Rob Rogers for November 13, 2015

This is a reasoned approach, Martens, and a wise one. But I do wonder whether the hypersensitivity on display is healthy. Seems to me that there’s plenty of problems on both sides of the black-white divide in the US. When “whites” (an artificial term not generally recognized in biology), properly call out “blacks” on antisocial behavior, that’s racism. When blacks call out whites on antisocial behavior, that’s justice.

I’m not underestimating the actual structural racism demonstrated by whites towards blacks. It’s real and it ranges from nuanced and almost invisible all the way to outrageously obvious. But try making observations about behaviors common to “black American culture” and one has stepped way over the line.

But there IS a black American culture. It has been developed over time and has many elements that are a direct result of slavery and its aftermath. As with any ethnic culture, there are “good” parts and “bad” parts. I make no excuses for the repugnant elements of the dominant “white” culture. But I also don’t want to make excuses for the repugnant elements of the “black” American culture. And, in my view, repugnant elements exist on both sides

I am not of the view that all cultures have equal merit in terms of whether they lead to behaviors that enhance the common good. There are highly destructive and negative behaviors in all cultures, and they need to be discussed and sorted out, in my view. The problem is that few seem willing to try to, parse through these behavioral tendencies with an open mind and a caring heart.