I’m a retired urban high school teacher. Every teacher has a duty. It could be monitoring the cafeteria, whatever. Mine was after-school math tutoring.
Many black kids would come for after-school help. Nobody forced them. So the will to work, and do better, is certainly present in their community. But there is no opportunity. The steel mills are gone. All the factories are gone.
And idle hands are the devil’s workshop.
This doesn’t explain every problem in the black community, of course. But it is a piece of the puzzle.
I’m guessing that most of the kids you mention came from families with a dad in the home. Too bad there aren’t more of them.
“So the will to work, and do better, is certainly present in their community. But there is no opportunity. The steel mills are gone. All the factories are gone”
Interesting. And they can’t move because of finances?