I haven’t ranted in a while. So let me get a couple of things off my chest. 

I don’t believe in white supremacy — because the polar opposite would be black inferiority, and that is not true. White privilege/black underprivilege? Now that is a reality.

I also don’t believe in the blanket statement that America is racist. I grew up during the Civil Rights Era. I saw racism that limited the ability of Black people to go, to do, and to have. America is not perfect. And she may never be perfect. But she has made many strides forward that we need to acknowledge. To simply say that America is racist, is to empower those who feel that their racism is valid. I refuse to give them that kind of power, the same way I refuse to acknowledge any kind of existence of white supremacy. However, making a general statement that America is racist overlooks the fact that Black America is part of America! And with the recent attacks that have occurred against Asians, the majority of which were perpetrated by black people, well we need to do some introspection!

And what about black people attacking other people? There was a whole bunch of young black folks this past weekend who went downtown and misbehaved. They’ve been pouring out the subway system and attacking people, spraying them with pepper spray, trying to carjack cars, fighting under The Bean, and in general acting like complete idiots. 

The only way I learned of this is that there’s a person on Facebook who runs “The Ghetto News Network.” Basically James Hawthorne listens to the police scanner and reports on what is occurring. Some of the stuff is absolutely embarrassing! To know that our young people have absolutely no home training and are going about acting like complete morons, is going to lead to a horrific incident where the outcome is not going to be pretty. When one of them is seriously injured or killed, I don’t want to see a damn community activist talking about shutting down any expressway. 

And by the way, can somebody let our police superintendent, David Brown, know that we have expressways and not freeways in this city? Why our one-term mayor picked him is anybody’s guess. 

Anyway, getting back to those young people going downtown and clowning, a reminder that COVID-19 is still a reality. I don’t know why parents are allowing their young people to roam the streets as if this pandemic were not a reality. It is time to have the court system hold accountable the individuals who create children but don’t take the time to rear them. Not surprisingly, I haven’t heard any local politicians, the mayor, or community activists begin to address the situation. 

The warm weather is coming and if we don’t nip this bad behavior right now, we are in for the kind of long hot summer that will make life miserable for everyone!