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And will note that I grew up in the inner city during the crack epidemic. My entire step family were a street gang (the Crips in our city). They did a lot of gangster-ish stuff if you know what I mean. They had plenty of gangster company in regards to the bloods and gangster disciples back then. It was a bad era and I know a lot of people who've been murdered and imprisoned for life.
Someone, I believe the OP, in the thread mentioned that the kids of those old gangsters are still throwing up gang signs and involved in a thug lifestyle. This is not the case for my own family. Most of the "kids" born in the 1990s in particular which was the height of gang/thug activity for black Americans in particular, they are majority upstanding citizens. Many of them lost their parents due to gang violence or drug overdoses and they are not like their parents.
I have a little cousin right now, who is named after one of my step cousins - his dad. His dad is in prison and was given 30 years for kidnapping and attempted murder of someone during a drug deal gone bad. His son graduated from high school with a 4.5 GPA and got a full ride to Morehouse College and will be graduating with a business degree this summer.
In my step family, those that surivived the 1990s without long prison sentences or deaths, they've all moved away from our city in order to escape that culture/lifestyle and most of them are living decent, low key, non-criminal lives today and they have great children.
I think the OP is idealizing a media image too much. I live in the inner city today of my hometown and the area I live in today was a former "blood" neighborhood that I could never go to when I was a teen because people knew I was related to my Crip step family. So I was warned not to come over there. I have no issues today and there are no gangs here today like there used to be. There are some small violent cliques of guys and unfortunately, I did have a little cousin murdered a couple years ago due to being involved in one of these cliques. I also have a nephew who was shot twice within the past couple of years due to him being involved in one of these cliques too. Gangs today are not like they used to be and IMO in some ways they are worse because they don't have an older, wiser leader in these cliques. But they don't cause as much havoc as they used to be and in the black inner city, being a gangster is not something that is desired by teens/youth today. Most of the black youth/teens I know today are into anime and entrepreneurship and rapping about money and women and materialism and partying. Not gang banging. That is sooooo 1990s - my era. I always tell people I'm glad that folks are calmer and nicer today than they used to be. There is much less gangs and much less violence/crime today than I remember when I was a teen in the 1990s.
I also frequently listen to rap music - including the new rappers and they are soft compared to gangster rappers of the 1990s and early 2000s. They are always rapping about their feelings of being depressed and anxious and honestly a lot of them get on my nerves because of that. They whine too much. I didn't grow up in an era of whining. But I'd rather they whine that kill each other lol.
ETA: my little cousin who was murdered, none of his parents were involved in gangs - his mom is a minister of the gospel in a church and his dad died when little cousin was only 2 years old. His dad was a police officer. My nephews however, their dad, my half brother, was a huge gang/drug leader in our city back in the day. He was in prison most of their childhood and is out now and is sad that his sons are into that lifestyle and warns them against it because he realizes his activities ruined his family in a way. Luckily the nephew is looking to moving out of town as his dad feels that's the only way to get him away from his little clique/gang buddies. I do think he will move as I think him getting shot was pretty scary to him.
Congrats residinghere on surviving and getting out of the ghetto trap!
You have much to teach others, and sounds like you’ve got some good book material there too
Jul 9, 2019 - Gangs in Chicago became increasingly violent in about 1984, when crack cocaine first arrived here. The highly addictive drug meant regular ...
Jun 3, 2019 - 52 shot, 10 killed in gang-fueled weekend violence in Chicago ... He said police noted an uptick in gang-related shootings on Friday, and in ...
Jump to Chicago street gangs - Chicago is considered the most gang-infested city in the United States, with a population of over 100,000 active members from nearly 60 factions. Gang warfare and retaliation is common in Chicago. Gangs were responsible for 61% of the homicides in Chicago in 2011.Total violent crime: 903.8 Homicide: 23.8
Hate to say it, but it’s true. I’m ashamed because of our culture. Growing up in the late 1960s, 1970s, and early 80s, almost nobody was into gang or thug culture. I certainly wasn’t attracted to it. Almost nobody was.
But nowadays it’s “all the rage”, as they say. It’s embedded itself at the very CORE of our culture now. And it just gets more dominant, every year.
What a gross, disgusting, sick culture and country we have become in my lifetime.
jajaja the 60s were the holy days of gangs, from hell angels to the mob. the 60s where the days of white gangs
Congrats residinghere on surviving and getting out of the ghetto trap!
You have much to teach others, and sounds like you’ve got some good book material there too
Thanks for the compliments in regards to the book material; however, I never felt "trapped" and I still live in the "ghetto." I personally like living in inner cities and I don't really think they are worse than suburban areas (I've lived in suburbs as well over the years).
I just think today there aren't the gang problems in inner city neighborhoods like there used to be. If there was, I wouldn't live where I live today.
Too often IMO, in general, people place a negative view on "ghetto" neighborhoods that is unwarranted. My own experiences were heavily shaped as a child and teen by the crack epidemic that ravaged inner city communities in the 1980s and 1990s. Unfortunately no one cared about these people and their disease of addiction like they do today as those suffering the most were typically in neighborhoods like where I lived and they were black or brown people or very poor white people (I knew a lot of white crackheads - most of them were parents of friends of mine. My father was a crackhead too and my mom was an alcoholic for a large amount of my childhood).
Gangs arose IMO in my area and within my step family primarily because of the drug scene and the fact that our parents were getting cracked out when we were tweens/teens. People didn't feel safe or protected so they sought that by forming or joining street gangs. The same things are going on today IMO in regards to the cliques that I spoke about. However, today black parents are much less likely to be strung out or regular users of drugs other than cannabis. This is not the case unfortunately for many of our suburban white communities and even our lower income white residents who still live in the ghetto. I honestly do feel that the medical industry is a huge cause of this and that the prejudice that black people experience in the medical community "saved" us in a way from this current opioid epidemic. Medical practitioners were less likely to prescribe opioids to black people and so less of us got addicted/dependent on those drugs. White people are more likely to get more proactive "care" and so became victims of this current epidemic. I'm glad that we have better social services today to try to help the children of addicts and keep them from seeking dangerous alternatives for protection/family life. This was not something afforded to black/brown "ghetto" communities when I was young and as a result, I know for a fact that crime, gang activity, and drug addiction in inner city black communities are better today.
Most of the black youth I grew up with, we are in our late 30s/early 40s now and none of us do drugs and a large amount of us went to college and are regular Americans today. So the ideas back then that black America would be ruined due to "crack babies" never came to fruition. It is the reason why I never buy a lot into media "at risk" summaries and I'm not invested in viewing black people or inner city communities as anything that needs to be "escaped" from. I felt more out of place in the suburbs and I like living around predominantly black people. However, we are thinking of living out in the woods in the next 10 years by ourselves lol. Mostly for quiet and to get away from people and make it hard for family members we don't like to come visit lol. I'm sure most of our neighbors if/when we move into the woods will be white.
What is "gang or thug culture"? Urban gangs have been with us for decades. Ever see West Side Story?
Yes, but at least they had shame and fear and a number of other awarenesses which now gangsters and other criminals completely lack! Now it's ALL in the open regardless if in front of children, etc. In sum, one could write a book only on this particular facet of our declined (not even declining) society!
Having worked in Oakland and Compton there is a ring to these stories for me. It is sad to watch as the OP points out a destruction of the family values and the black families were the most impacted by this social change. Unrelenting black fathers leaving their children and the focus on the criminal justice system on the young men picking them off for minor offenses. The result has been a counter culture of black youth struggling to survive.
It's a mess. It's not everyone but it is many. Education, health care are a logical fix for many black families. That was the goal of affirmative action, the war on drugs, and most recently the success of stop and frisk in New York City.
It's a problem but it is in my mind a contained issue. Thus far...
Everywhere in America it seems to be looking and feeling more third world by the day. It's no surprise with so many from the third world arriving constantly. Plus economic policies have been gutting opportunities for the average person, and leftist and the media promoting trash culture. It's kind of amazing America isn't a third world country already.
We're on the way thanks to 1965 globalist ******** and 60 million third world immigrants
We're on the way thanks to 1965 globalist ******** and 60 million third world immigrants
This contributed to the decline in culture.
One of the simplest manifestations of this cultural degradation can be seen in how often people now view criminality in a positive light. In the “old days”, criminality was viewed in a most negative way by the vast majority of people. Today, I would be surprised if one-third of people have that attitude. (Another one-third are neutral when it comes to criminality, while one-third now actually view it as a “cool” thing).
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