over the course of my lifetime, I've seen various presidents and Congress promulgate numerous measures intended to lift black folks out of abject poverty... and yet I see that vast numbers of black folks are still in that position...
and they seem even more pissed off than ever...
so... what's the answer...?
I've worked with and on poverty programs for most of my life. I would say that statistically speaking, blacks are actually doing better, economically, than they have ever done at any point in time in this country.
However, there is an increasing gap between affluent blacks and poor ones. Middle class and upper class blacks are doing better than ever. Poor blacks are doing worse.
For me, at least, the divide is educational, cultural and familial, and it's grown deeper over time. What you see now are pockets of concentrated social dysfunction: intense poverty, failing schools, destroyed family structures, high crime.
i don't think that outsiders CAN lift blacks out of poverty. Black people have to lift themselves. However, it appears to me that the people who are currently trapped in poverty in the U.S., in many cases, appear to lack the skill sets that they need in order to transition from the lower to the middle class.
Schools in those areas are almost all failing. The social fabric of the community that was held together by churches, families, and shared community standards have unraveled. Individual family units struggle with issues like illiteracy, poor nutrition, lack of access to healthcare, the inability to handle or manage money, ineffective parenting activities, and deeper issues like drug/alcohol addiction and in some cases, mental illness.
I have seen isolated rays of hopefulness, but in general, I see communities, school districts, neighborhoods and families trapped in a cycle of dysfunction that can't be escaped.
Consider Camden, NJ. Here's a brief description of this lovely area:
Although once a thriving center for manufacturing and industry, Camden is perhaps best known for its struggles with urban dysfunction. Three Camden mayors have been jailed for corruption, the most recent being Milton Milan in 2000.[15] Since 2005 the school system and police department have been operated by the State of New Jersey; the takeover will expire in 2012. In 2008, Camden had the highest crime rate in the U.S. with 2,333 violent crimes per 100,000 people while the national average was 455 per 100,000.[16] Camden public schools spend $17,000 per student per year and two thirds of the students graduate. Two out of every five residents are below the national poverty line.[17]
Camden is an extreme example, but having spent time working there, I have to say...the answers to these problems are not simple ones. 30% of Camden residents live in subsidized housing. Employment opportunities are non-existent, the schools are so bad that they were taken over by the state of New Jersey in 2005. The local political leaders have had major issues with corruption. The city of Camden can't self-manage; in fact, New Jersey heavily subsidizes Camden's annual budget.
How do you fix an area like this with high levels of poverty? You would have to have a comprehensive strategy that addressed everything from reducing violent crime to rebuilding the learning environment of the local schools to finding ways to bring in business and industry to provide jobs.
It's a crazy big situation, and it's not going to be easy.
The people I've worked with that live in places like this tend to lack essential skills in so many areas: they don't know how to cook. They don't know how to clean. They don't know how to manage their monthly income/budget. They don't know how to be employable. Many are functionally illiterate and read on the 3-4th grade level.
You would have to address the skill deficits in all of these areas in order to solve poverty for these people.
But, this isn't about skin color. Look at the
White family of West Virginia, and you see the same damn scenario being played out in the same damn way. Go and spend time on almost any indian reservation in the U.S., and you'll see the same thing...high crime rates, high rates of social dysfunction.
There are people in every community in the U.S., pockets of them, who are not succeeding on any level...they're white, brown, black, etc. Our system isn't working for them, and they're stuck in a hole that is bad for them, bad for their kids, and bad for society.
