I have a problem with the Black Community. I saw that the future was being systematically erased in front of my very eyes some decades back and no one blinked or thought twice about it. Now we are all living with the results and all I have ever seen with the process is that our people get together (if they even do that) and complain about the symptoms or the results and never discuss the cures or solutions. It is not as simple as "give us jobs and things will get better" because the ones that are causing all the problems prey on the people who have the ambition to try to better their situations. The gangbanging thug and the drug dealing punk used to be the exception but now it seems to be the reality and the rule while the smart, ambitious student has become the rarity.
They (The MAN. The Powers that be. The Establishment.) started with elimination of Humanity courses in High Schools (the courses that would make you a "well rounded student" because they felt that the money could be spent elsewhere. It is being spent elsewhere like Police tanks and Link cards.) and ended with the elimination of the Trade courses. You may not realize that these were key things to our people but they were. Humanity courses are things Art and Music. How is that important? All of the people you admire in today's society had these courses when they were young and used those to advance into the Music and Film Industries. The Trade courses (Wood shop, Metal shop, Etc.) were for those who wanted to work with their hands (the Craftsmen) but this was the destruction of the Middle Class and a way to keep the Middle Class from advancing anyone into the Upper Class. The first thing that is asked of you when you attempt to advance is "what did you do in High School?" They check to see if you were in any clubs or extra curricular activities. That means "did you do anything outside of what you were required to do?" This is a form of controlling who goes further if you didn't know. They ask this when you apply for College and when you apply for a job. They also make it so that you can only keep a job for no more than 3 years. Most people have great resumes where they have worked at many jobs for about three years each. That is because unless you have moved up the ladder they want you gone before you start making more money than you are worth to the company. It keeps cost down because after three years you are vested in the company and they have to give you the money they said they would in the 401 K agreement. If they can fire you prior to that they get to keep that money plus they are playing the odds that you will not get sick or need your health insurance in that time so they won't have to pay out any of that money which would make the health insurance go up. They also hope that they don't have to increase your pay too much during that time as well.
So many people want to hold onto the notion that High School is enough for most people. It is not. Even if you take a few courses and just START college that is enough to put you ahead of every other person that applies for a job. Learn a trade. Ask a local craftsman if he of she is taking an apprentice. Knowledge is what will turn this around. Even the thugs learn how to thug from someone but most important is to pass real knowledge on to someone if your child does not want to learn it. Just make sure it doesn't die with you.
The other day a guy came in to the shop where I work and attempted to sell me a bag of assorted deodorant sticks he had stolen from a local store. I said no thanks and I was a bit perturbed about it. A guy in the shop said "you can't knock that man's hustle" and I stopped him and said "that was not a hustle. That was a guy that stole something and attempted to sell it to me. A hustle is the sock guy or the hand towel guy. Those guys eventually make enough to open stores. That guy will continue to shoplift as long as people buy the stuff he steals." The guy felt that I was wrong in my assessment but I stand by that statement. That guy will never change that pattern because he has grown into it and the people that buy those items are enablers. People at one point in time would steal the aluminum siding off of your house because they could sell it to the metal recyclers. They stopped that by refusing to buy aluminum siding so the thieves stopped taking it because it no longer held value. They know how to stop things when it affects the wrong part of society.
As for the problem, the solution to that problem is to educate the coming generations. Sit down with your kids and plan out the classes. Add extra classes if they are available like Home Economics, Typing, Wood shop, Metal Shop and Band. My mother forced me to take ROTC, Band and Typing in High School. I didn't need Home Economics because I already knew how to cook and clean due to her insistence. She also gave me a sewing machine when I was young and encouraged me to draw at every opportunity. These are the things that kept me from being a drug dealer because I saw that there were other means for me to "hustle" that kept me on this side of the law. Everything she made me learn I now use in some manner of form and it has kept me free of the law and fed me for decades. Also, stop buying things off the street that you know were stolen. The only way to keep people from stealing is to take away the value of it. AND stop "Shaking you r heads" on Facebook. You are not changing anything by forwarding the coonery and buffoonery in these videos and then commenting how you do not approve of the behavior. Of course you approve because you continue to perpetuate the behavior by forwarding it to your friends. We can turn this around in less than a generation if we really wanted to do just that.
