Not wrote:
@ lowing
I apologize for not catching on to your opinion the right way sooner. i admit that I skipped a lot of this thread before I posted and I clearly missed your personal responsibility points. I agree with you in full there. Yes, it's a choice to sell and buy crack. Yes, we continue to perpetuate these actions as sociocultural norms, and yes I believe people should be held accountable for themselves. Also, you've hit the nail on the head when it comes to race vs. poverty. I apologize for phrasing my argument in a way that neglected to mention the white lower class. Poverty is poverty, regardless of race. The struggles are very much the same.
I think that you and I can continue this discussion, and learn quite a bit from each other as long as we realize and accept that neither of us have a crystal clear picture of the entire situation.
I'd pose this scenario to you to start things off, in regards to why the projects remain the projects, and only a few of us make it out. In a situation where poverty runs deep, the primary goal is survival. A lot of people can't imagine going for two weeks without food. It's a sad reality though, and one that I don't wish on anyone. You seem educated yourself, so imagine if you will how hard it would be to focus during high-school while your stomach has been empty for well over a week. Not to mention the other distractions that living in the projects brings. It's very difficult to rise above that, and I believe it takes a far above average effort to prevail.
Now lets say that you get home to find your mother crying, holding your eviction notice. Congratulations, you're about to be homeless on top of starving. Oh, and your mother doesn't have enough money to support the three kids she has, since their father ran off with some other woman, and is now in prison. (The authorities generally don't chase men down through other states to collect child support money, most of the time it's just let go. They certainly don't make an extra effort to help out people who can't pay a private investigator to go find him, especially when the guy isn't going to pay up anyway.)
So you step outside to think about what's going to happen nest, and a brand new Escalade rolls up to your street, and a man with a giant diamond necklace tells you to come talk to him. He offers to front you a ki to help with the bills, all you gotta do is move it in a week and bring back 70% of that money as his cut. And he promises you that the faster you keep moving it for him, the more of that cut you get to keep.
Lets crunch the numbers on this now. At the time, this dealer picks up a kilo for about $1500 in Mexico through Colombian importers. In Miami, that ki sells for $30,000. So after paying him back the 70%, plus the price he paid for it, you've just made $8550. Now not only are you not going to be homeless, you're not going to be starving either. You can afford to keep your family alive through drugs. Is it honest? No, of course not. But is it a means to survive? Yeah, sadly it is. The trouble is that the cocaine business isn't a safe one by any means. And I don't think you need personal experience with it to be able to assume such.
This is the cycle that people in the projects live through. It's very attractive. In one ki you make as much as your family does in an entire year. Anyone who's faced with breaking the law for that much money, and dying of starvation isn't going to have to think very long about that decision. The real shame, is that in these communities that easy way out has become all that's left. It creates violent turf wars, and throws to the wind any sense of lawfulness or sense of duty to your community. There are no jobs in these places because no business wants to set up shop anywhere near a place where they'll most likely just be extorted or robbed. People in the hood don't live by the laws because the laws never protected them or their families in the past. This isn't new, this is a direct result (In my experience) of a long history of cops simply not caring. It goes way back to before the civil rights movement. It was rare to ever see a black police officer. And too often, white police officers wouldn't respond to the black communities. This is often joked about by many black comedians, how if a black man calls anyone for help, the other side usually just hangs up. It's unfortunately not so much a joke as a cruel reality. It's only because of humor that a lot of people have ever even heard of that situation.
I broke through it though, but I doubt that anyone who saw a kid dressed up in 3rd generation hand-me-downs, looking like a poster-child for the "Adopt an Ethiopian" programs, with a less-than impressive high-school transcript would have considered me for admission to a University. I truly believe that it was because the school was looking for diversity that my application was considered, and approved. I know I'm qualified. I believe that after having some "dialogue" here with me, you believe I am as well. But the admissions office doesn't have a dialogue. They have an application to look at. And growing up in my situation, it wasn't very impressive. I'm sure now that they're not regretting accepting me, but I can see no reason other than affirmative action as to why I would have been selected to have been given that opportunity. It's not putting myself down, it's just honestly the way I see it.
Before I'm done with this post I'd like to address another comment made earlier (A bit off topic so it's saved for the end) about how MLK set up the road to Civil Rights. It's true, he did make very good points. He spoke well and truly challenged the moral fabric that enveloped our society at the time. However, regardless of how right he was, or how proper his methods were, he was not as effective in finally bringing about true change as Malcolm X was. It wasn't until there was violence in the streets, and fear was put in the hearts of the people, that anyone truly took this situation seriously.
Also, as far as black wealth goes. If Steve Jobs or the Phillip-Morris people woke up with Oprah's money, they'd jump into a bathtub with their TV's.
Another good post with some tough questions, I can't answer. All I can say is, as you and Jusster have proven, is the cycle has to be broken somewhere, and like it or not it is up to the individual to do so. It isn't going to be broken by me, "whitey" or a drug dealer. Life isn't fair, some need to work harder than others to achieve. Like I said before, I am all for helping anyone that wants to help themselves, but that person should be obligated to ask for it and show a desire for it.
I will not apologize ( and I am not suggesting you think I should ) for ghettos or gang life or shitty nieghborhoods. I will not apologize for NOT wanting to live there or for choosing who my nieghbors are going to be when I buy a house, because I don't want to them living next to me. I choose the quality of a person over the color. It isn't my fault that the ghettos are mainly blacks. I am being called a racist because I am accused of hating blacks. Reality is, I hate ghettos and the tail spin, life in there brings. I guess an example would be, I hate radical Islam, so I guess I could be accused of hating Middle Easterners, but the reality is I hate their radical beliefs, it just so happens that those believers are mostly Middle Easterners.
Also, let me be clear, although I didn't grow up on the "streets" I wasn't born with a silver spoon in my mouth either. Everything I have and don't have, I earned.
Jusster, I also read your post to NOT, but I will not respond since you weren't talking to me. Just so ya know I am not ignoring your posts.