OBAMA

Obama’s straight talk on fatherhood –Post Editorial, June 18/08.

While Robert Kennedy and Barack Obama came from very different social and racial backgrounds, there seems to be more than a superficial similarity in both their idealism and their diction. It is a difficult field to hoe –appealing to the great unwashed masses without uttering the odd expression of vacuous bombast.

In taking aim at the real problem of black ghettos, without sugar-coating it with the common apologetics, he has shown himself capable, even in politics, of taking the road less travelled. Kudos to him. He is actually echoing another well known African-American, Bill Cosby:"It is time, ladies and gentlemen, to look at the numbers. Fifty percent of our children are dropping out of high school. Sixty percent of the incarcerated male happens to be illiterate…Seventy percent of the teenagers pregnant happen to be black. There's a correlation." The same can be said for some of our own, especially here in the GTA. Much of the violence, the drug dealing, the gun-play and murders emanate from a similar social group of young people who have nothing to loose; identify only with their own clan or tribe, and aspire only to recognition from their own peers. They are hyper-sensitive to disrespect (or “dissing” in their own jargon), and “respect” in their argot is synonymous with fear. Most come from a single parent home, often with a number of siblings with different fathers -or sperm-donors –that take no responsibility for their offspring at all. This, it seems, has now become a generational thing, and little can be done by throwing money at the problem, or making superficial changes in their environment. It is not just a problem of education or income in itself –many low income groups have managed to get by, even in poverty, and bring up a family of honest and industrious citizens. A feeling of entitlement will not substitute for a set of values and mores that conforms to society’s needs. This has become a generational problem –a vicious circle of matriarchal families with no male support, no higher goals or educational aspirations, finding convenient excuses by blaming discrimination and bigotry. While, at least historically, discrimination might have been part of the problem, it’s not the whole story. Not by far.

There is no ready-made solution or short-term band-aid that will heal this social sore. Only sea-change; a major and radical surgery will do the job –and a long-term and expensive rehabilitation.