The killing of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman is showing how liberals – especially blacks – care more about getting the political upper hand than affecting long-term change in black communities. Blacks are used as props to raise political capital. The shooting deaths of two British students — James Cooper and James Kouzaris — murdered last April in Florida by a black youth received no attention by black leaders or President Obama. Three letters were sent to the President that never received a reply. “It would perhaps appear,” friends of the victims said, “that Mr Obama sees no political value in facilitating such a request or that the lives of two British tourists are not worthy of ten minutes of his time.”

Why no national attention to the two Chicago men who were wearing hooded sweatshirts (“hoodies”) and were involved in a shooting that left one dead and five injured. This happened in the same congressional district represented by former Black Panther Bobby Rush (D-IL). This is the same Bobby Rush who wore a “hoodie” during a speech in the U.S. House of Representatives until he was escorted out.

The goal of people like Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and Maxine Waters is to build up political capital. Fixing the problems of black communities is not their goal. They need bad neighborhoods, escalating crime, and high unemployment so they can use these as political and economic clubs to extract votes and money.

It was Al Sharpton who said that Herman Cain was not “authentically Black.” What did he mean? Cain didn’t have the usual markings of a poor, disadvantaged, ghettoized, welfare-raised black man because he succeeded in business. Cain could not be used as a poster child or neglect and need for the guild-laden white community to donate to liberal black causes and to get them to vote Democrat.

Jesse Jackson has made millions by “shakedown” tactics to extract money from corporations. Willie Ellis expressed his frustration with Jackson: “Open your eyes: Jesse Jackson is for Jesse Jackson and Jesse Jackson only. He stole from the people long enough. It’s time the people know the true man Jesse Jackson is. He has rode on black peoples’ coattails long enough.” Harold Davis said Jackson “is a shakedown artist, and nobody holds him accountable.”

Jackson is “worth $40 million dollars … and Martin Luther King died broke,” Davis went on to say. Jackson ignores the needs of his hometown of Chicago, “In Chicago, the kids’ reading scores were the worst in 13 years; [Jackson] ain’t opened his mouth. Why? Because he don’t fight in his backyard when he sees a reason to go fight somewhere else,” Davis said.

While Sharpton and Jackson are making their money, black communities across America are disintegrating. Welfare policies pushed by liberal do-gooders have created a perpetual dependent class – good for winning elections but bad for the overall health of black families.

While the killing of Trayvon Martin was a tragedy, there are daily tragedies in black neighborhoods. For example, the unemployment rate for black males is at 18% while black youth unemployment was at 46.5% in late 2011. Who’s to blame? Whites? The rich? Are whites and the rich to blame for dramatic school drop-out rates? Are whites to blame for the way many black young people dress when they show up for job interviews?

Who should we blame for out-of-wedlock births? Welfare has led to the disintegration of the black family similar to how slavery affected the black family structure. Welfare family disintegration is worse than slavery because politicians and so-called black leaders believe that welfare is a right that is due blacks because of slavery. The welfare has done more to harm poor people than slavery ever did.

Who’s to blame for black-on-black crime? Here are some statistics from the Black on Black Crime Coalition:

While African Americans comprise 13.5% of the U.S. Population, 43% of all murder victims in 2007 were African American, 93.1% of whom were killed [by] African Americans.

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The U.S. Justice Department provides a breakdown of homicides by the race of both the victim and offender. Looking at the data for 2005 (the latest year available), we find that whites committed 48.0% of all murders and blacks committed 51.2% of all murders. However, whites outnumber blacks in the population. In fact, non-Hispanic whites are about 69% of the population and blacks are about 13%. These statistics alone, shows that blacks are 13% of the population, but commit 51.2% of the murders, indicate that blacks commit a seriously disproportionate number of murders.”

None of this is to indict all blacks. There is a developing black middle and upper class in the United States. Their rise came about despite economic hardships, prejudice, bigotry, and outright racism. They didn’t use these as excuses to explain failure in the black community. They fought against it.

Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, and Maxine Waters are political opportunists. Their comments end up inflaming many in the black community and creating resentment among whites. Do blacks benefit? Yes. Some of them do. Ask Jesse and Al.