I read the previous post with a great deal of interest because it dovetails with discussions that I've been having with a good friend of mine at work. His name is Jerome and he is the only black employee in our office. Jerome is NOT your stereotypical black man. He enjoys good port, a fine cigar and interior decorating. Jerome does not listen to rap music, he listens to Glenn Miller, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holliday and Charlie Parker. He likes classical music. He is very eloquent and softspoken, a far cry from the images we get from MTV and BET.
A woman that we work with (who shall remain nameless) has three children. Two of those children are half black (she is white). Her estranged husband is black (and the father of one of her children). She has made no bones about the fact that she is only attracted to black men. At first, this made Jerome the obvious object of her desires. After they became more "acquainted", she got over him because he is nothing like the stereotypical black man. In fact, she often challenges his "blackness" because he doesn't fit the stereotypes. She isn't the only one either, other blacks have accused him of being a sellout or more white than black.
He and I have often discussed the problems facing blacks today and we agree that these stereotypes, perpetrated by the media and blacks themselves, are a large part of the problem. His wife (who is white) has no problems with pop culture's perception of blacks and their portrayals in movies, television and of course, rap music. Jerome, on the other hand, is disgusted by them. He views them as one of the single greatest problems facing blacks today. He is proof that blacks can become educated, eloquent and pull themselves out of the ghetto mentality that they are born into.
Jerome is right that the portrayal of black people in the media is a problem but it is not the greatest problem facing blacks today. In my opinion, the single greatest problem facing blacks, as well as everyone else today, is that we've lost our magnet. Don't I mean compass? No, I mean magnet. What keeps the compass pointing in the right direction? A magnet... a very big magnet. The magnetic polarity of the earth keeps the needles of the compass pointing in the right direction. If these poles were to be reversed, or worse - eliminated altogether, the compass would be rendered useless. In my opinion, our compasses have been rendered useless - we've lost our magnet.
In some ways, perhaps it was inevitable. As it has been pointed out lately, we are a nation of immigrants. Some of those immigrants share our Judeo-Christian heritage but many do not. The same applies to native-born citizens of this country. We've had more than our fair share of atheists and those opposed to the idea of the United States being a "Christian nation". Contrary to popular belief, they haven't all popped up in the last fifty years or even the last hundred years. What has happened is that they've become far more organized and goal-oriented than than the Christians. This should be expected, most Christians have never realized that their beliefs are under attack, that the traditions and the heritage that was passed down to them from their fathers and their father's fathers was being subverted.
Thomas Jefferson wasn't exactly an athiest (as many people like to call him), he was more of an agnostic. He acknowledged that there may indeed be a deity but he didn't seem to allow that idea to drive his thoughts and values. He was more of a humanist, a man of science and logical thinking that was more concerned with this world than the next. That said, he wasn't opposed to the religion of his peers and never sought to restrict their ability to practice their religion or to openly discuss or portray their faith. Even in his day, there were concerns about state-sponsored religion or more accurately, state approved religion. The concern was whether or not a deeply religious man could put the interests of the nation over the interests of the church. To be specific, they were concerned about a Catholic president's allegiance to the country versus his allegiance to the pope. Thomas Jefferson addressed this issue in a letter to a group of Baptists in which he stated that this would never be an issue because there existed a "separation of church and state". He was referring to the anti-establishment clause in the first amendment that prevented the government from sponsoring an official religion.
This letter was to become the standard under which thousands of anti-christians would march almost two hundred years later. I have no doubt that if Jefferson could have forseen the effects of this letter, he would have burned it. Then again, maybe not. He could never have anticipated that so many would remain so silent while their country was being torn out from under them. In his time, people weren't nearly as apathetic as they are now. He also would likely decide that if we weren't willing to fight for our so-called beliefs, well... we deserve what we get.
Who are these people that are marching under the banner of "separation of church and state"? Marxists. It's that simple. Look at every communist nation on earth and you'll notice that they all have one thing in common... religion is either severely restricted or abolished altogether. Religion stands in direct competition with communism, they can ill-afford to allow the people to worship a god of their choosing because they need the people to worship the state as god. In the Soviet Union, schoolchildren were taught to pray to God for a candy bar. They were told that if he were really so powerful, he should be able to give them something as small as that. They did as they were told, they put their heads down and prayed to God for a candy bar. When they raised their heads, no candy bar. Then, they were told to lower their heads and pray to Stalin for a candy bar. When they raised their heads... voila! A candy bar. I think this story illustrates beautifully how those in communist nations are brainwashed.
We are feeling the effects in almost every aspect of our lives. The disintegration of the family, our faltering education system, soaring national debt, rampant crimes against small children and violence in our schools. With the state as our new religion, we no longer have a need for such quaint ideas as "family". We don't need to depend on each other when our Uncle Sam will provide for us. This makes divorce so much easier. It also means that there are fewer consequences to children born out of wedlock, dropping out of school and failing to get or keep a job. Our families are our compass, our faith is the magnet that kept them pointed in the right direction. Without the magnet, the compass is ornamental, no more useful for helping us find our way than a necklace or an earring. The values and convictions of our fathers are meaningless to us because we lack the key to understanding them. Since we do not understand them, we label them "outdated" or "archaic". We tell ourselves that we have become superior to them, that we no longer need their values because we have developed our own. The problem is, our new values lack direction. They cannot bring us together as families, let alone as a nation. We are all taught to go our own way, as a result, we have 300 million people going in separate directions.
The media is not the problem, nor is academia, the education system or any of the other usual suspects. We are the problem. We are also the solution. The magnet is still there, we just have to seek it out to find it.
