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Twenty kids get killed in a day in an upper class suburban or rural neighborhood and there is outrage (And rightfully so as any such act should be condemned)
But 100 kids in an inner city neighborhood getting killed in a year is business as usual in America.
I can tell you as someone growing up in Illinois that:
a) The rest of the state sees it as Chicago's problem, and they are right IMO.
b) Chicago doesn't have the political interest to take the heat or expense by making significant reforms and crackdowns.
Chicago is run like a fiefdom, elections are merely defacto power-struggles between the various factions. Most of the time the process works with the machine picking who they want for a job, then they throw their weight behind them and they get elected. (See Rahm Emanuel, whom I think is actually doing a decent job)
The rulers of Chicago tend to get a free pass on a lot of social issues because a lot of the leadership from affected groups is also latched onto the teat of the machine and they don't want to get kicked to the curb.
Basically, for some of the elites in this country it's the golden age. I personally feel that a lot of inner-city leadership is out of touch with their constituency. This is somewhat by design as the machine tends to back the ones that say the right words and don't rock the boat too hard.
I think because it's just seen as an acceptable part of the culture in such places. No one is coming from outside and bringing guns into violent neighborhoods--it's the residents of these areas themselves who perpetuate this way of life. Most people who are not born into that world do not understand why people continue to live that way or why they would stay in places where you hear gunfire every day.
I know this sounds oversimplified, but it's very difficult to understand why people would have children and stay in neighborhoods like that. Yes, there is poverty blah blah blah, but most of us who are not in those places believe that we would do ANYTHING we had to do--work multiple jobs, move to one room somewhere safer--ANYTHING--to get our children out of that environment (or better yet, not have children in such surroundings in the first place), and it's very hard looking from the outside to understand why people don't take those steps. Of course it's easier to say that when you aren't in it. Of course. But still--the sympathy level for people who accept this way of life as their normal isn't never going to be that high as it would be for people who demonstrate that they truly want a better way of life and are willing to do what they must do to get out of there. Instead, it seems as if they want someone else to come in and fix it for them. Who is that supposed to be?
Great post.
How are the people supposed to move when they're not prepared to compete with the rest of the population? Their schools are inferior, their role models are almost non-existent, and they are either looked down upon, or glamourized by nearly all of society.
Again Black people are NOT monolithic and the only reason to insist on seeing them as such is to support your own bigotry.
If black people aren't monolithic....then stop trying to apply racial discrimination to a specific dynamic because the larger percentile is comprised of black kids.
Not saying you did...maybe you did... But that is the premise with the Chicago gang violence.
"Nobody cares about the blacks"
The argument fails on an individual level as well because this type of violence is largely voluntary.
How do you convince upper middle class Chicago residents that building public housing, homeless shelter or drug rehab in their neighborhood is a good idea. Chicago is removing hundreds of public housing units from gentrifying areas and relocating the residents to poor areas.
I think most Chicago residents hate the level of crime in their city, but I bet the ones in the safe neighborhoods are happy that it's contained to poor areas.
It's not about building new projects and creating hand outs for everybody. It's about rebuilding those communities and provide those residents the opportunity to make a living wage.
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