Guest commentary - a conversation with a Black man

By Phillip E. Alexander

(reproduced from the online site Wake Up T&T)

I am having a discussion with a black man on another thread, whose ancestors were slaves, kidnapped from all they knew, brought here and worked into the ground, and when finally freed set free to be forever a trespasser never an owner, not unless some stroke of luck or magic occurred.

He fails to see the connection between that and our ghetto culture, he fails to see the link between the ghetto culture and the breakdown in education, he fails to see the lack of education on the terrible choices, and he fails to see the connection between those choices, crime and death.

He does not realize that no one was born to have an unfair share of all that is our country and that someone at some point is going to have to start setting things right.

His lack of understanding is systemic and is what allowed one black man to enrich Calder Hart and another black man to let Calder go.

Until the poor black communities of this country are brought into the national family no matter what color jersey you give them you are going to fail. Come into the ghetto and see. Yes they are violent, uncouth and dirty at times, but there go all of us if we had that row to hoe.

I am in awe of the strong magic that not even three generations on would allow a black man to apologize for any discomfort he may have caused by smashing his face repeatedly into a white man's fist.

We have deep deep scars to heal in this country, and we have outstanding issues to deal with that the Uncle Toms Eric, George, Arthur, Patrick and now Keith are afraid to address.

Until you understand why our ghettos exist, nothing that is being done will fix it, because it cannot be fixed. It needs to be redone, the community needs to be redeveloped, the people need our help not our scorn.