Is America Doomed to be Racist Nation?
America is becoming even more racially divided. Of course, you can see that playing out in the news media.
According to a CBS/New York Times poll released last week, Americans believe race relations are at their worst point in more than 20 years. Over 60 percent say race relations are “bad”—the highest percent since 1992. The poll also marked the first time since 1997 that majorities of both white and black respondents believe race relations are poor.
Religion and culture expert Dr. Alex McFarland says as the country focuses on race relations, few are courageous enough to address one root issue: family instability.
“Young people in America today—and particularly young men—who grow up in unstable homes are angry and frustrated,” McFarland says. “They don’t understand why things are the way they are. Indirectly, racial tension is often an expression of frustration and anger over the absence of family stability. Does racism exist? Tragically, yes, and we would be blind and naïve to say it has been fully eradicated. However, when we see expressions of violence stemming from racial tension, we often see behind it the breakdown of the family.”
As he sees it, current societal attempts to address racial tension fail to get to the root of the issue, and government efforts, particularly, have often exacerbated rather than helped solve the problem.
“For more than four decades, political leaders have preached a gospel of race and class envy while encouraging family breakdown. As economist Thomas Sowell so boldly notes, liberal policies supposedly meant to raise people up have in truth promoted the destruction of families, and particularly of African-American families,” says McFarland.
Whereas in 1960, the majority of African-American children were being raised in two-parent households, just a few decades later, he continues, most have been deprived of at least one parent. Couple this with a prevailing political philosophy that one person’s success necessarily means another’s failure, and it’s little wonder that frustration and anger result.
“Is America facing a crisis of racial division? Yes,” he says. “But it is being perpetrated rather than resolved by policies that continue to promote race and class envy while failing to focus on the root issues: morality, accountability, and most importantly, the restoration of the family.”
