Top 5 Issues Facing Black Americans

[January 22, 2025]  Taleeb Starkes at Prager University has a popular video that addresses the top 5 issues facing black Americans. Spoiler alert: racism doesn’t make the list.

Problem Number 5: the Victim Mentality. Nothing holds a person back more than seeing themselves as a victim because a victim is not responsible for their situation. Everything is someone else’s fault. Remember that Dr. Jordan Peterson often speaks about how the route to a good life is based upon adopting the greatest responsibility one can handle. The victim sees others and circumstances holding them back; generating bitterness, anger, frustration, and fear. Starkes notes that for many blacks, their victim status becomes their “primary identity and their ruling ideology.”  Unfortunately, many black churches preach victimology, inner-city schools teach it, and the black media reinforces it. As well, many black organizations fundraise on this victim ideology.

Problem Number 4: Lack of Diversity. Blacks repeatedly demand an honest dialogue or debate about race. But how can there be an honest debate between blacks and whites when there is virtually no honest dialogue between blacks and blacks?  It’s hypocritical. If a blsck doesn’t think that whites are the problem, then they are seen as a “sell-out,” an “Uncle Tom,” or a “race-traitor,”. As long as this kind of groupthink exists, the race-reverends of the Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson type will continue to be celebrated while independent black thinkers such as Professors Thomas Sowell and Walter Williams will be shunned. The first honest race dialogue must first happen between blacks and blacks. Blacks demand diversity from others, but need to practice it ourselves.

Problem Number 3: Urban Terrorism. What most people know but rarely talk about publicly, in major lack cities, violent black on black crime is rampant. A DOJ study revealed that blacks accounted for almost half of the nation’s homicide victims (47.4%) and more than half of the offenders (52.4%), all while being 13% of America’s population. The Tuskegee Institute conducted a study of all known lynchings of blacks that occurred between 1882 and 1968. In that time of 86 years, it was reported that 3,446 blacks were lynched. Currently, black-on-black murder eclipses the number of blacks lynched every six months. Unbelievably, the culpability for this disproportionate amount of mayhem actually lies with a menacing 2 to 3% minority within the black population. Starkes calls them urban terrorists. And since they’re literally spawned from problem #2, the black community protects them.

Problem Number 2: Proliferation of Baby Mamas. The disintegration of the nuclear family has led to an astronomical increase of single-mother households. According to the Moynihan Report in 1965, nearly 25% of black children were born to unwed mothers. The report’s author Daniel Patrick Moynihan said this was a disaster in the making. He was vilified by so-called black leaders and their progressive allies. But he was right. Today, the out of wedlock birth rate is nearly 75%, and even higher in some urban areas. Baby daddy’s share this responsibility with baby mamas. Yet, while baby daddy’s are blamed and rarely shown compassion, baby mamas are rarely blamed and receive both compassion and support. This lopsided dynamic and the previously listed pathologies stem directly from the number one problem facing the black community …

Problem Number 1: Unquestioning Allegiance to So-Called Progressive Policies. Unwavering loyalty to progressive, liberal policies is the primary reason these dire conditions persist. It makes them possible and perpetuates them. It’s no coincidence that progressivism is the common thread that binds predominantly black cities where single-parent homes, failing schools, rampant poverty, and crime predominate. Look at cities like Detroit, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. They’ve been run by progressive Democrats for decades. If their liberal policies were at all effective, these cities should have become models of economic growth and prosperity. Instead, they’re models of dysfunction. By fostering and exploiting the victim mentality, discouraging self-examination, subsidizing baby man’s, and making excuses for blsck thugs, do-called progressive policies don’t alleviate the problems that afflict the black community, they aggravate those problems.

You may have noticed that racism did not make the list. Why not?  It’s simple: there can be no solution to the problems afflicting black America until more blacks recognize that the issues plaguing their community are ultimately self-inflicted. Does racism exist?  Sure. But there are other problems far more serious. And waiting until there are no more racists will mean waiting, and making excuses, forever.

Taleeb Starkes made this presentation for Prager University and can be accessed in full here (5:40 minutes) and highly recommended. The video is not new. It was uploaded to YouTube eight years ago and has garnered 8.3 million views: impressive. The data in the video has not improved for blacks, so Starkes analysis remains correct to this day.

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Please read my books:

1. “55 Rules for a Good Life,” on Amazon (link here).
2. “Our Longest Year in Iraq,” on Amazon (link here).