WHEN WILL WE LEARN?

This evening “60 Minutes” did a story on another disturbing aspect of a portion of the black community. Don’t snitch.
Many blacks refuse to acknowledge the self-destructive traits that we perpetuate in our community. The “60 Minutes” piece discussed the fact that the hip-hop community, at least prominent factions of it, endorses this credo, and a lot of young people follow like lemmings.
With the many problems that face the black community crime is the single factor that magnifies all other problems. Is can be argued that crime affects the lack of economic opportunity in the black community. For example, one of the reasons there are few large grocery stores in some black communities is because of the high cost of insurance and the high incidence of retail theft. As a result, poor people in those communities have to pay more for the goods they consume. Likewise, if they leave the community to shop, they have to pay the added cost of traveling to other communities to do their shopping. Either way, the absence of large grocery stores increases the cost to the average person living in poorer black communities.
Drugs and violence affect poorer black communities out in the open. People are killed in the street, sometimes by accident. The lives of young people hang in the balance, and in many communities, the balance is not tipped in their favor.
Yet, here we are with prominent persons advocating that people ignore the crime in their communities. These “artist” mostly rich, are for the most part able to avoid the day to day tragedy to which other less fortunate persons face everyday. Who are you to say do nothing about murders and drugs dealing in your community when, at the end of the day, you can retreat to your estate behind locked gate with armed security?
And to think that many of these young children are spending money to help provide these “artists” with the benefits that allow their retreat while the young have to duck to avoid the bullets that fly when the killers and the drug dealers are prowling and littering the streets with crack vials, shell casings, and lifeless bodies.
It is important to the health and well being of these poorer black communities that the thugs be stopped. Certainly, it is easier said than done. But, when you have well-known and well-respected persons saying don’t cooperate with the police, something must be done.
How can the leaders in the community counter such irresponsibility? Now is the time for the leaders in these communities to speak up and denounce these “artist” who, in some instances, can no longer claim to be a part of the community.