The Top 5 Issues Facing Black Americans

[Chris]

What's happening in some segments of the black community is a vicious cycle of poverty and violence. It's hard to make something of yourself and break the cycle if you come from a dysfunctional home and community in the first place.

That cycle is fed by things like the drug war, mass incarceration, mandatory minimum sentencing, the fact that virtually no criminal prosecutions go to trial, lack of opportunity, discriminatory housing issues, discriminatory hiring issues, failing schools and yes even the social safety net to an extent.

How this cycle can be broken is beyond me...but it starts with focusing on these issues and honest conversations.

The first part of what you say would include single-mother homes. The solution, to me, would be to stop incentivizing that as a choice.

[Common Sense]

Ah, things no one can control, like who you are as defined by time and place and society and culture.

Nothing was handed to me, so inheritance must be a factor in what, 1% of society? Read so Sowell and Williams on how well blacks were doing prior to the War on Poverty's attempts to correct what you think you see. They are worse off now. And one area is in family, the system incentivized single-mother families.

The video was put up as a strawman to start discussion not as an answer. What you have done is expand on the OP speaker's very point, how blacks are victims.


I'm waiting for you to be told by @Cigar that you don't speak for blacks.

I hear this argument a lot. "I didn't come from money" or "nothing was handed to me". While that may be true, it's quite easy to miss some of the advantages you took for granted. A stable family, a knowledge base of basics like how to open a bank account or how to drive a car. Even access to a car. Basic manners are instilled in people when their parents possess those manners. Safe schools, access to food and medicine. Clothes on your back and a few bucks in your pocket. Looking similar and sharing similar values to the person who is interviewing you for a job. People not following you around in stores.

When I hear people say they made it on their own, I think they take for granted what they were given.

[exploited]

I hear this argument a lot. "I didn't come from money" or "nothing was handed to me". While that may be true, it's quite easy to miss some of the advantages you took for granted. A stable family, a knowledge base of basics like how to open a bank account or how to drive a car. Even access to a car. Basic manners are instilled in people when their parents possess those manners. Safe schools, access to food and medicine. Clothes on your back and a few bucks in your pocket. Looking similar and sharing similar values to the person who is interviewing you for a job. People not following you around in stores.

When I hear people say they made it on their own, I think they take for granted what they were given.

It is privilege. Don't say that aloud though, conservatives despise the idea that they didn't grow up in a vacuum.

[Cigar]

Don't know the Man from the Video ...

But I do know myself and how I lived my life, and how everyone I know who is Black lived their life.

There are people out there who actually believe, just like Donald J Trump, Black People are worse off now that they were in the 70's, 60's, 50's and 40's ...

My ONLY answer to people who think that is, :How many years have you been Black and where you ever Black in the 70's, 60's, 50's and 40's?

That's My Answer and they the Answer you're deserve.

[Common Sense]

The first part of what you say would include single-mother homes. The solution, to me, would be to stop incentivizing that as a choice.

I don't agree that it is incentivized. How so?

While I agree that dependance on welfare is a part of the problem, I don't think it's the main issue. I think broken families due to mass incarceration and the resulting culture formed by it, racism and violence are also at fault. Typically if a child's father is in prison, he will serve time as well. Typically a long sentence that turns him into a far worse criminal for somewhat minor drug offences.

[exploited]

Ah, things no one can control, like who you are as defined by time and place and society and culture.

Nothing was handed to me, so inheritance must be a factor in what, 1% of society? Read so Sowell and Williams on how well blacks were doing prior to the War on Poverty's attempts to correct what you think you see. They are worse off now. And one area is in family, the system incentivized single-mother families.

The video was put up as a strawman to start discussion not as an answer. What you have done is expand on the OP speaker's very point, how blacks are victims.


I'm waiting for you to be told by @Cigar that you don't speak for blacks.

Yes, indeed, things that no one can control. That is exactly what I said from the start. Of course these outcomes were controlled in some sense, because whites were allowed to accumulate capital and money, whereas blacks were not. They were systematically denied the ability to participate as equals. Furthermore, everyone was better off prior to the War on Poverty, including whites. Increased wealth inequality and decreased socioeconomic mobility has impacted everyone, it is just that some people have the social network to cope, and others do not. Too often, those who do and those who don't can be defined by the colour of their skin. This can be attributed almost solely to the institutional racism faced by blacks for most of history. Note that there are always outliers, but that you simply cannot assess community-level problems by focusing on them, and saying "if only all people were as exceptional as the success stories."

The idea that "nothing" was handed to you is, of course, false. Trying to reduce what I intended by my post to a single cash payout in the form of inheritance doesn't really make any sense.

[Safety]

What's happening in some segments of the black community is a vicious cycle of poverty and violence. It's hard to make something of yourself and break the cycle if you come from a dysfunctional home and community in the first place.

That cycle is fed by things like the drug war, mass incarceration, mandatory minimum sentencing, the fact that virtually no criminal prosecutions go to trial, lack of opportunity, discriminatory housing issues, discriminatory hiring issues, failing schools and yes even the social safety net to an extent.

How this cycle can be broken is beyond me...but it starts with focusing on these issues and honest conversations.

Yes, basically it is as if blacks have just appeared in America and they have not been subjected to generations and generations of systemic marginalization and oppression. Some people just don't get it, but because a black man says it, it is heralded as the "trooth". I wonder how many who think this guy is correct, thinks Tim Wise is full, of $#@!.

[Chris]

Yes, indeed, things that no one can control. That is exactly what I said from the start. Of course these outcomes were controlled in some sense, because whites were allowed to accumulate capital and money, whereas blacks were not. They were systematically denied the ability to participate as equals. Furthermore, everyone was better off prior to the War on Poverty, including whites. Increased wealth inequality and decreased socioeconomic mobility has impacted everyone, it is just that some people have the social network to cope, and others do not. Too often, those who do and those who don't can be defined by the colour of their skin. This can be attributed almost solely to the institutional racism faced by blacks for most of history.

The idea that "nothing" was handed to you is, of course, false. Trying to reduce what I intended by my post to a single cash payout in the form of inheritance doesn't really make any sense.

OK, now I'm confused. These are things we cannot control but they are things that were controlled.

There are poor whites and rich blacks. I think you overgeneralize things racially.

I paid my way though school etc. I left home at 17.

[Cigar]

Study or Google Chicago Redlining or look up How the Ghettos were Built and Who Built them!

[Chris]

Yes, basically it is as if blacks have just appeared in America and they have not been subjected to generations and generations of systemic marginalization and oppression. Some people just don't get it, but because a black man says it, it is heralded as the "trooth". I wonder how many who think this guy is correct, thinks Tim Wise is full, of $#@!.

Saying some just don't get it doesn't help discussion. Help people get it. What do you disagree with with Taleeb Starkes? Who is Tim Wise?