White people who grow up in the ghetto (generations, death, racism)

[NCInMyMind]

Originally Posted by Dopo

Have you ever heard of Kid Rock?

Nope. He actually grew up in a very well-to-do family.

[momonkey]

Originally Posted by Rick Roma

Interesting- can white people who grew up in the ghetto get help through affirmative action?

They are the ones most hurt by it since more affluent white males already have access to education, jobs and business opportunities. Poor white males are the only group really penalized by Affirmative Action. It's just wrong to bring the power of the state against someone for simply being born white, male and poor.

[KevK]

Originally Posted by jbird82

I grew up as a very poor white person living in low income housing. I didn't live in an inner city ghetto but many of the problems that face poor black families face poor white families. Mainly, the issue of breaking the recurrent generational trend where you end up dropping out of school, involved in petty crime or drugs, and end up pregnant as a teenager.

Similar to the poor black children, the poor white children usually lack a strong parental guiding force. Though we were very poor, my parents were tough on me and my brother and we were taught to do well in school and such. It's no coincidence my brother and I were able to break that cycle while when I go back to my home town, I can see the same families struggling, albeit the next generation.

I am from Oaklawn-Sunview which people used to call "the white man's ghetto". We were not poor in comparison to others there. We would be "poor" by today's living standards where every kid has their own room and colour TV set. My father was a Purple Heart veteran that, despite his persistant drinking, managed to make a decent living at Boeing and my mother did not work as was typical of wives in the early to middle 1960s.
I did however have lots of friends and neighbours that were quite poor. You would go to their houses and all the food said "USDA" on it because they got it from the local welfare office. Sometimes the water, lights or gas would be off because they lacked the money to pay the bill. In almost every case it was because the father went AWOL or was in jail or in a few cases had died and left the family destitute. You would just want to cry at some of the things you saw. I remember a friend and his sister who had to turn their pet dog into the pound because they could not afford to keep it anymore. It hurt the way the little girl cried. We need to help the poor white people as much as the poor black people. That is why I am so opposed to race based affirmative action. Well to do blacks don't need the help as badly as poor whites need it.
http://www.city-data.com/city/Oaklaw...ew-Kansas.html

[KevK]

Originally Posted by momonkey

They are the ones most hurt by it since more affluent white males already have access to education, jobs and business opportunities. Poor white males are the only group really penalized by Affirmative Action. It's just wrong to bring the power of the state against someone for simply being born white, male and poor.

I agree. It really is wrong.

[simetime]

Actually I knew quite a few whites that grew up in the projects and some of them became very sucessful individuals. There were some that became victims of the environment (drugs/jail). What I did notice was that these people were not "white trash" (gasp!) nor were they all "ghettolized". The whites that I grew up with had a very good understanding what it was to be black and or poor.

Funny, now that I think about it if the suburban whites and the ones who rant and rave about how lazy the minorities and poor were lived with them for a summer they would change their tune rather quickly.

[Chatteress]

Originally Posted by NYchi

They do exist. Why do we never hear about poor/disenfranchised whites?

I'm white and grew up in Compton and, as everyone likes to remind me, priviledged as heck!

[Greatwoods]

South Boston used to be a very poor white neighborhood. It's getting gentrified now, but when I lived in Mass it was pretty bad. I think the projects are still some of the worst in the city.

[Golem1979]

Poor whites live in decrepit trailer parks and white areas of large cities.

Most large cities in the U.S do not have trailer parks within the city proper/city limits. Most trailer parks are located outside of the city limits of America's big urban cities.

Next time you're in Detroit head over to Michigan Ave and Sharon. It's less than a mile from Arab East Dearborn, but you would think you landed on another planet. It's a good place to not be.

And the Black areas are not any safer. Most of Detroit is not a good place to be period. Why do you think Detroit always makes the list of America's most dangerous cities to live. Detroit has a higher per capita murder rate than 3rd world countries like Brazil, Colombia, and South Africa.

[simetime]

My arguement against Affirmative Action is simple, b/c every city does not need it. If it was to be abolished companies would simply revert back into hiring their family members and cronies that looked like them. Now, the way that it set up now hurts the poor whiteman (yea I said it only b/c it is true) on the flip side it benefited whitewomen more than any other group.

My suggestion? AA should be used only in companies were the staff is overepresented in comparision with the population of the city. This means that in cities such as D.C with a high black/latino population would need less AA depending on the hiring practices of the company (actually in situations like that whites would proably do better) This is in reference to employment.

AA in regards to higher education admittance should be given based on grades, extracuricular activites, SAT/ACT scores, income and finally race (see above). The reason that I included race is b/c racial harmony just does just "happen" it starts off from being familiar with someone of a different race/ethnicity or culture. I believe that if children and some adults were put in a situtation were they can interact with someone different in a more positive way there would not be as much racial strife

A Dreamer

[nycjowww]

Originally Posted by Golem1979

I have never seen White people living in section 8 housing projects. All of the section 8 housing projects I have seen resemble a Little Africa, because it is either all Black or overwhelmingly Black. Most poor Whites tend to live in rural areas, far from the innercity.

i guess thats why people often say new york city is its own country.

here in new york the housing projects are mostly half n half black and hispanic respectively. then you have areas like china town/lower east side that are full of housing projects and are filled with poor asian people living in them. you also have housing projects in flushing that are filled with asians to.

then in brooklyn you have housing projects in sheepshead bay . gravesend . coney island that arent majority or half white but have a white population in them.

damn nyc is really the best lol