OPINION:
In April 7-year-old Jaslyn Adams died in Chicago. Although she was killed in a hail of bullets at a McDonald’s (a shooting which also seriously wounded her father), the event held little significance for the media or race baiters, because her assailants were believed to be three Black individuals (“2nd man held without bond in fatal shooting of Chicago girl,” Web, April 30).
Yet Jaslyn was also Black. She was a child with a whole life ahead of her to fulfill dreams and bring joy to her parents. By contrast, a Black felon with a rap sheet listing eight jail terms (with various charges of drugs, theft and aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon) has been memorialized because he had supposedly been ‘turning his life around’ and his death was attributed to unlawful restraint by a cop.
It didn’t matter that George Floyd was arrested for trying to make a purchase with a counterfeit bill, or that his system contained high levels of fentanyl and methamphetamines. (He, too, was supposedly trying to ‘turn his life around.’) What mattered to the left was that the police officer involved was White.
Although there is certainly room for police reform, the proposed solutions miss the real problem; it isn’t systemic racism, but rather a lack of traditional, paternal family values in 70% of African-American homes. Fatherless homes aren’t unique to this group, of course, but the rates of such homes are troublingly high among African-American families.
If the needle is to move favorably, Black youths must stop listening to the “woke” elite, who use them to advance their own agenda. They must adhere to law-enforcement directives if detained. They also must look to fined role models other than entertainers and sports figures, whose motives and judgement are morally questionable.
They must stop leaning on the victim mentality for their own failures. And they have to put a stop to fatherless families and bear some responsibility for the dark side their attitude creates.
GEORGE GIFTOS
Boca Raton, Fla.
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