Violence at Black Culture Days Must Be Addressed

Tuesday, September 16, 2003

Page 7

AFFAIRS OF STATE (Column)

Violence at Black Culture Days Must Be Addressed

By DAVID KLINE

The finale of this year’s Black Culture Day at the State Fair can be classified somewhere between “melee” and “riot.”

Hundreds of youths terrorized the area around the fair’s exit, with some jumping on cars, breaking windshields, punching innocent bystanders in the face and even stabbing one teenager.

This wasn’t the first time there has been trouble at the close of Black Culture Day. In 2000, fights broke out and a large crowd of fairgoers refused to leave the park at closing time. When police moved in to force them out, many of the fairgoers yelled epithets at the officers and refused to respect their authority.

There also were problems in 2002, again because fairgoers refused to exit the park in an orderly manner at closing time.

Thankfully, we won’t have to go through this drill again next year. The State Fair has canceled Black Culture Day and other ethnic-based special days, and has decided to simply celebrate California’s diverse culture every day of the fair.

How novel. The State Fair will be for everybody, every day. No more special days based on ethnicities that are deemed politically correct to celebrate. It’s nice to see that it only took five decades for the lessons of the civil rights movement to sink in with the State Fair directors.

While striking overt racism from the State Fair schedule should solve the problems that have plagued Black Culture Day — and should make families of all colors feel safer about taking children to enjoy the Ferris wheels and farm exhibits any day of the fair — there is a larger issue that remains to be addressed.

The problem, simply put, is that the mob violence that has marred Black Culture Day seems to have actually become a part of today’s black culture. It is becoming a sadly predictable occurrence:

•Three years ago in the nation’s capital, the U.S. National Zoo’s annual African American Family Celebration ended with a 16-year-old shooting into a crowd, permanently injuring an 11-year-old bystander.

•On the University of California’s Davis campus, gunshots and fights became part of the annual tradition of Black Family Day during the early 1990s.

•In Tucson, Ariz., a young girl was shot a few years ago during the Juneteenth festival, an annual event which celebrates the freeing of slaves in the United States.

•The Source Hip-Hop Music Awards ceremony, celebrating music created predominately by and for black youths, was cut short in 2000 when fights broke out on stage and in the audience.

•In 2001 and twice in 2002, Cincinnati’s annual Black Family Reunion ended with hundreds of teenagers tearing through town, throwing objects at cars, assaulting bus drivers, vandalizing property and reportedly firing guns.

The problems in Cincinnati are especially disturbing, considering that the entire purpose of the Black Family Reunion is to strengthen black families so children in these families will grow up to be law-abiding, productive members of society. The event includes college recruiters, health screenings and other attractions designed to help families prosper.

Why are these types of events marred by violence, when others are not?

Are young blacks simply reacting to oppression, as liberals often suggest? Would things change if blacks were given more government benefits and more special treatment in school admissions and hiring?

Or have such preferences failed because, as conservatives suggest, the problem lies elsewhere? Does the mob violence really stem from broken families, widespread disdain for education and a rap/hip-hop culture that bombards teens with violent, sexist, racist and pro-drug messages?

And what percentage of blame can we attribute to self-proclaimed “black leaders” who continually preach that all blacks are oppressed, that police can’t be trusted and that blacks who succeed in business or politics are “Uncle Toms”?

It behooves people of all colors and backgrounds to address these questions, and to tackle this touchy subject, political correctness be damned.

It’s obvious that violence at events that attract black youths is a real problem, not just some bogeyman created by paranoid whites. And while the short-term solution may be to simply cancel such events, we still must realize that the violence is a symptom of a serious national problem that deserves serious national attention.