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Kobe’s Problems Not Black America’s

No doubt we all have heard the story of another National Basketball Association player falling from grace.  This time it is the much ballyhooed Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers.   

Bryant was recently charged with sexual assault in Eagleton, Colorado after he allegedly forced himself on a young 19 year old woman.  In the aftermath, nothing was more despicable than to see Bryant whining for forgiveness on national television, something only his wife should have heard in the privacy of their home. 

Once again this nation’s appetite for voyeurism has eclipsed many important social issues that need addressing immediately.   

The Urban League recently released its annual report, The State of Black America. It is amazing how those finding seem to never get better but maybe that’s because our attention is being occupied by an adultery. 

If you can focus for just a moment, here are a few things more important than NBA players, their sexual trysts and courtroom antics. 

Urban League president, Marc Morial, states black families are strong but have severe challenges ahead and any gains may be dampened by persistent incarceration of black men and the continued rising unemployment gap between whites and blacks. 

Teen pregnancy continues to be the bane of black America according to Robert Hill, a senior researcher at the Rockville, MD and contributing essayist to the report. “Black teens are about three times more likely than whites to have out-of-wedlock babies,” Hill said. Other factors continuing to plague black families include: urban renewal efforts, which displaced many blacks and created segregated high-rise public housing; drug use, and the AIDS epidemic. 

Hills concerns about the black economy are equally as dismal. The decline of the manufacturing industries which employed many blue collar black workers has given rise to service industries costing decent wages for lower paying white collar jobs. 

And while black families' median income increased, it still remains at only 60 percent of white families', Hill said. 

Blacks make up about 12 percent of the nation's population yet they account for nearly half of the people in prison.  Ernest Drucker, author of an essay on incarceration suggests this high incarceration rate divides families and further contributes to the cycle of poverty because more than half of incarcerated men have children who are minors. 

A contributing factor to the high incarceration rates are drug enforcement policies that adversely effects black.  One statistic cited in the report shows that blacks account for 13 percent of the nation's drug users, but 35 percent of drug arrests and 53 percent of drug convictions. 

Now could you please remind me why I should feel sorry for a multi-millionaire who travels all over the county, has money to burn and his choice of women to discard yet could not respect the sanctity of his vows.  Kobe Bryant is typical of the hip-hop generation who lives by their own rules and cry hollow apologies once their hand is caught in the cookie jar. 

Sorry Kobe, I missed the apology because there are more important things in Black America that needs my focus.

 jul 03