I heard it all over the radio, on Recorder switchboards, and even face-to-face: “The Indianapolis Star is wrong for that headline.”
The headline that people are referring to appeared in the Jan. 24 issue of the Star that stated, “About 80 percent of Black babies are born to unwed moms.” While I can understand why some people may be offended by the headline; the Indianapolis Star is not to blame, if anyone is to blame, it should be the 80 percent of unwed mothers.
It’s frustrating for me to see Blacks so readily blame others for particular wrongdoing. While the Star’s headline was provocative and rather blatant, it stated the truth. As I explained this to one man who phoned the Recorder office, his comment was, “yeah, even if it is true, they shouldn’t be airing our dirty laundry.”
You might remember that others across the country said the same thing when Bill Cosby began his public debate about the state of Blacks in America. Those people then were wrong to speak of Cosby’s remarks as the “airing of our dirty laundry,” as are the people here who read the Star’s headline.
I have a question: How are we as a people going to improve our situations if we don’t first acknowledge the problem?
Not acknowledging the problem is exactly what has gotten us in many of the situations we’re in now. Eventually after sweeping dust under a rug that dust begins to overflow and burst from underneath the rug. That’s what’s happening to us as a people. Many of our problems are beginning to accumulate on top of one another until they eventually crumble from the tremendous weight.
Rather than attack the Indianapolis Star, what Blacks should have done is looked at it as a call to action.
Not many of the other races have to have their “dirty laundry” aired the way Blacks do…while some may look at that as a form of bias or racism, I consider it a sign of the times. African-Americans are not doing enough to fix our own problems. When things get so bad that other races or media outlets have to highlight the problems that we’re experiencing, the time to act has long been overdue.
I encourage you to read Brandon Perry’s story on page A1 that takes a look at Indiana Black Expo’s State of our Black Youth Report, which featured among other startling facts, the one that the Star headlined.
Here’s a brief overview of some of the report’s findings:
Juvenile delinquency in teens has gone up significantly.
The rate of sexually transmitted diseases has increased in recent years.
Indianapolis has fewer youth service associations and mentoring programs per capita than any other city in the state.
Between the year 2000 and 2005, poverty amongst Blacks increased by 30 percent.
Academically speaking, more than 50 out of 1,000 Black students dropped out of high school. In previous years it was fewer than 30 out of 1,000 dropouts.
As you can see, no matter what headline any publication uses, the facts are still the facts and the problems still need to be resolved. I often wonder how many of the individuals who make claims of racism actually work towards solving problems our culture is faced with. While I’m sure there are some who do, there are probably just as many who don’t work towards helping us as a people.
Believe me, I understand that racism is alive and well in the country, and also the state of Indiana, but sometimes the claims of racism (from all sides) gets a little old. Let’s stop pointing fingers and ignoring the problems, and instead work to resolve some of the many issues that plague us.
I often think of the old adage “at the end of the day, you’re responsible for you.” The same is true for Blacks as a race and culture — when it’s all said and done, the only way to ensure that we get better is if we put in the work.
Remember, words are just words, but actions behind words speak volumes.
