Ferguson: The Governor’s Illness:

“I’m sick of it,” Governor Patrick said with a heavy sigh. “I’m sick of unarmed, black men being shot by police.”

It would have been much better if the governor said with a heavy sigh: ”I’m sick  of it. I’m sick of unarmed, black men being shot by other black men.”

Does Governor Patrick know:“More than 100 young black men have been killed by gun in Chicago this year.”

I wrote yesterday that a black man was five times more likely to be killed by a police officer than a white man. I said there was a big problem with this. I do not intend to infer that the problem lies with the police alone. It is impossible to suggest a thing with the rampart violence in the black community.

A black writer for the Boston Globe wrote: “Ferguson raises anew the question of how many more unarmed black men must die before the nation declares this an all-American problem.” Why did he wait until Ferguson to talk about this ongoing problem.

“Blacks are over-represented among gun homicide victims; blacks were 55% of shooting homicide victims in 2010, but 13% of the population.”

An article noted “Here are a couple of facts that every American should be ashamed of: Black Americans are four times more likely to be murdered than the national average. What’s more, four out of five black homicide victims are killed with guns.” 

A different writer wrote: “The horrifying homicide rate among black Americans is the most visible and tragic symptom of a much deeper cultural disease. And the cure is a philosophy of reason, individual responsibility, productive work, and life-oriented values.” 

That writer went on: “The murder rate among blacks is 7,973 divided by 40,818,541, or 19.5 per 100,000 population. That is horrific (although still below the murder rates in the likes of Mexico, Brazil, and Uganda)”.

Another person said: “It’s the black middle class that has to take some responsibility for refusing to say no to thug culture while taking refuge behind racism.” 

That same newspaper writer started his article noting: “The dispiriting saga from Ferguson, Mo., provides another tragic window on decades of indifference to economic disparities.”  He goes on to mention “black male unemployment rate double that of white males”

Why doesn’t this writer talk about “the most recent statistics, the nationwide college graduation rate for black students stands at an appallingly low rate of 42 percent. This figure is 20 percentage points below the 62 percent rate for white students” 

Or perhaps he could consider: “In 2009-10 the national graduation rate for Black male students was 52%. The graduation rate for White, non-Latino males was 78%. This is the first year that more than half of the nation’s Black males in 9th grade graduated with regular diplomas four years later”

Has he made the connection between education and employment?

His article is entitled “White America’s racial blinders.” If anyone is wearing blinders it is the governor and this writer. He doesn’t see that white America is well aware of these statistics.

There also aware of a few others. Children in single-parent family statistics. Perhaps the governor could have mentioned these. In 2008 it is 65%; in 2012 it is 67% among blacks. The white rate is 22% and 25% respectively. The Asian rate is between 16 and 17%; the Hispanic is 38 to 42%.

Or perhaps we could turn to the prison population. The number of persons incarcerated per 100,00 in each group is: 380 whites; 966 Latino; and 2,207 blacks.

There’s lots of  things that a black governor should have been sick over of when it comes to blacks a long time ago. What has he done about them? When has he ever talked about them?

It’s time not to be blaming Whitey. It’s time the patient started curing himself.