The Lessons of Ferguson

By Ronald H. Brady
The events of November 24, 2014, in Ferguson Mo.have amplified the need for a serious
soul searching, by black and white America, on the problems associated with racial
relations in the United States. But Ferguson will not be the primary focus of this essay.
Instead, this will be a discussion about what blacks and whites can do together to mend
the estranged relationship between black and white America. The immigration system is
not the only thing that is broken in this country. Racial relations in America have been
broken, to varying degrees, ever since slavery.
From the scriptures we learn that the things that you fear will come upon you. That is a
very good message for the extremists, on both sides of the American racial divide, to take
heed of. Misunderstanding and fear are at the base of all of the racial problems in
America.
It is time for the black middle class (including those who live in the suburbs) to stand up
and send a clear and strong message to the thugs in the inner city. A part of the message
should be that slavery is over and that instead of standing idle and waiting for reparations
(that are not likely to come), the inner city youth should walk enthusiastically through a
door of opportunity that is presently wide open. The opportunity for a good education is
presently available. Yes the facilities could be better but the computers and other high
tech tools in the inner city schools are far better than those that were available to the
Tuskegee Airmen (before they began fighter pilot training) and look at what they
accomplished fighting a skillful German foe even in the midst of a Jim Crow U.S.
military establishment.
As for the teachers: most of them are doing their best but some of the very best are scared
away by all of the crime perpetrated by...black youth. And many of the potential top tier
black students are reluctant to demonstrate their true ability because they are afraid of
being accused of acting white by... other black students. Since a good education is a
prerequisite for a good job, the black middle class should lead the effort to develop a new
black culture that is conducive to learning. Why not start with a cool style of positive rap
that will encourage black youth to learn and not do crime by using positive rhyme? And
the black middle (and upper) class must make it clear that it will help anyone in the inner
city who wants to help themselves but that the actions of the thugs high on illegal drugs
will no longer be tolerated.
If on Oct. 2, 2009, Chicago had been selected to host the 2016 Olympic Games then one
can be sure that a massive, well organized and coordinated seven year plan would have
been immediately put in place for the purpose of constructing the necessary facilities and
making the necessary preparations for the 2016 Olympic competitions. Now why cant
Chicago, led by the efforts of the black middle and upper classes, organize and
implement a seven year plan to eradicate crime and bring educational and economic

parity to the inner city? The present author has written a positive rap pertaining to such a
seven year plan: please see the footnotes.
This seven year plan could be funded by a commitment to self help and volunteering
more so than from additional government funding. The volunteerism could include such
activities as tutoring in reading, math and science and in coaching for job interviews and
in the preparation of resumes. Black suburban volunteer crews could help, for example,
in the cleaning of litter from the empty neighborhood lots, etc. The members of the black
community must man up and reclaim their neighborhoods from the thugs or the
community will continue to be enslaved by the violence and fear associated with the gang
bangers who live among them.
The controversies, associated with teenage pregnancies and single motherhood, have
been well debated and will not be discussed in detail in this essay. But suffice it to say
that if all of the other variables are equal then it is much better if children are brought up
in traditional two parent households. Few will disagree with the view that both young
boys and girls need mentoring as in MEN-toring: and men are best at fulfilling that
function.
Let us presently put a challenge to the black upper and middle classes. Start a bold new
popular culture movement, that will include (among other things) positive rap lyrics, to
motivate black youth everywhere to achieve academic excellence just as they have led
the nation in the performance of cool songs and dance. The present author has also
written a prototype of such a Positive Rap Song. Please see the footnotes. The new
popular culture should impress upon young black men that being a real man is not just
having the ability to produce off spring that you are not willing and able to support
financially and emotionally. And the young black girls should be encouraged to not
hesitate to wait before going on that intimate date. It is much better to go as a princess to
the prom than to have all of the responsibilities of being a single mom.
If the African American girls, who are presently eight years old, should heed that advice,
then perhaps 90% or more of them will not become pregnant by the age of 15 or 16. Such
an event will go a long way to prevent a new generation of boys and girls having to grow
up without the important mentoring of a father. Many such boys grow up to become gang
bangers and thugs.
It is also time for the white middle class and moderates to stand up to the white
extremists and to ensure that the economic playground of this nation is level and is
governed by a set of rules that permit blacks an equal opportunity to succeed. Many white
conservatives complain that blacks are not in possession of a strong work ethic and are
satisfied to live on government subsidies. Well in the first place there exist many more
white individuals and white owned businesses that receive various kinds of government
subsidies and incentives than black individuals and black owned businesses. And
speaking of black owned businesses there was once a very vibrant and prosperous black
business district in the 1920s. It was known as Black Wall Street and it was located in the
Greenwood neighborhood of Tulsa, Ok. The following is from Wikipedia.

During the oil boom of the 1910s, the area of northeast Oklahoma around Tulsa flourished,
including the Greenwood neighborhood, which came to be known as "the Negro Wall Street"
(now commonly referred to as "the Black Wall Street").[3]The area was home to several prominent
black businessmen, many of them multimillionaires. Greenwood boasted a variety of thriving
businesses that were very successful up until the Tulsa Race Riot. Not only did black Americans
want to contribute to the success of their own shops, but there was also racial segregation laws
prevented them from shopping anywhere other than Greenwood. [4] Following the riots, the area
was rebuilt and thrived until the 1960s when desegregation allowed blacks to shop in areas that
were restricted before.
Detroit Avenue, along the edge of Standpipe Hill, contained a number of higher-end houses
belonging to doctors, lawyers and business owners. Also, the buildings on Greenwood Avenue
housed the offices of almost all of Tulsas black lawyers, realtors, doctors, and other
professionals.[5] In Tulsa at the time of the riot, there were fifteen well-known black American
physicians, one of whom, Dr. A.C. Jackson, was considered the most able Negro surgeon in
America by one of the Mayobrothers.[6] Dr. Jackson was shot to death as he left his house during
the unrest.[2] Greenwood published two newspapers, the Tulsa Star and the Oklahoma Sun, which
covered not only Tulsa, but also state and national news and elections. Buildings housing the two
papers were destroyed during the destruction of Greenwood. [2]
Greenwood was a very religiously active community. At the time of the racial violence there were
more than a dozen black American churches and many Christian youth organizations and
religious societies.

It certainly is not unreasonable to speculate that jealousy and fear were among the
emotional forces that motivated the white racists to brutally destroy the lives and property
of hundreds (according to the Red Cross) of self sufficient African American citizens.
What possibly could have been the reasons behind such fear: you may ask? The reason is
probably plain and simple. They were fearful that blacks would take away from them
economic resources and opportunities: among other things. But fair competition should
not be responded to with sabotage. Sabotage is a cowardly and terrorizing way of dealing
with things. That is why America is now is fighting the war against terror. The source of
such evil must be eradicated.
The middle and upper class whites of today must admit that such brutal acts (such as
those that occurred in the Tulsa Riots) against a self-sufficient African American
community were extremely cruel and cowardly and will in no way, style, shape, form or
fashion be allowed to happen again. Such a proclamation by white Americans will go a
long way in depriving the thugs in the urban areas of one of their must potent tools. That
tool is the supposition that white America will never let blacks achieve economic parity.
Therefore, in the opinion of the thugs, blacks may as well collect welfare and do illegal

drugs. Such an attitude among blacks only serves to maintain the status quo of crime and
poverty. But it should be noted parenthetically that excessive drug use is spreading to the
suburban communities also.
Blacks and whites alike enjoy the use of cell phones, smart phones and other high tech
electronic devices. But while white men and Asians are well represented in Silicon Valley
blacks are not. This is clearly not due to any genetic deficiency in their potential
intellectual ability to learn science and math. The evidence for this statement lies in the
fact that continental African students have demonstrated an outstanding ability to master
science and math and English: which is a foreign language to them. If continental
Africans can excel in science and math and speak the language well then why cant
African Americans do the same? Moreover, middle and upper class blacks should
spearhead a movement to get blacks involved in the design and engineering of smart
phones, computers and other high tech devices.
If Elvis, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Eminem, Iggy Azalea and other whites could
learn to excel in the styles of music which blacks discovered (or played the most
dominant role in their discovery) such as rock and roll, the blues and jazz then the black
community should challenge itself to master science and math so that blacks can gain
employment parity in the fields of high tech engineering such as those that exists in
Silicon Valley.
A short motivational verse to the brothers;
You keep the cell phones to your ears
Calling night and day!
So why dont you start choosing careers
in which you can design them in a super cool way?
Just learn a lot of math
and let the negative rap stop
and then you will soon be on the right path
to designing a new and cool laptop.
Such an idea will make the day of some members of the KKK by causing them to laugh
really hard and some of the thugs in the hood will think that you are up to no good by
trying to be that smart. But why dont you get your game on and pick up your intellectual
bat and design a new smart phone that can also talk to your cat! It is not going to happen
over night but in five or six years you can match the Asian in the number of computer
engineers.
It is a well known fact that cats and other animals have a certain level of intelligence.
Therefore artificial intelligence at the cat level will probably be developed before an
artificial intelligence device is made that can discover new formulations in differential
equations or writes sophisticatedly cool rap. Why cant blacks be at the forefront of all of
this?

Former NYC mayor Rudolph Giuliani and African American author Michael Eric Dyson
were guests on Meet The Press on 11-23-14. The incident in Ferguson, Mo. was one of
the main topics of discussion. Giuliani noted that approximately 95% of black murder
victims were killed by others blacks. And he wondered aloud about why blacks dont
respond to those cases with the same level of outrage with which they have responded to
the events in Ferguson. The point was also made by some of the other panelists that
Ferguson, like many other predominantly black communities, has a higher ratio of whites
on the police force than the ratio of whites in the community. But Giuliani and others
pointed out that if the crime rate was reduced in the black neighborhoods then white
police would not have to go in and make arrests. Dyson also noted, perhaps erroneously,
that all (most) black on black murderers go to jail but white cops who unjustifiably kill
blacks are allowed to go free.
There are merits on both sides of this issue but it only stands to reason that if a reasonable
effort is made then qualified black police candidates can be found and trained to help
patron the predominantly black communities all across America. Blacks have served
nobly and ably in all of Americas wars so why cant they also serve in predominantly
black neighborhoods? Smaller predominantly black municipalities, such as Ferguson,
could even make an effort to recruit blacks from large urban areas to serve on the police
force (after training) and live in the smaller cities. The focus of the employment
recruitment should be on those blacks who have at least two years of college.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 provided for the prohibition of discriminatory acts against
women, minorities and other groups. Most people will probably agree that even if it was
legal, walking down the middle of a busy street is probably not a smart thing to do. And
even though a woman has a legal right to walk alone on the side walk of a dark deserted
street late at night while in high heels and wearing a mini skirt, it is also probably not
wise for her to do so. The view from here is that a woman who chooses to walk down
such a street and a black man who refuses to obey the order of a white policeman to stop
walking down the middle of a street are both using very poor judgment. This is not to
imply that the use of such very bad judgment gives someone else (even a policeman) the
right to brutally assault or kill them.
The middle and upper black classes and the black scholarly elite must come face to face
with the unpleasant fact that if the status quo of black on black crime continues then the
white extremists (including the KKK who reportedly have been in Ferguson during the
recent events) will have won at the end of the day by the saying to themselves:
1.) We dont have to try to hurt them because they are busy killing themselves
Or by saying to themselves
2.) They are killing themselves so who can blame us if we get in on the killing also?
Black comedians and rappers freely use the N word in live and recorded performances.
Yet if a white person uses the N word then there is an outrage in the black community.

Words even when only used as an entertainment vehicle can be hurtful but not nearly as
hurtful as black on black crimes and murder. But the usage of the N word and black on
black murder are related if only to the extend that when black freely use the N word
among themselves or when they tragically kill themselves via drive by shooting etc.,
then the outrage is not nearly as great as it is when whites (especially the police) engage
in those activities.
Another unfortunate reality is the fact that among the vast majority of law abiding police
there are many corrupt cops (and some of them are black cops in the inner city). This fact
enables the gang bangers to say: why should we keep the law when the cops themselves
are crooked? So the black community and the police unions must work together to break
the code of silence. Tell the cops not to worry about who will watch their backs if they
turn in the corrupt officers on the force. Because the law abiding working members of the
black community (when it is free from thugs on drugs and brutal corrupt cops) will gladly
take over the function of watching the backs of the good cops as a show of thanks.
And the black community must institute a new cultural improvement campaign that will
include teaching the seven year old Mitch that it is OK to snitch and to turn the bad
guys in and that it is also ok to trust the members of the police force because they now
have changed course and are ready to be your friend. And by the time that Mitch is 15 he
will know that snitching on the bad guys (anonymously if necessary) is definitely cool!
The view from here is that the N word is a word that was once used by the slave master to
designate a group of people that the slave masters considered to be sub human. People
designated by the N word were often given 40 lashes in response to the slightest
misbehavior. This misbehavior often included such things as children trying to learn to
read and write. Perhaps this is where the customary use of corporal punished originated
in the black community. A child had to be whipped to keep him from running afoul of the
repressive rules of the slave masters, or the child (young adult) could receive forty lashes
or worse. And a good subject for an impartial study by a doctoral student in sociology
could be to determine if the test score gap of today was caused in part by the fact that
blacks were often physically punished, during slavery, if they tried to learn to read. This
must have generated a negative perception of learning in the minds of black children. To
what extent have those negatives sentiments (originally associated with repressive
environmental factors and not genetics) been culturally passed down to the present
generation of blacks? On the other hand the children of the slave owners were
encouraged and given every opportunity to learn reading and math.
Now let us return to the discussion about the N word. Why does not the black community
start a well coordinated campaign to gradually phase it out over a period of say ten years?
Surely the well demonstrated creativeness of the black community in the area of
entertainment can be used to find a new word or concept (to amicably describe the
average black man) that is just as fun and endearing as the N word when used in friendly
humorous conversations among blacks. Stop using the N word and stop black on black
crime and let there be heard more rap with positive rhyme!

The desire to peacefully demonstrate over the non indictment of a white police officer
who shot an unarmed black teen is certainly understandable. But what is not
understandable, by the present author, is why the leaders of the black community dont
seek and find out the names and addresses of the leaders of the gang bangers and then
lead continuous demonstrations, with rotating groups of volunteers, for several days at
the homes of the gang leaders after each time an innocent child is killed in the cross fire
of the gang bangers. That would be a bold start in a movement to clearly express to the
gang leaders that the community is sick and tired of the senseless mayhem!
A message from a musician, mathematician and poet to all citizens of every American
State: nothing really good happens to those who embrace fear or hate because the things
that you fear will come upon you ...but the things that you hope and work for can also
come true!
God will forgive and so must we if we hope to live peacefully..
Footnotes:
* Positive Rap
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoCdHd4_iDo
* A Seven Year Plan
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!
search/seven$20year$20plan$20single$20mom$20prom/rec.music.hip-hop/e7e53C9vTE/xfQr2JNqq5QJ