Black Youth Behaving Badly

Although I am no longer a big fan of fireworks displays, there are of course others who are. Families have for generations enjoyed the 4th of July tradition. Unfortunately, residents of Shaker Heights, Ohio will no longer be able to thanks to the unruly mobs who converge on the town square rioting, looting and assaulting random victims. Violence in Shaker during the past three years as well as trouble at other events in the area has caused city officials to cancel this years event. In 2011 so called "Flash mobs" descended on the Coventry Street festival on Cleveland's east side. Fights broke out and several teens were arrested-the festival was cancelled in 2012. What has gone unspoken is that this violence is committed exclusively black teens in cities across the nation.

 Cleveland certainly isn't alone when it comes to this unsettling trend. Chicago has experienced numerous incidents of mob violence over the past two years in its tony Magnificent Mile shopping district downtown. Unsuspecting shoppers, tourist and Physicians from the Nearby medical center were assaulted for their I Phones.  A visit to You tube and punch in 'Black teens riots" one will see many other cities around the country whereby black youth are engaged in this type of behavior which has confounded law enforcement and city officials alike. Detroit, Minneapolis,Madison Philadelphia and other cities are also dealing with this issue. These so called flash mobs, organized on Facebook and Twitter involve the gathering of hundreds of teems who meet at a predetermined location in some instances to overwhelm and loot a single establishment. Civil rights leaders, black radio host and activist remain silent on the subject. Their only interest seems to be issues whereby blacks can be portrayed as victims.

There is a tragic disconnect amongst a large segment of the black community who seem to be completely oblivious to our own behavior and its destructive results. Those results include increased incarceration, death, economic marginalization and dare I say it: further discrimination. We cannot continue to destroy our community and others and expect no repercussions or backlash while simultaneously screaming racism. The upscale suburb or Beachwood had a riot breakout in its mall last summer by you guessed it; Black teens. This type of behavior kills any hope of economic revitalization in many areas. Businesses will not invest in areas where there is increased risk to their products or physical locations. Customers will not frequent those areas where they are at risk of being robbed or assaulted. People will continue to fear the decline of their neighborhoods when its black population starts to increase. The politicians who demagogue these groups only speak of solving these problems by providing jobs and education- I argue that they have it backwards. Jobs and education are certainly needed, however they can only be effective within the context of the proper values. They include respect for law and order, respect for oneself, the rights of others and their property and most of all respect for human life. The absence of these values has created the conditions in the communities that many of us would consider undesirable.

There are many fair mined non-black people who are justified in their righteous indignation at the erosion of their quality of life. However, their voices have been muted by those who will tar them as  racist-which effectively kills the discussion. Our misguided self appointed leaders and community activist continue to treat the symptoms instead of the cause. Until our thinking and behavior changes, nothing else will-and that includes others perception of us.We as blacks have become the embodiment of a metaphor I like to use: The kid who kills his parents and then complains that he's an orphan.