« Top Headline Comments (8-26-13) | Main | Monday Morning News Dump »

"My Nephews" by Juliette Ochieng ("baldilocks")

[I asked Juliette Ochieng -- our own "baldilocks" -- to write a short essay for the HQ on the topic of race and violent crime. She very graciously agreed. (Keep the comments civil!) You can find more of her very insightful stuff at her personal site. You can also find information on her book, Tale of the Tigers, at her author's site. --Monty]

A few weekends back, I made my way from my home in South Central Los Angeles to Albuquerque--where my parents and the vast majority of my family reside--for the wedding of my oldest nephew. During the twelve-hour drive, I contemplated the personalities of my nephew, his brother, his sisters, his male and female first-, second-, and third-cousins and his male cousins by marriage. All are great young people.

Something that remains perennially in the news is the rate of unemployment for black teens, just over 40%. But here's a thing about my family: my five nephews and my six first- and second-male cousins are all employed! (My nieces are all under sixteen and my two female cousins--both lawyers, like their father--are in their thirties.) How could that be?

Well here's one thing: only one of them lives in a blue state. So much for the alleged racism of Republicans. But their states of residence--New Mexico, Texas, and Oklahoma--aren't the only factors; the others are more personal.

• All are high school graduates.


• Three are attending two-year colleges, two attend a four-year university, one attends a technical college, and two are four-year university graduates.


• All are literate, well-mannered and well-spoken They don't even speak patois to their friends.


• None have criminal or misdemeanor records.


• All are prompt and know how to dress for employment. None have adopted the saggy-pants style.


• Only one has a child and he is in his mid-twenties.

So what is this about? Only four of the young men have been raised by political conservatives. Two are illegitimate. Several are children of divorce--like me. All of them, however, have been raised by actual conservatives. So it is that they would not shame their families by failing to be responsible men.

My oldest nephew--the one who just married--is probably the most taciturn of the group. But he's not so shy that he was unable to woo, win, and marry a smart, accomplished, and very beautiful young woman to be his wife. And here's something about the two, my nephew and my niece-in-law: both of their sets of parents are married to each other. And one thing about my nephew's parents--my sister and my brother-in-law: both of their parents are still married to each other. (My mom and stepdad have been married for 41 years and my brother-in-law's parents have been married for over 60 years.) And each generation consists of hard workers who have always wanted more for their children than what they had. This is what is known as a pattern.

But illegitimacy need not be a factor in producing children of poor character. Several months ago, I posited that illegitimacy by itself isn't what has caused the breakdown of the black family and the consequent breakdown of black moral character. The cause? Government subsidy of illegitimacy. When a child, especially a boy, grows up without a father, he will often run wild if there is no other male authority to which he is answerable--an uncle or grandfather, for example. But when children grow up in communities in which there are no male authority figures, when they grow up in communities in which there are few to no married couples, a people run wild.

The widespread (over 70%) illegitimacy among black Americans can be likened to the biblical fall in the Garden of Eden. Satan talked Eve into eating the fruit that God had forbidden and she talked Adam into eating it. This original sin will destroy most of humankind. The government talked black women into having babies without benefit of marriage and this phenomenon has nearly destroyed black Americans. Yet another pattern.

But just as there is redemption to be had in the heavenly realm, there is a way for black Americans to keep themselves from been destroyed here on earth.

Recently, CNN's Don Lemon--no political conservative, to be sure--was called a "turncoat mofo" for agreeing with Fox News' Bill O'Reilly that black people need to clean up their act with respect to being 'good citizens'--a phrase used because that is what I was exhorted to be when I was growing up in the much-maligned 1960s.

Mr. Lemon's seemingly simple prescription is powerful.

You want to break the cycle of poverty? Stop telling kids they're acting white because they go to school or they speak proper English. A high school dropout makes on average $19,000 a year, a high school graduate makes $28,000 a year, a college graduate makes $51,000 a year. Over the course of a career, a college grad will make nearly $1 million more than a high school graduate. That's a lot of money.

And number one, and probably the most important, just because you can have a baby, it doesn't mean you should. Especially without planning for one or getting married first. More than 72 percent of children in the African-American community are born out of wedlock. That means absent fathers. And the studies show that lack of a male role model is an express train right to prison and the cycle continues.

And there was this on Twitter:

dress nicely. use appropriate language. keep ur surroundings clean. go to school. be responsible, involved parents. That's offensive? SMH

— Don Lemon (@DonLemonCNN) July 28, 2013

For his trouble, Lemon was excoriated--which included being labeled a “turncoat mofo” by MSNBC’s Goldie Taylor.

But if I had a dollar for every turn coat mofo who made it up and out, then cut the rope ladder behind him...

— Goldie Taylor (@goldietaylor) July 27, 2013

"Turncoat mofo?" No. The turncoats are those who urge black other black Americans to keep doing the same things over and over again while, each time, expecting a different result. The turncoats are those who would exhort black Americans to keep riding that express train to poverty, illiteracy, prison and ruin. Like the feral teens that are a plague on our society, pattern-recognition is foreign to those who screech ‘turncoat mofo’ to a man who imparts the tried-and-true wisdom that black Americans used to impart to their progeny.

* * *

I have been called a conspiracy theorist--not to mention the equivalent of a ‘turncoat mofo’-- a number of times. However, if most political and social conservatives can acknowledge that there are forces consisting of more than a single individual which conspire to destroy America-as-founded and the ideals on which she was founded, then it is plausible that such forces have used and are using strategies—by definition, long-term plans--to achieve their aims. It is for this reason—and for the vision of my lying eyes—that I put forth the following ‘conspiracy theory.’

For many decades, black Americans hoped and prayed to be considered equal to other Americans under the law--federal, state, and local. Well that goal has been achieved. It has been long past time for black Americans, as a whole, to do their part. What happened there? It’s this: too large a number of us have fallen prey to those who have always wanted to keep us down, keep us enslaved, and, ultimately, destroy us.

I submit that the Organized Left and the Democrat Party—now one and the same--have long been trying to rid our country of her black citizens. That goal is now almost reached. Think about it: blacks are vastly outnumbered by whites, Hispanics and others. And blacks have been purposefully splintered in this way: we have been duped into nearly destroying the one earthly and seemingly unshakable foundation we had. That foundation is known as the family.

The feral teens we see today are the fruit of the splintering; they are angry and they know not why. They never learned fatherly discipline--and the compromised education system never bothered to inculcate in them the desire to think through situations. Often the only "men" in their lives are other mindlessly angry little boys wearing the bodies of men. Multiply this by millions.

So now, they are beating and killing innocents of all races out of boredom or avarice or whatever excuse they want to give. But the real problem is mindless and pointless anger, stemming from the lack of proper parenting by both mother and father.

But here's the thing. Non-black people are already tired of their loved ones being raped, shot, beaten, etc. for merely walking around, for the crimes of others or simply for not being black.

And when some set of white or other non-black persons begin to retaliate; it will go badly for the splintered minority—both the guilty and the innocent--for numerical reasons alone. As a result, the Leftist-infiltrated government will come in and "save" however many black people are left, but goal will be reached: black people will be almost exterminated in the USA and whites and other non-blacks will be the slaves.

That's been the plan all along...to kill all of us and enslave all of you non-blacks.

I am grateful to God that the young men in my family are fine, upstanding citizens. But I tremble for my people--Americans--as I watch the fruit of the rotten and satanic tree called Leftism poison us all, one way or another.

That’s why I pray to Lord who provided us with the Lamb who took away all of our sins. It’s our only hope, and I submit that it always has been.