Charlotte, NC Mayor Pat McCrory, who is white, said he was accurate when he wrote that “too many of our youth, primarily African American, are imitating and/or participating in a gangster type of dress, attitude, behavior and action.” His remarks came in a July 5 letter to the city manager in which McCrory congratulated police for their presence the night before, when 169 people — mostly black — were arrested.

The mayor painted “African American youth with a broad swath that cuts deep in many of our communities,” said Ken White, president of the Charlotte branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. “Mr. McCrory’s comments reinforce that stereotype, especially to those inclined to hold onto racist thinking and behavior,” White said.

McCrory told The Charlotte Observer that he understands his remarks offended some people, but he cited statistics that more than 60 percent of Charlotte’s gang members are black. “My role as mayor is to communicate what I consider to be concerns and in doing so you have to step on some toes,” he said. The mayor said he stands by his comments that black youth are imitating gangsters, despite a call from the local NAACP to apologize. (AP)

Seems to me the only thing Mayor McCrory needs to apologize for is for being white, white people are simply not allowed to say things like this because the black community will cry “racism.” But the mayor’s observations seem on-point to me. Black and Latino youth have indeed embraced a culture of negative, violent stereotypes, while the black community at large does virtually nothing about it. There is no hew and cry from the black community about these so-called gangstas and criminal elements—both real and simulated—that thrive openly within our urban youth culture. We say nothing, we do nothing, while the souls of our youth are being freely stolen, day after day.

If you were sitting on your porch, and some white guys drove up in a bus, grabbed your kid and dragged him off to Nazi training camp, you’d be hopping mad about it. But, each and every day black America—the black church most insidiously—sits idly by while the exact same scenario happens every minute of every hour of every day. Only, it’s our own—black gangs, black thugs—stealing our children. And, by paying your cable bill, inviting the so-called “gangsta rap” culture into your home, you’re helping them do it. By not taking a stand against gang lifestyles, by not promoting and, yes, financing alternatives to that lifestyle, by not taking a stand against violent video games, gang colors, and gangstas mentality—by allowing any and all of that to flourish in our own communities, in our own homes, we are all guilty of a heinous sin.

I mean, the NAACP is filing lawsuits against this white mayor, but how much money, per capita, did the African American community spend last year on gang alternatives? How much did the back church spend? How much did YOUR church spend on gang alternatives and anti-gang messages? How much money did you, personally, spend, last year, on efforts to keep your own kids, your own family, your neighbor’s kids, out of gangs? How much time did you spend with your kids, with your neighbor’s kids, providing alternatives to the glamorized gangsta culture? You’d actually be surprised how much good will a pizza and a movie can buy. How much influence a bowling trip can purchase.

I can’t help but wonder what might happen if we, in the black community, started identifying Gang-Free Zones. Putting up signs around schools, around arcades, malls, libraries, around churches, around laundromats, around places where drug dealers and gang members flourish, that simply said GANG-FREE ZONE. And what if we empowered the police to make gang sweeps through those areas. What is we black men, in particular, got off our fat behinds and put ourselves, bodily, in harm’s way patrolling these gang-free zones? What if we, as black mothers, as black fathers, created a culture of resistance and an aggressive campaign of ideas and values that presented a viable and attractive alternative to the Thug Life that is so glamorized by the media? What if we, as consumers, punished that media by banning it outright in our homes?

When I was a kid, my mother determined what was and was not allowed to influence her children and to come into her home. More and more, I see black mothers throwing up their hands, seemingly helpless to stem the overwhelming tide of negativism, of violent and sexist content, that streams openly and freely into our homes.

Well, you’re not helpless. You’re simply lazy. You simply lack the conviction of my mother and, likely yours. And you, yes you, are the ones responsible for selling out our youth, not some white mayor in North Carolina. He’s only saying what many if not most white people are thinking, anyway, and I for one applaud his bravery in having said it.

If you’re too scared to put up a simple sign, a simple GANG-FREE ZONE sign; if you’re too frightened to do gang sweeps or patrol your own community, if you’re too scared to confront your own children about their choices and values, if you’re too scared to speak up for what you believe—rendering mute the Truth of the Cross—

—then, the least you could do is cancel your cable TV service. Ban magazines like XXL and Vibe from your home. Destroy every gangsta rap CD and violent video game you can find in your kid’s rooms. Tear down every poster glamorizing some tatted-up foul-mouthed thug. Cut off your Internet or at least have the courage to disallow your kid to have free access in his or her room.

If you’re too scared to do that, you can write your councilman, your mayor, your representative and senators and demand help.

These are little moves even cowards can make, but we’re not even making those. These are the very least things we could be doing to turn things around. Instead, we expend energy rallying and filing lawsuits against white people for simply stating the obvious: black America is, by all reasonable observation, lazy and gutless, having surrendered our youth to criminals who snatch them off the street before our very eyes, while we cower and shake our heads and do absolutely nothing about it.

Man, do I long for the old days when being black, when being a Christian, used to actually mean something.