- Littleton
and the Brando Rule
-
Marlon Brando, on the "Larry King Live"
show, once used several racial and ethnic epithets. When a local news
outlet re-broadcast this controversial excerpt, it muted Brando when
he used the word "nigger." His lips moved, but the viewer
heard no sound. The station did not, however, mute the racial epithets
Brando used for Italians, Filipinos, Japanese, or Jews.
Call this "The Brando Rule": a condescending,
"protective" standard for blacks.
What does this have to do with the horrific
tragedy of Littleton, Colorado?
Well, as pundits ask why, most quite properly
first point to the parents. Indeed, a recent poll shows that the majority
of Americans blame the parents by a large margin over the other usual
suspects—television, video games, movies, easy access to guns, and
the Internet.
Yet, a disproportionate amount of violent crime
takes place in our inner cities. But the media rarely asks, "Where
are the parents?"
A typical example. A few years ago, in Los Angeles,
a juvenile court judge found a 15-year-old responsible for the shooting
death of a beloved 82-year-old inner-city grandmother.
The convicted teen had participated in the gang-rape
of a 13-year-old girl. The girl was then locked in a house, and the
assailants attempted to set it on fire. A neighbor confronted the
suspects, one of whom pulled out a gun. The man dashed in his house,
but his grandmother came out just in time to take a bullet in the
neck. She died in the emergency room.
Read the newspaper clippings of the shooting
and subsequent court proceedings. One article began "As his mother
wept quietly in a nearly empty courtroom,"...that’s it. Who was
the mother? What kind of mother was she? Where was the father? Why
didn’t he come to court? How could he have bred such a monster?
These are the very questions we ask about Littleton.
But why not in urban L.A., where youth-against-youth murder is far
more common? Or Washington, D.C.? Or Newark? Or Atlanta? Or Detroit?
Some years ago, two Japanese students were shot
and killed in San Pedro, California. The ambassador to Japan, Walter
Mondale, publicly apologized—to the Japanese, that is. But, during
that very week-end in Los Angeles, there were several other murders,
many in the inner city. Janet Reno apologized to no one.
In Richmond, California, a six-year-old boy
beat a baby to death, apparently with a stick. While talking heads
questioned the quality of the murderer’s upbringing, the introspection
didn’t last long.
Remember Sherrice Iverson, the little black
girl sexually assaulted and killed in that Nevada casino? This happened
around four a.m., while the girl’s father nonchalantly gambled, even
though security advised him several times that they found his daughter
running around unsupervised.
Sherrice was sexually assaulted and murdered.
But when some raised questions about the father’s possible negligent
supervision, the Nevada NAACP called such suggestions racist. And
that was that.
Los Angeles County averaged about 2,000 murders
a year, nearly half minority gang-related. But, as a nation, do we
question the quality of inner-city parenting? Do we flash anger at
the frequency with which today’s teens have children they cannot feed,
clothe, or educate? Have we examined the quality of parenting of the
black youths who raped and brutalized the Central Park jogger?
We have a double standard. We hold middle-class,
suburban kids’ parents responsible for their children’s deviant, criminal
behavior. We do not seem to do the same thing with inner-city parents,
a small percentage of whose kids have gone bad. The failure to apply
the same standard, mind you, is not racism. It is condescension.
A recent article in "U. S. News & World
Report" compared two impoverished areas outside of Boston—South
Boston, predominantly white, versus Roxbury, predominantly black.
Both have high levels of unemployment, approximately the same percentage
of children born to single-parent households, and roughly the same
number of people living in public housing. But the violent crime rate
in Roxbury, however, is four times higher than that of South Boston.
What explains the discrepancy? Well, we know that poverty and single-parent
status do not. This sort of leaves values, doesn’t it?
The mostly liberal media thinks it’s doing blacks
and other inner-city residents a favor by pointing the fingers at
others. When a crime goes down, an innocent gets killed, the media
blames Reaganomics, unemployment, poverty, language barriers, lack
of job skills, lack of parenting skills, lack of transportation, too
much TV, easy access of handguns, drugs. But, as Littleton shows,
kids can get guns anywhere. Drugs, too. And white youths buy more
hip-hop and gangsta rap than do black kids.
What does that leave? The parents. Just as in
Littleton.
Let’s be consistent. The number one reason for
bad kids is bad parenting. Good parenting does not, of course, guarantee
good kids. But to accept bad behavior from poorer persons of color,
while expecting good behavior from others, is elitist, condescending,
and damaging.
Being a parent is tough duty. It is a minute-by-minute,
hour-by-hour, day-by-day, week-by-week, month-by-month, year-by-year
job. For adults only. If you wish to read Littleton as a wake-up call
for parents, fine. But make it a wake-up call for all parents.
Whether you live in Park Avenue, or Skid Row. Or East Los Angeles.
Or Littleton.