Taking Back the Language

One Word or Phrase at a Time

How tragic that we had two terms of Democrat “community activist” Barack Hussein Obama, whose legacy included, among many awful things, trying his best to “workshop” a more benign name for black criminals. It’s a fact that nobody — least of all Obama — cares about white criminals. Let ‘em rot in jail. But if a black career felon gets caught and released for the 20^th time, activists bring up “mass incarceration” like that’s a BAD thing.

For a time there, before Obama came on the scene, my leftist friends were using the silly politically-correct term for young truants and ganstas: “at-risk” youth. Really? “At risk” from WHOM? Marauding bands of white-sheeted mush-minds? Well, no; not in about three generations.

Black youth are still mostly at risk from each other.

For, example, if they found themselves wearing the wrong color clothes in a gang territory with different colors. If they coveted some drug dealer’s prize corner to peddle their own poison. Or if they gave a “mad dog look” to another moron at a dance club. Thirty-five years ago in the Twin Cities when I was trying to raise a black/Hispanic foster teen, he assured me that being the recipient of “a mad dog look” meant you were obligated to go to your car and get a weapon from your glove box and shoot wildly around the dance club, hoping the jerk who “dissed” you was among the dead. You could never let that insult slide. Combining the gangsta culture with Honduran machismo was a volatile mixture.

It’s infuriating enough when these “at risk” youths kill each other, leaving grieving relatives, mothers mostly. Worse yet, we read tragic stories of little black schoolchildren who WERE doing their homework at a kitchen table when stray bullets from some of these “at risk” youths killed them dead.

The teens and young adults were also “at risk” of not paying any attention in school and ending up as unemployable stupid-heads. Which certainly did not mean that they were not HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATE stupid-heads. Oh no. With testing of any kind, homework of any kind, standards of any kind, being thrown out the Window of Racist White Supremacist Oppression, graduating from High School is now a human right.

George W. Bush called this “the soft bigotry of low expectations.” I call it EVIL. And deeply, profoundly racist for real. Almost as racist as saying outloud that black people are too stupid to locate the DMV. Add in COVID idiocy when the Teachers’ Union mopes got many months of paid vacation and students lost what some say are YEARS of learning, and you have a generational crisis.

I have seen with my own eyes, a large black woman in a workout leotard lecturing some corporate stooges while pointing to a whiteboard listing things that are “racist”. Two that caught my eye were “showing up on time” and “getting the right answer.” Oh, the humanity! Not that! Anything but that! Who needs a “right answer” to build a bridge, or do mechanic work on a truck, or even to memorize the menu at a restaurant?

What a heap of disrespect to the righteous black activists who marched, prayed, and sometimes died for the right to go to a decent school and even college – if they could get past the governor of their state planting his fat bigoted self in the doorway.

Heck, for many years now, students don’t even have to show up, never mind “on time”! The teachers will just lie about truancy because – never forget – State Aid DEPENDS on attendance. So, not only are thousands of Black youth in Blue Cities “at risk” of being passed on year after year, despite spending $20,000, $30,000, $40,000 per pupil, they are graduating illiterate and innumerate. Yet, even with SAT scores much lower than Gavin Newsom’s, these scholars are also sought after for college admission!

Where are we as a culture when even Harvard needs to have Remedial Courses? Including one called “Math.” Not “Calculus: Let’s Take A Second Look.” Not even “Advanced Algebra, Part Deux.” Just “Math.”

(Brief humorous triggered memory on the subject of “showing up on time”: a tall, good-looking goof-off of a classmate was in my Speech Class. One day, the slacker showed up 40 minutes late. Mr. Riggs, the Speech teacher, who sadly just passed away a few weeks ago, was quite livid. “Lyle, WHY are you so late to class?” And Lyle replied, “I’m pretty sure it’s because I didn’t get here until just now.” Mr. Riggs turned red in the face and I had to bite my tongue until blood trickled down my throat to avoid laughing outloud.)

But back to the ever-divisive, race-obsessed President Obama. Even in his current irrelevance, he could not miss an opportunity to turn a funeral into a political rally. Much to the dismay of the grieving relatives.

Shortly after he was elected, Obama had noticed that quite a large number of those “at-risk” youths, just went ahead and TOOK those so-called “risks” and got in Big Trouble. Remember, this was back in the day shortly before Soros-financed district attorneys installed revolving doors in their courthouses, demanding not even so much as a penny of bail or an afternoon of jail.

There were instances of violent criminals being arrested three times in one day. A member of our family was once attacked by a cretinous felon in his late teens who asked to be tried as an Adult because his Juvenile record screamed, “Incredibly guilty!”

What they got “involved with” was serious crime. Selling drugs. Car-jacking. Burglary. Robbery. Home invasions. Even Rape and Murder. But “felon” and “criminal” are just so darned “judgey.” And their stench tends to linger and follow the miscreant around in life. So, Obama’s team came up with – ready for it? – “Justice-Involved Youth”.

You know, some kids get “involved” with The Drama Club or The Chess Club or The Math Club or The Boy Scouts or Future Farmers of America. And SOME “youths” get “involved” with “Justice” instead. Why, it almost sounds like they were on the SIDE OF Justice. No, sir, Mr. Obama.

But, but, but, the poor kiddos are stealing to buy food or baby diapers, according to Jasmine Crockett. No, Jazzy, food and baby diapers are provided by the taxpayers. Let’s go to the tape, shall we? Here we have looting at a mall. The tykes are stealing high-end clothing and even higher-end athletic shoes. (No work boots, as the old saying goes.) Nor a Pampers box in sight!

People do not steal because they are poor. People are poor because they steal.

Once you have gone down that road, believing that you are ENTITLED to goods that do not belong to you, there is rarely a turning-back. The chances of ever becoming a hard-working, tax-paying citizen are very low. What might have begun as a lark, a dare, becomes a habit, which pays off for as long as it goes undetected. Then, it becomes a demand for “reparations” and looting as a SACRED RIGHT.

There are probably a few people reading this right now who impulsively stole a candy bar from a grocery store or drugstore when you were 5 or 6 years old. And to channel Scooby Doo “would have got away with it, too, if it weren’t for that pesky MOM”.

Yup. Your honest, religious Mama noticed the wrapper from the purloined treat she didn’t pay for. It goes without saying that you cracked immediately upon interrogation. She was mortified and not only dragged you back to apologize to the store owner, and pay for the candy bar, but she asked the store owner to make you sweep up his back room for free on consecutive Saturdays! Over a nickel candy bar. But you learned: stealing is wrong.

Returning to the silly concept of “Justice-Involved Youth”, the “youth” in that scenario is also a very elastic concept. If, as is currently believed, nobody under 26 has a fully developed brain and therefore is not responsible for his or her actions, then almost NONE of our grandparents and parents were responsible for their actions!

Holy Cow, the vast majority of all of my relatives were married with one or more children by age 26. #MeToo! Oh, and, parenthetically, guess what I did almost IMMEDIATELY after I got married? I – one of the most direction-challenged humans ever born – located a DMV and changed my Driver’s License from my old last name to my new last name, with my maiden name as a middle name!

My Dad was a 20 year-old World War 2-era Navy veteran when married Mama, and just 21 when I was born. I could always remember how old he was by taking my own age and adding 21 to it. (I could do that in my head, even without Harvard’s Remedial Math). So, does this mean that nobody under 26 should be legally or contractually bound if they sign up for the military or take a lease on an apartment, or run up a credit card?

Now, I will stipulate that Joe/Max and I were originally not THE most mature married couple ever to walk the Earth. At least for the first hundred or so years. But, now, we are reaping the rewards of this long partnership that came from making that addle-brained decision! We expect that any day now, our brains will become fully-formed and completely-functional and who knows what worlds we will conquer then?!