A few years ago, we had an apartment across from a public housing project. Our downstairs neighbors were a mixed race couple, prone to heavy drug use and partying.

When they would throw a party, they would invite all of their friends from Milwaukee up. We were privvy to one such soiree. The friends arrived in beaten up vans, packed 15 to 20 to a van, and proceeded to dive into the fixings. While we hadn't invited them, we HAD prepared for them, and offered cold brews and a few choice meats for the grill. They were generally nice people, even if a little loud (we lived, fortunately, in an area where most of the other surrounding places were businesses and a church, and the housing project was set back far enough from the street that the noise either wasn't a problem or wasn't reported as such).

The fallout came at the end of the weekend. The police arrived, not because of noise, but because of several reported thefts in the area. A few of the guests took refuge in the cockroach filled basement, and a few others conveniently found themselves in need of errands to run shortly before the police to arrive. But the majority were there as the police grilled them about the thefts, which included removing every single screen from the windows of the first floor of the housing complex. No arrests were made, although the police did suggest to a couple of them that it might be productive for them to head home to Milwaukee before they got in trouble in Oshkosh.

As soon as the police left, the cries of racism began. The cops had singled them out, they said, because they were black. While I agree about the general racist nature of many in Oshkosh, I also know that sometimes a cigar is a cigar, and that in this case, the police went to the people who were reported by the victims as being suspects. They were reported because they were strangers in the neighborhood, not because of their race.

Not long after the police left, the loading began. Of window screens and several other items of suspicious origin. I climbed into my van, and saw that someone had attempted to move my stereo.

Of course, it COULD have been the kids down the street, but given the strong weight of circumstantial evidence, that didn't seem likely.

The truth is, EVERY race has its good people and its miscreants. To deny that is to show complete ignorance to an insane degree. But because of the trend of political correctness (brought about, I believe, by "white guilt" wanting to atone for the various atrocities that WERE committed in past cultures), it's unfashionable to point to the miscreants of some cultures and demand accountability.

Don't believe me? Look at how we treat those in minority cultures who DO ask people of their race to step up. Who's more respected in the projects, Walter Williams or Al Sharpton? Bill Cosby or Jesse Jackson? The answer to both of these is clear. Those who ARE demanding accountability are pariahs and accused of being traitors to their race.

The truth is, more minorities are in prison than whites not because of racism but because more minorities commit violent crimes in America than whites (more whites commit "white collar crimes", but because those crimes don't have as obvious victims, the sentences are usually shorter). That's not conjecture, it's statistical fact. Why this happens is not because of genetic predisposition, but cultural.

The inner city culture suffers from "spoiled child syndrome". We've all seen it. A three year old throws a tantrum in KMart, momma buys him a Snickers bar, and the tantrum goes away. But she's just ensured herself a tantrum every time she goes to the store from a child that has learned throwing tantrums pays.

The same is true of disadvantaged minorities. Many of them, sadly, have never known what it is to have a work ethic because they've lived under a nanny state for so long. And when the initial petty theft lands them with not a prison sentence, but counseling from some counselor trying desperately to play the part they saw Michelle Pfeiffer play in Dangerous Minds, they not only don't learn the lesson, but learn they live in a culture that wants to excuse their behaviour, however abhorrent.

The thugs in minority communities do not compose a majority of their culture. Not even close. But just as the spoiled children throwing tantrums in KMart are the ones we remember, the thugs are as well. And it's evident in popular culture as well. We remember "50 cent". We don't remember Luther Vandross. We remember Lil Kim. We don't remember Aretha Franklin.

Our culture needs to get past the idea that asking people to step up is racist. Asking people to step up is the proper request of ALL races, all the way from the white redneck's trailer with the red and white #8 in their trailer window and the pit bull in the yard to the inner city project with the rap music shaking th windows and the...umm, pit bull in the yard.