Armstrong Williams Nails It: If Black Lives Really Mattered

Armstrong Williams

by Herman Cain: What activists would do if it was really about black people and not about politics.

Few are better than Armstrong Williams, my fellow American Black Conservative, at getting to the heart of the matter. And rarely has that been more needed than on this whole movement operating under the name (or perhaps the hashtag) #blacklivesmatter.

Many can see what Armstrong can see - that this movement is little more than an adjunct of the most radical wing of the Democrat Party. It's about politics, not people. And how can you tell? Because as Armstrong describes so eloquently, a movement that was really based on the principle that black lives matter would be about improving black lives. This movement fails that test very badly:

The political strategy of the Black Lives Matter movement is also counterproductive. By protesting and disrupting mainstream Democratic presidential candidates—such as the recent breakup of a Bernie Sanders campaign rally in Seattle—the movement is demonstrating that it does not have the organizational sophistication to form strategic alliances that would ultimately beget political power.

Furthermore, movement leaders do not seem to understand that making such unreasonable demands of individual politicians risks splintering the unity they would need to keep the White House under Democratic control in 2016. These shortsighted tactics are bound to backfire as Republicans pick up independents and undecided voters who might justifiably object to some of the behavior of the activists. Under such a scenario, blacks would probably get the worst of both worlds: an unsuccessful Democratic coalition and isolation from the potential rewards of an eventual Republican victory.

If black lives really mattered, so would black behavior. High school dropout rates, incarceration rates and teenage pregnancy rates are factors affecting black lives over which the black community has a great deal of control. A huge change alone would be made in terms of black wealth and welfare if births within wedlock increased by a mere 10 percent.

The 2014 documentary 72 Percent, produced by Moguldom Studios, sheds an unflinching light on the epidemic of African-American children born to single-parent households. It explores the fact that black activists have largely rejected the criticism leveled by members of the intellectual class, such as Dr. Ben Carson, President Barack Obama and Bill Cosby, that black fathers are inexcusably absent from the lives of their children.

If black lives really mattered, perhaps it would behoove activists to think globally about which cultural shifts would actually help to increase black labor-force participation. The first priority would be a cultural shift in the emphasis on education.

Exactly. A dirty little secret liberals don't want black people to know is this: You have the power to change your own life. You can make good decisions. You can embrace good habits. You can expect more of yourself and hold yourself to the standards that will allows you to achieve the things that elevate your life. No politician can stop you. No artistocrat can rig the game against you.

If black lives really mattered to these people, they would teach these lessons as a way of empowering black people to get more out of their own lives, and to do more for their families. When black lives only matter when they're convenient to make a politcal point, or to attack the police, then they don't really matter at all.

If you believe, as Armstrong and I do, that black lives really matter, then you'll be much better off listening to people who can teach you how to take control of your own life and succeed in spite of any and all obstacles that may be put up in front of you. It starts by knowing the difference between the two.Exactly. A dirty little secret liberals don't want black people to know is this: You have the power to change your own life. You can make good decisions. You can embrace good habits. You can expect more of yourself and hold yourself to the standards that will allows you to achieve the things that elevate your life. No politician can stop you. No artistocrat can rig the game against you.

If black lives really mattered to these people, they would teach these lessons as a way of empowering black people to get more out of their own lives, and to do more for their families. When black lives only matter when they're convenient to make a political point, or to attack the police, then they don't really matter at all.

If you believe, as Armstrong and I do, that black lives really matter, then you'll be much better off listening to people who can teach you how to take control of your own life and succeed in spite of any and all obstacles that may be put up in front of you. It starts by knowing the difference between the two.
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Herman Cain is a conservative radio host of CainTV, a 2012 GOP presidential primary candidate with over 40 years of experience in the private sector as an analyst for Coca-Cola, an executive at Pillsbury, a regional Vice President for Burger King, and CEO of Godfather's Pizza. Cain served as Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City and a supervisory mathematician for the Dept. of the Navy.

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