Remarks made by a popular DJ
Below is a article written by a popular DJ in the Rochester NY area. People in the area are calling for him to resign. While I might not agree with what he says (then again I might). Either way I am all for freedom of speech. I would like to add, the last time he had a run in like this he called our African American Mayor a monkey. I have a very biased view on anything he says...but would like others opinions.
Bob Lonsberry's column for Monday, June 16, 2008.
Bob Lonsberry's column for 06/16/08, Now removed from His Web Site
Déjà vu ALL OVER AGAIN
Today in Rochester, shortly before noon, a group of black activists will call for me to be fired.
They will call me a racist.
Their claim is baseless, but it was the last time, too. And the last time I got fired.
So we'll see how this goes.
If worse comes to worse, I've got six months of severance in my contract and a book deal to fall back on.
Here's their beef: I criticized a program that honors “black scholars” and a newspaper story that praised pregnant teen-agers who graduate from high
School.
Actually, I did a lot more than criticize them, I ripped them from stem to stern. I think that the program and the story are examples of a sinister tendency to praise failure and mediocrity, and to offer false respect and honor for inadequate performance.
This tendency is sinister because it lulls people into thinking that second-best is good, when it isn't. It deceives them into being satisfied with less than their best. In short, false praise dooms people by throwing water on the fires of ambition and drowning out the desire for excellence.
First, the pregnant teens.
The newspaper – all newspapers – periodically runs ridiculous stories about teen-age mothers who get their high school diplomas. These young women are praised and petted and given special honors and called courageous and strong.
Which is insane.
The courageous and strong young women are the ones who kept their pants on. With out-of-wedlock births tied to a whole slew of social pathologies and failures, and with African-Americans particularly troubled by out-of-wedlock births, these unmarried teen pregnancies should be discouraged, not facilitated.
I said on the radio that they should write newspaper stories about girls who do what's right and excel. I said that they should particularly honor girls from troubled neighborhoods, where out-of-wedlock birth is so high, who don't get pregnant and who go on to graduate.
Honors should be for those who do right and deserve them. We should hold up as examples, in our newspapers and in life, those who have faced difficulty, made the right choices and excelled. Those people should be honored, not those who have messed up.
The other thing has to do with the “black scholars” program. This is a deal where black kids who have a B or above get their name and picture in the paper as “black scholars.”
This program irks me, and it should deeply offend every black mom and dad.
Why?
Because it sets a lower standard for black kids. If you get a B and you're white, you're average, you don't make the honor roll or the merit roll or whatever they call it. If you get a B and you're black, you get your name and your picture in the paper and you're a “black scholar.”
Why?
How does that make sense? And what do you think happens if you tell white kids that a B is mediocre and you tell black kids that a B is a big enough deal to get your picture in the paper? Isn't it racist to expect less from one group of people than another? Shouldn't the bar be set at one level for everybody? Don't different expectations result in different outcomes?
If you praise black kids for doing less than white kids, don't you set those black kids up for failure when they ultimately have to compete head-to-head with white kids?
Isn't it condescending to expect less of black kids and to give them false praise? And doesn't that false praise hurt people by lowering their motivation and standard of accomplishment?
If you tell one group of runners that 25 seconds is a fast time in the 100-yard dash and you tell another group of runners that 10 seconds is a fast time in a 100-yard dash, which group do you think is going to tend to run faster?
And haven't we sold black kids short long enough?
Haven't we learned that lowered expectations lead to lower outcomes? Isn't that a fundamental aspect of human nature?
And when we praise sub-standard performance, don't we cheat those who truly achieve? Don't we steal their thunder and take away some of the motivation for others to excel?
If the newspaper stories lionized City School District girls who did not get pregnant, wouldn't that honor true achievement and hold out a good example for others to follow? If the “black scholars” program put the pictures of African-American students who got an A+, or were above a 95, wouldn't that honor true achievement and hold out a good example for others to follow?
Shouldn't those who've actually done something good get the praise?
What's unfortunate is that these programs exist at all. They are a curse that weighs down an entire community. The only people who praise them are those who make money off them or who can gain political capital by advocating them.
I think someone who lowers standards for anyone – including African-Americans – is an enemy, not a friend.
City teen-age girls, and black students in high school, are in no way inferior or second fiddle to anyone. They have just as much innate ability to make moral and wise decisions, and to achieve academically, as anybody.
Setting lower standards for them – as this story did and this program does – is disrespectful and offensive. Criticizing that lowering of standards is not attacking the black community, it is defending it.
I stand by what I said.
Because I was right.
But we'll see how this plays out. The right thing to do would be to tell these activists to go pound salt. But there are a lot of other factors involved. Rochester is home of the powerful congresswoman who is pushing the new “Fairness Doctrine” that would end conservative talk radio. And the Democrats are about four months away from taking the country over lock, stock and barrel.
The odds are that a few no-names are going to get thrown to the beast to buy time and cover for the industry, and there's nothing to say I couldn't be one of those.
All I know for sure is this. Rochester's urban black community is falling in on itself. The perfect storm of personal and social dysfunction is crushing lives on a daily basis. After decades of politically correct social programs, things are worse than they've ever been – and that's not a coincidence. Many of Rochester's so-called black “leaders” are interested in nothing more than feathering their own nests -- in filling their purse or building their political base or stroking their ego.
And more babies are born without fathers and families, more people slide into welfare, lawlessness increases, educational failure is epidemic, more people are murdered, drugs and alcohol trap more and more, and none of that is the fault of the guy on the radio.
But it's easier to hold press conferences about me than it is to actually do something that does anybody any good.
So the attack begins today.
Only time will tell how it turns out.
By Bob Lonsberry © 2008
