Education in an Antisocial Environment: Challenges for a Community Plagued by Outdated Ideas of Victimhood
Author: Rodney Demery.
Source: Volume 18, Number 01, May/June 2014 , pp.3-4(2)
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Abstract:
Rodney Demery is a homicide detective with the Shreveport, Louisiana Police Department and the author of “No Place for Race: Why We Need to Address Economic and Social Factors That Are Crushing Us Every Day” (2013). In his book, and in this article, Demergy argues that the black community has been ill-served by a rhetoric of victimhood, rather than of possibility and achievement. When young black men are taught to believe that historic injustices are an insurmountable obstacle, personal responsibility for one’s own actions is easily lost, replaced with a “blame game” mentality that causes the individual to shift the responsibility for his or her actions and future prospects to others.Keywords: Accountability; responsibility; self-respect
Affiliations:
1: Shreveport, Louisiana Police Department.