[dwd1]

I am from Muleshoe, TX (pop est. 4524)... Parents divorced... I have worked since I was 7 with the family... Worked since I was 9 for others...

No argument on the moral choices issue but I think you will find that happens on Beverly as well as Crenshaw...

Not sure when all black people got defined by what happens in the big city... Of course, one could argue that Harlem used to be a nice place... East St. Louis could use some work... Most the people I grew up with in Muleshoe have left....

With paternity tests and a general intolerance for deadbeat dads, unless a young lady is having unprotected sex while blindfolded, I think this situation should not be occuring... I should ask my friend in the hall of records how many births were recorded with "Father Unknown" or "Immaculate Conception"...

Only been to DC once.... Chicago (from what I have heard) is a place where too many people get left behind because of technology and modernization... Biggest mistake anyone can make in any place is to stop learning....

Yes, I have had that "You act white!" argument many times...


Funny thing about poor people... They define themselves more on their condition than the color of their skin... In the farm community, there were people with choices, people without hope, people hungry for a change, people that understood the big picture and knew where they stood, and those blinded by the light buzzing around trying to keep warm...

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Biggest mistake anyone can make in any place is to stop learning....

Now you're beginning to sound like my mother! Ha!

The point you make in your post, about all being grouped and defined by part, is something that I have always found so frustrating. It's unfair and destructive. If the black voting monolith could be broken up, that notion could be challenged.

[John O]

Not sure when all black people got defined by what happens in the big city...

Because that's all we non-blacks ever get exposed to. I separate the black culture into the inner city and the suburbs (which includes rural and everything else) for just that reason. I know lots of successful blacks. Normal people just like you or I. People who work hard, try to raise good kids, go to church, play softball etc. But watching the music world or the news and all you see is the inner city culture. (Now there may be some black family type programs on now but I don't catch much network TV so I don't know)

Of course, one could argue that Harlem used to be a nice place... East St. Louis could use some work...

And when did these areas start their downhill slide?

Funny thing about poor people... They define themselves more on their condition than the color of their skin... In the farm community, there were people with choices, people without hope, people hungry for a change, people that understood the big picture and knew where they stood, and those blinded by the light buzzing around trying to keep warm...

Again you have to separate the communities. In the inner city the poor define themselves as black first. In the rest of the world they seem to be more color blind. Most of the people I know never refer to themselves as black or mention racism (although in some places it still exists)

The black community outside the city seems to do OK. But the ones in the city culture are being dragged down to their deaths. The whole inner-city black culture is aimed against success. After all, you don't want to act white. Once people get free from the inner city culture then it becomes far easier for them to succeed (My friend from Harlem as an example, While they still lived in the inner city in Milwaukee they were not part of the inner city culture)