Here we are again. If you’ve read parts one and two then you no doubt understand that with tough problems, tougher solutions are needed. In the last chapter I touched on three real issues destroying the black community and to a lesser extent other communities, gangs, single mothers, and young black males.

To be sure those aren’t the only issues, and as I stated, many of the problems and the solutions are interconnected. In this chapter I will propose possible solutions to factual issues in the community: drugs, poor education, and the perceived faults of the legal system (police and courts) and their interaction with black and poor communities. I will not discuss feelings, because those are too easily moved towards victimhood.

Drugs:
One cannot discuss the plague of drugs in the black community without speaking about the so called ‘war on drugs’. I will get into this sham, but first let’s discuss the pivotal role illegal drugs play in the violence, poverty and gang warfare destroying communities.  In my opinion the role is none. Yes, I said it. The war on drugs and drugs themselves are not the cause of the crime and gang issues in the black community.

I know you’ve heard the opposite for the last thirty years. Let me ask you this. Is the war on drugs only in the black community?  Do only black people get high and addicted? Will THC and crack not get an Asian man just as fucked-up as a black man? If your answer to these questions is yes, then why don’t we see the same homicide and gang shootings in the white, Hispanic, Asian and Native American communities? Do they not have young males too? I’ll wait while you try to answer that in PC way.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I am not a proponent for drugs, but let’s be real; drugs are only a tool for getting high. This is the same as guns being only tools for killing, as hammers are only a tool for building. Do you praise a paintbrush for making a great painting? Do you blame the saw if the table you built is slanted?  Ladies, will you blame the prostitute if your husband cheats on you?  Yeah, I know many women would blame the prostitute, but we all know what we would secretly say about them behind their back.

The point is, drugs don’t sell themselves. They don’t drag young brothers out of their homes and make them stand on the corners.  The drugs are there for all communities, so why aren’t they equally destroyed? I think we all know the real answer; it’s just hard for some to admit.

You want to curb drug abuse and dealing, then encourage a lower single parent rate in the black community, 77% is too damn high. Drugs are not new, they were always there, but even during the early twentieth century, you didn’t see this high crime rate, prison rate, murder rate or drug abuse in the black communities, and they had the KKK running wild. That is because black families were intact. Leadership matters and that begins in the home.

The legal system
I wrote about prison reform in the last chapter. Here, I will focus on police and the courts. I have no issue with the police. They do not need sensitivity training or racial classes. The high interactions between the police and the black community exist because of the high crime rate. Police follow crime, like ants follow food. Crime is the true epidemic and I will not waste my time on myths geared up by people who are afraid of the hard truths or those who bathe in white guilt. Lying to oneself about what is happening today will not erase mistakes made in the past. It will only mask the real problems and create new ones. I think we have all read about the tragic assassinations in New York and now understand the consequences of a false racial narrative without an ounce of factual evidence or proof.

Having stood and watched hundreds of criminal cases in person, I know the courts are not always fair. I’ve seen white boys given years in prison for theft by rural county judges because they wish to nip crime in the bud when they first encounter it in their mostly white county. At the same time, I’ve seen young black males given probation for the fifth time for the same crime by white cook county judges because their constituency believes the court system is biased against blacks. Judges are not immune from politics. If a judge in a high minority county imprisons a large amount of minorities, that judge will not be retained. If a judge in a low crime rural county is not hard on criminals, then that judge will not be reelected.

I know from college that there is a theme in America that the justice system is biased against black males, but that is a myth. Don't believe me, then why do the black men you see arrested on the news have such long criminal records? How are they walking the streets?

People will love to give you the example of a white drug offender being given probation for having cocaine, while a black man with crack is given years in prison. Okay, once it was true that sentencing between cocaine and crack was different, but not anymore. Yes, that has been changed for many years now.

What? No one told the media, or should I say the media didn’t tell the public. Also, those examples people show the public, never say anything about repeat offenders do they? They never say that the black male was charged with dealing crack five times before being sentenced to prison.  If you look closely at the fine print of those statistics, you will see that the numbers of previous arrests are left out. Reading is fundamental.

Education:
One of the things a slave master feared the most was an educated slave. That is why reading and writing were forbidden to slaves. No amount of guns, muscle, or anger can compare to an educated mind. If you want to keep a people down, keep them ignorant, emotional, and dependent. This has been known and used throughout history.

In America, K-12 education is funded by the government, and mandatory until the age of 17 in most states. Are all schools equal? No, that’s impossible. And equal school funding is also impossible, as most school districts are funded through property taxes. The higher the value of the homes the more tax money available for the schools and unfortunately the reverse is also true.

This is where most reformers and race hustlers come in. They know that poorer communities usually receive less funding, unless the state subsidizes them, and most do. But the people are responsible for their communities. If the community has low crime, low property damage, low unemployment and is clean, then the property values increase and businesses will come. Remember, if you build it, they will come. The reverse is also true. If you destroy it, they will leave.

But education isn’t defined solely by money. It is also defined by desire. Those who want to learn-- will. Those parents who value education and the benefits that come with it will pass that value onto their children. Those parents who have destroyed their lives, and hate the idea of others succeeding will insure that their kids fail as well. Misery loves company, and envy runs deep amongst some failures.

I know this is hard to hear, but many parents from poor neighborhoods do not want their children to become educated and better. They have no clue who their kids teachers are, and do not send their kids to school to learn.

Another reason why a parent would want their kid to fail in school is social security funding; commonly known in the hood as a crazy check. If your kid is diagnosed with ADHD or a learning disability, then you can receive a government SSI check.  Now to be labelled as disabled a person must not be able to work, but kids legally cannot work, so the government requires an equivalent standard for them. Can you guess what that this? Yes, the child must fail in school.

Did you think the low graduation rates, high dropout rates, and abysmal attendance rates were because of skin tone? I know you did not see this on CNN’s Black in America. This is one of many dirty little secrets in the hood. You have no idea how many calls I get from parents, trying to get their criminal sons out of prison so their checks will not stop.

If you want this to stop, then a cap must be put on this program. The checks must stop. Children and their parents must be held accountable for success and failure. Those kids who do not want to learn must not be permitted to hold a classroom hostage and prevent others from learning. Forced education is a fool’s game. Kids, who are violent in school, should be expelled and the burden of educating them left to the parent. Parents who are on public assistance should be cut off if their children do not attend school or sustain consistent failing grades.

I know this sounds extreme, but we cannot ignore the glaring problems any longer. We must meet these challenges head-on with more strength and will than we have in the past.

Well, that’s my two cents. They may not be the best of solutions, but they are attempts to solve the problems.