OPINION: One Way to Improve Future Black History

February is Black History Month.

I admire numerous iconic Black historical figures, but my thoughts about Black History Month echo those of actor Morgan Freeman.

“I don’t want a Black History Month … It’s ridiculous and I detest the idea …

We don’t have a White History Month.

My history is American history.

The way to get rid of racism is to stop talking about it.”

The way Black History Month is celebrated today is not productive. It focuses exhaustively on the situations that limited Black achievement in the past. It ignores the primary, self-inflicted problem of today that is responsible for the collective underachievement of Blacks Americans.

A quote attributed to Black economist and historian Thomas Sowell highlights the general problem. “The achievement gap between Blacks and other races results from being parented with values that do not lead to success in this society.”

The value most responsible for this racial achievement gap is Black America’s seeming indifference to the extreme percentage of their children that are born out-of-wedlock, i.e., unmarried mothers raising children without fathers.

Consider the comparative percentages, by race, of children who are born out of wedlock (OOW). 

• 12% of Asian babies.
• 30% of Whites.
• 50% of Latinos.
• 70% of Blacks.

These numbers are important because the LOWER the percentage of children born OOW in any given racial group, the HIGHER is the average success of that race in almost all sociological categories.

• ASIANS have the lowest percentage of out-of-wedlock (OOW) births –  six TIMES lower than Blacks.  Not coincidentally, Asians also have the BEST statistics – by far – for each of the following categories: health, education, personal income, family wealth, quality and consistency of employment, criminality and incarceration rates, sexually transmitted diseases (STD’s), life expectancy, and more.
• WHITES have the next best percentage of OOW births – more than two times lower than Blacks. Predictably, Whites also have the SECOND BEST ranking in all the quality-of-life categories listed above.
• LATINOS have the third best percentage of OOW births – about 30% lower than Blacks, and you start to see a pattern here. Latinos have the THIRD highest ranking for quality of life categories.
• BLACKS, meanwhile, have maintained the WORST percentage of OOW births for decades. Seven out of every ten Black babies are being raised by unmarried mothers. Compared with other races, the pattern continues with Blacks having the LOWEST quality of life in all the previously mentioned categories.

https://www.fool.com/research/average-net-worth-americans/

https://crimeresearch.org/2023/11/violent-crime-rates-by-race/

https://www.mdch.state.mi.us/osr/std/STDbyRace.asp

https://www.usnews.com/news/education-news/articles/2020-10-13/school-suspension-data-shows-glaring-disparities-in-discipline-by-race

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_and_health_in_the_United_States

We are all familiar with the excuses offered for the disparity in quality of life statistics between Blacks and other races. These include: historical slavery, systemic racism, and cultural bias. These excuses are no longer valid. They’ve been disproven by millions of exceptions.

Statistics show that children of any race that are born OOW have a much higher likelihood of experiencing the following issues in their lives.

https://www.marripedia.org/effects_of_out-of-wedlock_births_on_children

• Poor birth health and lower cognitive and verbal ability.
• More exposure to physical abuse, alcohol, and drugs.
• Lower education achievement, and more aggressive behavior and disciplinary problems in school.
• Lack of consistent employment and insufficient income.
• More criminal behavior throughout their lives and subsequently more incarceration.
• A weaker sense of right vs. wrong and difficulty with delayed gratification.

These traits do not boost any individual’s quality of life regardless of race. The greater the number of children of any race who grow-up with these traits, the less successful that race will be as a whole.

All races have a certain percentage of children who deal with these challenging issues. However, NO other race experiences these problems to the excessive, crippling degree that occurs with Blacks in America. This situation is largely because NO other race has the excessively high rate of OOW births that Blacks have maintained.

But that’s good news.

It means that to achieve a higher quality of life and fulfill their God-given potential:

• Blacks do not need to rewrite history.
• They do not need to continue blaming the past.
• Blacks do not need the pitying and insulting DEI philosophy that denies meritocracy and promotes the “soft bigotry of low expectations.”

Blacks simply need to make a consistent effort – in the present – to reduce the number of OOW births.

How This Could Be Accomplished

• Parents must teach their children this mantra for future success and make it a top priority: FIRST you get married, THEN you have children.

• Schools must stop teaching children that sexually promiscuous behavior is normal, and start teaching that sex belongs in committed marriages, and “Love waits.”

• Churches – especially Black churches – must constantly preach that virtuous sexual behavior is not just a desirable moral principle; it is a spiritual demand from God, as well as a human necessity for any race that hopes to progress.

Children who are raised in this manner by a mother and a father, and receive daily emphasis on moral values, will be more likely to parent their own children the same way.

And if this happens – and it can – then future celebrations of EVERYONE’s history, including Black Americans, will show significantly lower OOW birth rates, and an improved quality of life for everyone.

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