Actually, dirty…slavery built this country.

I could not agree with you more Derek. There’s an overriding sentiment that comes up in this blog about how people need to be pushed out of the city, bulldoze the projects, lock up the young thugs, etc etc. As someone who has not volunteered within the community, I can’t say that i’ve played any productive role in this issue beyond being a friendly, kind and social neighbor. That said, white, black, hispanic…we’re all the damn same, we’re just trying to live our lives as we see fit. i moved into the neighborhood because I wanted to live somewhere that was relatively cheap, relatively safe, yet still close to work, bars, restaurants, friends, and everyday conveniences. I’m used to being a minority, as an american growing up abroad, as a punk rocker with a mohawk living in redneck country NC, and as am american living in america without the american upbringing or experience. I believe in the good-heartedness of man, but i understand that more primal needs often trump the goodness of the human spirit. it’s sad that this is how things work, but, living is living, whether you get by on a lame ass job or you thrive selling pcp laced weed. You can’t blame someone for trying to better their position in life just because the only other options are crappy and hopeless.

Do you think for one moment that I didn’t come to my views based on my long-time African-American neighbors who are sick to death of the dead nephews in their family history?
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Maybe you’ve misunderstood me. In my world, people are products of their environments, sometimes the environment shapes you for the better, but sometimes an outright rejection of said environment has equally strong an impact on ones worldview.
In my experience, I am an american who grew up abroad in asia and europe. I am a product of those environments, more specifically, a product of collective experiences within those environments. Hard life, necessitating transcendence? Not really. But that’s my environment, and that’s what shaped me, for better or worse. If you really want to go tell someone that their environment shaped them for the worse, to tell them that all of their collective life experiences have amounted to nothing of worth, then be my guest. White, black, hispanic…if you came up to me and went on one of your little tyrades, if you were attacking the very fiber of my upbringing, i’d be furious. Many know better than to let words lead to violence, but given the flurry of crime-related ppostings on this site, you should know that the result would be bad for you.

I’m sure if you were faced with a choice of slinging drugs for huge loads of tax-free profit or flipping burgers at mcdonalds, you’d choose the first. it’s not about fitting in the gears of the system – it’s about survival, and in a world where more is better and C.R.E.A.M (cash rules everything around me), the obvious choice is to sell drugs. Why pull yourself up by your bootstraps to become a cog in a system that has ignored and even repressed you for years?
Not because of violence tendencies or a predisposition to hating white people, but because you’d essentially be telling them that they were responsible for not doing anything when chances are nobody gave them hope, nobody gave them a chance to really excel and be their best selves. If you’re a father and an ex-con, the deck is stacked against you in most places. Yes one can face hardships and still do the bootstraps thing, but if that work-hard and earn your keep mentality is not part of your environment, then it is highly unlikely that one will simply adopt these ideals and make them a driving part of your Modus Operandi. And if you do, then awesome, great, congratulations, but why settle for the lowest spot on the totem pole when you could be head-top-dog of your own totem pole.

I too am tired of seeing dead bodies in the street. I’m tired of watching the heads on my block dissappear for months and months and then reappear, only to learn they’d been in jail on drug or gun charges. But having a gruff, john wayne attitude about the matter only stokes the embers of the flame. There’s a time for compassion, understanding, and compromise. That’s why we have programs like affirmative action and groups like the NAACP. These are good programs but they simply are not far reaching enough to deal with the root causes of this perpetual issue of self-determination. AA is only good if you can acquire the basic skills to get a decent job that forges a legitimately better alternative from the quick easy cash of drug dealing, and unfortunately, that simply isn’t common around these parts. I have a good number of friends back home in western NC who probably won’t go to college, will live in trailor parks and mobile homes and not have access to affordable healthcare. They’re drug dealers (current and former) ex cons, bar-room brawlers – the term coined was ‘smooth talkin’, hard drinkin’ criminals. And they’re some of the best people I know. They have more life experience than you (neener) will probably ever acquire, and in my years spent going back to my adoptive “home” down there, they’ve become like family to me. Like i said, i’m sure your views are well founded, but so are mine. This isn’t a race issue. It’s an issue of poverty and lack of opportunity. And you seem to want to say that they’re responsible for not having opportunities and being poor because they were raised in environments that did not stress the cornerstone responsibilities of success by self determination. Sort of like being berated for not knowing algebra when you took history instead.

They have served time and produced many children because they chose to do something that was illegal and have sex. Pull yourself up by your bootstraps is what built this country. Your progressive ideas of letting the government cradle them only further oppresses them, as evidenced by this story. Derek chose to pull himself up by his bootstraps, finally get that lame-ass job, and try and change his life. If the ghetto wouldn’t have been created by the government (public housing) then maybe the “get something for nothing” mentality wouldn’t exist.

So in your world view all poor people are violent waiting to attack white people. Who are you???

Do you think for one moment that I didn’t come to my views based on my long-time African-American neighbors who are sick to death of the dead nephews in their family history?

Keep your right wing “black people will never be as successful as white people” racist claptrap to yourself, ok?