The power of dogma.

Not long ago, a Friend posted this on FaceBook:

I replied with a comment that black-on-black crime is disproportionately worse than white-on-white crime, whereas the 1/8 of the population that is black accounts for 53% of the murders.  And I attached my normal link: (here).

She deleted it.

Some facts are hard to face, and some facts are harder for some people to face, than others.

The meme …

… presumes to know white folks’ thinking and motivations.  I assure you, when I think of “black-on-black crime,” “divide and conquer” is the last thing on my mind.  I’m thinking instead of the bloodshed in my neighborhood, and the young men who are in treatment for PTSD at my church, who have nightmares behind seeing homeys and cuzzins blown to smithereens.

The meme …

… presents that black thought is, or ought to be, monolithic.

Black thought is not monolithic, and never has been.

When I hear the black men around me talk, I hear diverse opinions.  Many.

When I read the comments on a Yahoo! News piece or FaceBook post, I hear diverse black opinions.

During the present writing, I came across an article about the diverse opinions of black residents of Portland, Oregon, as regards the current ongoing unrest there — carried on principally by white hooligans who call themselves supporting BLM.

The opinions are very diverse:

Black people in Portland struggle to be heard amid protests

Black thought was diverse in the 1960’s, also.  Martin Luther King, Jr. and the NAACP convinced the white liberal establishment that desegregation was the universal demand among black people.  That simply was not so, however; many blacks were vehemently opposed, beginning with the followers of Malcolm X, and that continues to this day.  The white liberals heard only what they wanted to, however, and made no effort to discern what black folk really felt.

The only folk who insist that black thought is monolithic — or should be — are those who are fixated on negativity.  Now, given the fact that, no matter what they say, black thought is not monolithic; they engage in very significant pressure to force all other black folk to conform.  To their way of thinking.  To their dogma.

This group controls the black media, and provide the only black voices the mainstream media will let us hear.  Witness the backlash Dez Bryant got when he suggested that racism need not be black folks’ only concern.  Witness Don Lemon’s recent brow-beating of Terry Crews, about which I will have a separate post next week.

I have complained before about the media’s, and even academia’s, willful unwillingness to learn what actual black folk actually think.  This chosen ignorance serves an agenda — Call it “political correctness.” — that truth and facts do not.

Related: Racism study has the wrong people smiling.

Opportunities

The need is not for self-hatred, but self-love; love enough to face unpleasant facts, love enough to engage in self-examination.  There is occasion for black folk to reflect on the choices they have made, the choices they continue to make; the choices of what one wants; that make or do not make for an environment in which murder is likely to occur.

It is an opportunity to own power over one’s own choices, and one’s own acts, and own the results of one’s behavior.

This can be wholly positive.

Related: What we need