I was hoping the Obama example would clarify - I was not attempting to suggest that blacks are a monolithic culture. Rather, there is an identity being pushed by segments of the pop culture, academia, and political activists to stress that every racial group is somehow a victim of an unjust nation - probably due to the intentional malice of white men. For the blacks, that narrative is that we just can't get past our old slave-holding and Jim Crow ways. The debate within the Ebony/Jet types of forums was evidence, in my opinion, that a lot of people really bought into that narrative. There was geniune spirited debate over whether a man who had not endured poverty or oppression was truly black.
Just to be clear, for those who buy into the narrative pushed by politicians and cashed in on by the pop culture, there is a sense of identity in victimhood. I do not mean to suggest that blacks are a monolithic culture or that all blacks self-identify as victims. It just happens to be a narrative that resonates in the inner cities because it makes for a good explanation for their dire circumstances, rather than the Bill Cosby "it's your own damn fault" message of "get a job, get married, and then have kids." In regard to tension with police and the code of silence, I wrote "due more to a cultural phenomenon" not solely due to a cultural phenomenon. I wouldn't want to let self-serving politicians (redundant?) off the hook that easy.
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