Ben Carson tells it straight

For someone who does have a good handle on what Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. might be talking about today, we turn to Dr. Ben Carson at the Washington Times.  Carson offers a reasonable list of black achievements that would make Dr. King smile, including the sight of a black President and Attorney General.  Then he discusses some areas where MLK “might be less than thrilled”:

The epidemic of black-on-black violent crime indicates that there has been a significant deterioration of values in the black community. Not only are the lives of their fellow blacks and others being devalued by street thugs, but the lives of unborn babies are being destroyed in disproportionate numbers in the black community.

There was a time when blacks were justifiably angry that the larger community discounted their value, but now, ironically, many members of the black community themselves place little or no value on these precious lives that are snuffed out without thought. I think King would be waging a crusade against the marginalization of black lives in America.

Another area of great concern would be the fact that 73 percent of black babies are born out of wedlock. When this occurs, in most cases the educational pursuits of the mothers are terminated and the babies are condemned to a life of poverty and deprivation, which makes them more likely to end up in the penal system or the welfare system. This is a burden not only for the black community but for the nation at large.

There’s more at the link, including some thoughts on how King would be dismayed by “the wholesale adoption of a victim mentality” and lockstep political orthodoxy.