Is white America to blame for African Americans stuck in the ghetto.?

Question

Please dont take the question the wrong way. I have to admit iam a simple minded person and have always been curious as to why important black figures state that the "White man is keeping us down". With my job iam in the hood all the time and to me it seems that there is a lack of parenting to be the big issue.

Answer 1

No! Some blacks have the mind set that the "man" is still oppressing them as people. therefore they will milk the system forever.

(section 8 housing,welfare,unemployment,)etc...

No motivation or drive to better themselves then it turns into a vicious cycle from generation to generation! &

end up getting involved in criminal activities,

They can learn from the new immigrants to the U.S.A , who work hard, get educated and

are very successful and achieve the American dream!

Answer 2

Now there is a culture that has developed that is all negative. It was not always that way, but the government screwed up and instead of developing educated human beings they chose to let the market do its thing and create big voids in our society that we may never recover from.

Answer 3

That thought is very old school in my opinion. Anyone who has the intelligence to want a decent life is able to have it if they are willing to make the effort. White, black, whatever. The colors of the hood are many... it may be more difficult for some but we all have choices. Stop blaming the parents for everything.

Answer 4

I don't take it the wrong way.  Although this might......

No Whites are not to blame for African Americans lack of initiative or lack of work ethic.  People are where they are and that includes whites, blacks, asians, indians, germans, and any other race.  If someone doesn't want to take charge of their lives then they will sit where they sit.  No one to blame but themselves (even though they do).

Answer 5

There are plenty of reasons black people get stuck in the ghetto.

Example.  Why are the minimum sentencing guidelines for crack and cocaine different?  10 year minimum sentence in some places for having a few grams of crack in your pocket.  But why not cocane?

The drug war is being fought in the ghetto, but im sure everyone knows some junkies that arent black.  So where is the tv footage of cops raiding middle class homes?

Abstinece education?  what a bunch of c**p garbage.  More young kids are as uninformed about the dangers of sexual activty than ever before.

How many of those people in the ghetto has a father or grandfather that got killed, injuried, or mentally harmed in Vietnam?

Why are school in urban areas chronically underfunded?

Look at these issue and you can see that although a great deal of the problems fall on the individual, the government's leash of forgiveness is much shorter for us.

There are people in jail right now for have a gram of weed or crack in their pocket, serving more time than any of those Enron, World com, Tyco jokers.

Who hurt the most people?  Who spent the most time in jail?

See the double standard?  Those cheating Aholes still get to go home and play with their kids.  That guy caught with the crack is in jail for 10 years.

Who's to blame for that?

Answer 6

in my opinion from what i've seen and learned, i think there is a possible roll from back in the day when black people were slaves...and then there was the "white only" issue before people like martin luther king jr stood up for the african americans and help make a change. a lot of families are being affected by their ancestors and in return act upon their offspring. but it's only up to the individual of how they want to live. There is plenty of black people out there who is successful and some of them even came from the ghetto. Now a days people are just lazy and black people who grow up in the ghetto rather be that way - hoodlums - crackheads - theives - gangsters. But thats like that everywhere in every nationality.

For example - I'm from Hawaii. Because of the history of white people bringing drugs and new diseases and a different culture to the islands a long time ago - it really affecred the native hawaiians and forced them to go into poverty, rape, drugs or move etc. There are big big areas around certain parts of Oahu that are ghetto with ghetto people (which i will be not specific on) who do nothing all day but drink or smoke weed. A lot of people are homeless and live on the beach. Dumb kids skip school, have too much s*x, get into drugs steal cars etc . And the environment they live in has a big role in it. The government here is barely focusing on cleaning up these cities and more concerned about the tourism. And the reason why it's rough and ghetto there and people are they way they are is because of their parents living in the same place with the same experiences and be4 them and be4. And then they go and blame James Cook and the mainland for taking away the land blah blah blah bringing white people...which is true sadly, but America also brought lots of good things to Hawai'i and theyre just ignorant to see it.

And there is still racist people in this world sadly...but yeah it shouldnt matter if theyre black - if the "white man is keeping us down" then they should prove them wrong and work HARDER.

Answer 7

Haven't you noticed all the jobs are being outsourced or given to Illegal Aleins? Globalism and re-distribution of wealth will not affect the filthy Rich!  Oh just wait, skin color will mean nothing when Globalism fully hits everybody!  You're being put into the same situation they are and Whites winked an eye at racism! Racism is just that and has always been about money.  The stock market was founded on the slave trade, sugar and rum...Blacks had to be demonized as not human, prostitutes, loose morally, alcoholics and drug addicts, crime prone, mentally deficient and all the other things that make them undeserving in the minds of those who want to still control them....Now the Illegal aleins are going to make the USA into a third world country with no rights just like what happened to the socio-economic situation with Blacks..With Jihad Joe coming through the Borders with them to subdue everybody! .Not everybody is uneducated, stuck in the ghetto, have uncivilized children on drugs etc....Have a Good evening with that Nightmare scenario!

Answer 8

I think that it is their Choice and no one else's to stay where they are at.  As far as the white man keeping them down???? There is always going to be blame for something that happened a long time ago.  I agree with you and say that i think it is parenting.  If you, don't watch your kids and keep up with them what do you think will happen to them.  It is hard to be a saint when no one is there to keep them in check.  I am not racist in any way but i dont think the white man is to blame...

Answer 9

Listen to the best opinion by Bill Crosby, he is a black man who has no color and is very wise (with a great sense of humor).  Just tryed to get you a link to his speech but it's very congested.

Answer 10

I think that alot of the black people complaining about the ghetto are the ones that won't work their way out of it.

Many poor people all over America work for a better life and seem to go nowhere, its not just the black population. The role models for young black kids are rappers and actors with low morals,(there are exceptions),I have even heard a child talk about a man arrested on TV for drug sales as aCOOL guy, saying thats what I'll do when I grow up, I want a car like that. good white role models are in a decline too. I really don't see the tide changing unless the role models improve. You can't force a man to stay with his family and make a nurturing home. Women will have to bear the burden of raising upstanding citizens, they need our help and encouragement, no matter what race.

Answer 11

To some extent, yes, but for the most part, no...You have plenty of people that want and strive for a life out of the ghetto, it is all about the mentality and way of being raised...

And Africian Americans are not the only ones stuck in the ghetto. America doesn't realize that African Americans are a minority-- what about all of those White Americans who live in poverty? What is their excuse?

Answer 12

Good to meet a fellow American who has decided that America is for him, not "The Man".

Bill Cosby is one of my role-models (I'm not black, doesn't matter).  His emphasis on personal responsibility combined with not blame, but holding others responsible as well is a shining example of being independent.

The culture that you are seeing I and other teachers have seen as well.  While other black parents encourage their children to achieve, there is a whole subculture of several generations that wallows in pity and hate, and do nothing about it but feel entitled.

They may be entitled, but that's NOT the point.  They handicap themselves generationally by not taking action to improve their condition.  Then they become adults, blame others for their condition, despite years of saying, "I don't need school, I don't need manners, I don't need to be like 'the Man' (meaning anything that could mean success, not just 'white America').

I've cried about it, turned a few around (even some of the parents).  It's not silly to see that we still have a distance to go in equality, but to deliberately hamstring yourself is insane.  I can't be quite and encourage such things, but one of the weapons against doing it is to call me prejudice for trying to get them to like education more!

Can't win that battle.

Americans of black ancestry, let us know what we can do to break this cycle.  They've tied our hands for helping directly, and some of us even feed this cycle of virtual slavery and lack of personal work ethic (not to mention those who see that portion of black Americans who do this and in a bigoted way ignore all the millions of successful role-models and heroes of African ancestry who make it even harder to reach these kids).

For someone who does not consider himself better, it is painful to watch.  Such potential wasted.  I would rather have an angry and actively learning black American fighting for equality than an angry, sullen, needy black man with no ambition.  We're losing Americans here, folks!  We can't afford this!  But how do we reach them when they shun us?

Answer 13

As I understand it, white America is responsible for all the evils in the world.

To suggest otherwise, would, of course, be racist.

Answer 14

Yes, we are partly to blame! I remember segregation very well! I remember blacks to the back of the bus, separate drinking fountains, no seating in the restaurant or lunch counter, no blacks in this neighborhood & on goes the list. A black woman could always get a job as a maid but a black man could hardly find any work at all, only very manual labor that was very poorly paid. It wasn't until the Civil Rights movement began to demand equal rights that things started to change.

I was only a child when these things were happening but I knew that they were wrong. My Mother taught me that I should always treat blacks as equal, this she was taught by her Father!

We whites did our best to keep them down; perhaps to make ourselves feel superior, I don't know why else we would do such things, because we certainly are not in superior any way. In fact; all of our ancestry goes back to one black African lady thousands of years ago! Believe it or not!

Answer 15

so nice of you to point fingers and pass judgment

... but why ask us, if your close to the situation and it concerns you

Answer 16

There is a lack of parenting because of a lack of education and better schooling. People say the white man because that is all they see when they look at the white house.  Instead of more prisons being made, more schools and money should be given to places for blacks to nourish their minds. As the saying goes, "We perish from a lack of knowledge." You cannot stomp on a person for not knowing the right way. In my opinion, whites look out for their own. Everybody else just better get in where they fit in.

Answer 17

yes

white folks aare always thinking of to keep a bro down man

I knwo they have special meetings for this stuff uh huh I heard that

Answer 18

I think you've fallen into the trap of looking for one explanation for a complex problem. I think there are a lot of contributory factors and our nation's history of discrimination and racism does not help. But I don't think that even scratches the surface re: explaining the dynamics of the "ghetto."

Answer 19

Kids having kids, not being taught common courtesy , loud in your face behavior, angry attitudes and shear laziness and a sense of self entitlement is usually the cause. They are in the ghetto because they want to be ... they just lack the will power to move out is all. it's easier to blame others then to be accountable for your own actions .

Answer 20

no

Answer 21

I'm a white American and it is not my fault, I'll tell you that.

Whatwouldyodac pretty much sums it up. Blacks in the ghetto get longer sentences for committing crimes and for drugs than whites. Are they forced to commit crimes and do drugs by the white man? CIA? Don't do crimes or drugs.

s*x education is not up to snuff. Are we to believe that black teenage boys and girls don't know that s*x causes babies? And that babies cause poverty for teenagers? Stop making babies that can't be raised and afforded.

Don't even bring up the Viet Nam vet thing. I am one and it didn't cause my kids or grand kids to use drugs or do crimes or have kids when they were 12. That is an insult to every vet black and white and every other color. Don't talk that trash to us.

Whether schools are underfunded doesn't really matter when you can't get the kids to attend, and pay attention to the teachers, and to leave the drugs and rap c**p at the door. Learning to speak intelligent English is required to get a job. Forget the Ebonics.

The worse thing white America did to black Americans (they are no more African than I am), was to make them dependent on hand outs to live. Compare the town flattened by the tornado in Kansas. It is almost rebuilt. Because everyone jumped in and worked on it. Not the government, the people. And New Orleans, still a mess because the residents there refuse to lift a hand to help themselves. Still waiting for the white man to fix it.

Sorry, whatwouldyodac, you are just making excuses that don't hold up. Like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton do. And excuses are not helping the black nor the brown race, nor for that matter, the white race in the ghetto. It's time to stand up and take advantage of the hand outs and succeed, instead of biting the hand and whining.

This is no racist rant. This is the truth. And it applies to all races. There are more white welfare queens with criminal, drug using boy friends, than black ones. And they can break out of the poverty the same way.

Answer 22

We as Americans of any race keep those who do not succeed down, through a created cycle of dependency on government entitlement programs.

By success I mean the ability to feed, house and clothe yourself and your family without reliance on government or charity.

As long as we give these and handouts, we do not give a hand up.

Answer 23

Please, keep in mind that not all Blacks have even been in the ghetto, much less struck there.

No, not all Black People, blame the White Man for everything.  

Have a nice evening.

Answer 24

You hit on a couple of key things:

1. you admit you are simple-mided, and

2. you say "important black figures" . . .

. . . as if the the only important black figures are the ones who say the "white man is keeping us down".

The media apparently has you brainwashed.  Yeah, there are Al Sharptons and Jesse Jacksons and any other number of victocrats out there who wanna hold prosperous America's feet to the fire about the plight of inner city America and other poorer segments of society.  And racism does still exist in America, though not to the degree it was even 20 years ago.

But what blacks are you running into who continue to insist that the "man" is holding us down?  There are too many prominent black economists, businessmen, politicians, and academics whose focus is so rarely on issues of race that I can't see how you would even bring up a "white man keepin' us down" issue in this forum.  Personally, I haven't heard much from Jesse and Al lately at all as much as I've heard from Obama, Oprah, Condolezza, or J.C. Watts, or Justine Brown.

By your own admission, you are not qualified to present this observation about the "parenting issue in the hood".

To answer your question: No, white america is not to blame for a lot of what goes on in the hood.  But institutional racism still exists for us, and the "invisible knapsack" still exists for you . . .  and historical racism and the very existence of mentalities such as the one you display today say we still haven't come far enough.

Oh, and there are poor white neighborhoods in America as well as there are rich black neighborhoods.  

Do you want to remain simple-minded or are you willing to expose your brain to something that might shake it up a little bit?  

Open up.  Something may just fall in.

Answer 25

Of course not. People live by the decisions they make on their own.

Answer 26

The super-rich are responsible (in part) for keeping Blacks in the "ghetto" since it is THEY who call the shots for ALL of us.

Drugs are brought into the U.S. by the federal government in order to "keep a brutha down."

Prisons are filled with slave labor and the uppity negros are kept away from the affluent white folks.

Check out the 3 strikes law in California and ALL drug laws in general. These laws in regard to drugs are NOT fair.

Check out privatized prisons that use super cheap prison labor to work call centers and manufacture goods for profit.

Answer 27

I dont know......