The above was the title of Saturday’s editorial in the Virginia Pilot. The subject matter was the murder of a 15 year old Norfolk boy, whose death was chronicled on the front page last week. Four teenagers – 13, 14, 15 and 18 – have been charged in the killing. On the opposite page, the Pilot reprinted this Leonard Pitts column, retitled for our paper “How Black Men Die.” Pitts’ article is influenced by the death of Sean Taylor and at the time of its writing, the assailants were unknown. We now know that four charged consisted of two 17-year-olds, an 18 year old, and a 20 year old.
Norfolk School Board member Billy Cook was on On the Record this morning talking about the local case. He has been contacting everyone he knows, calling for a community-wide effort to protest the violence. Cook’s email to me, the Pilot editorial, and Pitts’ column all wind up in the same place:
How did young teens get guns so easily? Where were the parents? Why didn’t anyone intervene? And, most importantly, just how badly has society frayed?
Some of the answer to those questions lie in understanding what happened to the black community. Last Sunday, the Pilot had a front page article about Cascade Boulevard Park, in Chesapeake.
Had integration unwittingly destroyed Cascade Boulevard Park, burying forever a place full of South Norfolk black culture?
Today, Cascade Park and Cascade Boulevard Park sit little more than half a mile from each other.
Back then, during segregation, many people knew the parks simply as the white Cascade and the black Cascade.
The story lays out the number of black athletes who played sports at the park, including pro football player Ken Easley, NSU basketball coach Lonnie Blow, and pro basketball player Alonzo Mourning. The facility is now in disrepair, having sat empty for some 25 years.
Cascade Park is just representative of what happened to black neighborhoods across the country after integration. In so many respects, the black community was torn asunder. Gone from the neighborhoods were many of the role models. Left behind, mostly, were those who couldn’t afford to get out. It is no wonder, then, that we have young men growing up not knowing how to be men and young women growing up not knowing how to be women ~ because there are few left there to show them the way. There are not enough mentors, not enough role models to combat the imagery of every day existence for so many folks.
Hillary Clinton was laughed at when she talked about how it takes a village. Well, it does take a village, and that village is all of us. That village was one that I grew up in, one in which the neighbors took responsibility for raising each others’ kids. I can recall walking home from elementary school (two blocks away), getting into a fight with another kid and having nearly every parent who was home stop us along the way. And you can bet my mother knew about the fight before I got there. In the village I grew up in, going to school, getting an education was just expected of everyone. No one was counting on a football scholarship or a basketball scholarship to lead them to the promised land. I remember one person from my high school getting an athletic scholarship while tons more got academic ones. In the village that I grew up in, there were no guns, few unwed pregnancies, and drugs were still socially unacceptable.
And I ain’t that old.
So while we may know why (or at least, part of why) we ended up here, that doesn’t solve the problem. We are not going back to the days of segregation. What we do have to do, however, is to get back to that sense of community, that sense that we are all in this together. As the Pilot editorial says:
The real and lasting solution is much cheaper, and much harder. Individuals, families, schools, churches, local institutions — in other words, all of us — have a stake in stemming the violence. We must all work harder and longer to help turn our young people away from these dangers.
Amen, brother. Amen.
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
F.T.,
I am not playing games, I have already “spit it out”. It is you and some of the others that are afraid to admit the obvious. There has been to many discussions, focus groups, etc. on solving social problems, to much talking not enough action.
As I have asked Vivian and BM, you must have a thought on the solution to this problem, if so, then please let me hear it almighty knowing one!
Socialism doesn’t work anymore, Sorry.
I would love to see rlewis live on these government “handouts.” Many of my clients are disabled; some live on as little as $623.00 per month. They and their family members who care for them are stuck in poverty because one person can’t work due to the need to care for the other. This problem exists regardless of race. However, perpetuating stereotypes instead of facing reality just makes it harder for everyone. Sure, there are people who would just rather not work, but the system does a pretty good job of weeding them out, and they don’t get government benefits.
Spotter,
Are you trying to tell me that a majority of the welfare system is comprised of the disabled? Wrong!!
I never mentioned anything about the disabled.
What is your solution Spotter, surely you have a thought. I have yet to receive a suggestion on the solution from Vivian, BM, F.T.
Do you honestly think the system is working? Please give me a break.
Billy – thanks for coming on here. It seems some folks are incapable of carrying on a conversation about what’s next and are mired in how we got here. Please keep me in the loop on the planned activities.
BM? Heh. If you added rlewis and Mouse together, you still wouldn’t get a whole. But hey, it takes all kinds.
~
However, all kinds aren’t required for every issue. Whatever the solution is, rlewis, you are neither part of it nor worthy of being privy to it. So just walk on, and find another hobby horse to ride.
Great Answer Vivian, MB, F.T & Spotter:
Keep on doing what you are doing, because it doesn’t work. How lame, you guys can’t even give me a hint of a solution to this problem.
Do you even realize when people get together to discuss a problem, part of the exercise is to involve participation with regards possibly solutions.
Wait, I am sorry, you guys don’t know how to do that! How embarrassing!
Hey, rlewis, you stole my “BM” line!
I really don’t see Welfare as the culprit here. There are more Whites on Welfare than Blacks, but the Black murder rate is five times higher, regardless of income.
Nor do I think the problem is “racial.” Blacks are not genetically more prone to be criminals.
The problem is cultural. So the question becomes, how do we change the culture?
Sorry about stealing your “BM” line mouse, I just thought it was funny.
There may be more whites on welfare, however a higher percentage with regards to population, are black and hispanic.
I will concede that it is a culture problem, however, people with regards to race need to be accountable for their own decisions. I beleive the government local, state and federal is part of this problem.
My opinion is that the solution to this problem not more social services. People are going to have to accountable for their actions regardless of race. They need not be awarded jobs, loans, houses, etc. because they are black, white or hispanic. Or at the very least the government needs to tighten its purse more than ever.
With regards to the Black Culture problem it is the Black leaders that need to take care of this problem and recognize that there may some influences that are effecting them (Hip Hop industry is just one of many).
“…a higher percentage with regards to population, are black and hispanic”
That’s not the point. The point is that Black (and Hispanic) murder rates are higher at all levels of income. Welfare does not cause poor Whites to commit crimes, so there is no reason to presume that it has that effect on Blacks and Hispanics.
“With regards to the Black Culture problem it is the Black leaders that need to take care of this problem and recognize that there may some influences that are effecting them (Hip Hop industry is just one of many).”
There are some who are trying to do just that, such as Bill Cosby.
Mouse,
The following is from Michael Tanner, Director of Health and Welfare Studies at the Cato Institute
Last year, the Maryland NAACP released a report concluding that “the ready access to a lifetime of welfare and free social service programs is a major contributory factor to the crime problems we face today.”(1) Their conclusion appears to be confirmed by academic research. For example, research by Dr. June O’Neill’s and Anne Hill for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services showed that a 50 percent increase in the monthly value of combined AFDC and food stamp benefits led to a 117 percent increase in the crime rate among young black men.(2)
Welfare contributes to crime in several ways. First, children from single-parent families are more likely to become involved in criminal activity. According to one study, children raised in single-parent families are one-third more likely to exhibit anti-social behavior.(3) Moreover, O’Neill found that, holding other variables constant, black children from single- parent households are twice as likely to commit crimes as black children from a family where the father is present. Nearly 70 percent of juveniles in state reform institutions come from fatherless homes, as do 43 percent of prison inmates.(4) Research indicates a direct correlation between crime rates and the number of single-parent families in a neighborhood.(5)
It would have been nice if you had included a link — I’d love to see the research.
Did they randomly increase the welfare payments in some areas and not others, to see the correlation, or are they just basing this on time-dependent data which is subject to other influences?
The second paragraph is a complete non-sequitur. There is no evidence presented there that welfare contributes to the existence of single-parent families.
Has it ever occurred to you that anti-social parents might have anti-social children, and that anti-social parents are simply less likely to get married because they ARE anti-social?
http://www.cato.org/testimony/ct-wc67.html
Click to access Foley111207.pdf
Thanks. I’ve got to make dinner now, so I’ll have to read them later.
r –
(I hope that you do not consider it presumptuous if I call you r), I had intended to blow you off, but find that I must respond because, surprisingly, I agree to some extent with Mouse.
I asked you to avoid stereotypes and overgeneralizations. You responded with this stereotype, overgeneralization, and unfortunate inaccuracy:
“Are you trying to tell me that a majority of the welfare system is comprised of the disabled? Wrong!! I never mentioned anything about the disabled.”
No you didn’t, r, and that’s exactly the point.
Perhaps you need to go on over to social services and familiarize yourself with the truth, r. Perhaps you need to figure out exactly what you mean by “the welfare system,” and whether your use of that term is any use at all in this discussion. Perhaps you need to find out who really gets “welfare” or “handouts.” Is it someone who looks and talks just like your mom, but who ran out of funds to pay for the nursing facility? Is it someone whose child was born developmentally disabled, but who chooses to do the grueling, thankless work of caring for their son or daughter each and every day, rather than institutionalizing their loved one (which is, strangely enough, a more expensive alternative for the “welfare system”). Is it the person who developed cancer and just doesn’t have the funds and insurance needed to fight it, or the strength to continue to support his or her family? Or are the social workers just sitting over there, waiting to write out a check whenever a cheat, a lazy person, or a drug addict comes knocking?
Perhaps you need to learn more about welfare reform, and work requirements, and eligibilty requirements, and the reality of who actually receives these “handouts.” The requirements are actually quite stringent, and sometimes a bit harsh, while the benefits are fairly modest.
Most importantly, perhaps you should acknowledge that people are not their skin color, or their income level, or even their ability or disability. They are people, just people, individuals who should be judged, if at all, on their individual characteristics. I challenge you to look one of the recipients of these “handouts” in the eye every once in awhile, and to take the time to learn their story. If you do, I’m sure you’ll find the courage to stop spouting off about “handouts.”
And r, I do take seriously your question about a solution. There are many solutions. Better parenting. Better schools. More educational opportunities. Better law enforcement. Creation of jobs rather than perpetuation of hopelessness. More section 8, less public housing. No more babies having babies. An end to drug abuse, drug wars, drugs period. And yes, more personal responsibility. But also, more community responsibility. A real leader to replace those lost to assassin’s bullets in 1968. Most of all, individuals who believe that this can change for the better, and that it must. An understanding that these problems affect us all, every one of us, and that we have the power to fix them.