When I was visiting my folks this week, the local newspaper (left-leaning) published a syndicated political cartoon showing a poor child staring at a growth chart for the economy. She was dragging a rag doll from a dilapidated Christmas tree.
In the same paper, different section, they published a photo of two ‘poor’ boys riding their new scooters in front of their house.
That night I rode patrol with my son. His regular area of patrol includes houses just like the one in the photo–and some much worse. There were plenty of people wandering the streets, and quite a few hanging out at isolated houses. Men sat on cars out front, or on the porch. As the police car approached, they moved back toward the front door. My son told me the laws were different when you dealt with someone in their yard, and when they were in a house. These guys were the local punks, or gang members, or drug dealers.
As I rode around, I kept asking myself why people would live like this. For most of them, it was a choice, although they didn’t realize the choice they were making at the time. All it takes to get out of an environment like that is to get an education and leave.
Those are two things which are very difficult for the young people there. Getting an education is seen as ‘acting white’� That is a fact. Regardless of the quality of our public schools, it is possible to get a decent education. You simply have to make an effort. They are not ‘required to support their family,’ because the government does that. So, working a job while going to school isn’t an issue. They’ve had no help in learning prior to going to their first class because the Head Start Program has failed to teach them anything. They have no motivation to learn.
If they do learn and earn a high school diploma, they have to be willing to leave to get work. Many will not. While there may be no jobs in their neighborhood, there are jobs available. In the past there have been great migrations in this country to move where the work was. Not today. People aren’t interested unless they can remain in their own back yard. I’ve seen this with engineering students about to graduate, so it isn’t limited to the poor.
Without these two preconditions, all the welfare, job training, and good intentions mean nothing. These people and their children, and their grandchildren will remain in this poverty.
I was struck by how much the environment resembled animals in the wild. They are a large herd, or family group. They don’t mate for life, rather the males struggle with one another to achieve dominance and females. Children are born to be reared by the females. Males travel in packs, preying on the weak. The rest of the time they lounge around. The older males educate the young in these practices, bringing them into adulthood as full members of the pack.
When I was young, I remember (right or wrong) that familial ties were strong in southern black communities. Homes were generally overseen by a matriarch, who tolerated no sass. When my high school integrated (one of the first), we received half the students of the local black high school. We also received their teachers. I remember, and fondly, Mr. Riley Stewart. He was the principal of that school, and became our vice-principal. An absolutely wonderful man. When any black student got into trouble, they went to see Mr. Stewart. That was one appointment I never wanted to have. He demanded self-discipline. Mr. Stewart knew this was an opportunity, and the black community needed to take advantage of it. He would not tolerate any student putting it in jeopardy.
Mr. Prince Barfield was a band director. He, too, expected self-discipline. My Civics teacher was a wonderful lady whose name I don’t recall at this moment. She was an excellent teacher, and understood government far better than I do now.
Those teachers, and their students, succeeded because they saw themselves in a larger world. Many of those black students became good friends of mine, and they also became successful adults. They broadened their own outlook by expanding their world.
The poor blacks I saw the other night have the same opportunity for success as anyone else in this country. What they don’t have is enough desire to overcome the inertia of their environment. There will be a very small number willing to invest the effort in their own education, and willing to take that first difficult step into a larger world by leaving the ‘hood. Those that do are the only ones exercising the freedom they have to improve their lives.
And they won’t come back. There’s no place for Riley Stewart in the ‘hood.