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by Dr. Carl Mumpower
Op-Ed
Asheville-Citizen Times
October 15, 2006
Tarzan
creator Edgar Rice Burroughs was one of the first to note that man struggles on
a thin veneer of civilization. It was
his belief that a healthy society must be nurtured with an eye on something
more substantial than the pursuit of personal pleasures. Like his famous character, we too live in a
place and time that requires our best – including a willingness to face issues
that do us harm.
Prevailing
wisdom long ago determined that skin color was a poor measuring instrument for
ability or intelligence. Yet 40 years
after MLK, we seem stuck at third base in resolving our racial issues. Most black and white people in Asheville attend
different churches, congregate in mostly separate neighborhoods, and rarely
find entertainment and relationship in the comfort of one another’s
company. Those who practice the
immaturities of racism on one hand or the paralyzing attitudes of victimization
on the other continue to herd the rest of us down dead end streets. There we stand, scrunched together,
struggling to understand what’s going on and why it keeps going on.
A
wish for action over motion would demand that we look beyond color to culture
for answers. It may be true that all men
are created equal, but the same cannot be said for cultures. The furnace of our cultural upbringing burns
through any skin and lays much of the foundation for who we become. While so many of us have been stuck on color
in a miring mix of political correctness, indifference, and pandering, the real
issues have raced ahead.
Our
schools struggle against cultural influences that educate too many kids to
believe “ho”, “mf”, and “bitch” are proper identities for 50% of our
population. Popular students are more
likely to be those culturally trained to intimidate their way to personal power
than study their way to a future.
Lifestyles that have the attractive bling and concealed longevity of a
shooting star go unchallenged. It is not to our credit that vulgarity,
bullying, and other anti-social indulgences have moved from the rap studio and
NBA to our schools, neighborhoods and public places.
It
was philosopher Henry David Thoreau who asked many years ago, “When were the
good and the brave ever in a majority?”
At the essence of his question is the matter of character. We have too many children without fathers,
mothers without maturity, and new “drug and thug” recruits without a clue. Those in positions of responsibility are
fearful, confused and prone to sidestepping the deeper truth – there is a lot
of nonsense being licensed in the name of racial tolerance and character
development is low on our social priority list.
We
live in a world with two kinds of people – imperfect people who try to be
better people and imperfect people who recycle their imperfections. The difference is often a matter of
choice. Cultural and character
influences matter, but we are not relieved, in heaven or on earth, of the accountability
for the choices we make. Too many people
from catastrophic backgrounds have struggled to a higher place for us to be
giving blank checks to those who persist in making bad choices.
A
community seeking to rise above Thoreau’s “quiet” or sometimes not so quiet
“desperation” must embrace its assets and challenge its liabilities – including
those that are comfortable because of familiarity and not because they are
good.It’s time for all of us, black and
white, to step forward and defend a civilization that works far more often than
it does not. There is a pressing need to
model and encourage responsible cultural values, individual character, and
healthy choices if we are to preserve this thin layer of civilization for those
who come later.
It is
not OK for drug dealers to use public housing as a playground and seduce our
children into duplicating their models of intimidation and social
indifference. It is not OK that
Asheville has a 70% drop out rate among black male students who in turn become
cannon fodder for that street drug trade.
It is not OK to ignore cultural models that treat women as toys and
encourage men to be perpetual boys. It
is not OK that we have a parade of entrenched social predators milking
government entitlements bought with the labor of others. It is not OK that, in our paralysis, we are
enabling so many into the shortened life spans and inevitable poverty of a life
without skills or accountability. There
is simply too much that is not OK for us to continue neglecting the thin layer
we stand upon. Solutions will be found
with a steady eye on culture, character, and choice. It is not a matter of color – it never should
have been…
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