Rev. Jasper Williams Jr. was personally chosen by Franklin to speak at her funeral, which took place in Detroit on Friday. During a 50-minute long eulogy, the fiery minister scolded black culture for losing its way and specifically called out the “Black Lives Matter” movement.
Williams was a friend of Franklin’s father and fellow pastor C.L. Franklin. His surprisingly conservative message sent many liberals into a huff, and the media and outlets like Twitter quickly lit up with indignation.
“Where is your soul, black man? As I look in your house, there are no fathers in the home no more,” Williams declared during the ceremony, according to the Associated Press.
Calling out the black community for abandoning family values was one of his major themes, with the connection between fatherless homes and crime at the forefront.
“(A)s proud, beautiful and fine as our black women are, one thing a black woman cannot do, a black woman cannot raise a black boy to be a man,” he warned.
The pastor chosen by Franklin pointed out that it took a “provider” father and “nurturer” mother to raise children, particularly boys. That conservative view, of course, flies in the face of “progressive” messaging that promotes single parenthood and rejects traditional gender roles.
Williams was just getting warmed up. As the star-studded audience looked on, he took on another of the left’s sacred cows: Black Lives Matter.
“It amazes me how it is when the police kills one of us we’re ready to protest, march, destroy innocent property,” the African American minister stated.
He pointed out how black-on-black violence in places like Chicago and Detroit has been largely ignored by the very groups it impacts the most.
“We’re ready to loot, steal whatever we want, but when we kill 100 of us, nobody says anything, nobody does anything,” he continued, falling into a heartfelt rhythm.
“Black on black crime, we’re all doing time, we’re locked up in our mind, there’s got to be a better way, we must stop this today,” he declared.
If there was any doubt that he was criticizing the Black Lives Matter movement for failing to take responsibility for African American problems, his next sentences cleared it up.
“No, black lives do not matter,” Williams said. “Black lives will not matter, black lives ought not matter, black lives should not matter, black lives must not matter until black people start respecting black lives and stop killing ourselves.”
Predictably, that message didn’t sit well with liberals.
“Social media critics called his eulogy ‘a disaster’ and questioned why he was chosen as the one to honor Franklin,” reported the AP.
Some social media users quickly called Williams “ignorant” — but he appears to have reality on his side.
“Department of Justice statistics showed that between 1980 and 2008, 52 percent of all homicides were committed by black males,” as we previously reported based on publicly available data. Remember, African Americans are only 13 percent of the U.S. population, and black males only about 6 percent.
“With the police shooting of black men taking the center media stage, current statistics show that at current rates it would take 40 years for police to kill as many black men as were killed by other black men in 2012 alone,” our report found.
“The evidence does not support the conclusion that American police are waging a racist war against blacks,” a recent Manhattan Institute report explained. “The Black Lives Matter movement has been a counterproductive distraction from the real violence problem facing black communities: violence from criminals, not the police.”
It’s the same story with Williams’ message about black families. The left may hate it, but the facts back him up. Even Barack Obama has pointed this out.
“More than half of all black children live in single-parent households, a number that has doubled — doubled — since we were children,” Obama said on Father’s Day at a Chicago church in 2008.
“(C)hildren who grow up without a father are five times more likely to live in poverty and commit crime; nine times more likely to drop out of schools and 20 times more likely to end up in prison.” Again, that was Barack Obama — and stop the presses, he was right.
One of Aretha Frankin’s last wishes was for her family friend and pastor to deliver her eulogy. This message was so important that he put it front and center where key members of the black community could hear it. Maybe we should give that a little respect.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Benjamin Arie has been a political junkie since the hotly contested 2000 election. Ben settled on journalism after realizing he could get paid to rant. He cut his teeth on car accidents and house fires as a small-town reporter in Michigan before becoming a full-time political writer.
Political cartoon A.F. Branco ©2020.
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