Imagine the Chicago Teachers Union fostering a mindset of mental and physical bondage — by evading truth, glorifying victimhood, and embracing the subtle bigotry of low expectations.
The recent opinion published in The Triibe, “We must stop conflating violence with Black teen children,” is well‑intentioned but ultimately harmful. It exemplifies how a certain strain of progressive thinking — no matter how well‑meaning — perpetuates the very problems it claims to want to solve.
Worse, it fosters a slave and victim mentality that undermines Black teenagers’ dignity, agency, and future.
At its core, the argument is that Black teens should not be associated with violence, that policing them is unjust, and that the city should instead provide more stipends, free programs, and “belonging” so they can flourish.
On the surface, this may sound compassionate. But under closer scrutiny, it is neither truthful nor empowering.
Truth Requires Courage
To say that we must stop “conflating violence with Black teen children” is to deny what is plainly visible in neighborhoods across Chicago — and documented by the city’s own crime data. The uncomfortable fact is that the majority of youth‑perpetrated shootings, robberies, carjackings, and assaults are carried out by Black teens.
This is not a “conflation”; it is an observation of fact.
Denying this reality does not help Black teens — it infantilizes them. It suggests they cannot be held responsible for their actions because they are somehow less capable of moral agency than other young people.
True respect for Black teens begins with treating them as full moral agents — capable of good, capable of evil, capable of choice — not as helpless products of circumstance.
Responsibility Cannot Be Outsourced
The essay goes on to scold lawmakers for “offloading” responsibility to the police, calling instead for more imagination, more belonging, and more empathy. But who is responsible for public safety when neighborhoods are under siege?
Ordinary working families who cannot afford to flee rely on the police to protect them from predation.
To cast policing as a moral failure — while offering only vague exhortations to “imagine” something better — is not just naïve, it is dangerous.
Belonging, respect, and opportunity are not bestowed by government programs or city council resolutions. They grow when individuals contribute to and uphold the norms of their community.
That includes rejecting violence, showing respect for others, and taking responsibility for one’s own behavior.
Dependency Disguised as Compassion
Perhaps most troubling is the call for a universal basic income and expanded free programs as a solution — as though stipends and handouts are the key to “flourishing.” This is a profoundly patronizing notion.
It suggests that Black teenagers cannot thrive unless the government funds their self‑expression.
It communicates that their value and potential are dependent on someone else’s charity — which is, in essence, a slave mentality: waiting on others to liberate you, to sustain you, to recognize you.
Human dignity is not found in being given more without earning it. It is found in striving, in creating, in contributing, in overcoming obstacles.
The idea that flourishing is contingent upon city stipends is an insult to every Black person who has risen above hardship through determination, discipline, and faith in themselves.
Breaking Free
We must reject this narrative of helplessness and dependency.
We must reject the idea that systemic injustice — real as it is — excuses individual violence or absolves young people of accountability.
We must reject the notion that Black teens are owed perpetual forgiveness and free money instead of guidance, standards, and consequences.
A truly empowering vision would insist on the following:
Teach young people that they are not defined by history or circumstances but by their choices.
Demand respect for themselves and others — and demand accountability when that respect is violated.
Invest in education and mentorship that cultivate skills, not stipends that cultivate dependency.
Support family and community structures that instill discipline, pride, and responsibility.
These are the building blocks of flourishing — not an endless cycle of grievances and government handouts.
The Courage to Tell the Truth
If we care about Black teens, we must have the courage to tell them the truth:
You are not a victim.
You are not powerless.
You do not need to wait for someone to give you a space, a place, or a stipend.
Your life is yours to shape — and your choices matter.
The path forward is not more coddling and lowered expectations, but higher expectations matched by real support and accountability.
Chicago should stop enabling a slave and victim mentality disguised as compassion, and instead empower its young people to claim the dignity, responsibility, and respect they already possess — if only they are challenged to rise to it.
Only then can they truly flourish.
John Kugler is the owner and editor of SubX.News, an independent, self‑sustaining news agency. He has more than 20 years of experience with public‑sector unions and education, and is a political refugee who has lived in Chicago for 50 years — most of them on the South Side — where he also raised his children in the city’s public schools.
