[The Cushite]

Enigma-AKA,

I don't think that Min. Farakahn, myself, or "Black Liberals" who see through the smokescreen of the conservative "Immorality schtick" are excusing the detrimental moral choices of anybody. Having babies too soon and out of wedlock would be detrimental to any population of people , but moreso to that population that doesn't have the social capital, fiscal resources, and institutional supports that comes with being middle class and white in America. The immorality=poverty arguement falls short on a variety of levels:


1. It assumes that the only source of poverty is personal choice. It tends to ignore or discount things like generational poverty and systemic barriers such as disproportionate incarceration of black men, inadequate access to healthcare and education, etc., which are more highly correlated with poverty than premarital sex and spending habits.

2. It also assumes that people who are not poor are more morally sound. All we have to do is look at the private lives of many of the "rich and famous" and we can see that the only thing that separates the social circumstance of many of the rich and many of the poor are resources, not character. You have good rich people and good poor people, if you equate good with making empowering (rather than destructive) moral choices. You also have bad rich people and bad poor people. The question that we as black people have to ask is do we truly have justice in our country if everybody's moral choices don't have the same moral consequences due to unequal resource distribution? Money seems to cover up many character flaws.

3. The most eggregious assertment that comes from the "Immorality Schtick" is that it seems to explain the disproportionate numbers of black people who find ourselves at the bottom of every single social and economic indicator by assuming that Black folk are just disproportionately immoral. I find it intrigung that , considering the history of this nation's treatment of black folks, and the moral resolve that black folks have demonstrated in the face of that treatment, that many want to lecture black people on morality. It's as if the social circumstance of black people is due to some kind of innate moral defect (like the curse of Ham myth). The only thing that has cursed black people has been the systemic destruction of our cultural, historical, psychic and moral selves due to hundreds of years of systemic oppression.

As black people, of course we hold ourselves to a high moral standards, because immorality under any circumstance is not only destructive, but just simply not right. But high morality without just relationships and a just society creates a pacified people rather than empowered one. You end up with a morally upright people who still find themselves at the bottom of every social indicator. Changing the morality of the oppressed without addressing the morality of the larger society doesn't change the larger society. In fact, it further entrenches the notion of inherent, justifiable inequality because the oppressed become satisfied with their own morality, rather than seeking a moral and just society. As we hold ourselves to high moral standards, we need to hold the government, the nation, and everybody to the highest of all moral standards, JUSTICE!!!!!!

Blackwatch!!!!!!