It's the Culture

This strikes me because it reveals a glaring double standard we’ve dealt with in everyday life for generations now: one that has prevented us from halting what some call racial strife.

Look at that AP passage again.

Can anyone come up with big-name jazz acts having this kind of reputation?

No?

Big-time rock acts?

OK, I know it’s happened occasionally, but at the moment, I simply can’t recall when, where, or who was involved. Heck, even bands known for animosity within the group don’t have this stuff happening.

When’s the last time we heard of a knife fight at the Philharmonic?

Yeah, me either.

I don’t recall anything like this at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville in all the years that it’s been running, do you?

I’ve been unable to find records of anything of the like happening down at the theater district in Branson, Mo.

I haven’t seen anything like this on the gospel music circuits or the modern Christian music circles, either.

I’ve said it often enough for it to be axiomatic: Proper problem solutions require proper problem identification.

Let’s take Chicago as a handy indicator. Headlines crossed my desk this morning saying that in Chicago, 30 people were shot this last weekend. (Thank you, Catherine.) This is an unusually low number for that hell-hole, where some 148 shootings occurred last month alone.

At some point, someone’s going to figure out and admit to themselves that there’s a rather well-established pattern here, a pattern which should never have existed at all, much less to the degree we see it now in nearly every American city. As Catherine says, "No American city should be such a cesspool of crime and violence."

I note with interest that Mayor Brandon Johnson’s approval numbers are at or below 9%. I cannot remember for the life of me anyone else having numbers that low. Indeed, his own police force is refusing to obey his orders.

Now, before you get your cries of “racism” warmed up, take a good, long look at the list of names above, which I have pointed to as being successful. If we were so steeped in racism as is the claim, none of that list of greats would be on that list. We certainly would not have elected a black man as president once, let alone twice.

I suggest that for every George Floyd, for every Trayvon Martin, etc., I can give you a Walter Williams, a Clarence Thomas, a Thomas Sowell, a Ben Carson, a Shelby Steele, a David Webb, a David Dorn. The list goes on and on, but you get the idea.

What’s the difference between them? Why is this group successful in our society, and in our unhyphenated American culture? Because they actually decided to join it.

Those who adopt the mainstream American culture, regardless of whether they are American-born minorities or an immigrant ostensibly trying to improve their lives, black, white, or Asian, don't matter. They all have a tendency to do a great deal better financially, socially, and so on, to the precise degree that the individual adopts the mainstream American culture. I say again, it’s culture, not race.

There are a lot of white kids these days growing up in the cities, identifying with “black” street culture. They, too, in all too large a number, are less successful than folks who avoid that association. Again, I say, it comes down to this: The vast majority of what gets passed off as racial matters actually are cultural in nature.

What do the cultural values have to do with this crime surge we're dealing with now?

Kash Patel advised us that around 5% of Chicago residents are gang members. If you’re going to suggest that these individuals represent mainstream America, I will laugh in your face. Those gangs, the police will tell you, have a culture all their own, a culture that clashes with values most Americans hold dear. Yet they affect all of us, particularly those trapped in cities like Chicago.

Yes, a lot of the blame lies at the feet of Brandon Johnson and J.B. Pritzker. There’s no question that their devotion to the strictest gun laws in the nation is totally ineffective at solving the problems their citizens face.

Indeed, this bad business has been going on so long that it’s reasonable to ask if they really want the problem solved, or if there isn’t some other reason for the draconian gun laws in that city.

I suggest that if black lives really mattered, they’d be tearing down crack houses and Planned Parenthood clinics. Not statues. They wouldn’t be trying to defund law enforcement and would instead, under these conditions, be welcoming the help that Donald Trump is currently trying to send them. The majority of Chicagoans want that help. I would even suggest that Trump’s help wouldn’t be required if these things were properly handled in the first place.

The problem, of course, is that the party that’s run Chicago for around 100 years now is a party that seems to feel that it’s in the country’s best interest to placate those who don’t share its values, those who refuse to adopt the mainstream American culture. Expecting that situation to be solved with our current methods and the current leaders in place is about as realistic as a painting on velvet of cats playing poker.

Please note I've not even mentioned Islamists here. I probably should, but that would require a column all of its own. Briefly, however, if you're thinking they're not part of the problems of maintaining our cultural values, I'd suggest looking again at the picture at the top of this piece.

Western culture and its values have given the world the most benefit, even with all its faults attached. You're going to see this theme showing up in a lot of my writings in the future because I consider it vital that we start with American values as a premise for everything else.

I leave you with a thought, a word picture. Political correctness has led us to this pass, where we are told all cultures are equal. The weeds, in effect, are equal to the flowers. And of course, the weeds, which now have that leg up, if you will, are pushing the idea that the flowers are the problem. This is how we end up with Chicago, East St. Louis, and so on. Sadly, we cultivate our garden, our culture, no longer under the guise of open-mindedness, and really, a fear of being labeled as "racist." Is it any wonder the weeds are doing so well?