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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I come from a black family that has been upper middle class for generations.....yet, I also completed my medical training in Baltimore. The PP's that talk about this being cultural within black society are absolutely correct. It is going to take a CULTURAL change within lower SES black families to help close this gap. High school achievement is looked down upon by peers...it isn't "cool" to be too smart...and could even be dangerous for them in the neighborhood. Why is this? Because it isn't looked at as a good thing to want to get out of the "hood" and make money- then you're a sellout. There has to be some systemic culture change for this gap to begin to close, and even then, it will take a generation or two. I see this gap all the time...where patients even said some things to me about how I think I'm better than them and don't give them advice because I'm "rich" and don't know what it's like to be in their shoes...when literally all I want to do is help them. I don't know the answers, I'm not trained in the social sciences enough to know how to start the change. But THIS, as other PP's have pointed out is really, truly the root of the problem. [/quote]

The root of black urban poverty in Baltimore is poor black people who just don't want to do better? Never mind redlining, the absence of jobs, the absence of ways to get to jobs, lead poisoning, the war on drugs, incarceration, guns, policing policies, poverty, bad schools, and all of the other greater forces in society that affect every individual who lives in that society -- it's all up to each individual and their individual choices? And for some reason, poor black people just tend to make really bad choices?

PP, the people who are telling you that you don't know what it's like to be in their shoes are right. You don't know what it's like to be in their shoes. (I don't either.) If all you want to do is help them, you should start by learning more about what it's like to be in their shoes.

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See part of the issue here is that no one wants to acknowledge these facts as truths. They see it as an excuse and something many blacks are too weak to overcome. Then they use the poverty example for other minorities and say "look, that poor Indian of Chinese person came to this country and kicked ass. What happened to you?" If your baseline opinions on the matter start from not acknowledging the historical inequities purposely targeted to impact one race of people (blacks) and just how power that really is, then its pretty pointless to engage.

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