Good question and thanks for asking. Going back to the thread of exchanges we have had with this post being the latest in the thread, you have consistently held a negative opinion about those who live in the projects (who are predominantly of the African-Americann and Hispanic race. Your opinion is that they are responsible for their sad economic conditions, that they are the ones who have a very high rate of crime etc. Your thinking stops there and maybe that is because you have hit your thought limit or because you have a prejudice against those races.
I appreciate your thoughtful reply, Chinu.
My negative opinion goes to the conditions in which those children are being raised. I am not blaming the parent or parents for those conditions. They are just using the system that is presented to them to do the best they can. And for single mothers that system, IMHO, encourages them to disregard the aspects of having a working father in their lives. They can marry as welfare check and just get by. But that in turn deprives their kids of many opportunities and exposes them to a life style which does not encourage economic success.
Do you seriously believe that a child is born a criminal or is the criminal youth a product of the society? Or rather shall we say the village, the same village that Bill C. and Barack O. has benefitted from. So should we just stand around and continue to blame the single mother for the child who turns out to be a criminal? And what is worse is that when we have folks like Bill C. and Obama succeed because of "the village", we as a society quickly jump up and take the credit. Ponder if we should be a society who would want to spend money to build jails, fund a military invasion that murders innocents abroad, or better still violate the sovereignty of nations like Iraq just to fatten the pockets of the American oil barons. Or would that money be better spent if we opened up schools and community centers in these projects and catch these kids when they are young and malleable. I bet, judging from your line of thinking based on your posts, you would not want any money spent in the projects and instead want to divert those funds to have our military murder innocents abroad. And that is why I consider you a racist. You care a hell what happens to these folks because they are from a different race.
Kids being born/raised in the projects are not being exposed to 'village' values for the most part. Village values, as i am using the term, refers to an evironment of strong middle class values where successful economic adults can step in and help a single parent's kids--either thru school ties, family ties, or family friends. To my knowledge both Clinton and Obama had such upbringings.
So the question becomes then, how do we break the welfare/project cycle in a way that gives kids a chance for economic success? I think, one of the prime ways, is to cut off welfare going forward (not for people who have it already). This will put the people of this class on notice that they will not be able to successfully raise children (children who are able to support themselves) without abtaining marketable skills themselves or marrying someone else with those skills. Is that not a good thing?
That is not the only thing we can do to help and encourage "success" going forward. We need to somehow create an economy in which these people can find work also .
I don't perceive my statements as racial when one considers that currently 40% of white children are also being born out of wedlock.
Peace.
BUTW |
