What I see from your response and that of many black men I know is that it is always someone else’s fault. You brought up the reaction to Chris Brown. I have not nor will I probably ever see the same reaction to violence against women by nonblacks that I do from blacks. I do not see the same coddling of criminals among nonblacks that I do among blacks. The same feminism that you say exists among blacks exists among other races. Why don’t we see the same “feminist” problems among nonblacks? As I’ve said many times before, black women will certainly put other black women on blast whether deserved or not. What I see from black men in general is the shifting of blame onto someone else. Face it, there is a problem among black men from education to disease to crime. Stop blaming everything under the sun and fix yourselves.

Yes, about 95% responsible, but I think a lot of the good guys feel like they are prejudged and lumped in to the same category.–MOD

I personally believe that black men are 100% responsible for the problems of black men and black women are 100% responsible for the problems we face. However, I do believe that black men are less likely to feel responsible for their own issues. It’s either racism, the white man, black women, or single mothers. On extremely rare occasions will you hear black men speak up about them. When this happens, they are usually black conservatives who are quickly labeled Uncle Toms.

I think many BM feel this way..but few come right out and say it…or know how to articulate it in this way.

Also in the past it was easy to jump up and start berating the welfare system and radical white feminists for all that ails that black community you wouldl always have a captive audience….but for people in their 20’s that doesn’t even seem relative anymore.

Further, now that many whites envision us living in a post racial world with a black President those old tired arguments don’t have as much shock value.

Who will BM blame now?

“They won’t let me be a man. Wah! Wah! Wah!”

I agree. Nobody’s stopping me from being a man.

@Gina,

“Are Black men in anyway responsible for the state of Black America?”

Yes, about 95% responsible, but I think a lot of the good guys feel like they are prejudged and lumped in to the same category.

I live in a community where “men are respected,” where you see the fathers playing Little League on Saturdays and so forth.

This is a community where the people who live here are comprised primarily of middle class married men who provide for their families. They have not had to beg from respect from anyone, because they have earned it by being high wage earning men who provide stability the community through marriage and familial involvement.

Are they howling about the evil bad feminists? No, because it is not relevant. Actually, numbers of their wives take feminism as a given, and as for the radical feminists you describe, they are a small group that if anything has been caricatured. They are not as influential as you imagine and in the eyes of many women, the real extreme ones have been a joke–suing men for opening doors? Huh?

As for Lopez, she has no clue of what feminism really is. She acts like she does not know of the nuances in feminist theory and acts as though all feminisms are the same. They are not. So I don’t take her pronouncements on feminism seriously.

For generations black men survived all measures of brutality and assault from castrations, to lynchings to who knows what else, yet somehow they managed to provide for their families and stand by them. Now, ‘radical’ feminism has somehow done what lynching couldn’t. Yeah right.

Nobody can keep a man from being a man if that’s what he wants to do. If you don’t remember anything else I ever tell you, remember this: MEN DO WHAT THEY WANT TO DO. That’s how they’re programmed both biologically and sociologically. Oh, they’ll hit you with all kind of noise about why they can’t do things: She won’t let me see my kids. The feminists won’t let me protect my community. She won’t let me be a man.

Please, it’s a load of nonsense. Black women have fallen for this okey-dokey for too long. It will always be somebody else’s fault. And this from a ‘rational black man.’ How very pathetic. Run like the very hounds of hell are behind you. Most assuredly they are.

So I have two questions

Are Black men in anyway responsible for the state of Black America? If so, please explain in what way and to what degree.

Second, irrespective of whether they are responsible for the current state of the Black community, do they now have any obligation to impliment solutions?

I’ve alread covered Steinem above so I won’t deal with her.

Now, welfare has contributed to more men not taking care of the kids they help bring into this world. Welfare is only given to single mothers so this gives any easy out for men who were pretty irresponsible to begin with. Why marry the mother of your children when the government-and by extension taxpayers (i.e., us)-will take provide for your offspring?

So, we’ve had one generation after another believing that they shouldn’t be responsible for their actions. Thus, there are too many Black men who believe that they have as much sex as they want without having to face the consequences. (Sadly, there are too many Black women who let the guys get away with this.) All this irresponsibility leads to other irresponsible, immoral behavior like raping women, killing cops, and then screaming “I’m a victim!”

So, welfare has indeed helped create an environment in which too many Black people celebrate being a savage or a fool.

I brought up Kathryn Lopez’s radical feminism article because it addressed the bizarre situation of young people saying Chris Brown is the victim after beating up Rihanna. The Chris Brown supporters are just like the idiots now defending Mixon.

Why is that? Ms. Lopez provides one of the best explanations:

“What has happened — and what Rihanna and Chris have to do with Gloria and us — is that by inventing oppression where there is none and remaking woman in man’s image, as the sexual and feminist revolutions have done, we’ve confused everyone. The reaction those kids had was unnatural. It’s natural for us to expect men to protect women, and for women to expect some level of physical protection. But in post-modern America, those natural gender roles have been beaten by academics and political rhetoric and the occasional modern woman being offended by having a door opened for her. The result is confusion.”

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZjkwMGRhY2NmNDFjZDhhMWFlZGQyZmI5NTMxMmRkNzk=

That’s the problem. Despite radical feminists’ intentions, they’ve contributed to a climate in which it’s cool to fight a woman like a man instead of backing off and cooling off as in the old days. So, is it any surprise that a lot of kids keep siding with the thugs and wifebeaters instead of condemning them?

That’s the mindset we’re dealing with. And that’s the mindset we have to confront and demolish to end all this insanity.

The issue isn’t what Gloria Steinem, Moynihan, welfare, the 60s did (it’s always someone else’s fault).

It’s what the males are doing or not doing. A man owns up to his responsibilties and actions.