Four Points, Which Direction?

There is nothing I fear more than losing one of my children. Hence, I read this Toronto Sun article with empathy for bereaved and angry parents who have lost their child. The grieving and angry father delivers a four-point dissection of the underlying problem, which is as concise, blunt and accurate as any I have seen.

[...]"This man goes into the ghetto and says he wants to ban guns -- they are laughing at him," he said yesterday.

Bitterly angry at his son's murder and the relative lack of response to more than 50 gun-related murders in Toronto so far this year, Huxtable said desperate measures are necessary.

He is furious youths are treated with kid gloves and he accused politicians and other leaders of racial bias.

"Black on black ... who gives a rat's ass," he said with sarcasm.

"No white kids are getting killed."

[...]
Poor parenting, a lack of core values, inappropriate role models and few, if any, consequences, due to soft youth laws, fuel the gun violence, Huxtable said.

The last part of the quote says it all. Here are the four underlying causes according to Huxtable.

1. Poor parenting
2. Lack of Core Values
3. Inappropriate Role Models
4. Few if any consequences

Now, he points to racism as the reason these issues are ignored by the white community. Let's drill into this a bit more, looking at the same four points through a racism lens:

1. Poor parenting
   Parenting skills are handed down generation to generation. The chain is broken. We can chose to delegate parenting to the state, or undertake to increase our capability as parents. Assuming motivation, the latter approach begins to repair the broken chain of generational education. The former perpetuates the problem. Poor parents must be self-motivated to improve their skills, which starts with a recognition of the need to improve, and the will to do so. Perhaps a trip to the local library to find freely available material would be a good place for parents wanting to improve their parenting skills to take their first responsible steps.
   
2. Lack of Core Values
   These cannot be provided by government infrastructure or services. Core values cannot be given. They must be accepted after being offered. One can be forced to hear, but not to listen.
   
3. Inappropriate Role Models
   There are plenty of wonderful role models in society. Not all of them are black, but some are. Colin Powell immediately comes to mind. In selecting role models, ignore ethnicity, just as we are being asked to ignore ethnicity. We are unable to create ethnic role models on your behalf.
   
4. Few if any consequences
   This is where I see government being able to make a real difference. Few Canadians would disagree with Mr. Huxtable on this point. Forgive me though, but I am having a little trouble understanding how being soft is being racist. It would appear there is no escaping the 'racist' smear: racist if you are soft, racist if you provide the consequences, because most of this violence is perpetrated by members of an identifiable community plagued by the three other conditions.

The only way we can provide the consequences is if this ethnic community takes the race card off the table, and we get down to business fixing the problem.