| | | Lee, if you want to go there, look up redlining:
en.wikipedia.org
If you wanted to build a subdivision in the US in the 50's, to get FHA and other mortgage backed financing, you had to insure there were no black households in the neighborhood. That was official US policy. Much of this practice continued into the late 1970's.
So, that's why black people lived in ghettos. In slums. Because they had few ways out.
My ancestors never dealt with this. Most of ours didn't. SI is so white it's like that white light people crawl to in their near death state. That's why there is very little push back on this site on issues like this.
Most US wealth is passed to the next generation via property. If you are prohibited from owning property or accumulating it, how can you pass that along as a black family?
Take black kids out of the inner city as toddlers, put them in the burbs with burb benefits and income, and you will watch the disparity disappear.
Inner cities were hollowed out by the riots of the 60's, when black people expected their lives to change after the passage of the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act. When their lives didn't change, they got ticked. I'm not saying it was right to riot. I'm giving the reasons why it happened.
With white flight and hollowed out cities with renters, the gradual decay began, as the tax base disappeared. It's no wonder the schools are bad when the tax base goes away.
Black people turned to folks like the Black Panthers for answers. They were a flawed organization, but they did many good things. Free pre-school. Free breakfast for kids. They had ideals. However, their leadership was borderline criminal and infiltrated. When the Panthers were gone, the gangs filled the voids. With poor people, you get poor legal representation, and that means lots of people locked up and put away.
It's a cycle that continues, but there are reforms happening. It's lunacy to lock up 2% of the population at a cost of $40k a year per person, but we do it.
With basketball, I've been around a lot of black people. Gladiator Daughter was once the only non-African American on an AAU team she was on. That was one of the greatest groups of people I've ever been around, and they were hard core inner city black people. My wife and kids have black friends. So do I. How many here can say the same? Few, I think. I used to make deliveries to the black neighborhoods when I was a teen. My dad worked for 20-years in a black neighborhood, even cashing prize fight checks for famous boxers. We never had issues. We got along with everyone.
My wife is a social worker who works with people of all backgrounds. People are people. We are all humans. We are nothing more or less. We have the same aspirations for our kids as everyone else. We hope they have the opportunity to get there. We do the best we can. I'd rather work with people than against them in the fight to improve lives and families. |
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