
          The Cold Hard Truth
          By 
            Chestnut, J.L., Jr.J.L. Chestnut. Jr.
          Vol. 12, No. 3, 1990, p. 24
          
          There is a growing army of poor, suffering black souls all over
America. They are the "Unreachables."
          They form the core of the crime and welfare problem. They make up
the statistics on welfare cheats, crime increases, illegitimate
children and the myriad pathologies that a society structured, in
part, on racial hate exfoliates.
          Totaling up these statistics and their racial substratum, many
Southerners and more than a few unreconstructed Northerners are able
to impute a covering veil of immorality to all black people. I get
sick of hearing it.
          But no race, no religion, no ethnic group is inherently bad, nor
does any race have a monopoly on fostering social disintegration.
          A given set of conditions--urban society, immutable racism,
cultural conflict and hopelessness--will develop a pattern of racial
hostility that finds expression in the lack of incentive and contempt
for the established social order. It afflicts whites, Asians,
Hispanics and all others.
          In turn, some people turn to crime, get on welfare and even derive
a secret joy in "getting back" at society by cheating.
          These are the unreachables--the black people who somehow just have
not been able to cope with society's harsh denials of their essential
dignity.
          The NAACP hasn't been able to reach these people.
          The Urban League hasn't.
          Black politics has done little or nothing.
          The churches have failed completely.
          The unreachables will flourish and multiply as long as society
ruthlessly segregates them in drab inner city public housing,
relegates them to no or sporadic employment, and the police are
permitted to beat and treat them like animals.
          I know you don't think it happens but it does. It happens every
day.
          These are the people to whom real estate brokers close their doors
and who are confined to filthy, unlivable ghettos. They are the people
who can't find jobs anywhere and when they do are forced to accept
jobs as underemployables. In essence, they are the people who just
don't give a damn.
          These are the unreachables.
          And, unless some of us, or some of our organizations, including our
churches, start reaching them soon, they will continue to grow, and
grow, and grow, and grow.
          The world, in ways, has been good to me as compared to the
unreachables. I have also worked hard. But, I must confess I identify
completely with the unreachables. I am not impressed by the lucky ones
among us.
          And, I have no interest in reading George Bush's Republican
lips.
          I have read the parched lips and contorted faces of innocent babies
addicted to "crack" in the overcrowded, run-down wards of inner-city
hospitals.
          America would be better served if it read the Bible. Reading George
Bush's lips hardly helps.
          Peace.
          
            J. L. Chestnut is an Alabama trial lawyer and
writer.
          
        