Maybe it was because I read this opinion article by Patricia Williams after I read Orlando Patterson's take on the series, but after reading it, I felt as though there was no hope left for Black men and I may as well slit my wrist and throat for there is no hope for me or my son.
The Washington Post's report on the status of black men presents a sad picture. The stresses are so great, the odds of success so long, the mantras so empty, the faith in God so punishing.
I'll deal with this in my own commentary, but that sums up her opinion article, as far as I'm concerned.
That is the type of commentary that makes people throw up their hands and say, "It's no use" and walk away from whatever issue is at hand. I can't deal with the negativity especially when the situation is not as dire as people proclaim.
The only thing I can stomach in this article are these excerpts:
Another small but significant box into which black men are slipped is that of willful laziness. However bad the job market, however many blue-collar jobs outsourced, however horrendous the educational system in black neighborhoods -- the reason black men are unemployed is because they just don't want to work. "Years ago, if you were a black man and you didn't work, it was a shame," Manhattan Institute fellow John McWhorter told The Post. "Now, the shame is gone."
...
Pick up any local newspaper in the country any given week, and chances are good that you can find a picture of very long lines of mostly African Americans queuing up to apply for jobs at Wal-Mart or McDonald's or perhaps a new mall. The caption is always something about the highs or lows of the service industry; rarely have I seen one that says anything like "hardworking black people line up hoping to do an honest day's labor."
This reminds me of the Wal Mart that was soon to open just outside of Chicago. Thousands of people showed up for a few hundred jobs. The crowd included a lot of Black people.
That's my opinion of what she writes.
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