Interesting View Of Black Under-Class.

Throughout the last two decades, African-Americans have mobilized successfully to gain political power, only to find that their economic and social status continues to remain far below national norms. In some cities where blacks have exercised the most political control--Detroit, Newark, Atlanta--they have actually fared worse than those where their power has not been so pronounced. Clearly, political power has not translated into rapid social and economic improvement for most African-Americans, in Los Angeles as well as most major cities.

Perhaps the most glaring problem can be seen in the relative lack of a strong African-American entrepreneurial class. Today roughly half of college- educated blacks in the U.S. continue to work for government. Blacks have the lowest rate of self-employment of any major ethnic group. Although involvement in corporations or government has meant advancement for many African-Americans individually, it has done little to create a strong capital base or provide new opportunities for a growing and increasingly dangerous underclass, particularly within predominantly minority communities...

The case of Los Angeles aptly reflects the inadequacy of a purely political, public-sector oriented approach. While African-Americans constitute just over 10 percent of the total population, they have wielded considerable political influence... With their disproportionate political strength, many of Los Angeles' African-Americans also have gained access to employment in the government sector and now account for nearly one-third of all government jobs in Los Angeles, three times their percentage of the total population.

Yet as the familiar pattern of ethnic patronage has played out in municipal politics, relatively little has been done to address the more fundamental economic issues of empowerment, entrepreneurial development and self-help. After nearly 20 years of black political ascendancy, the numbers in Southern California are grim:

• Black participation in the labor force is ... roughly one-third less than that of Latinos and Asians. In depressed South Central only 45% of African-American males were employed, compared to 70% of the neighborhood's Latinos.
  
  
• African-Americans have by far the lowest rate of two-parent families in Southern California ... African-Americans account for less than 10 percent of Los Angeles County's children, but fully half its foster children.
  
  
• African-American women are three times as likely to be dependent on welfare than Latinos or Asians and nearly two times as likely to give birth to drug-addicted babies.

Even today many black and other liberal political, religious and community leaders blame these disparities on racism and push for an accelerated program of set-asides, affirmative action and other race-based preferences. These efforts have tended to focus on large corporate bureaucracies that increasingly seem incapable of spurring indigenous economic development or creating new jobs.

http://www.joelkotkin.com/Urban_Affairs/TPR%20The%20Los%20Angeles%20Riots%20Causes%20Myths%20and%20Solutions.htm

 

So to help them out, we have to give them admission into tihngs over more qualified whites, latinos, and asians? Fuck that!

 

how bout we just stop caring about color? i mean it is such a superficial difference afterall. (can you tell a hutu from a tutsi?)

 

That's not what I got from the article. It seems to say that the focus should be more on economic development through more emphasis on entreprenurship in low income Black communities.

 

I'll be sure to "pass" that on to the folks in charge of hiring head coaches in the NFL.

 

I would imagine that most people already do not care about color, but I think its rather obvious that the people who "matter" will take a white person who's not as qualified or just as qualified as a "minority" looking for the same position.Or something.

 

There has long been an agenda to keep large portions of the black population down in America. Sure, many black people grow up to be very successful, but the majority of successful blacks were born into at least modest wealth. (And a healthy living environment.) Sure, some blacks from the ghetto grow up to be successful, but the number is few and far between. If you compare the number of blacks below the poverty line to blacks above the poverty line, you would see those below the poverty line far outweighs those above the poverty line. Black people who are born into poverty stand much less of a chance of succeeding in life than white people born into poverty. The inner cities across America provide very depressing surroundings to live in, which causes many to turn to drugs and gangs.

While urban blacks have never had it good, things didn't really get bad until the introduction of crack cocaine to America's city streets in the early-mid 1980's, courtesy of the government -- namely the CIA. That's right, not only is the CIA responsible for importing most of the illegal drugs that come into the country (which they need to fund their black budgets), they also deliberately infiltrated America's urban areas with hard drugs like cocaine, crack cocaine and heroin. If you don't believe me and think I am full of shit, read the book Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras and the Crack Cocaine Explosion, written by the Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Gary Webb (RIP).

Nearly three-quarters of those jailed in the US are jailed for non-violent drug offenses, most of them being blacks. So now, when they are arrested for selling or possessing the drugs our own government smuggled in (which is the large majority of "hard" drugs), they are jailed, only to become slaves of the multi-billion dollar prison economy that has been constructed in the US. As you can see, the government stands to gain on both ends.

So, not only does the government benefit from the importation of drugs, as well as the prison economy, they benefit by supressing large portions of the black population by destablizing inner-city areas across America with these drugs, creating an environment conducive to poverty. This brings about the welfare state the government so much loves. Except little of the money taxpayers pay goes towards helping these people (rather enslaving them), it goes to the government, who spend the Americans' hard-earned tax dollars as they see fit.

 

Well here's what Gary Webb actually said about crack cocaine and the inner cities:

JEFFREY KAYE: Did the CIA dump drugs into the black community?


GARY WEBB, San Jose Mercury News: We don’t have any evidence so far that they did it directly. And what we have evidence of is that men working for a CIA run army did do that.


JEFFREY KAYE: With the knowledge of the CIA?

GARY WEBB: That's the part we don't know. I mean what we know is that these guys were working for a CIA army, they were meeting with CIA agents before and during the time they were doing this. What happens from there is sort of where we ran into the wall of national security.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/race_relations/july-dec96/cia_11-18.html

 

I'd think the thing here would be to expand on what has helped these Blacks out of poverty. If academic acheivement,managing and spending money wisely helped those Blacks who moved out of poverty, then these actions should be the model for others. Because I've heard that what's lacking in many poor urban areas is financial literacy,or knowing what to do with the money you do have. Unfourtuantly there is alot of wasted money in many inner city areas because of a lack of financial literacy. Too many people in poor areas spend too much of their money on the latest fashions,car rims etc, instead of saving it towards other things such a education,which can lead to overcomming poverty.

 

Yeah, basically what he is saying is that they were operatives working for the CIA.

Obviously this was a major, structured operation that spanned cities all across the country. It's highly unlikely that it was just a couple guys from the CIA who said, "Hey, let's flood the black communities of America with drugs for the hell of it".

It's really just a matter of putting two and two together.

He says he doesn't know if the CIA had knowledge of this because he didn't have hard evidence to link them directly, but obviously if the men were working for a "CIA army" and were meeting with CIA agents at the time, the CIA was involved. It's not that hard to see this is the case.

If Webb was to say that the CIA was directly involved without having enough proof, he could have been sued. But the information Webb provided in his book does a good enough job of connecting the dots so people can come to their own conclusion that the CIA was totally involved. I mean, he pretty much lays this right out in the open, doing all but saying "the CIA was involved".

 

Did the two Nicaraguans, Danilo Blandon and Norwin Meneses who sold cocaine to Ricky Ross say that the C.I.A knew of their drug deals into South Central Los Angeles?

 

Why do you form an opinion after reading two sentences taken out of context from one source that is cheerleading for the CIA? How can anybody believe a word that comes from Johnny Deutch, whose background is rooted in corruption and complicity?

That PBS article was riddled with bias and spin.

Of course the CIA knew! The CIA was profitting greatly from it! Ever heard of the Iran-Contra scandal? This isn't news to most people. It's common knowledge to many people who are up on their reading that the CIA have been illegally importing drugs into this country for decades. The CIA makes hundreds of billions of dollars every year from this. According to Mike Ruppert, as much as 600 billion in illegal government drug money passes through Wall Street every year.

It's clear to see that the CIA is neck deep in the illegal drug trade, yet you don't believe they had any knowledge of this? It was simply the work of a few rogue individuals? I mean, we know they were working for the CIA!

But, who cares, the government loves us and is pure good. Of course they wouldn't do such a thing. The only thing the CIA cares about is protecting the American people. To suggest they are involved in the illegal drug trade is anti-American and completely conspiritorial.

May I ask you, do you work for the government?

 

I have no problem blaming C.I.A associated drug dealers for contributing to the crack epidemic if the evidence is clearly there and not just interpretations and conclusions. I also don't have a problem going after the Black drug dealers who had no problem distributing this stuff in Black communities.


According to Webb, it was these street drug dealers who knew how to convert cocaine into crack who were the ones who actually put crack itself on the streets. Gary Webb has said that the recipe for making crack coacine was around for years, but there wasn't enough cocaine around to convert it to crack until large amounts of cocaine was made available through Blandone and Meneses.

 

racist are idiots black is EQUAL to white and vis versa so any racist people you have a place in hell cuz god made black and white, mexican and asian.

 

Motion, I agree with this assessment. I used to work for a non-profit agency that went into all of the public schools in this state and basically we taught "underprivileged" kids how to manage money, balance a checkbook, get a job and keep a job, raise a family, etc. This link is an over view of our program. http://www.jobsdegrads.org/JDG%20Programs.htm And these programs are in most states (I don't think all yet). Unfortunately, due to the invasive questions that are asked a lot of people don't bother to enroll their kids. I have to put that on the parents for not investing in their child's future.

Anyway, that wasn't my point. I too notice that Blacks in this country are very concerned with money and other materialistic things, even when they cannot afford them. What I haven't been able to figure out is why. Do you have any thoughts on this? There have been skits on television and songs about the fact that this goes on, but I still can't figure out why. And if they recognize what is going on, which I think that many probably do, why do they perpetuate the behavior? Just curious about society really. Thought you might have some ideas. Thanks.

 

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I think it's a combination of things. Not to sound stereotypical, but Blacks have always been "style conscious",that's just a part of our cultural makeup

I think this style consciousness can be both good and bad. I guess it becomes a problem when you really can't afford to be stylish but you do it anyway. But I'd say the over-all problem is a lack of financial literacy being taught to enough Blacks. There will always be people regardless of race who are going to waste money,but if enough people are taught how to maximize,or get the most from their money, then you will naturally see more people making more reasonable spending and saving decisions.

 

Well, specifically I was referring to that Kanye West song "All Falls Down". And the skit on the Chappelle Show about reparations and how as soon as the Black people got the money, they ran out and spent it on things, giving the money back.

Ehh, I guess I don't really have a point except that I just find sociology in general interesting, that's why I hopped on this thread. That and I feel education is extremely important. But I think you are right, if you get down to the root of things, then figure out how other people got out of the situation, and show others how, then more Blacks could move out of poverty.

 

Shhh... Don't speak.

 

I think most middle class people are stuck somewhere near the bottom of Maslows(?) Pyramid of Needs. (middle class being poor people striving to be rich.)


As far as the CIA importing drugs, I think that IF they were doing it they'd be sneaky enough to at least TRY not to be caught. This subject reminds me of the assassination of MLK...it's like some people couldn't or wouldn't believe the government was behind it unless J Edgar Hoover was caught, rifle in HAND, up on the roof!
But what do I know?