Black Lives Matter Should Focus Their Ire On The Failed Family Unit

Black Lives Matter should focus their ire on the absence of black fathers within a family unit rather than “racist” cops. There is great evidence out there to support the connection between living a life of crime and the absence of one’s father.

On June 13, PragerU posted a video on their YouTube channel entitled “Black Fathers Matter.” The narrator of the video, Larry Elder, explains in just over five minutes the significance of there being a male parental unit to a child’s life, specifically a male child’s life.

“Years ago, I interviewed Kweisi Mfume, then the president of the NAACP. ‘As between the presence of white racism and the absence of black fathers,’ I asked, ‘Which poses the bigger threat to the black community?’ Without missing a beat, he said, ‘The absence of black fathers.'”

There are certain disadvantages, besides the obvious, of growing up without a father. President Obama himself highlighted those disadvantages in a past speech, saying that children without fathers are more likely to grow up in a poor home, more likely to not finish high school, more likely to become criminals and ultimately more likely to find themselves behind bars.

If you’re not convinced yet, you will be. The statistics are staggeringly in favor of the connection between fatherless homes and misguided black youth.

From 1965 to 2015, the percentage of black children born to unmarried couples rose by 48 percentage points. The political status of the United States within that 50 year period can explain some of the reasons behind this increase in black children born out of wedlock.

“The answer is found in a basic law of economics: If you subsidize undesirable behavior you will get more undesirable behavior. In 1949, the nation’s poverty rate was 34 percent. By 1965, it was cut in half, to 17 percent — all before President Lyndon Johnson’s so-called War on Poverty. But after that war began in 1965, poverty began to flat line. From 1965 until now, the government has spent over $20 trillion to fight poverty.

“It’s the welfare state that “allows [poor] women, in effect, to marry the government.”

The result of such governmental generosity is that some men feel that free handouts will take their place by the side of mother and child, thus giving them incentive to avoid being tied down for life.

According to Elder, it’s really no big secret that the government’s objective with free handouts is to use and abuse the citizens they claim to be helping.

He cites a 1985 poll done by the Los Angeles Times in which it was asked if a significant amount of lower class women made the decision to have a baby solely to acquire monetary assistance from the government. Respondents were divided according to class, and upper class citizens believed that most women did not do this, while 64 percent of lower class citizens said that women did do it.

Elder then asks, “Now, who do you think is in a better position to know?”

On October 20, 2014, seventeen year old Laquan McDonald was shot and killed by a Chicago police officer after an altercation in which the shooting officer claimed to have seen the teen carrying a knife.

According to NBC Chicago, Laquan had a criminal record as a juvenile and his autopsy revealed him to have PCP present in his blood at the time of the killing.

The Chicago Tribune reported that McDonald was born to a 15 year old girl and he never knew who his father was.

Laquan McDonald's juvenile record sought by lawyers of officer who shot him https://t.co/OwQ3fTmGmO pic.twitter.com/M5uQDAIyYY

— Chicago Tribune (@chicagotribune) July 6, 2016

“Born to a teenage mother, shuttled among five homes in the first five years of his life, abused and neglected, the teen described why he used marijuana every day. It gave him a calmness, he explained to a court clinician tasked with the teen’s evaluation, that suppressed his anger, allowing him to keep a constant ‘smile on my face.'”

In 2013, when asked about the absence of a father figure, Laquan said, “It is what it is. My momma was there all the time. Don’t need no daddy.”

More than a few of the victims of what Black Lives Matter dubs “police brutality,” were born to a teenage mother and father.

Michael Brown, shot by officer Darren Wilson in August 2014, was born to teenage parents. Brown’s mother Lezlie McSpadden wrote in her book, “Tell the Truth & Shame the Devil: The Life, Legacy and Love of My Son Michael Brown,” that her son’s father, Michael Brown Sr., was violently abusive to her and that Michael Jr. was often a witness to this abuse. This is according to the Daily Mail.

McSpadden tells of a time Michael Sr forced a pistol into her mouth as her children sat crying in another room. She prayed that her kids wouldn’t witness her demise carried out in such a savage fashion.

“Their relationship was a ‘ticking time bomb’, she said, claiming that Brown Sr was so controlling and paranoid that he once tried to strangle McSpadden in a jealous rage.

“In another terrifying incident, he is said to have smashed the windshield of her car with his fist and beat her in front of their son.”

Would it have been better for Michael Jr to have had an absent father instead of the violent one he got stuck with? Unfortunately that is a question to only be speculated upon, but never answered.

McSpadden grew up in a single parent home, the consequences of which keep up with some of the aforementioned statistics, as she never finished school and got involved with the wrong crowd. She lost her virginity to Brown Sr and got pregnant with Michael Jr as a result.

The National Center for Fathering reports that females who grow up without a father figure are more likely to become teenage moms than those who grow up with two parents.

Tupac Shakur, a rapper who was murdered in a Las Vegas drive-by shooting, and his unsolved case is rumored to have been gang related, had somehow discovered the importance of a father before his life was cut short.

“Tupac Shakur, the late rapper, once said: ‘I know for a fact that had I had a father, I’d have some discipline. I’d have more confidence.’ He admitted he began running with gangs because he wanted the things a father gives to a child, especially to a boy: structure and protection.

“‘Your mother cannot calm you down the way a man can,’ Shakur said. ‘You need a man to teach you how to be a man.'”

Black Lives Matter should focus their ire on the absence of black fathers in the lives of black youth because the evidence to back up the damaging consequences of such a reality are too important to ignore. If they really care about black lives, focusing on the root of the problem is a very good place to start.

[Photo by DGLimages/Thinkstock]