On Thursday July 16, 2009, President Barack Obama addressed the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) at their 100th convention, which was founded in 1909 by W.E.B. DuBois. He credited the NAACP for helping him to get elected as president last year. He urged them to reclaim their strenght to fight educational and economic inequality. He said racial prejudice still persists. He did claim there's less racial discrimination today than ever in our country's history. He was contrasting the violence of the civil rights era with the structural inequalities that exist between the races today.
Obama stated that unemployment rates are higher today for blacks and the rates of health insurance coverage are lower for blacks. He said black students lag behind in math and reading and black children are more likely to be jailed than white children. He encouraged black parents to become involved with their children and to try to lead them to other careers besides "baller" and "rapper". He is right on that last point.
Why do black children lag behind white children when it comes to school achievement as well as other factors? Many civil rights opportunists will blame it on racism from the white community. There's a few white people that are racially prejudiced toward blacks, but not to the extent the media makes it out to be. The problem with the black community today is their home life. Most of them have a very rough home life.
Increasing numbers of black babies today are born out of wedlock. Many black children live in single-parent homes where their mother is collecting welfare checks. Many of them don't attend church nor do they have any spiritual influence in their life. They don't have much encouragement when it comes to learning and achievement. Many blacks tend to have a victim's mentality. Since the modern welfare system was created over forty years ago, the government has exploited the black race through our government welfare system which hasn't done anything to encourage blacks to work and aspire to a better life other than living on food stamps and a welfare check.
Black children need a mother and father that are married and living together. They need parents that will attend and be faithful to church and raise their children according to the Bible. Obama is right when he says that parents should be involved in their children's lives. The parents have a responsibility to cultivate a love of learning in their children's lives. Parents need to instill the desire to learn in their children prior to attending school. Education is the parents' first responsibility. Most of the problems of the African-American community stem from the home. The government nor the schools can solve that problem. Only the Lord can straighten out their problems. Using the race card as an excuse for the condition they're living in isn't going to remedy their problem. Because of the civil rights laws of the 1960's such as the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act, for example, blacks have more opportunity today to succeed than what they did fifty years ago. However the home life of African-Americans today is in shambles. They have no stable home nor any solid role models.
Affirmative action laws which give preferential treatment towards blacks in employment and education isn't going to solve the problem nor is it right towards other Americans that do qualify for specific types of jobs. I don't have a problem with special training to help black Americans to gain the skills necessary to land a job, but giving preferential treatment based on race is wrong. The NAACP and many civil rights leaders today are pushing for "equality of outcome" instead of "equality of opportunity". Everybody is given a free will to choose how they want to live their lives. They can choose to be productive citizens and obtain excellence or they can choose to be slothful and live a bum's life. Success isn't handed to someone on a silver platter. Success must be earned regardless of race, creed, religion, or gender.
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