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Jeffrey Peoples's avatar

I appreciate your thoughts on this matter Glenn. I think you do a very good job of expressing a nuance about what ails some black people and the communities they live in. Historical injustice has some causal connection, but it doesn't explain it all (or arguably even most), and the solution to the problems requires largely a change in the behaviors and culture of many of those black people having troubles. And I also think emphasizing the problem of "social capital" is interesting and valid.

I do have significant questions about some of the things you say though.

"We need to support stronger African American families. We need to provide the kind of support that people need in order to be able to do their duty and fulfill their responsibilities in raising their children."

In concrete terms though, what does supporting stronger African American families look like? I suspect many of the people who promoted the Great Society in the 1960s and 70s think they were supporting African American families. Today, some people probably think Harvard is helping support African American families by discriminating against Asian American families. Some "conservatives" might think that the best way to support African American families is by pulling the government out of social welfare duty.

"We, and I mean all Americans, bear collective responsibility for the form and the texture of our society's social relations, and racial discrimination and racial segregation is a part of that structure and texture."

Again, what is the concrete meaning of "collective responsibility" here? Does it mean second generation Indian Americans should have some of their income distributed to black people? Or does it just mean that Indian Americans should, like all other Americans, aim to judge a person by their character and not their skin color? Does it mean we should establish a Department of Anti-Racism in the federal government to monitor thought-crime among our elected officials as Ibram Kendi thinks is necessary? Does it mean all people--black, white, asian, whatever--should stop celebrating or promoting racial solidarity?

The word responsibility has a connotation of duty -- if someone has a responsibility for something, they have a duty, they have an obligation. Is that what you are implying? What concrete specific obligations do you think individuals have, if any, toward supporting black families in dysfunctional communities due to all of our "collective responsibility" for the "social relations" of this country? And do the obligations differ between white people and asian people and black people? E.g. does a black person have a different obligation than a white person? Do Americans have a responsibility to support families in dysfunctional communities that are not predominantly black? Why or why not? And if so, should it differ from the way support is given to black families in dysfunctional communities?

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John Digregorio's avatar

White families today are more dysfunctional than black families were in 1965. So either white and black familial dysfunction have very different root causes or the "slavery/racism" hermeneutic is no longer useful. I think the "slavery/racism" hermeneutic is no longer useful.

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