Betrayal: will we fight it or feed it?

Betrayal is as much a part of the human race as the color of the sky and the shape of clouds. Betrayal is a characteristic that does not serve the human race. It harms the human race.

Yet we are still surprised by those who betray a trust, betray a relationship, betray a belief, betray a people. Betrayal highlights 2016’s political campaigns, with betrayal of movements, betrayal of issues, betrayal of promises.

Betrayal for profit highlights some institutions that serve themselves and betray the people they claim to serve. Betrayal of the African American community is a highlight of Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians and Greens.

Betrayal of the African American goes to the beginning of this republic, first by the English colonists, then by the Federalists, the Democratic Party, the Whigs, and the Republican Party. Center cities, rural poverty, education, unemployment, and incarceration numbers offer irrefutable proof.

Betrayal is killing African American dreams of a better future, of a better tomorrow, of better choices, as I have outlined in this column and in my books. Betrayal by both parties has long kept African Americans out of key roles in congress. Betrayal has accosted all minority populations, red, yellow, and brown, not just black.

Betrayal has been made easy by using the language and liberty of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, claiming them changeable by whoever is in charge. Betrayal of Black law enforcement officers has long been the order of the day, including a White officer who stood up for them, for justice, for the Constitution, and, thus, for the future of African Americans in the Minneapolis Police Department. This courageous White officer was betrayed by a system that placed greater value on betrayal of Black officers.

Betrayal by not remembering is becoming more common. In one of Bill Clinton’s state of the union speeches, his stance on immigration was the same as Donald Trump’s today. Bill referred to Blacks as thugs, calling for “three strikes and you’re out.” From the Great Society forward, the number of Blacks incarcerated grew from 350,000 in the 1960s to over two million today.

Betrayal of social science has also hurt Blacks, as science is used in justifying poverty and dependency, justifying them “scientifically” by claiming it reveals what programs all should live by rather than using social science to explain why certain programs don’t work. Instead, social science is too often used to justify programs rather than explain why programs of officials fail.

Social science has been used to avoid the four negative cornerstone progressions I share with Nellie Stone Johnson: without education, no jobs; without jobs, no housing; without housing, no public safety. Betrayal to come was outlined in the 1960s by Daniel Patrick Moynihan and James Coleman, exposing social science being used as a false recipe book rather than a tool of analysis to show why certain recipes don’t work.

Progressives claimed families were not as important as individual pleasures, too often resulting in more inner city and rural poverty.

Betrayal is how Sean “P. Diddy” Combs recently described the current administration. Betrayal poisons all that it touches. Betrayal causes a society and its people and institutions never to be able to reach their fullest potential.

Betrayal is seen in Black and White institutions failing to speak up while denying others their right to speak out. Such silence endangers us every day.

Betrayal, as part of freedom of choice, is as tied to the human race as the blue skies and the shapes of clouds.

Stay tuned.

For Ron’s hosted radio and TV show’s broadcast times, solutions papers, books, and archives, go to www.TheMinneapolisStory.com. To order his books, go to www.BeaconOnTheHillPress.com.