Misdirected rage

An unpopular truth

[Reprinted from Issues & Views July 9, 2001]

Why is it that when a black demonstrates anger that sometimes leads to anti-social behavior, factors outside his immediate family circle are blamed, that is, whites and mainstream society? Here's what Jesse Peterson has to say about such exoneration:

While, as I've noted, the inflammatory rhetoric of racial provocateurs is a major cause of black rage today, there is also a family factor at work. In my own life, the anger and fury I carried around with me everywhere I went--which, for many years, I directed at white people--was primarily the product of being abandoned by my father. I hated and resented him for leaving me; I hated and resented my mother for hating him; and I hated and resented both of them together for not succeeding as a family. It was my fragmented and troubled family life that was the basic source of my hostility and discontent. As a young man, I translated that into racial rage because that gave me a feeling--however false--of self-control and power. By hating white people and being angry at America, I avoided the pain of facing my resentment of my parents, and my hurtful awareness of how they failed me. I missed not having a father to love me and nurture me into manhood. In his place, I accepted hostility toward others, particularly whites--those who my community had taught me were the origin of my suffering as a black man in America.

It is disconcerting but true: black leaders exploit the family problems of black people, especially black people's poor relations with their fathers. Family pain in the backgrounds of many black people is the foundation, the real fuel for power, for race men. They use blacks' internal resentment of their parents, particularly their fathers, to help generate anger at white people and American culture.

That's why you don't see a massive, overwhelming effort on the part of black leaders to rescue the institution of black fatherhood, which--with about 70% of black births out-of-wedlock--is plainly nearing extinction. Civil rights groups don't emphasize the centrality of the family to black progress, but rather the value of government initiatives and group identity. Too much of a focus on the black family and its restoration would in time reduce the personal anger of many blacks, and thus undercut the social influence of the race industry. So, we black Americans continue along in this racial mess, obeying our de facto spokesmen, being angry at white people, and neglecting our own homes.

-- Jesse Peterson, in his book, From Rage to Responsibility (Paragon House). He is Director of Brotherhood Organization of A New Destiny(BOND)

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