Black people aren't inherently violent, but they do have an overwhelming amount of fatherlessness in their communities. With a father-shaped negative space in so many lives, it shouldn't be any wonder why so many in the black community are destabilized, and thus destabilizing everything around them.

This is a cultural matter for the black community that's only reinforced with government rewards. Welfare even goes so far as to disincentivize marriage by reducing benefits if there is a father present, effectively making it more lucrative to be a single mother. It should be the opposite. Tax benefits should be given to rewarding nuclear families.

Moreover, in our greater cultural zeitgeist, fathers are considered an afterthought, or unnecessary altogether. It's pretty clear that this has been severely damaging to society overall, but it's been particularly hard on the black community. Fathers should be looked at as integral. The presence of a masculine figure and the effect they can have on a young life should be seen as essential.

I'm not entirely sure how things change without changes to how we reward and encourage fatherlessness. Until we do differently, the black community will continue to be plagued with violence and crime, especially toward each other. //

justpaul
2 hours ago

There's a common thread here that isn't being addressed, and that's the lack of masculine influence. In other words, the black community is plagued with fatherless homes. According to the Census Bureau, in 2023, 54 percent of black children live with a mother only.

I think you forgot an important word there, that being the word 'positive'. Young "Black" men are awash in masculine influence, but most of it comes from very negative sources. And that may well be due to a lack of fathers in their homes. But we shouldn't pretend that Karmelo Anthony wasn't being exactly the kind of masculine man his upbringing taught him and so many others like him to be. Modern "Black" culture admires and aspires to thug life, and having Dad around doesn't help when he's a thug too. //

C. S. P. Schofield
2 hours ago
Through the 19th century, successive waves of poor ethnic immigrants climbed out of the slums, through family cohesion and education. Irish, German, etc. all managed it. Blacks were held back by being more obvious even than readheaded Irish. But they made progress, especially once some of their culture started to be embraced during the Jazz Age. Progress was slow, for a variety of reasons, but it was there.

And then in the mid 1960’s Progressive policies devastated the Black family and destroyed the public school systems.

I’m not insisting that it’s deliberate. But if it isn’t, it’s hard to see how it could have been made intentionally worse.