PragerU Marathon: Race Relations (4/28/17)

what are the five biggest issues facing blacks in America here's my list problem number five the victim mentality nothing holds someone back more than seeing himself as a victim why because the victim is not responsible for his situation everything is someone else's fault and the victim sees little chance of improving his life how can he get ahead if someone is holding him back all this makes the victim unhappy frustrated and angry this is how too many blacks see themselves as victims so much so that their victim status becomes their primary identity and their ruling ideology I call it victimology unfortunately many black churches preach this victimology many black parents pass it on to their children inner city schools teach it to their students and the black media reinforce it meanwhile the NAACP and other black grievance groups fundraise on it problem number four lack of diversity blacks repeatedly demand an honest dialogue or debate about race but how can there ever be an honest dialogue about race between blacks and whites when there is virtually no honest dialogue between blacks and blacks it's hypocritical and if a black doesn't think whites are ultimately responsible for Black people's problems they label a sellout Uncle Tom or race Trader as long as this type of group think exists race Reverend of the Al Sharpton Jesse Jackson type will continue to be celebrated our independent black thinkers such as professors Thomas soul and Walter Williams will be the honest race dialogue and debate that first has to happen is not between blacks and whites but between blacks and blacks we demand diversity from others but need to practice it ourselves where it really matters in thought opinion and even political affiliation problem number three Urban terrorism as just about everyone knows but too few talk about publicly in majority black cities violent black-on-black crime is rampant a Department of Justice study from 1980 through 2008 revealed that blacks accounted for almost half of the nation's homicide victims 47.4% and more than half of the offenders 52.4% all while being 133% of America's population the Tuskegee Institute conducted a study of all known lynchings of blacks that occurred between 1882 through 19686 year span which is essentially the post Civil War and report in 1965 nearly 25% of black children were born to unwet mothers the report's author Daniel Patrick moan said this was a disaster in the making he was of course vilified by so-called black leaders and their Progressive allies but he was right today the out of wedlock birth rate is nearly 75% and even higher in some urban areas to be clear baby daddiy share this responsibility with baby mamas yet while baby daddies are blamed and rarely shown compassion baby mamas are rarely blamed and receive both compassion and support this lopsided Dynamic and the previously listed pathology stem directly from the number one problem facing the black community problem number one unquestioning allegiance to so-called Progressive policies unwavering loyalty to Progressive liberal policies is the primary reason these dire conditions persist it both makes them possible and perpetuates them it's no coincidence that progressivism is the common thread that binds predominantly black cities where single parent homes failing schools rampant poverty and crime predominate look at cities like Detroit Philadelphia and Baltimore they've been run by a Progressive Democrats for decades if their liberal policies were at all effective these cities should have become models of economic growth and prosperity instead their models of dysfunction by fostering and exploiting the victim mentality discouraging self-examination subsidizing baby mamas and making excuses for black thugs so-called Progressive policies don't alleviate the problems that afflict the black community they aggravate those problems you may have noticed that racism did not make the list why not it's simple there will be no solution to the problems afflicting Black America until more blacks recognize that the issues plag in our community are ultimately self-inflicted does racism exist sure but there are other problems far more serious and waiting until there are no more races will mean waiting and making excuses forever I'm Talib Starks for Prager University does the truth matter not to groups like black lives matter that's tragic for many reasons not the least of which is that black lives are being lost as a result when it comes to the subject of American police blacks and the deadly use of force here is what we know a recent deadly force study by Washington State University researcher Lois James found that police officers were less likely to shoot unarmed black suspects than unarmed white or Hispanic ones in simulated threat scenarios Harvard economics professor Roland frier analyzed more than 1,000 officer involved shootings across the country he concluded that there is zero evidence of racial bias in police shootings in in Houston he found that blacks were 24% less likely than whites to be shot by officers even though the suspects were armed or violent does the truth matter an analysis of the Washington post's police shooting database and a federal crime statistics reveals that fully 12% of all whites and Hispanics who die of homicide are killed by cops by contrast only 4% of black homicide victims are killed by cops but isn't it a sign of bias that blacks make up 26% of police shooting victims but only 133% of the national population it is not and Common Sense suggests why police shootings occur more frequently where officers confront armed or violently resisting suspects those suspects are disproportionately black according to the most recent study by the Department of Justice although blacks were only about 15% of the population in the 75 largest counties in the US they were charged with 62% of all robberies 57% of murders and 45% of assaults in New York City blacks commit over 34 of all shootings though they are only 23% of the City's population Whites by contrast commit under 2% of all shootings in the city though they are 34% of the population New York's crime disparities are repeated in virtually every racially diverse city in America the real problem facing inner city black communities today is not the police but criminals in 2014 over 6,000 blacks were murdered more than all white and Hispanic homicide victims combined who is killing them not the police and not white civilians but other blacks in fact fact a police officer is 18 and a half times more likely to be killed by a black male than an unarmed black mail is to be killed by a police officer if the police ended all use of lethal Force tomorrow it would have a negligible impact on the Black Death by homicide rate in Chicago through just the first six and a half months of 2016 over 2,300 people were shot that that's a shooting an hour during some weekends the vast majority of the victims were black during the same period the Chicago police shot 12 people all armed and dangerous that's 1/ half of 1% of all shootings does the truth matter if it does here's a Truth worth pondering there is no government agency more dedicated to the proposition that black lives matter than the the police the proactive policing Revolution that began in the mid1 1990s has dramatically brought down the inner city murder rate and save tens of thousands of black lives unfortunately that crime decline is now in Jeopardy as I write in my book the war on Cops police officers are backing off of proactive policing in black neighborhoods thanks to the false narrative that police officers are infected with homicidal bias as a result violent crime is going up in cities with large black populations homicides in 2015 Rose anywhere from 54% in Washington DC to 90% in Cleveland overall in the nation's 56 largest cities homicides in 2015 Rose 177% a nearly unprecedented one-year Spike many law-abiding residents of high crime areas beg the police to maintain order precisely the type of policing that the ACLU Progressive politicians and the Obama justice department denounce as racist this is tragic because when the police refrain from proactive policing black lives are lost lost because of a myth the best research and data reached this conclusion there is no evidence that police are killing blacks just because they're black you now have the truth truth does it matter I'm Heather McDonald of the Manhattan Institute for Prager University hi I'm Marissa Str CEO of prageru did you know that prageru is a nonprofit every dollar you give will go towards making more videos and marketing them so please consider making a donation today many people believed that the election of a black president would Advance America to a new era of racial Harmony that belief proved to be mistaken in retrospect it was naive to think that a single event even the election of a black president would wash away a stain so deeply ingrained in our culture the debate about how much racism there is in America and specifically the disparity between the races is just as Fierce as ever that's okay with me discrimination still exists let's deal with it openly and honestly unfortunately that's very hard to do one reason I've discovered is that many people feel that they have to treat blacks with kid gloves they think this is Noble enlightened Progressive it's not it's demeaning and condescending in fact it's racist a recent experience brought this home to me in an anthropology class my professor decided to discuss the shooting of Michael Brown a black teenager by a white police officer in Ferguson Missouri before I tell you what transpired I need to tell you something something about this professor first of all I like her very much she's interesting and engaging but more importantly she took a non-pc approach to the class which I found refreshing she encouraged us to study the data dispassionately and draw our conclusions from that but when the subject of Ferguson came up all this objectivity went out the window when a classmate said following a debate over the details of the case that the facts ultimately don't matter my professor agreed all that matters this classmate added is that a black boy was killed by a white cop another example of racism in a racist Society pure and simple so therefore riots that followed the grand jury decision not to indict the officer were the legitimate reactions of people who just couldn't take it anymore and that's when I knew that what I was really hearing was not an expression of compassion and understanding but something else rioting and looting are acceptable forms of behavior why because the riers and looters have no other options really in free Democratic America you have no other options does this apply to all ethnic groups Hispanics Southeast Asians Pacific Islanders of course not but we the enlightened ones are ready with a prepackaged list of excuses when blacks Riot and loot worse when it comes to judging black Behavior even facts don't matter all that matters is the skin color of the teenager and the skin color of the cop well not in my world if a white cop kills a white kid the facts matter if a black cop kills a black kid the facts matter if a black cop kills a white kid the facts matter and if a white cop kills a black kid the facts matter to suggest anything else is to perpetuate discrimination the very thing that those who espouse social justice claim to want to end anyone whether white or any other color who excuses blacks for bad behavior just because they are black obviously doesn't consider blacks their equal rather they view blacks in effect as children who are unable to adhere to the standards to which every other group is held think carefully about that the only difference between this View and that of white supremacists is that white supremacists are honest and open in their view blacks are inferior to whites period but those who condescend to blacks cloak themselves in self-righteousness so somehow that makes it okay the bad behavior happens a riot in Ferguson and they nod knowingly they couldn't taken anymore who can blame them I'll take the white supremacist any day first there are very few of them and they have no power second I can easily prove them wrong but how do I shake off the condescender the patronizes there are a lot of them they have a lot of power and they think they mean well how do I convince them that as a black human being I want to be I must be judged by the same standards as everybody else so how about this for a change treat blacks equally always in every way not differently not better not worse not like we're demons not like we're Angels is that so hard to do because if we really want racial Harmony not to mention an end racism that's the only way to get there I'm Chloe valer for Prager University hardly a day goes by that someone of prominence a politician a talk show host an Entertainer doesn't call some conservative or conservatives generally racist here are typical examples the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Congressman Steve Israel to a significant extent conservatives are animated by racism TV newscaster Ed Schultz this is what the Republican Party stands for racism Oprah Winfrey there's a level of disrespect for the office that occurs in some cases and maybe even many cases because the president is African-American there's no question about that to call someone a racist should be a very serious matter a racist is a person who believes that one race is inherently Superior or inferior to another it's not intelligence or goodness that determines an individual's worth it's his or her skin color to say that racism is foolish and stupid not to mention evil is to understate the case but according to many of their critics conservatives are that stupid and that evil but with few exceptions conservatives are neither so why is the charge even made the answer is primarily political to maintain black support for liberals and liberal policies to back up this charge the accusers point to conservative policies so let's examine some conservative policies to see if they are indeed racist the longstanding conservative opposition to affirmative action is a good place to start it was Democratic president John F Kennedy who first used the term affirmative action in 1961 but affirmative action in the way we think of it now wasn't implemented until 1970 during the administration of a Republican president Richard Nixon the theory was that because of historical discrimination blacks were at a competitive disadvantage to other races and ethnicities to erase that disadvantage standards that most blacks presumably couldn't meet had to be lowered one could make the case that this policy had some utility when it was first put in place but that was a long time ago the conservative position is that blacks have repeatedly proven they can compete with anyone without the benefits demeaning benefits I might add of lower standards there are countless examples of black success in every field at every level the policy is no longer necessary but the conservative argument goes further study after study shows that in the case of college admissions affirmative action actually hurts many blacks by lowering admission standards for blacks and some other minority students colleges set many of these students up for failure they get placed in schools for which they're not prepared and high black Dropout rates confirm this view so does common sense if white students with mediocre s scores were admitted to Ivy League schools they too would be set up to fail let's do the math conservatives believe that blacks and other minorities are every bit as capable as whites of succeeding as policemen firemen businessmen lawyers doctors politicians and college students yet for this belief conservatives are called racist the irony of course is that those who accuse conservatives of being racist believe that blacks and other minorities are not as capable as whites succeeding and therefore still need affirmative action almost a half century after it was first implemented let's look at another issue where this contrast between conservatives and those who accuse them of being racist is even more starkly drawn voter ID conservatives say that America should require that every voter present an ID when he or she votes just as European countries do in order to help keep their elections honest are all these democracies racist of course not yet the accusers say that conservatives who support voter ID are racist why do they say this because they argue it's really a ruse to prevent blacks and other minorities from voting since many of them just aren't capable of acquiring an ID can you get more condescending than that let's be real you need an ID to drive to fly to buy a beer even to purchase some cold medicines whites can do it but blacks can't tell me who the race are again one more example it's conservatives who push for school vouchers which would allow all parents not just wealthy ones to choose their children's school it's the other side that doesn't trust minority parents to select an appropriate school for their children why aren't the people who compel black children to stay in terrible schools the racist at some point maybe you'll start asking yourself like I did who's really obsessed with race and whose policies really hurt blacks and minorities maybe it's not who you think it is I'm Derek green of project 21 for Prager University is racism still a major problem in America President Barack Obama certainly thinks so he said that racism is in our DNA really if racism is in our DNA doesn't that mean it's immutable unchangeable but America has changed and dramatically so in 1960 60% of Americans said they would never vote for a black president almost 50 years later the black man who said racism is in America's DNA was elected president and four years later reelected that's only the most obvious example of racial progress there are many others take interracial marriage as William H fry of the Brookings institution wrote sociologists have traditionally viewed multi-racial marriage as a benchmark for the ultimate stage of assimilation of a particular group into society black white marriages were still illegal in 16 States until 1967 and the 1958 Gallop poll found that only 4% of Americans approved of black white marriages today that number is 87% in 1960 of all marriages by blacks only 1.7% were black white today it's 12% and Rising now what about racial profiling and abuse of blacks by police doesn't that prove that racism remains a major problem in the summer of 2014 Ferguson Missouri became Ground Zero for this accusation when a white policeman shot and killed an unarmed black teenager while a Department of Justice investigation of the incident cleared the officer of any wrongdoing it did accuse the City's Police Department of racial bias but what was the Justice Department's report's most headline grabbing stat the gap between the percentage of blacks living in Ferguson 67% and the percentage of those stopped by police for traffic violations who are black 85% an 18o discrepancy racism right not so fast blacks comprise 25% of New York City but account for 55% of those stopped for traffic offens a 30 point discrepancy far bigger than that of Ferguson why isn't the NYPD a department that is now majority minority considered even more institutionally racist than the Ferguson PD the answer is you cannot have an honest discussion about police conduct without an honest discussion of black crime though blacks are 13% of the population they commit 50% of the nation's homicides and almost always the victim is another black person just as most white homicides are against other whites in 2012 according to the Center for Disease Control police killed 123 blacks while by the way killing over twice that many whites but that same year blacks killed over 6,000 people again mostly other blacks what about traffic stops unlike when responding to dispatch calls police officers exercise more discretion when it comes to traffic stops therefore racist cops can have a field day when it comes to traffic stops right actually no the National Institute of justice is the research agency of the Department of Justice in 2013 the National Institute of Justice published a study called race trust and police legitimacy three out of four black drivers admitted that they were stopped by the police for a legitimate reason blacks compared to whites were on average more likely to commit speeding and other traffic offenses The Institute wrote seat belt usage is chronically lower among black drivers if a law enforcement agency aggressively enforces seat belt violations police will stop more black drivers the ni's conclusion these numerical disparities result from differences in offending in other words not because of racism similarly the national highway traffic safety administration also found that blacks violate traffic laws at higher rates than whites in every offense whether it's driving without a license not wearing a seat belt not using a child safety seat or speeding is there still racism in America of course there is but racism is not in America's DNA recent history and a lot of research search and data prove it as liberal Harvard sociologist Orlando Patterson said America is now the least racist white majority Society in the world has a better record of legal protections of minorities than any other Society white or black offers more opportunities to a greater number of black persons than any other Society including all of those of Africa Patterson by the way is black I'm Larry Elder for Prager University years ago I interviewed kaes and fum then the president of the NAACP as between the presence of white racism and the absence of black fathers I asked him which poses the bigger threat to the black community without missing a beat he said the absence of black fathers it was President Barack Obama who said we all know the statistics that children who grow up without a father are five times more likely to live in poverty and commit crime nine times more likely to drop out of school and 20 times more likely to end up in prison the Journal of research on adolescence confirms that even after controlling for varying levels of household income kids and father absent homes are more likely to end up in jail and kids who never had a father in the house are the most likely to wind up behind bars in 1960 5% of America's children entered the world without a mother and father married to each other by 1980 it was 18% by 2000 it had risen to 33% and 15 years later the number reached 41% for blacks even during slavery when marriage for slaves was illegal black children were more likely than today to be raised by both their mother and father Economist Walter Williams has written that according to Census Data from 18 90 to 1940 a black child was more likely to grow up with married parents than a white child for blacks out of wedlock births have gone from 25% in 1965 to 73% in 2015 for whites from less than 5% to over 25% and for Hispanics out of wedlock burst have risen to 53% what happened to fathers the answer is found in a base law of economics if you subsidize undesirable Behavior you will get more undesirable behavior in 1949 the nation's poverty rate was 34% by 1965 it was cut in half to 177% all before President Lyndon Johnson's so-called war on poverty but after that War began in 1965 poverty began to Flatline from 1965 until now the government has spent over 20 trillion to fight poverty the poverty rate has remained unchanged but the relationship between poor men and women has changed dramatically that's because our generous welfare system allows women in effect to marry the government and this makes it all too easy for men to abandon their traditional moral and financial responsibilities psychologists call such dependency learned helplessness how do we know that the welfare state creates disincentives that hurt the very people were trying to help they tell us in 1985 the Los Angeles Times asked both the poor and the nonpoor whether poor women often have children to get additional benefits most of the nonp poor respondents said no however 64% of poor respondents said yes now who do you think is in a better position to know Tupac Shakur the late rapper once said I know for a fact that had I had a father I'd have some discipline I'd have more confidence he admitted he began running with gangs because he wanted the things a father gives to a child especially to a boy structure and protection your mother cannot calm you down the way a man can Shakur said you need a man to teach you how to be a man in my book dear father dear son I write about my rough tough World War 2 Marine staff sergeant dad born in the Jim Crow south of Athens Georgia he was 14 at the start of the Great Depression growing up I watched my father work two full-time jobs as a janitor he also cooked for a rich family on the weekends and somehow managed to go to night school to get his GED when I was 10 my father opened a small restaurant that he ran until he retired in his mid 80s he was never angry or bitter and insisted that today's America was very different from the world of racial segregation and limited opportunity in which he grew up hard work wins he told me and my brothers you get out of life what you put into it you can't control the outcome but you are 100% in control of the effort and before blaming other people go to the nearest mirror and ask yourself what could I have done to change the outcome this advice shaped my life fathers matter hi I'm Elicia Krauss director of Outreach here at prageru to have this video reach more people please consider a donation e e e e e e e e e e e e