Standing against ‘teen takeovers’ and acting the fool, there are adults who teach better choices
It has been my observation that excusing black antisocial behavior like the recent “teen takeovers” that we’ve seen in our cities the last couple of years, lest one be deemed a racist, is no longer tolerated.
I’ve been saying for years that the days of white liberal guilt are coming to an end and thank God for it. That guilt prevents the American people from being able to have an honest conversation about almost anything as a society.
I’m happy to see that more white people are over it because, going forward, it will create an accountability that for black people is very much needed to provide an impetus to reform our own culture.
My dream is that it exposes black people to how they are being used by the political left for power by creating victimhood and division, which serves us no purpose but which has been the elixir of life for over 70 years for the left.
This change in cultural expectations has had one consequence, however, that I had never anticipated: the lumping in of the most antisocial of black people with the rest of us.
The term “black fatigue” is in vogue lately, and it’s being used to describe how tired our American society has become with a certain class of black people who act as though they can behave however they want without repercussion. Perhaps because I am black, I’m seeing it in the news and social media every day: black people acting out emotionally over really stupid events, or teen takeovers where large groups of black teenagers disrupt the peace, fight, swear or worse. Both of these make life unlivable for the rest of people who just want to go about their business each day. It’s gotten old for everybody, but what I was not prepared for was getting lumped in with the bad actors of my race.
“It’s not all of them, but it’s always them,” is something I hear constantly. This means that every time you hear about some sort of antisocial behavior, the perpetrator is almost always a black person acting like a fool.
My kids aren’t doing that, and I cannot imagine under what circumstances they would, given they know the consequences my wife and I would impose as parents. I talk to my children, especially my son, about being situationally aware and leaving a scene well before anything bad develops.
Similarly, I teach at Milwaukee Lutheran Middle & High School, where 97 percent of the student body is inner-city, economically disadvantaged black kids. The entire staff, from the principal, the teachers and the counselors to the people in the lunch kitchen are constantly talking to our students about following a more Christ-like life, making better choices. We teach them that grown, mature people don’t fly off the handle at the slightest provocation or resort to violence or other foolishness.
Our school is not immune from these problems, but I personally believe that constant messaging does make a difference with most of our students. I spent over 22 years as a litigator, with a number of those years being a prosecutor or in criminal defense. I believe this experience in the criminal justice system provides me with insight into how people are motivated to make the decisions that wind them up in the system.
For example, I told my high school criminal justice class that Karmelo Anthony was going to be convicted and go to prison because he has no impulse control. That stark, clear, blunt assessment, which contradicts a lot of the public narrative, especially in social media, stuck with my students because it is a message they can relate to and understand. I spent the better part of this past spring semester begging my students not to participate in these “takeovers,” as nothing good can come from them.
The influence social media can have over the behavior of our young people, another danger we very rarely talk openly about, is more extensive than most parents realize. It’s an additional component that parents need to combat in the struggle over their children’s hearts and minds because it has seemingly overridden young people’s survival instinct. When violence breaks out among a group of people, the initial reaction for everyone is to take their phone, record the situation, and then post to social media instead of leaving the situation and getting to safety.
Furthermore, the negative effects of social media can be worse in poor, inner-city neighborhoods, because there are so many single-parent households. There are simply fewer parents available to watch what their kids are doing.
Yet there are so many black parents out there trying hard to steer their kids onto the straight and narrow that I feel compelled to let it be known: Good black parents and people are out there.
Hopefully, as we’ve seen the harm this type of behavior has wrought, societal accountability will begin to be reintroduced onto the perpetrators to bring more peace and stability to our community.
Shannon Whitworth is the executive director of the Free Enterprise Academy at Milwaukee Lutheran High School and an attorney with over 20 years of litigation and public policy experience. A graduate of Macalester College in St. Paul and the University of Wisconsin Law School in 1996, he is also a member of the Badger Institute Board of Directors.
