There is an elephant in the room.
Nobody wants to mention that black poverty and irresponsibility at a young age has a connection with a certain strain of very consciously black churches that teach their children that the government and the entire surrounding society is hostile and out to get them. The natural outcome of such teachings, which have filtered far beyond the original congregations, is that large numbers of young men might conclude that they can’t succeed and shouldn’t try to be part of the larger society.
People who believe this will be impoverished, even in our society of abundance and opportunity. That kind of poverty is unnecessary.
This Easter Sunday, a MD state representative gave a sermon in church in Baltimore about how Rev. Wright was right. Baltimore has a particularly violent high school population. Maybe the true solution to the problem of the schools in Baltimore is to change the message of the churches in Baltimore.
I didn’t know where this poison came from at the time, but I do remember the black kids at school calling the smart black kids, the ones with decent academic records, the ones who could read, write, and speak well — oreos. They were very specific: if you succeed academically, you aren’t really black. I heard those words hurled at my friends. And now, I know that they got if from church.
