The American Disease

They send white people here too

A Triumph of Felons and Failure

By BOB HERBERT
Published: August 24, 2006

I was browsing at a newsstand in Manhattan recently when I came across a magazine called Felon. It was the “Stop Snitchin’ ” issue, and the first letter to the editor began: “Yo, wassup Felon!”

I was browsing at a newsstand in Manhattan and saw a magazing called High Times. It was the Colombian Weed issue and the first letter said legalize pot.

Another letter was from “your nigga John-Jay,” who was kind enough to write: “To my bitches, I love ya’ll.”

Another letter was from "420 Boy" who was kind enough to write:"Hydroponics is the shit"

Later I came across a magazine called F.E.D.S., which professes to be about “convicted criminals—street thugs—music—fashion—film—etc.” The headline “Stop Snitching” was emblazoned on the cover. “Hundreds of kilos of coke,” said another headline, “over a dozen murders,” and “no one flipped.”

Later, I came across a magazine called Low Riders and they had an article, no helmets in 50 states. Another glorifying Sonny Barger and the Oakland chapter of the Hell's Angels.

What we have here are symptoms of a depressing cultural illness, frequently fatal, that has spread unchecked through much of black America.

What we have here are symptoms of a depressing cultural illness, frequently fatal, which has spread through white America.

The people who are laid low by this illness don’t snitch on criminals, seldom marry, frequently abandon their children, refer to themselves in the vilest terms (niggers, whores, etc.), spend extraordinary amounts of time kicking back in correctional institutions, and generally wallow in the deepest depths of degradation their irresponsible selves can find.

The people who are laid low by this illness don't snitch on criminals, seldom marry, frequently abandon their children, refer to themselves in the viliest terms (redneck, cracker, white trash, trailer trash), spend extraordinary amounts of time kicking back in correctional institutions and generally wallow in the deepest depths of degradation their irresponsible selves can find.

In his new book, “Enough,” which is about the vacuum of leadership and the feverish array of problems that are undermining black Americans, Juan Williams gives us a glimpse of the issue of snitching that has become an obsession with gang members, drug dealers and other predatory lowlifes — not to mention the editors of magazines aimed at the felonious mainstream.

In his new book, “Enough,” which is about the vacuum of leadership and the feverish array of problems that are undermining white Americans, Juan Williams gives us a glimpse of the issue of snitching that has become an obsession with white supremacists, meth dealers and other predatory lowlifes — not to mention the editors of magazines aimed at the felonious mainstream.

“In October 2002,” he writes, “the living hell caused by crime in the black community burst into flames in Baltimore. A black mother of five testified against a Northeast Baltimore drug dealer. The next day her row house was fire-bombed. She managed to put out the flames that time. Two weeks later, at 2 a.m. as the family slept, the house was set on fire again. This time the drug dealer broke open the front door and took care in splashing gasoline on the lone staircase that provided exit for people asleep in the second- and third-floor bedrooms.

In the Summer of 2005, there was a random murder in the Bay Area outside Berkeley. A woman was killed in a home invasion. Later, it was found that a neighbor was stealing credit cards and using her home as a mail drop for his budding hydroponics pot growing business.

Yes, Stop Snitching is odious. But I am tired of every American pathology being assigned to black America and people like Williams, who as Al Franken nailed him on, hasn't hear a single rapper while condemning them, wrings his hands and cries out for a solution.

My mother is in her 70's and she saw gangsters growing up.

Poor people go to jail, poor people deal drugs, poor people drop out of school. You don't think there's a white working class subculture which knocks education and has a link to criminality? The Meth explosion is evidence enough of that.

I'm tired of black authors looking at black America and whining about fucking music and criminals.

They never, ever talk about the lack of low to moderate skilled jobs, discrimination in the workplace and redlining. Or how wages have stagnated. Or the inability to transition kids from schools into apprenticeships in the work world. The poor and working class in America have much more complex and serious problems than rappers and stop snitching.