Geraldo Rivera is only the latest pundit to let us know that 400 plus years of socioeconomic disaster for black America could be fixed if we just figured out the problem.
That problem of course being black America.
Geraldo’s comments were made during an appearance on “Fox and Friends” in which he addressed what he believed is the real problem plaguing black communities.
And in the end it’s paternalistic scolding, because it always ends up getting around to some “common wisdom” that black fathers are pretty much the worst things in all Creation.
Rivera criticized those who focused on police violence and challenged them to avoid the “low-hanging fruit” and instead focus on the harder problems to solve.
“We’re the victims. Yet again, we’re the victims. Let’s fix this problem,” Rivera said. “But what about the much more difficult problem of ‘We’re The Problem.'”
“We’re the problem when it comes to the dysfunction,” Rivera continued. “We’re the problem when it comes to fathers not being responsible for their children. … That’s the t-shirt he should wear. That’s fine, “I can’t breathe” this week. Next week, if you’re gonna be a billboard, a walking billboard, next week “Be a better father to your son.”
I’m sure Eric Garner’s son and grandson would like to hear more about this theory.
There’s so much wrong with this I can barely keep from punching the keyboard. What about the fathers of the white people who go around shooting up schools like Sandy Hook or other public places like that theater in Aurora? What about Tim McVeigh’s dad, or Eric Robert Rudolph’s father? Nobody said “You know, white guys need to be better fathers. Just look at that Tim McVeigh blowing up that federal building, where the hell was his dad?”
Nobody said that. But the problem with police murdering black men (and black women) is us? It’s because our fathers aren’t good enough to make us bulletproof? I’m sure if Eric Garner had pulled his pants up or gone around in his spare time preaching about the evils of that damned hippity-hop music the cops wouldn’t have choked him to death, right?
“We’re the problem” definitely would have solved centuries of slavery and Jim Crow and redlining neighborhoods and lynch mobs and and alleviated any need for a civil rights movement, I’m sure. Look, it’s one thing to say “You have to take personal responsibility for your own actions like all people have to do” and entirely another to say “cops would shoot you less if you weren’t culturally inferior little beasties who are a blight on society.”
Hell the fact we survived this long despite all this bullshit kind of proves we must have done something right, ya know?