Posted on 04/14/2014 9:57:05 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
We didnt run from where we grew up. We arent afraid to be associated with the people who came up with us.
Thats Richard Sherman of the Seattle Seahawks writing in defense of his friend, DeSean Jackson, who was cut from the Philadelphia Eagles amid reports of gang ties. Sherman isnt trying to litigate the allegations or exonerate Jacksonhe doesnt know the details. But he doesnt think its wrong for Jackson to associate with the men from his childhood.
And why would it be? Yes, some of them have criminal recordsand for some, that includes gang activitybut leaving home is hard, and the social distance of wealth makes it even harder. As Sherman writes, In desperate times for people who come from desperate communities, your friends become your family. I wouldnt expect DeSean to distance himself from anybody, as so many people suggest pro athletes ought to do despite having no understanding of what that means.
I dont know if Sherman sees it or notmy hunch is that he doesbut in a few sentences, hes put his finger on the pulse of something overlooked in our discussions of poverty and economic mobility as they relate to black Americans: neighborhood. Shermans experience of being pulled back to a poor neighborhood, even as he accumulates wealth, is common among blacks.
The difference for ordinary black Americans, as opposed to NFL stars, is that this has been a powerful driver of downward mobility. Just a quick comparison of black and white neighborhoods is enough to illustrate the particular challenges that face black families as they reach for middle class, or try to keep their position....
(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...
The increased number of mixed-race kids has changed the dynamics. The majority of “black” kids here have one white parent. They have a foot in both worlds and they usually choose which one they want to live in. Since there is no black community, they are forced into the other world.
We are raising a generation of dark-skinned white people.
A bigger problem for their new neighbors, is if the teens bring over friends to visit from "the hood" to help them "keep it real".
“The single fact that powerfully explains why black Americans have such a hard time climbing the economic ladder”
is 72% of black babies are born to single women, raised in a single parent household. They are on the short end of the stick from the git go. And no government can fix the problem - only the black community can solve the problem, and I don’t believe they realize they have the problem.
“the only thing holding them back are their own choices.”
I think that’s true. They know if they speak and act correctly they’ll be criticized by their black neighbors and colleagues. So they “go ghetto” on purpose. And it seems to be pretty unique to American blacks.
I watch different house-hunting reality shows. The black couples in America speak jive or modified jive, and have amazing entitlement attitudes. The black couples in Canada are like all other couples and if your eyes were closed you’d never be able to identify the race. Of course, this is a generalization, but it’s true most of the time.
They also have many of their peers who think achievement is a “white thing”.
Trouble being he represents 0.013 %. It is the vast mass that is the 400 year old disaster.
Or care. As long as those cards work at the ATM.
they should look in the mirror like the rest of the world.
That's it. Everyone sails through life in that boat. The highest born will find themselves in the street, in prison or in a grave if they refuse to be accountable for their actions. The other side of the coin is that anyone can improve their circumstances through discipline and attention to their own actions.
There doesn’t seem to be such a distinct black sub-culture in Britain either even though they also had slavery and they ended slavery there only a few years earlier than the U.S.. I don’t know the reason for that difference.
“Left out in the equation, so to speak, is a comparison of IQs in these populations.”
I think cultural attitudes hold them back more than any IQ differences.
The white Canadian attitude probably is "I wasn't a slave owner, nor was any ancestor of mine, not any other Canadian. We allowed your ancestors butts in as charity. We have nothing to 'atone' for. So STFU or GTFO".
They exist, but government regulation makes it very hard to open a small urban business in a poor neighborhood. It’s hard enough to successfully run a business even with training.
Dads.
A chinese couple came here decades ago. They couldn’t speak English and got a job at a Chinese restaurant. They lived in the mop closet, literally. They had a baby and still lived there. The other Chinese-American workers made fun of them. Eventually, they had a second son and moved out of the mop closet into a very small studio apartment and continued to save money. They worked like crazy. After twenty years the owners of the Chinese restaurant decided to sell, their kids didn’t want it and they wanted to retire. The restaurant business, family run, is lucrative, but brutal. The immigrants bought the whole thing for cash and have two restaurants now. They still live modestly, but their modern house is about 50 times bigger than that mop closet.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.