European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - February 24, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 the stars and stripes monday february 24,1986 columns com rents George will Timothy is to blame for Black woes at the risk of re igniting some highly flammable people i herewith recur to the subject of the Black family because some of my critics arc practising u perverse form of com their kindness has a severe Cost. It dehumanized some Blacks by denying that they have the capacity for responsibility and hence for mural Choice. In depicting them com passionately As toys of talc it causes their person Hood to disappear. Recently i wrote to Praise Bill Mayers lbs documentary the vanishing family crisis in Black America which deals with the causes of statistics like these nearly 60 per cent of All Black children Are born Oul of Wedlock. Half of All Black teen age girls become pregnant. Many of the resulting families Are hardly families and rarely Are self supporting. About half of All Black children arc partially supported by government payments. I said civil rights struggles of the 1950s and 1960s, struggles against institutional barriers to Blacks and for material amelioration for Blacks arc largely irrelevant to today s catastrophe. Ameliorative programs arc Nec Essary but arc doomed to be Over whelmed if the family the primary value generating institution collapses. Such alleged government failures As failure to enforce the voting rights act arc peripheral to the Point of in consequence regarding the social Patho logic.1 Moyers discussed. Moyers highlighted a person named Timothy he unmarried and unconcerned father of Many children. I said and say Timothy is not a Mere anecdote he is a paradigm of those persons whose sexual irresponsibility produces misery but who feel Lillic of the guilt that changes behaviour. One reason they feel Little such guilt is that they have been taught by reflexive civil rights rhetoric that they arc Mere passive Vic Tims absolved by the All purpose Alibi of Carl Rowan color White racism from All responsibility for their behaviour. Now come two columnists who but Tress my argument with their objections to it. Ray Jenkins is White. Carl Rowan is Black. Both ask Why such Lack of compassion for Timothy from George will who has a son Jonathan with Down s syndrome have Jenkins and Rowan considered the logic of their compassion Down s syndrome is a genetic defect present from Conception involving varying degress of mental retardation and physical abnormalities. Jenkins says Timothy is As much a victim of Fate As Rowan says i am compassionate when commenting about afflictions like Down s syndrome but will s compassion and knowledge turn to meanness and ignorance the Light touch is not Carl s specially when he writes about another handicapped youngster a ghetto lad hold it right there. Youngster lad Rowan s exquisite sensitivity to racial insults would cause him to have an apoplectic seizure were any White person to refer to any Black Man As a yet Rowan Calls Timothy a youngster a lad Tim Othy who is 26 years old who in the eight years he has been eligible to vote has caused eight pregnancies and says he had a Lovely time doing so. Youngster lad a More Uppa site noun is the great proclamation on placards in civil rights demonstrations 20 years ago was i am a it Cut to the heart of the matter the denial of the full person Hood of Blacks. Today peo ple who think like Jenkins and Rowan demonstrate unwittingly and in the name of compassion that there Are Many ways to deny person Hood. The essence of person Hood is an irreducible element of responsibility for one s choices and deeds. Timothy having grown up in a so Cial setting of material deprivation and moral and narrow horizons is indeed somewhat a product a victim if you prefer of bad circumstances. But consider the dam age done by thinking of him. And Tell ing him to think of himself As just As much a victim of Fate and Handi capped As a child with a retarding genetic defect. Is it not obvious the harm such compassion docs to the thinking of Whites and self esteem of Blacks i say again the Timothy Are More of a menace to Black Progress than the Bull Connors were because Only Politi Cal will was required to remove the Connors. I now add another menace to Black Progress is the compassionate portrayal of such Black men As utterly passive victims As no More to be judged than infants As less than men. Again the dignity of person Hood is related to the capacity for responsibility in making moral choices. Persons with Down s syn drome do not Lack that capacity. Some people who advertise their compassion should suspend their self congratulations Long enough to consider this Black americans should be spared the condescending compassion that portrays irresponsible Black men As not really responsible because they arc not really men. To Washington Posl Timothy a victim of american racism i am really tired of seeing the Black family Analysed especially when the analysts do not inspire anyone to produce better schools or More jobs for Blacks but do provoke ill informed people to unleash a new barrage of slander and venom at Black people. Even a first Rale television program such As Bill Mayers recently presented on lbs winds up with a destructive Impact Beau so of what reviewers columnists and other commentators choose to emphasize i be read and heard a lot of stuff by people using Mayers show As a jumping off Point that suggests not too subtly that the Black family is going to hell or disappearing because Blacks Are inherently oversexed and immoral and Are therefore producing too Many babies out of Wedlock that Blacks have been rendered weak and irresponsible by the welfare system and that the real villains Are civil rights leaders who have absolved Blacks of blame for illegitimacy crime and other failures by using what columnist George will Calls the All purpose Alibi of White racism " will is a compassionate knowing Man when he writes about physical handicaps such As Down s syn drome of which he has painful personal knowledge. But will s compassion and knowledge turn to mean Ess and ignorance when he writes of another Handi capped youngster a ghetto lad on Moyer s program who boasts of being highly sexed and having Strong sperm and who expresses no guilt about getting girls pregnant. Will has no first hand basis for understanding that this Black lad Timothy s birth and life circumstances Are very bit As crippling As Down s syndrome. Be cause Timothy does not exemplify the sophisticated morality to which those in will s and my circles give at least lip service will feels free to make the outrageous assertion in t the Timothy Are More of a menace to Black Progress than the Bull Connors Ever will is right in that Many White americans will cite the Timothy As justification for continuing the deprivations and discrimination in education employment housing and other areas that have left millions of Timothy just this Side of slavery. Will does t seem to understand that Timothy is in part a creation of Bull Connor and those who quietly shared his views about How to handle inferior lacks. This brings me o a Point raised by the very title of movers show. There is no stereotypical Black family and there is no single Black America. Black families in which the parents have Good educations and decent jobs Are among the most stable in Ameri Ca. Parents and children in these families adhere to old moral standards and conventions with a passion equating that of any other group in America. No civil rights Leader or anyone else in this More privileged sophisticated Black America is telling kids trapped m the ignorance violence drugs and general hopelessness of the ghettos that it is of to impregnate teen age girls. The Urban league has been screaming if you can t be a father Don t make a baby that moral message is hard to sell to unsophisticated youngsters who see a sex filled society in which Ryan o Neal and Farah Fawcett or Mick Jagger and Jerry Hall can produce babies out of Wedlock and never lose stardom and acceptance. Obviously neither will nor the White House pow ers to whom he is so close wants to accept any blame for the woes of so Many Black families especially those who have been pushed out of Middle class status by the White House policies of the last five years. So will leaps gleefully from a lbs program that is done with sensitivity to his own absurdly insensitive argue named tirnov03 ""prl5oner of Blacks is a 8hetto id there is no Hope for poor Black families or for America if that mentality prevails. Id Linn America sync Dotoli
