The NAACP held a funeral ceremony earlier this week in which they ‘buried’ the much ballyhooed N-word. While many so-called black leaders enjoyed speaking before the crowd and assailing the concept of racism, they seem to once again miss the point. If the NAACP wants true equality and respect for a large segment of the black community, they will need to do much more than hold mock funerals and shout empty rhetoric.

The ceremony complete with coffin, flowers, and a headstone took place in Detroit during the NAACP’s annual convention. Eulogies were given by the Mayor and several black ministers. The ‘mourners’ were dressed in their Sunday finest and all seemed to believe what they were doing was somehow important.

Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick told the crowd: “Today we’re not just burying the N-word, we’re taking it out of our spirit. We gather burying all the things that go with the N-word.” He went on to shout: “Die N-word, and we don’t want to see you ‘round here no more.”

Detroit minister and NAACP board member Rev. Wendell Anthony added: “we’re not thugs. We’re not gangstas. All of us has been guilty of this word. It’s upon all of us to now kill this word.”

While the speeches were emotional, none of them addressed any of the real problems which continue to plague the black community. None of the so-called leaders talked about the fact that more than 70 percent of black children are now born out-of-wedlock. Nor did they mention the fact that 40 percent of black males now fail to finish high school and of those, 72 percent are unemployed. Unfortunately, the NAACP is apparently not concerned that a young black man without a high school education is more likely to be in jail than he is to be working.

A few months ago, Columbia University social policy professor Ronald Mincy testified before Congress after conducting a study on the behavior of American black men. Mincy said: “The findings from my research project, which are reported in ‘Black Males Left Behind,’ show that during two of the longest periods of sustained economic growth in our nation’s history, between 1979 and 2000, the employment and labor force participation rates of young less-educated Black men consistently fell and this particular group of men was even more likely to be incarcerated.”

The following U.S. Justice Dept. statistics demonstrate the crisis that now threaten all of us:

-blacks commit 90 percent of the 1.7 million interracial crimes of violence in the U.S. annually
-blacks are more than 50 times more likely to commit violent crimes against whites than the other way around
-56 percent of violent crimes committed by blacks have white victims
-94 percent of black murder victims are killed by other blacks
-black men commit 15,000 rapes of white women every year in the U.S

We all know that children born to teenaged mothers out-of-wedlock, are much more likely to live in poverty, commit crimes, and give birth to illegitimate children thus continuing the vicious cycle. However, the NAACP seems oblivious to this increasing tragedy. In 1970, the illegitimacy rate among black Americans was 37 percent, by 1980 that number increased to 56 percent, and today 70 percent of blacks are born without the benefit of married parents.

The rising trend in illegitimate births actually corresponds to the policies of forced integration and the furtherance of the civil rights movement. As institutional racism decreased and more opportunities for higher education and gainful employment were made available to black Americans, more often than not they chose to have children outside of marriage.

Unfortunately, for race pimps such as Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, this is one ill that cannot be blamed on white Americans. Perhaps this is why the NAACP chooses to hold mock funerals for an offensive word, rather than focus on actual problems.

From 1970 to 2000, out-of-wedlock births among blacks increased by an average of 10 percent every ten years, far out-pacing the overall trend of illegitimacy among whites and Latinos. If the current pace continues, 90 percent of blacks will be born outside of marriage by the year 2020. Under those conditions, it is reasonable to expect that black Americans living behind bars will outnumber those living in our cities.

Until the NAACP stops blaming racism for the cancers which are eating away at their communities and takes a long look in the mirror, that organization can be considered as obsolete as Civil War pensions.