Yesterday was Palm Sunday, and true to form -like on most holy days – the "Christian" volcano within me started rumbling again. I must be truthful in saying that I have been long estranged from my christian roots. In fact, I presently consider myself a non-conformist. However, on days like these ( significant in religious lore), perspicacity seems to always set in, and before you know it, I am off on some excrutiating mental journey. Yesterday was no different. And yes, my religious mama did say that there would be days like this. She did.
Eventually I got around to thinking about NewYork’s black (s)elected officials, and also the various community leaders- including the clergy. Next thing you know, I was awaken by a ringing telephone. So maybe I dreamt all this, and if so, someone of you out there better enlighten me.
Isn’t it true, that as I write this, nine out of ten black high school seniors will fail to obtain a regent’s diploma when they graduate in 2 months time? And that half of those who entered 5 years ago wouldn’t graduate at all? And furthermore, isn’t it true that currently 3 of 4 black kids ( pre-high school), cannot do math at grade level; and 2 of 3 cannot read or write at grade level? And haven’t we been travelling down this road for the past half-a-century?
A few years ago, C.S.S. undertook a survey that uncovered this: roughly 48% of the black males living here were umemployed. Black women feared only 10 percentage points better. Now surely these umemployment stats are co-related to the education stats. And as I have said before, we have ( ostensibly) been travelling down this road, for the past 50 years or so.
What is also most revealing about the past 5 decades in NYC, is the fact that during this time, we have seen the election to state and city office, of more blacks than at any other time in history. In fact, for the last quater-century or so, you could have traveled to Albany on any President’s weekend (February), and see them in pompous symbolic self-congratulatory ceremony. What a show! I even caught it once.
Anyway, as Fela Ransome Kuti once said : " I didn’t say I am finished". So let me continue. The highest rate of AIDS/ HIV deaths here, is within the black population. The highest rate of new infections are amongst black females. Blacks die on the average, at least a dozen years earlier than whites. The average white person is 25 times wealthier than the average black. On any given day 1 in 3 black young men ( 13 thru 30 in age), is either in prison or entangled in the legal system.
Lets talk about housing. Go to the homeless shelters and you will find that blacks have the highest numbers. The average working black spends more than half his/her income in rent. Affordable housing for most blacks in NYC is an oxymoron. If you took away governmental housing subsidies, you will have a cataclysm within the black community. One in three blacks here live in poverty.
Lets talk about the black youth. They are mired in a sub-culture of decadence, obscenity and the profane. They glorify materialism, violence, drugs and sex. When Bill Cosby and a handful of others tried to point out the irresponsible behaviors in some quarters, he was chided by some black leaders. And by the way, teenage unemployment amongst blacks, is even higher than the aforementioned unemployment figures.
Let’s shift gears for a minute. Remeber those education stats I gave earlier, well try to extrapolate from within them , the true numbers for males. I say this because black girls are on average, much better students than their male counterparts, and are graduating at a much higher clip. In the immortal words of Marvin Gaye: "what’s going on?"
As we spend around 300 billion dollars on the combined budgets of New York’s state, city and local entities, there are some black areas in NY, where asthma rates are amongst the highest and deadliest in the country. There are some places in black-NY, where infant mortality rates rival those in 3rd world nations. Look, I could go on and on, about the metasticizing black-community, but I am sure that by now , you have caught my drift.
One other thing, of the 300 billion or so dollars (budgets) that I just wrote about, black-owned companies doing buisness with these entities, will get – in total – less than 5% of the governmental contracts . What a shame!
My main point here is this: the dismal failure of black leaders ( especially the selected officals), to collectively make the case for help, in their various legislative and deliberative bodies, tells me that they are somnambulistic. Isn’t it time that we get rid of these sleep-walkers?