Ridding along in your average Ghetto in America

originally posted by: Deny Arrogance
Yep things have gotten much worse the past 8 years under Obama/Clinton.

Four more years of the same by electing Clinton will be even more devastating.

Neither Clinton or Trump will fix the problems where I live. It'a a mix of systemic poverty caused by the steel mills moving away, one of the nations worst drug problems, and a corrupt local government that's more interested in collecting kick backs from local business to keep out competition, than letting more people create jobs.

I say local business here, but it applies to our big business too. Walmart for example, which is our only store within a 40 mile drive to buy most of anything other than food, and employs 21% of the working locals has told the town that if they allow anyone to open that competes with them, they'll move out and really screw up the unemployment rate. They use the same threat to pay zero in local taxes as well.

a reply to: AmericanRealist

Uh, I am showing my age. Recently lived in Tampa for seven years. I was lucky to live in a great upscale neighborhood there but don't fool yourself. The homelessness is very high and much poverty and a lack of jobs. I know the statistics-it was my job there. Several crumbling neighborhoods and Tampa's not that big.

Schools are in terrible condition-so bad that there are more private schools per square mile than any other place in the USA.
Another troubling statistic is the extremely high number of police officers killed every year-and they are a tight bunch I was honored to know.

Tampa does have a beautiful downtown if you want to ignore people living under the bridges and schools with very angry teenagers breaking into fights so often the cops patrol the hallways between classes. Social workers over whelmed.

Fancy neighborhoods, great restaurants for some and urban decay, starvation and violence for others.

It was hard for me not to see the pain in the eyes of the havenots there both young and old and most not speaking English.

a reply to: Justso

Your story is very disheartening ....i have to stop you here however....

I am disheartened for the next generation of poverty. Free education is not effective nor wanted. The poor have hate in their hearts watching wealthy rap stars and glorifying thuggish behavior. Their leadership has failed them.

There is a very big difference between handouts and education...please do not ever try to blur the lines between the two....

I walked in Brooklyn in the 80s, which was surreal too (thinking post-WWII Europe..).

Are modern Ghettos that much different to that time and place?

originally posted by: ManFromEurope
I walked in Brooklyn in the 80s, which was surreal too (thinking post-WWII Europe..).

Are modern Ghettos that much different to that time and place?

They're a little bit worse. They could be fixed, but any change will come from local level politicians not national level ones.

originally posted by: slider1982

originally posted by: xuenchen
Truly sad.

The political systems have failed as usual.

I would say the Cultural system of the area has failed. There are many many poor places in the world where people do not resort to killing each other.


RA

Amen. Look at the deep south of the USA. Very poor. Don't have the murder rates of "poor" inner cities. The "poor" inner cities where they have iPhones, Jordans, money for drugs/smokes/alcohol, etc.

Where is the accountability for these ghetto dwellers! I work there, I go into their homes, I DEAL with them daily. Not all are bad, some are working to escape. But the majority of them, are all victims, terrible humans, with no desire to work their way out!
Schools?? They are there!!! Parents getting them up or holding them accountable for missing, failing, or being D@!ks in class? Not so much.
Business?? If they would quit robbing them or burning them down, then better ones would set up shop.
Needy, whiney, and entitled is the ghetto theme. If the adults would at least try, then we might see a shift. But if kids learn that they don't have to clean the house, get a job, pay bills, and it's all someone else's fault, then they are doomed!
Simone Biles was taken in by a good family and look what happened there.

originally posted by: xuenchen
Truly sad.

The political systems have failed as usual.

I would argue that the political systems have succeeded, considering that I believe that the main goal behind the two major parties has been the subjugation and control over the people of our country. What better way to do that than enact laws and policies that keep people down financially? You take away the individual's means or drive to support themselves, and you have complete control over them for the rest of their lives.

Hell, that's what slavery was, for the most part.

a reply to: Willtell

"A new paradigm...a "religious" universal movement that includes some kind of moral and ethical element". That sounds an awful lot like what islam/sharia wants to bring to us as they're welcomed to take root in the US. Geez...Russia & the ME on one side, China on the other, and THAT in the middle of us? It does not look good for us... especially with no one with real leadership abilities on the near horizon...it's truly a horror story in the making.

originally posted by: Deny Arrogance
Poverty is not the biggest contributing factor.

Black families did much better in the fifties even though they were much poorer and racism was much worse.

After Ben Shapiro was asked, "How can you argue that racism is not a driving factor in income inequality?", he answered "Because it has nothing to do with race and everything to do with culture", the crowd gasps and the BLM moron flails her upper extremities as though she'd just been proven right. Shapiro comes back with this gem which wipes the smirk right off her clown face.

"You know what? Explain to me. Explain to me why black kids aren't graduating high school. Explain that one to me. Explain to me why black kids are shooting each other at rates significantly higher than whites are shooting each other. Explain to me why 13% of the population is responsible for 50% of the murder Explain to me why the number of black kids are in prison - not for innocent reasons, not for walking down the street and getting pulled in to a prison - is so high? If it has nothing to do with culture, explain to me why the single motherhood rate in the black community jumped from twenty percent to seventy percent in the same course of time the civil rights movement has made such tremendous strides? Is America more racist now than it was in nineteen sixty and if it is please explain to me how that happened."

The response given to him by the BLM fella is even funnier, but I'm too lazy to transcribe the whole video.

originally posted by: Rubicon3
a reply to: Willtell

"A new paradigm...a "religious" universal movement that includes some kind of moral and ethical element". That sounds an awful lot like what islam/sharia wants to bring to us as they're welcomed to take root in the US. Geez...Russia & the ME on one side, China on the other, and THAT in the middle of us? It does not look good for us... especially with no one with real leadership abilities on the near horizon...it's truly a horror story in the making.

This is more what I had in mind. A Universalist version of tolerant spirituality: Integral Spirituality


It won’t happen though because the world is at its low ebb of ignorance and materialism


integrallife.teachable.com...

You should ask rather than assume so much...

a reply to: Edumakated

You think GOP politicians would do any better? I doubt it.


I didn’t politicize the op because I don’t think political ideology has much to do with it.


It’s a social problem and may be affected by politics somewhat but not entirely



Bill Cosby had some good ideas but was shouted down by the middle class black liberal elite.


It’s a social disease which has to do with people’s outlook on life. This has spread to the White prosperous class in the form of the heroin epidemic

a reply to: BelowLowAnnouncement

Damn!
He annihilated that forum.

a reply to: BelowLowAnnouncement

The idea of “culture” being the problem is relevant because the cultural milieu all this has arisen in is AMERICAN culture.


So true American culture has produced societal poverty, crime, and riotous incidences many times.


“Black” culture is a sub cultural American phenomenon. It didn’t come from Mars.


This boils down to a social issue exacerbated by moral, ethical, political and philosophical inputs.


Each level of input can be directly countered by analyzing where and what these inputs contribute to the problem.


Moral/Ethical: Outlook on life influences can be countered by input from parents, and religious institutions of all sects.


Political: ideas of offering to poverty areas economic incentives and assistance in education, job training, and more community centered policing.


Philosophical:

To alter and influence the negative street level crime inducing gang and drug culture to offer a healthier environment.

1. Eliminate through extreme policing gangs and drug culture either through drug legalization and crack down on violent crime.

2. Teaching public awareness about pre marital sex and with the intent of bringing down the single parent home explosion

3. Public awareness and incentive programs in the poor communities that offer educational, economic, and positive outlook philosophies

The ONLY thing done now in the wretched inner city is an extreme policing method and charter schools!


Two insufficient inputs that often only exacerbate the problems.

originally posted by: slider1982
There are many many poor places in the world where people do not resort to killing each other.

Oh come on!
Could your statement have been any broader?
In case you haven't been paying attention poverty breeds violence. I bet there are more violent impoverished communities around the globe than non-violent. Your statement suggests this only happens in America. Even more disturbing you back-handedly suggesting poverty and being poor is acceptable.

originally posted by: Willtell
a reply to: Edumakated

You think GOP politicians would do any better? I doubt it.


I didn’t politicize the op because I don’t think political ideology has much to do with it.


It’s a social problem and may be affected by politics somewhat but not entirely



Bill Cosby had some good ideas but was shouted down by the middle class black liberal elite.


It’s a social disease which has to do with people’s outlook on life. This has spread to the White prosperous class in the form of the heroin epidemic

I think the GOP could do better. Democrats basically promote the victimization narrative that acts like mental chains on the community's ability to do for themselves. Most of these cities have been under liberal Democrat control from school boards to police chiefs to city councils and mayors for the past 50 years.

The policies pushed are often the very policies that create these conditions.

Schools? Most in the community support charter schools and school choice. But liberal Democrats hold the teachers unions in higher regard than the black community. So Democrats fight to essentially keep blacks in these failing schools.

Single Parenthood? This is probably the biggest contributor of the destructive ghetto behavior. The growth in out of wedlock births ties directly to the liberal war on poverty. For decades, even directly after slavery and right through Jim Crow, the black family unit has always remained strong. It wasn't until we bought in to these welfare policies that replaced black men with government in these homes.

Illegal Immigration? This is a huge one. Most of these immigrants are primarily taking low skilled and lower wage jobs. They have destroyed the teen job market in these areas. Not only do you have young feral black males with no father figures, they also have little opportunities to actually work in their own communities. I see it everyday in Chicago. I drive through Austin and it is nothing but block after block of young black men hanging out on corners with nothing to do. In the past, these kids would be working somewhere which is what typically would keep them out of trouble.

You simply cannot ignore the connections between the present state of the black community and progressive politics. This isn't to say the GOP would be much better, but the reality is that we simply don't know as the last half century really has belonged to Democrats in these cities.

a reply to: slider1982

Are they victims of systemic oppression (ethnically/or racially/or economically) and of economic inequality within a "western" societal model and/or urban setting?

Because if those elements are present, the environments are quite similar

Examples:
Rocinha, Brazil
Ciudad Bolivar, Bogotá, Colombia
Chamelecón, San Pedro Sula, Honduras
Caracas, Venezuela
Neza-Chalco-Itza, Mexico City, Mexico
Nyanga, Cape Town, South Africa

a reply to: Justso


You are so full of it. More private school per square mile? I live IN THE CITY. The majority of schools here are very public, and are doing just fine. The violence in schools has dramatically decreased in recent years. Cops patrol the halls of EVERY high school, it is called a school resource officer. Jobs are abundant here. Everywhere I go every day there are signs looking for new hires.

Your entire assessment is full of #. I lived here my whole life. There isn't a better city this size in Florida. Very transparent city council and local government that does not initiate any programs before funding is secured. Of course when you leave the sanctuary of a closed off subdivision and see the scaries of a regular city, you certainly would think that way.

There is no part of this city that is unsafe to walk down at night, no matter your race or ethnicity. if you believe that than you never really lived here, just in your closed off outlying subdivisions. Urban decay?? Cite me one abandoned property that has stood there for more than 2 years without development?

I don't know when you left, but this place is thriving and booming. Downtown is blowing up, Central Tampa has new businesses opening every month. Same in South, West, and even East Tampa.

All I can say people, if you looking for a city with lots of entertainment, natural beauty, excellent parks systems, no manufactured race wars, increasingly growing job market, highly professional and trained police force, very open and transparent local government, museums, theme parks, access to beaches, trees on every property, very low crime, and a very friendly people, move to Tampa.

originally posted by: JAY1980

originally posted by: slider1982
There are many many poor places in the world where people do not resort to killing each other.

Oh come on!
Could your statement have been any broader?
In case you haven't been paying attention poverty breeds violence. I bet there are more violent impoverished communities around the globe than non-violent. Your statement suggests this only happens in America. Even more disturbing you back-handedly suggesting poverty and being poor is acceptable.

Poverty in the US is nothing like poverty in other parts of the world. The most impoverished inner city neighborhoods is like middle class living in many areas of the world. Poverty alone does not cause violence.

Poverty in America just means you only have one pair of Jordans instead of three. Maybe a window unit AC instead of central air. Maybe you don't eat out much. Most poor people have cars. Cell phones. Clothing. Regular food. Healthcare. Schooling.

Poverty is like when I went to the Dominican Republic and our bus was chased after by a bunch of naked kids whose parents worked the sugar cane fields living in tin huts. I've seen dog houses with better accommodations than these people had. I've yet to drive through any ghetto in the US where kids are walking around butt ass naked barefoot, living in tin huts, have no schooling, food, or anything remotely close to typical third world poverty that is prevalent around the globe.