’s way of alerting us to the peril lurking about in our hearts and minds. He is trying to reach his people. But we can’t hear him for the trifecta. God is trying to tell us to wake up and stop letting these modern day false prophets make fools of our communities and our country. For by them, our people have been forsaken and marched to the slaughter. Our people have been sold out for fancy dinners, celebrity status, and TV shows on MSNBC. On the backs of our people these men have found their success, for but the failure and the demise of their own people, these men might be little more than persuasive used car salesmen. They too are black men gone wild, only they have been made wildly rich at the expense of those who have depended on them most.
Lisa Fritsch is the author of Obama, Tea Parties and God and a radio talk show host and national commentator in Austin, TX.