Appreciate this and thanks for sharing ..
I know what you mean about poverty.. and the systems that keep America’s poor, miserable and hopeless.
A lot of people have no fucking clue what it is to be poor. They have no idea what it is like to not be able to feed your children, or send them to baseball practice or buy them a computer.
They have no idea how it feels to live poor.. or how that translates to crime.
Most people think that people who commit crime do it for some sick pleasure or arrogance or just all around no goodness.
They’ve got no idea that crime- crime is a seed that starts to grow in your belly. When you’re hungry. When you can’t pay the bills .. when you can’t buy shoes, or a car. When you can’t have internet or cable. When you can’t buy a bed.
Or when you can’t see your kids because you don’t have enough food to feed them. The loneliness , the despair, the self hatred.
The anger that comes from every step you take to get more money, finding out that money is needed before you even got out the front door.. and how hopeless it all is.
It is funny because the same people who think that poor black neighborhoods in Baltimore are filled with a bunch of violent sociopaths never ask themselves what they really think would happen if we made some changes to this elusive “system” you referred to.
Take some of the issues that some people are talking about now.. modeling our country on somewhere like Denmark. Or Sweden or Finland.
What if we made housing subsidized and everyone got food vouchers and electricity and gas vouchers so they at least every citizen knew that they would never be homeless and cold, or hungry..
What if we made internet free ( at least to people below a certain income) so that every citizen could access the news and information when they need it?
Or what about if we made college free ?
They really think people wouldn’t go and get an education? That people would chose to be poor or sling dope or work at McDonald’s?
But it isn’t even our poorest in that position anymore … our middle class is sinking .. because they aren’t raising wages for example.
What if they raised wages to match inflation? Just that?
What if all healthcare was free ?
Child care was free? Extremely low cost and a voucher program?
What if mothers ( every mother. No matter what job she had or how long ) got at least a year off paid, to spend with those babies to bond, to take care of them and meet those vital infant needs that we need to get met, to develop into healthy adults? what if we dropped our work hours to 30 a week and got at least a month off every year paid vacation — at least ?
What if there were no private schools and rich kids had to go to public schools with the poor kids? How wealthy would our public school system be then?
These are all real life, actually going on in the world in countries that have no poverty, less mental health issues, and guess what? The lowest crime rates in the world. Their police don’t even carry guns.
So what if we were able to provide every single citizen, rich or poor with a life like that? Never having to worry about losing their home or going hungry? Never having to not go to college because their grades were bad ? Never having to be doomed to a life of pain and suffering because they made one bad choice?
You think the ghettos anywhere would be like they are ? Think the violence would continue? Think that people would be killed as often?
I don’t.
The problem with most white people is that … first off… they don’t give a shit . They don’t even wanna try to do it. They dont want to raise their taxes ( but ultimately end up saving money every year , as the rise in taxes wouldn’t come out to how much they are spending now on all the things I listed would be free) to give anyone a shot to succeed. They don’t have enough empathy or good sense to even try to clean up our poorest neighborhoods because they don’t care about anyone else except themselves and this is where what black oeople call “systemic racism” comes in and where white folks buck their heels and say “I’m not a racist!” And “stop killing each other and get good grades “ and all that bullshit they talk out of their asses.
It is a system that keeps the rich rich and the poor killing each other. A system that your boss has a better tax rate than you do. A system that rewards the wealthy and not the working man. A system that is failing, and ruining our country.
Till everyone cares about every single citizen in this country and wants to really give them a life worth living and a life that isn’t destined to despair in some way- we are fucked.
And you know what? It isn’t going to be just West Baltimore or South Chicago anymore.. this system is rotting the country out .. and the same poison will infiltrate every single middle class neighborhood within the end of the century in America if we don’t stop it and change it around now.
West Baltimore will be all over the country .. we have already started to see the drugs infiltrate — they are no longer a ghetto problem. They never will be again. Every single thing that created our poorest places will start happening in our middle class cities and neighborhoods.. because it is happening everywhere.. the same system … it is just taking a little longer .. but as soon as the baby boomers die out and the system is left to stand on its own and we can’t go to Mom and dad or grandma for a handout … our children are doomed in America.. we won’t have the money to save them , unless something changes.
I hope America wakes up. I hope America starts to see that we have to care for everyone here ; not just the white people and not just the good students and kids that don’t make mistakes. We have to see that people are people everywhere..if people have nothing to live for, if they have nothing to wake up for — why do it? Why when it can be so much easier if I just sell some dope? At least I can get a day off and pay my medical bills.
It is sad that America can’t understand that it provides the opportunity … I can see how it feels racist to have white people not listening long enough to understand or empathize with you.. they don’t know what it is like to be hungry so they can’t imagine .. even though all the information is out there … for all to see.
Poverty=Crime.
I hope America gets it shit together before it sinks…
I would really love to see our poorest places get the healing they are due.
No one should have to grow up and look forward to nothing.
