re: A jury decided they were not guilty. A judge sentenced them to life in prison anyway

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To make progress your side is going to have to admit that there is a serious culture problem in black America and their side is going to have to admit that law enforcement does still operate from a bias against black people.

Neither side will admit either, however, so we stay right where we've been for decades on this.

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This can't be stressed enough.

the judge probably thought they likely murdered the cop and used that when sentencing them for selling crack.

maybe some evidence got withheld.

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You can't just shift from figuring out what the problem is to suggesting solutions, because the solution has to address the problem.

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I don’t have faith that society at large will acknowledge the problem of the mass incarceration of Black men.

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To make progress your side is going to have to admit that there is a serious culture problem in black America and their side is going to have to admit that law enforcement does still operate from a bias against black people.

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I don’t have a side other than my own. I don’t subscribe to the team sport political games. Divide and conquer is exactly what our government wants us to do and I’m not playing.

There is a culture problem among poor Blacks, particularly in urban environments. Now what? It seems as though people just want to blame poor urban Blacks for behaving in the way we have come to associate with poor urban Blacks without offering them any support or alternatives. If this demographic is causing societal problems, then it is in society’s best interest to address the problem and try to offer solutions other than mass incarceration.

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Neither side will admit either, however, so we stay right where we've been for decades on this.

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Yep.

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They're not pets who need help being nurtured. Throwing taxpayer dollars at this problem and hoping to buy a solution has not worked since LBJ implemented his Great Society. It has actually only served to make things worse, because middle class people like me watch our tax dollars get wasted away on a ghetto lifestyle that is completely taxpayer funded from cradle to grave. We should not be paying them to breed and eat.

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I read this as you think the mass incarceration of Black males is a good thing and should continue. Is that correct?

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Again, the burden should not fall on responsible taxpayers to fix that broken culture.

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Who do you think funds prisons?

they view

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prison time as a badge of honor.

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Who? Where?

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They need to provide for themselves like the rest of us have to.

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Agree. If they don’t know how to provide for themselves, we should throw them in prison?

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Agree. If they don’t know how to provide for themselves, we should throw them in prison?

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This is where we differ. They know how to provide for themselves. They are perfectly capable of getting an education, getting a job, and raising a family. They choose not to do these things because it's viewed as being "too white" and they're deathly afraid of the Uncle Tom label.

They are the ones who choose not to emphasize academics in their culture. They are the ones who would rather idolize Young Thug or some other worthless gangbanger instead of someone like Ben Carson, Thomas Sowell, or Clarence Thomas.

It's easier to live on welfare and food stamps while stealing some stuff than getting a job because we allow it to be easier. Cut off the entitlement and force them to provide like the rest of us have to.

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I read this as you think the mass incarceration of Black males is a good thing and should continue. Is that correct?

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Violent criminals should be in prison, no matter what color they are. They just so happen to commit a disproportionate amount of the violent crime in this country, and you can spare me with the whole "we don't know that" bullshite. Stat after stat after stat proves it, even though there is an active movement to suppress black crime numbers by DAs who don't prosecute crimes for political reasons. You just don't want to see it.

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I don’t have faith that society at large will acknowledge the problem of the mass incarceration of Black men.

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That one's not yours to admit. That's the whole point. Each side (and yes, you are arguing a side here) is so invested in making the other side admit what they won't admit that no movement happens.

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I don’t have a side other than my own.

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Of course you do. Are you a black man? If so, are you claiming your experience is unique among black men? If not, by definition you have a side other than your own.

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I don’t subscribe to the team sport political games.

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First of all, that's almost certainly not true. At least not when we're discussing politics on a national level. Chances are, you vote exclusively one party. I could be wrong, but I'd bet that I'm not. And I don't know if you've noticed, but the parties no longer cooperate. About anything. I don't think that's good, but that's the current reality.

Second of all, you don't have to play a game in order to admit what I'm talking about. What I'm saying is kind of the opposite of playing games.

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There is a culture problem among poor Blacks

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I don't know that it's limited just to poor blacks, although I agree that poverty and history are the root causes.

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Now what?

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Glad you asked, because frankly this seems like a clearer pathway for action than cleaning up the bias of the other side (at least to me).

1. Stop institutionally incentivizing broken families.
2. Stop institutionally incentivizing generational welfare.
3. Stop institutionally and culturally encouraging a mindset of victimhood and entitlement.
4. Reverse the effects of redlining by doing whatever is necessary to ensure safety and lower the crime rates to acceptable levels in inner city and other black environments. Send as many police into those neighborhoods as possible and stop the violence and the crime.
5. Do something about the educational opportunities present for children in those communities, which means: holding students accountable for reasonable behavioral standards in school and finding some way to involve parents in making sure their children learn—make welfare payments contingent upon it if you have to. Offer financial subsidies or rewards for achievement if you have to.
6. Investing in revitalization projects in these communities. Tear down, rebuild, refurbish, do whatever you have to do to improve the environments these people live in, and involve the local communities in these efforts.

I'm generally not a fan of the government spending taxpayer money on stuff like numbers 4-6, but the government deliberately caused the situation we have now with the redlining and welfare and passing students through school who can't read bullshite and the government needs to fix it. Just like if the city came out and spilled toxic waste on my lawn, they need to pay to clean it up. That's true reparations.

People do need certain things in order to flourish. They need clean, safe, reasonably comfortable infrastructure. But apart from that, the biggest thing the black community needs is to assimilate into American culture as equal and capable citizens, and all of the liberal BS undermines that need. They don't need to be encouraged to view every failure as a systemic problem. They don't need to be encouraged to view themselves as a special oppressed class of citizen. They USED to be a special oppressed class of citizen, NOW they are largely just oppressed by ideas and ideology. They don't need to be naming their children "Kamishiata" and "Eroniataiea" instead of "Taylor" and "Peter" and teaching them to not "act white."

Those things DO NOT help them succeed. They need to stop being "black" and just be "Americans." And yes, they still face some bias, although it's the least it's ever been in this country.

But they will never overcome that bias as "blacks." "Us and Them" is not going to get it done...it has made very little progress in 60 years and as long as they insist on perpetuating it very little progress will continue to be made. When they can work on the system from the inside of it, that's when progress will be made. When the historical problems are addressed and then black people in America start identifying more with being an "American" than being "black," that's when things will change.

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the biggest thing the black community needs is to assimilate into American culture as equal and capable citizens, and all of the liberal BS undermines that need.
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But they will never overcome that bias as "blacks." "Us and Them" is not going to get it done...it has made very little progress in 60 years and as long as they insist on perpetuating it very little progress will continue to be made. When they can work on the system from the inside of it, that's when progress will be made. When the historical problems are addressed and then black people in America start identifying more with being an "American" than being "black," that's when things will change.

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You must have missed the 1970s.

It turns out that black people need jobs. It also turns out that most jobs are offered by white people. I often hear white people say that black people just need to go out and get jobs - as if jobs are just laying around on the ground like cigarette butts. In order for blacks to 'get jobs', generally white people have to give them jobs. In general, white people have been reticent to do such - in spite of all the laws goading them to.

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it has made very little progress in 60 years

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Exactly. And how much political and economic capital did blacks start out with 60 years ago?

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how much political and economic capital did blacks start out with 60 years ago?

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That is a very fair question/observation. But we're talking nearly 3 generations since then.

E.g., I guess the counter would be how much economic capital did most of the population have 30 years preceding your point of reference? How about Asian Americans 2 decades prior?

Social assimilation is important. Education and literacy is important. Hope and goal oriented behavior is critical. Those espousing racism as an overwhelming explanation for intergenerational poverty in the US are doing no one any favors.

I apologize that you took the time to post this well thought out post. The leftist idiot you responded too won’t respond because her goal is revenge, not justice or to find a solution for problems.