Black Community News News and Commentary for Christians
“You know, joining a gang is like having a family,” Hillary Clinton said. “It’s feeling like you’re part of something bigger than yourself. So we’re either going to have gangs that murder and rob and do the things that are so destructive to the gang members and to the community. Or, we’re going to have positive gangs. We’re going to have positive alternatives for young people.”
Was Clinton trying to be folksy? Why reference gangs in a positive way, given the havoc they wreak? Sheriff David Clarke thinks those remarks are condescending. Here’s why:
“Mrs. Bill Clinton is totally disconnected to life in the black community. She has such a misperception about our intelligence level. She thinks we’re some lower form of intelligence…because we don’t have a family experience we should join a gang.”
The sheriff wondered why she just didn’t say: make better lifestyle choices — join a church or the Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts or Boys’ and Girls’ Clubs.
(Clinton should have used a different metaphor to get her point across. As Sheriff Clarke said, gangs are “dysfunctional culture.”)
“For her to sit up there and embrace this as if it’s something that’s socially acceptable in the black community, this stuff ought to be rejected out of hand. It ought to be shunned and shamed.”
What has contributed to black family instability? Watch the brief clip for Sheriff Clarke’s answer — Clinton won’t like it.
