Anyone who claims there aren't a multitude of factors at play here is either ignorant or disingenuous. But I'm not a black parent raising a kid in the inner city, so it's not worth my time to concentrate on what
that person should be doing. More focus on our own part of the puzzle and less on how we think
other people should live their lives would benefit us all. Not to mention, it's a bit of a chicken/egg scenario: it's easy to glamourize the thug life when you feel your society doesn't care about you, and it's easy not to care about people who glamourize the thug life.
So, how about focusing on the things we can implement as a society, because that's something we as voters can have a direct impact on?
We have an unfortunately small window through which to look with regard to the War on Poverty, but it does appear to have been headed for some degree of success. When Johnson introduced the Economic Opportunity Act in 1964, 23% of children (below 18) lived under the poverty threshold. By 1969, that number had dropped nearly 10 points to 14%. Unfortunately, that's also when Nixon took office and the War on Poverty began to be dismantled. By 1983, the child poverty rate had risen back to 22.3%, and in 1993 it was 22.7%. Thankfully we've improved some and the child poverty rate was "only" 18% in 2007.
Of course, Johnson's plans for a Great Society weren't perfect, and we know much more now than we did then. That doesn't help much if we treat our current knowledge the same way we've treated uncomfortable revelations in the past.
Carter tried to warn us about our energy policy 30 years ago. In 1972 a study was released showing limits to growth that could lead to global economic collapse mid-21st century if we don't create a more sustainable lifestyle. It was ignored and panned and people preferred to feel happy and hopeful about the future...
and now it is being shown that we are still on the trajectory that the study predicted. The point is, we can fight these problems - poverty, energy, climate change, food - if we have the courage to accept that they exist and that they require comprehensive attention. Fluttering between having a War on Poverty for 5 years and then having Reaganomics 10 years later, or between having solar panels on the White House roof and then seeing them as useless, does none of us any good. These problems haven't gone away, and they're not going to.
The War on Poverty is a start, but we have over 40 years of new experience and technology at our disposal to make it even more effective. There's no reason why we can't or shouldn't see this issue as one of the top challenges we face. We always should have.
Idealistically, I absolutely dislike the idea of affirmative action, but until we have a real, comprehensive initiative to fight poverty, I'd rather have a faulty band-aid than nothing at all. I think we agree
far more than we disagree.
Anyway, Christian Science Monitor has a pretty decent article on the subject as well:
Affirmative action's evolution | csmonitor.com
(And sorry if this post is somewhat incoherent - it is 4 am after all!)