Black Self-Sabotage Trap: Recent Episodes
Erskin Bell
This podcast examines the progress that Black Americans have made in the post-Civil Rights era. The main question that we seek to answer is "Why Black Americans continue to lag behind all other groups in education and economics"? Is this a byproduct of racism? Is it largely due to the influence of Black Culture, (Black-Self Sabotage)? We seek to answer that question and provide a self-help action plan on how to move forward.
Today’s episode is entitled “We Got What We Wanted”. The 3rd in a 3 part series.
Key Points:
- New Voting Laws have been passed since the last presidential election which many feel restrict voting rights
- Nobody will ever deprive the American people of the right to vote except the American people themselves– and the only way they could do that is by not voting.
- Although Voting is very important, nothing will affect your life more than the choices that you make.
Resources:
Selma Mayor: 'An Awesome Time For Our City' : NPR
https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2021-03-26/biden-slams-georgia-voting-law-as-an-atrocity
Today’s episode is entitled “Struggling For Voting Rights”. The 2nd in a 3 part series.
Key Points:
- The 19th Amendment gave women the right to vote. However many Black Women still could not vote due to Jim Crow
- Opelousas Massacre that took place in St. Landry Parish, Louisiana killed 250 Black people to suppress turnout among Black voters
- March 7, 1965, Bloody Sunday, Up to 600 activists set out in Alabama to march from Selma to Montgomery to protest for Black voting rights. But when the marchers reached the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, they encountered White state troopers, who attacked them with billy clubs and tear gas.
Resources:
Why the Women's Rights Movement Split Over the 15th Amendment (US National Park Service)
https://virginiachronicle.com/?a=d&d=NPO19230110.2.98&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN--------
George Mason and Slavery | Fourth Estate
How White Suffragists Excluded Black Women In Their Fight For The Right To Vote – WABE
Why did Black Americans have to fight so hard for the right to vote?
Key Points:
- In March 1857, the Supreme Court issued a 7–2 decision against Dred Scott. In an opinion written by Chief Justice Roger Taney, the Court ruled that people of African descent "are not included, and were not intended to be included, under the word 'citizens' in the Constitution, and can therefore claim none of the rights and privileges which that instrument provides for and secures to citizens of the United States".
- In 1890, Mississippi held a convention to write a new state constitution to replace the one in force since Reconstruction. The white leaders of the convention were clear about their intentions. “We came here to exclude the Negro,” declared the convention president.
- Mississippi cut the percentage of black voting-age men registered to vote from more than 90 percent during Reconstruction to less than 6 percent in 1892.
Resources:
The Supreme Court . The Court and Democracy . Biographies of the Robes . Roger Taney | PBS
Civil Rights Act of 1875 | United States [1875] | Britannica
Plessy v. Ferguson: Separate But Equal Doctrine - HISTORY
Brown v. Board of Education | Case, 1954, Definition, Decision, Facts, & Impact | Britannica
Does this group truly represent the interest of Black Americans?
Key Points:
- BLM gained national attention after the August 9, 2014 police killing of 18-year-old Michael Brown and the subsequent protests and unrest in Ferguson, Missouri..
- BLM GNF had given $21.7 million to 30 organizations, 23 of which are “led by Black LGBTQIA folks and/or directly serve these communities.
- Is the BLM movement focusing on the issues that matter the most to Black Americans?
Resources:
Democratic leaders clash with Black Lives Matter activists over 'defund the police'
BLACK LIVES MATTER 2020 IMPACT REPORT
Black Americans Earn 30% Less Than White Americans, While Black Households Have Just One-Eighth Wealth Of White Households
Black workers in the US private sector | McKinsey
About - Black Lives Matter
Why do Blacks squander so much of their money? Do Blacks need to change their values?
Key Points:
- Black American buying power is at 1.1 Trillion; and yet only 2 cents of every dollar blacks spend in this country goes to black-owned businesses.
- Blacks on the average are six times more likely than Whites to buy a Mercedes, and the average income of a Black who buys a Jaguar is about one-third less than that of a White purchaser of the luxury vehicle.
- A 2013 study revealed that Black churches have collected more than $420 billion in tithes and donations nationwide since 1980, an average of $252 million a week.
Resources:
The Fed - Recent Trends in Wealth-Holding by Race and Ethnicity: Evidence from the Survey of Consumer Finances
Even Though MC Hammer Ran Through $70M In About Five Years, He Says He 'Wouldn't Change One Thing' - AfroTech
How Do Black People Spend Their Money? — The Racial Wealth Gap
The Pawn Queen: Woulard, Byron: 9780982937518: Books - Amazon
Why is there so much anger in the Black Community toward law enforcement? What is the root cause of this anger? Is it justified?
Key Points:
- Most Americans have high confidence in police, except for black Americans. With a 1.5 percentage point margin of error, 56 percent of black Americans said they had a great deal or fair amount of confidence in police, compared to the 78 percent of white Americans who said the same.
- Monmouth’s study found the majority of black Americans — 87 percent — believe that police are more likely to use excessive force against black people, a sentiment white Americans agreed with, though not by an overwhelming margin; 49 percent of white Americans said police were more likely to use excessive force against black people, while 39 percent felt the use of force wasn’t tied to race.
Resources:
Amid Protests, Majorities Across Racial and Ethnic Groups Express Support for the Black Lives Matter Movement
Former deputy Zachary Wester sentenced to more than 12 years in prison for drug planting
Former Biscayne Park Police Chief Sentenced for Conspiracy to Deprive Persons of Civil Rights by Ordering Officers to Make False Arrests | USAO-SDFL | Department of Justice
Are the police actually targeting Black people? Why do so many traffic stops conclude with the Black person getting killed? What’s the solution?
Key Points:
- Statistical data does not support the claim that Blacks are being targeted by the police.
- The number of blacks arrested by violent crime category in 2019: Murder—4,078, Rape—4,427, Robbery—29,677, Aggravated Assault—91,164. In this one year alone, there were 3 times as many blacks raped, 21 times as many robbed, and 65 times as many violently assaulted as there were blacks killed by police in the six years reported combined.
- There is an old proverb that says “Where there is no vision, the people perish”
Resources:
Race Crazy: BLM, 1619, and the Progressive Racism Movement
by Charles Love
Julie Tate, Jennifer Jenkins, and Steven Rich, “946 people have been shot and killed by police in the past year,” Washington Post, Updated June 3, 2021. https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/investigations/police-shootings-database/
Federal Bureau of Investigation, “Table 43: Arrests by Race and Ethnicity,” 2019. https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2019/crime-in-the-u.s.-2019/topic-pages/tables/table-43
Should full assimilation into American society be a greater priority for Black Americans than the overzealous pursuit of cultural acceptance?
Key Points:
- Are upper and middle-class Black Americans afraid of their own people, the large black underclass?
- Before we can achieve any major improvement in the social and educational status of Blacks, they must develop a frank process of self-examination to replace the current unwillingness to look objectively at destructive behavioral norms.
- Values count more than race in today’s economic picture
Resources:
Resources / Publications / Young Children / May 2018 / Addressing the African American Achievement Gap: Three Leading Educators Issue a Call to Action
In this episode, we do a deep dive into the reasons why black many students are not closing the education gap. Why do so many black students that attend public schools in the nation’s largest cities fail? What’s the root cause? Is Black Culture the Blame?
Key Points:
- Black children are not closing the education gap in most of the major cities
- The education gap must be closed before the wealth gap can be closed
- The breakdown of the traditional black family is the root cause of many of the problems that the community faces
Resources:
The Mississippi Delta Health Collaborative Medication Therapy Management Model: Public Health and Pharmacy Working Together to Improve Population Health in the Mississippi Delta
Why Race and Culture Matter in Schools: Closing the Achievement Gap in America's Classrooms
In this episode, a comparison is made between two economic classes (middle class & those living below the poverty level) within the black community. Does Education Play a Major Role in Moving from the Poverty Level to the Middle class?
Key Points:
- The middle and upper-middle-class is growing within the Black Community
- Education plays a major role in earning capacity
- Education should be the #1 priority in the Black Community
Resources
African-American Buying Power Tops $1 Trillion 10/03/2016
Report: Black Students Underrepresented in High-Paying STEM Majors | STEM Solutions | US News
Gene Dattel, Reckoning with Race: America’s Failure (New York: Encounter Books, 2017), 286
In this episode, we will consider the following questions: Why do Blacks always seem to have the lowest-paying jobs? What are the contributing factors? Is Black Culture the blame?
Key Points:
- Black children are often taught that the cards are stacked against them
- McKinsey’s report highlighted that Blacks are overrepresented in low-wage vocations often without benefits and few chances for moving up the ladder.
- Carter G. Woodson’s statement “If you make a man feel that he is inferior, you don’t have to compel him to accept an inferior status, for he will seek it himself” is as true today as it was in 1933
Resources
Bush, GW (2000, July 10). Ending Racial Inequality. - NAACP Annual Convention. Baltimore, MD.
Black Snowflakes: How the Liberal Victimhood Narrative Ruins Black Males: Page, Spencer Shaw: 9798775019600
The Mis-Education of the Negro eBook: Woodson, Carter Godwin: Kindle Store
In this episode, we made the case that Black Americans should just call themselves Americans. Next, we pondered the question, "Are Black Americans the most patriotic of all Americans since:
- They are the only group that has fought in all of Americans' wars (both as slaves and citizens).
- They provided America with an early competitive advantage when working for free as slaves.
In this episode, we discussed the purpose and intent of the podcast followed by a discussion on what enabled Black Americans to become so successful during the early decades after slavery ended. We also analyzed the factors that caused the movement to come to a grinding halt.
This podcast examines the progress that Black Americans have made in the post-Civil Rights era. The main question that we seek to answer is "Why Black Americans continue to lag behind all other groups in education and economics"? Is this a byproduct of racism? Is it largely due to the influence of Black Culture, (Black-Self Sabotage)? We seek to answer that question and provide a self-help action plan on how to move forward.
Subscribe to the podcast on your favorite player, or go to www.blackselfsabotagetrap.com to learn more.