When you think of a picket fence, you might imagine pristine curb appeal situated in a neighborhood that displays a sense of community. A fence protects what is inside, including a happy family, pets, and personal belongings. In Old Europe, pickets — from piquet, French for “pointed stick or board” — were logs sharpened to shield archers from cavalry. To defend their land, colonists installed fences of pickets bare or painted white.
Today, there is a black picket fence used to “defend” a culture of failure. In this neighborhood, the black middle class makes the rules. The black picket fence is used to defend thuggery, theft, and thickheads. The inner city is the most apprehensive place in America to be after dark. It’s not because people of color live there but because of the behavior of the people of color who live there. Did you catch that? BEHAVIOR.
The black middle class is composed of those who have gone to college and manage to make from $25,000-$100,000 a year and who live in the suburbs or outside the metropolitan areas with black picket fences. These black picket fences aren’t to protect something inside the home but the slum of the inner cities. For tribal reasons, the black middle class lives with guilt. Those in the black middle class once lived in inner-city slums, but they got a grasp of the English language, managed to maintain good grades, graduated from college, and got out of “the hood.” They believe they have somehow left their “kindred brothers and sisters” alone to suffer.
The black middle class loves the American Dream, but there’s just one problem: It can’t act like it. The middle class can live in gated communities and still defend the bad boy behaviors that wreck every major city in America. These middle class folks had nothing to do with the struggle of the masses, but they feel responsible. Although they fear driving through these inner-city shooting ranges after dark, they won’t say one word about it. Black pastors, principals, politicians, and police officers stand behind this black picket fence arm to arm.
Great commentary.