Quote:
Originally Posted by aegsm76
AYR - I agree with your assessment that something is wrong. Now, what is wrong is the question?
As someone who grew up in a multi-cultural environment and spent as much time in black households as white, I believe I have some insight. My church is located in a very racially mixed area and we regularly spend time in the government housing part of town doing outreach. Right now, I have two young black children in my house.
I say this to establish my "street cred" in this area.
The black family unit was almost destroyed by LBJ's effort to help the poor in the 60's. Single women figured out that they could make a living from the government simply by having children and being paid for those children by the government. This may have been an acceptable life for the women, but it was not for the children. Children without a father a far more prone to be abused and to grow up and be imprisoned than ones that grow up in a father/mother household.
Although welfare reform under Clinton indirectly addressed this problem, the culture still exists and is now affirmed as normal. See Murphy Brown for the societal affirmation...
The drug culture of the 60's thru today, also took a heavy toll on this community. This was made worse by the large numbers of single young men, who could not find a woman who wanted a committed relationship.
What we are left with today is a culture that believes that the only way to be a success is to be successful in sports or in illegal activities.
I remember one young man who lived in my house for about 9 months. He came from a horrible family background, with almost all of them in prison at one point. He had a world of potential, was as smart as any young man I have ever been around, but today resides in a prison until 2018 for robbing a taxi driver.
Until the grass-roots and churches of the black community began addressing this problem head on, it will not be fixed.
I could go on for days, but I've got to get to work.
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I agree with you in large part, but I won't deny that there are other factors involved too.
Drug laws, specifically "crack" cocaine laws of the 80's and 90's had a terrible effect on the black community-- maybe even more so than crack itself.
The lack of a solid tax base for many areas where there are large black populations also play a huge factor in what we see in the recent past and even now today.
Ironically, it's the policies of well-meaning Democrats that are the sources for the out-of-orbit drug laws and the absence of solid tax bases for communities where there is a large black population.
The tax base problem has such a PROFOUND affect on the local community-- and this problem is not just germane to the black community.
There are some who say that Dr. MLK Jr. wasn't deemed a threat until he attempted to address ECONOMIC and racial inequalities.
Today, just the phrase "economic equality" conjures a picture that I don't think that Dr. MLK Jr. had in mind when he tried to address it.
Affirmative Action policies were designed to help address the issue, albeit indirectly. Now, they help people who are really not in need of the most help.
A bigger question this engenders is can America be Capitalistic without an economic underclass?