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It’s a vicious cycle spanning decades now.....and for many of those black kids that actually attempt to improve themselves through education get shunned by many of their own race.

Also make no mistake, more American blacks than you might think judge each other by the darkness of their skin......the idea being that lighter skinned are somehow superior.....how that is, is a mystery to me but I’ve sure seen it first hand.

If that ain’t racist I don’t know what is. 🤷

Yeah. It’s got to be tough for many who have no desire to be part of the thug culture.

I gave a young black guy 7 Gospel tracts.

Gave him the first 3 on a lark, they were in my back pocket.

He told me he had been thinking about changing his life - I said, ‘Here, read these’ (paraphrased)

Saw him a week or two later, he said his family were passing them around.

So I purposed another 4 tracts (all 7 with different themes) - couldn’t find the guy for 2 months - all of a sudden there he is, right in front of me, stepping out of an elevator.

I had those 4 for him, in my pocket for 2 months (well, not when the jeans were washed)

It’s a vicious cycle spanning decades now.....and for many of those black kids that actually attempt to improve themselves through education get shunned by many of their own race.

I observe that. And I also observe the opposite -- lots of young blacks are defining themselves as Christians first and not wanting anything to do with the worldly version of "being black". They're able to network with other good minded blacks and whites to support each other.

And to SaveFerris' point, one of the things they do is change their music. In my majority black church, in our mens' groups or other groups I'm part of (i.e. financial small group or parenting group), one of the things that's often brought up is meditating on the Lord and not worldly ways so we can keep our heads on straight. Almost without exception, the black men who've been exemplary people for years say that one of the main things that helped them was to quit listening to the hate-filled rap. They make it their mission to listen to Christian rap or other music that's not full of worldly ways. To support their point, if it's a group that I'm officially the leader of that semester (which means I brought my laptop LOL), I reach into my laptop bag for my bluetooth speaker and play some of the decades old Christian rock I've listened to since I became a Christian. LOL