Quote:
Originally Posted by Originalist
So much potential being lost!
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It is very depressing for me to think about because I honestly feel like I should be doing something about it. I feel a certain civic responsibility, but it's deeper than that, but not a religious calling or anything like that.
I have my own life to live and frankly, I don't have the time to do all that I want to do for every person (black, white, or other) seemingly trapped in bad circumstances. I can't help every body. I used to volunteer with inner city youth and will look into it again once I feel a bit more settled here in Cleveland.
There are a lot of people born into great disadvantage, not just blacks-- but there is history and other factors that play into things for American blacks that are not true for others. That is reality.
This is particularly about American blacks who are born into great disadvantage.
While I am convinced that all American blacks will still experience racism in 21st century America, it's usually not the same kind of crippling racism that my Dad experienced as a young husband and father.
I also want to note that not all blacks are born into great disadvantage.
However, there are American blacks who are born into great disadvantage. Poverty is insidious in its disease process also affects the critical thinking and even the world view of the impoverished. Poor people sometimes make impulsive decisions, as well as the not poor, the middle class, the rich.
Unfortunately, when poor people make impulsive decisions, those decisions are usually bad decisions and those bad decisions hurt the poor more than it hurts others. Sometimes, those bad decisions include breaking the law-- rich people and middle class people have the resources at their disposal to often mitigate their bad decisions. The impoverished do not. Still there is hardly any way to defend anyone, rich or poor, black, white, or green, who
KNOWINGLY make bad decisions, regardless of the logic or illogic that affects the critical thinking of the poor.
No one SHOULD GO TO JAIL for weed-- but everyone knows that as of right now, weed is still illegal in most places. Yet a poor black guy decides to sell it anyway. He makes this decision, knowing that he is prone to more scrutiny because so many other poor black males have gone this route before him. It didn't work for them, but he needs to make money and the need is real, so HE DECIDES that he can take this route and not get caught. He knows he will face more scrutiny, but he makes this doomed decision anyway. He's black, he's poor, he's already in a bad situation, the pressure for money is heavy and in that moment he doesn't realize all that he is about to lose.
He takes this route and, as usual, he gets caught. So now, you are a poor, black male with a criminal record. Rich people and even middle class people can overcome this obstacle with relative ease, but he is poor, black, male and now he has a criminal record. His options, at this point, are limited in this great land of opportunity. His situation is not impossible, but he is poor. His critical thinking and world view is skewed by his poverty. In that moment, he realizes that many people in his shoes will more than likely be permanently poor and he decides the only way he can make money is to become a repeat lawbreaker, further sealing his economic doom.
He got caught the first time, but the next time he'll be ahead of the game... It's the chronic misuse of free will.
Lots of teenagers have sex. It is sin and they do it anyway. I think most teenagers use protection. Some don't and then they get pregnant and some even get pregnant again and again. They know they should use protection, but haven't you seen it repeated, over and over again-- the chronic bad decisions that poor people make? We are talking about American blacks,
but this phenomenon is repeated among the poor in America of all races.
You get involved in a gang. Say what you want, these informal organizations fill voids in people lives. Everyone wants to belong, be a part of something. Everyone needs a friend, maybe even a father figure. But everyone knows you shouldn't join a gang and they KNOW that people get framed, maimed and killed and many go to jail but people do it anyway!
Matthew 25:29
Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them.
Yes, there are historical wrongs and injustices that contribute to the overall existence of these bad situations for American blacks. Not everything is equal.
But everything in America is equal enough today so that every person can make good decisions, right decisions and not be impoverished, a criminal, a statistic.
What can be done to help the poor in their chronic misuse of free will?
Sometimes, God will overrule the effects of a person's misuse of their own free will but He definitely isn't obligated to do that.
Like my Dad says,
"You make your bed hard, you lay hard."
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