Last month I was driving along with the NPR cranked up like I always do when I heard the hosts struggling to define why Hillary Clinton was being lambasted on social media. At first I figured it was folks on the right who started some new clever hashtag campaign like #HilLIARy or #ItMakesALotOfDifferenceKILLary. But no. This social media wildfire was being fueled by the left. NPR's headline reads
Hillary Clinton's 3-word misstep: 'All Lives Matter'. "Wait!" I thought. "She's in trouble for saying all lives matter"? Yes was the response from NPR and twitter.
Tweets like these filled the Twitterverse and were liked and re-tweeted.
Since her faux pas Bernie Sanders and Martin O' Malley
have made the same mistake of saying "all lives matter".
Here's the basis for the outrage. Black Lives Matter became a rallying cry because every 28 hours a black person is murdered by a police officer or vigilante law enforcement and there's never a price to pay according to
BlackLivesMatter.com. So when you say 'all lives matter' you are clouding the issue. And it's a very important issue because black lives are the lives that are being taken or ruined by a country steeped in systemic racism and through a biased judicial system and no one is paying attention.... If this was the reality of the situation then I too would be jumping on the Black Lives Matter bandwagon. Thankfully that is not the reality of life in America. The Black Lives Matter movement is all based on a liberal lie. Unfortunately due to great marketing, the lie is believed by far too many people and it has now becoming dangerous.
The every 28 hours stat
was debunked by dozens of media outlets after a professor said it on CNN. Months later the 28 hour stat was still being cited in news reports and of course all over social media so the
Washington Post debunked it again. There were 136 unarmed black people killed in 2012 by anyone who could be classified as a police officer or the very wide description of vigilante law enforcement. And so that would bring it to 1 every 64 hours. But even that is an outrageous stat. However the Post points out that even that stat is misleading as it includes unarmed blacks being killed in bizarre ways
For example, a 24-year-old woman died in July 2012 at her birthday party, where she hugged an off-duty police officer from behind. He was carrying a loaded gun, which allegedly went off and killed her. A 59-year-old woman died after she was hit by a police officer driving his patrol car responding to an emergency call. A 31-year-old man was fatally shot by police when he ignored commands to stop eating a homeless man’s face.
The lie that is being marketed to Americans is that this country has systemic racism from the cradle to the grave. If you say it isn't true you are then classified as an uninformed white person or if per chance you are of color, then someone who has benefited, or hopes to benefit, from your relationship with the white ruling class. The majority of people have become afraid of being called ignorant, Uncle Tom, or racist and are remaining quiet. That quiet gives power and legitimacy to the lie. They are quiet despite the proof being contrary to the lies claims! And that is where it gets dangerous.
Today I read where the singer/actor Tyrese Gibson is voicing his complaints that the radio industry is racist because "
I'm only played on black radio". He penned an open letter to Ryan Seacrest to complain about the lack of diversity on pop radio. He says that today, on the week that according to
Billboard Pop chart (white radio according to Tyrese) 4 of the top 5 songs, and 7 of the top 10 songs are from black artists. Maybe white artists should be complaining about the lack of diversity on pop radio? Yet Tyrese is praised for taking a bold stance against corporate racism. Also today Colin Cowherd was fired from ESPN for clarifying a comment he made on his show yesterday that had been blowing up the internet for his racist attitude. You can
hear the segment here. In trying to point out that you don't have to be brilliant to play baseball he stated that only 4 percent of current MLB players and coaches had graduated from college. He went on to say that a lot of the players don't even speak English. They have no way to communicate with their coach or teammates on a significant level. And then he messed up. He said "
a third of the sport is from the Dominican Republic. A country not known as having world class academic abilities. A lot of those kids come from rough backgrounds and haven't had the academic opportunities that other kids have had". Today he attempted to clarify that statement. So he said "
they do rank 122nd out of 144 countries in primary education according to the world economic forum global competitive report". He went on to say that he has reports in front of him from World Bank, OECD and others where they are describing major deficiencies in the Dominican Republic education system at all levels. "
It's not a shot at them, it's data". For saying that ESPN fired him at the end of his show. Their statement said
Colin Cowherd's comments over the past two days do not reflect the values of ESPN or our employees. He has since apologized.
As Americans become frightened to appear ignorant to say Colin Cowherd may not be very smooth in making a point but it's a long way from a racist rant. Or to tell Tyrese if he wants to get on pop radio he should record a pop song with out being called racist bigger issues are allowed to grow.
A couple of years ago there was
a federal report what I thought was great news. Incarceration rates for blacks had been dramatically cut over the past decade. The first decade of the 2000's saw black incarcerations drop for men by 10% and women by 30%. Yet that story was buried. The story we hear is that black people are being locked up at record rates. Here's a
NY Times story from this year reporting on the historic incarceration rates for black men in America. To make it even worse they factor in deaths and then compare the number of black men and women in the 25-54 demo. This is to demonstrate that in America there are 99 white men for every 100 white women but only 83 black men for every 100 black women. The takeaway is America is either killing or locking up black men and it needs to stop. #BlackLivesMatter
The reality is most black men are in prison for the same reason white men are in prison. As this
Yale study points out;
the vast majority of prisoners were juvenile delinquents. Children are exposed to neighborhood modeling influences, at times favorable to criminal attitudes and behaviors. It is also impossible to separate out bad genes from either parental examples of criminal behavior or inadequate parenting which is likely to connect with childhood delinquency. In other words if you grew up in a rough neighborhood you are a lot more likely to go to prison. And the US is locking people up at record rates!
What isn't reported and destroys the narrative is that most of these prisoners are white. There are 64,800 black females and 841,000 black men in prison. There are 201,200 female prisoners, and 2.1 million men in prison. That means 39.4 percent of the prison population is black. Hispanics and Asians make up 13.6 percent. 47 percent of prisoners are white. Of course by percentage of race, blacks far out number whites which is what is reported all the time. But whites are being incarcerated at historical rates and far out number any other race in the prison system. That's not reported because...why?
The truth is we have too many Americans in jail because too many Americans are committing crimes. They are committing crimes because they come from bad neighborhoods. The reasons we have bad neighborhoods has a little to do with racism and a lot to do with culture. Poor people of all races need to be shown the path out. That's where people who are on the other side of poverty (aka middle class folks and all politicians) need to volunteer their services to mentor. America needs people of all races to better themselves.
Yesterday
the VA reported they are unable to find qualified applicants to fill the openings for 41,500 Doctors, Nurses, and other medical professionals.
This Spring the Post & Courier reported that in SC there are over 70,000 jobs employers can't fill because of the lack of skills in the applicants.There are literally millions of great jobs in America that need to be done for big money, but we don't have people who can do those jobs. And the education for a lot of these jobs is FREE for the asking. They're called apprenticeships. In our state we have
Apprenticeship Carolina which has already trained over 12,000 people and is begging for more. But if you grow up in a bad neighborhood you won't know about this path waiting to lead you to prosperity unless someone goes and tells them.
Big Brothers is desperate for men to to help a boy who doesn't have a father. I have done it and it's an awesome experience that can take as little as a couple of hours a week. I used to spend Saturday mornings from 9-11 with my little bro and we both looked forward to it.
While liberals try to convince Americans we need to make tuition free for universities in order to help minorities the reality is we have too many college graduates already. Did he just say that? Well I actually just repeated what the recently retired SC Superintendent of Education,
Mick Zais said. "
16.6% of the job openings require a bachelors degree or higher. 26% of our workforce has that degree. So a lot of them end up working minimum wage jobs because their degree doesn't fit the labor market. On the other hand 41.1% of the job openings require some technical certificate and only 30% of our workforce has that". Those stats are pretty similar around the country as well. But we don't hear the media or politicians urging people to skip college and go to technical school. Why?
All lives matter and far too many are being wasted because of poverty, lack of education, and most importantly lack of hope. If saying that can be shouted down as racist then we all suffer. That's why we need to get the truth out. The people of the Black Lives Matter movement are for the most part great people who are fighting for a chance at a good life and for their race to be treated as equals here. Don't let the fact that they have been tricked by a lie intimidate you from trying to help them see that it's already possible. As for racism, it along with sexism, ageism, weightism, and every other ism will be a part of the human condition for as long as we are around. There's no cure for sin, which prejudice against people based on appearance is. Well there is one cure. Jesus becoming Lord of your life and transforming every dark part of you into light. That is my ultimate prayer for all Americans and honestly all people. That Jesus sweeps into your life, filling you with the Holy Spirit and the joy that surpasses all understanding.
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