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39% of welfare recipient are black. 38% are white. That's not a big enough difference for you to look at welfare and conclude 'black people are the problem.' So I don't think 'black culture' is the problem. It's the inefficiency of a welfare system in need of reform.
What are their relative population sizes?
Blacks make up 13% of the overall population and account for 39% of all welfare.
Whites make up 64% of the overall population and account for 38% of all welfare.
If you don't "notice" anything about those numbers then your 5th grade teacher Mrs. Habernathy wants a word with you after class *gets dragged from class by the ear*
And Bone is one of my favorite rap groups of all time. I prefer their collab with Biggie, now that is a jam.
Good post. By the way, I happen to like BTNH. I listened to them back in the day. But, I do think that they're not just entertaining here.....rap has always been about illustrating "the struggle." I don't think they've made anything up here....I think they're communicating reality via music.
Has anything changed since 1994?
Yes, something has changed. Former President Bill Clinton signed a welfare reform bill. Now welfare receipt time is limited. It is more difficult to live on welfare forever. Furthermore, how many single men without children get welfare? I have to ask because from what I've been told,
1) If you're a man and you can't take care of your children, you get called a dead beat and put in the system.
2) Late on child support, even one day? It doesn't matter that your paycheck came a day late. You can get put in jail.
3) Mainly women with children are receiving food stamps
I suspect that the men who are rolling blunts and drinking are not likely to be receiving food stamps, at least directly.
21 years after Bone Thugs-N-Harmony sold over 500,000 singles of the "1st of Tha Month", what has changed in black culture?
Anything?
If so, what? If not, why not?
This was 1994. Can we ever expect America's lowest common denominator (welfare leeches) to pull themselves up by the bootstraps and be productive members of society?
What is glorious about being on welfare, food stamps, sleeping till noon, smoking weed, and drinking malt liquor with your friends in the Land of Opportunity? Help me understand.
Da black man be kept down by whitey so dey got to pay.
That's the excuse I hear. So all welfare needs to be suspended.
You are speaking specifically about black people in the bold. You stated that black culture and black people are "welfare leachers" and "America's lowest common denominator." If that doesn't exhibit the fact that you view blacks as inferior, I don't know what else to tell you.
Bold above, you think all black people get foodstamps and welfare and that is our "reality." Over 70% of black people are not on foodstamps or welfare/cash assistance (especially welfare, only about 1 million black people out of 40 million are on welfare).
When I responded to you that black culture is as follows:
Creativity
Family
Cuisine
Strength in the face of adversity
You stated that rap is only about "the struggle."
I gave you examples of songs and spoke to you regarding the fact that all musical genres have different types of songs, not just songs about "struggles." Also that this song was a humorous play on the behaviors of specific types of individuals, not "black culture" as a whole.
Summary - if you associate black culture with:
Welfare abuse
Food stamp usage
Then you feel that "black culture" is inferior to other cultures. Especially if you create a thread asking if "anything has changed" as if back then all blacks were on welfare and foodstamps and today you think it is the same thing.
Don't get all butthurt about reactions to your adherence to the concept that blacks and their culture are inferior to you.
You are the one who posted this thread. I don't have a position to bolster. I responded to your position that black culture is inferior based upon a song from 1994.
You can say this as many times as your heart desires, and I will not bite. This is not a racist thread. This is a thread with a legitimate question. Just because you are offended does not bother me one single iota. Find someone else to bring your perpetually-aggrieved drivel to. It's not me.
I'm pretty much from the generation that grew up in the 90s and it's interesting to note that the very same problems discussed in hip hop back then are pretty much the same problems that they discuss in their music today.
I guess it all lends credence to the old saying that "the more things change, the more that they stay the same."
The strange part is, is that a lot of the black youth coming up in this day and age really think that their grievances are anything new, particularly when it comes to black males. I can recall back in the very early 1990s when these very same issues made headlines--black fatherless homes, low graduation rates, high incarceration rates, "police brutality", low employment prospects etc etc...I imagine that these very same issues were a topic of discussion before I was born as well..
It's really not a problem of "black culture" but more so a problem of inner city street culture. I think one of the major problems is that poor blacks and to try to pass off their problems and experiences that as a generalized "black experience" and that couldn't be further from the truth.
What other rap songs today are like "First of the Month?" And who is the artist?
Things do remain the same in every generation IMO.
Police brutality and aggression and the criminal justice system period has been an issue for blacks of all socio economic conditions since the 1880s forward.
But others that you mentioned have actually improved. More blacks graduate high school and college today. Incarceration rates and crime in general has declined. Prior to the recession and trending that way today, less black people qualified for food stamps and welfare has been on a decline since the 1990s and is at its lowest levels.
I agree with you in that it is not "black culture."
But I disagree in that it is not black people or lower income black people trying to make their experience "the black experience."
It is white people like the OP and maybe yourself who do that. Poor black people usually know black people who aren't poor and they know that stereotypes of blacks in this fashion are not true for the majority of us. Whites cannot see past what the media tells them about poor blacks. They equate the "struggles" of poor blacks with the entire population of black America, which is a lie in regards to many of the conditions above.
On "fatherless homes" that is an issue across the board that has grown for all Americans. But just because black people aren't married, it doesn't mean they are growing up without a father. Many more black men today, especially those of my generation who grew up in the crack era (we are in our 30s and 40s now) are much more likely to be involved in their children's lives than back in the 80s and 90s when drug addiction was higher amongst black Americans and incarceration as a result of that also higher. Less black people in my age group do hardcore drugs. IMO it is because we grew up seeing what drugs can do to you and we chose not to do that to ourselves. I am one of 4 kids and the only female child. All my brothers have kids. Two of them are married to the mothers. One is divorced and his child lives with him and he has custody full time. Outside of lower income black communities, which are fewer than you think, "fatherlessness" is not rampant.
Get rid of welfare and then we productive folks no longer have to stress over what they are doing.
Oh yes we do, if they become desperate enough to survive through a life of crime. The combination of desperation and having nothing to lose is a dangerous one.
They sold 500,000 copies. Singing about welfare and food stamps ensured that they didn't qualify for welfare and food stamps.
Singing about kale and coffee houses probably wouldn't have helped their financial status.
LOL...that's an interesting way to look at it.
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