The Search for Thugs

Just end welfare. It has been a major culprit in the destruction of the nuclear family among lower mincome blacks. While the feminist/liberal fantasy of one day there being a government program big enough to eliminate the need for parenting and erase all of the social ills of the black urban poor, the reality is this is a capitalist nation and you need to raise your kids. As a teacher in Oakland California, I can tell you that there is little reason for the thug factory to stop churning as long as the reward for doing nothing in school and shunning hard work and mainstream America is a pretty comfortable lifestyle. The single mothers in my building brag about paying fifty bucks a month in rent, while I pay close to a thousand. Even barely working, they manage to pull in ten times the rent monthly, and these females, themselves fatherless, will never seek out men who would actually raise their children, and the boys born in these homes perpetuate the cycle of aimlessness, lawlessness, and severe cultural dysfunction.

Coercion is an on going existence for Black men, It has been since the begining of their time here in America. Using words such as thugs, street life, and the N word are ways that black men adapt. In every house hold there a family dynamics, Black men have to learn to take what they have learn and lived and make it positve. you can take a white man and a black man commit the same crime and the punishment will differ. The laws where not set up to protect black men, or their families. America has been and will always be a conquer and devide nation. read the Will Lynch Story, When Black men open their eyes and learn their rights as a people, and understand that power is in number and thinking, then and only then will they be strong. Then names used; thugs, street life gangsta etc will mean nothing, because they are only words that are defined by the person using it.

Geppetto, perhaps you skipped that chapter in the history books showing that coercion existed in Africa decades before 1619 when the first slaves were brought to America...Tribal leaders in Africa brutally murdered and sold members of other tribes. Just because Black people were brought to America and indoctrinated with "western ways" that does not mean that violent behavior did not exist before.... You cannot blame white people entirely for corrupting African-American people.

African-American culture is more so to blame for the current state of turmoil in Black communities... Black culture, that is what needs to be revamped???once African-American people do away with the stigma???s, the inferiority complex's, the glorification of ???street life??? and all of the other counterproductive ingredients in Black culture, then perhaps there will be a chance!

All of this black men are thugs talk is way out of hand....Last time I read a history book, blacks were brought into this world and then taught a new life in a new society....All of the original gangsters were whites that were ruling the streets, but as soon as the black man became just as thretening for instance Frank Lucas....People began to place all of the crimes in this world on the black man and their society....Scapegoats at times yes....But all blacks are not like that....all don't have the chances to get out of a bad area and explore new things....So if anybody such as USA today or the bloggers who write the comments on this story read this, then pick up a history and start from the beginning before you were in this world, and then judge the newspapers of today...

as for thuggish images...
way too many reasons behind that...
but in most cases that boils down to a complete lack of HOPE...
it's more than just feeling left out when around others who know each other and are telling "inside jokes"...
how about you multiply that by centuries of being left out...
it's like "WILLIE LYNCH" all over again...or maybe it never left...

excuse if i am not relaying the message the way that i need to...
a thug is a thug because they have no other way of getting by...or rather that is all that is happenning to them...just getting by, cuz they couldn't get a decent job if they did all that is asked of us...(degree, training, etc...)
they can't because the racism is systematic...institutionalized...
don't dispute this because I live it everyday...
i am stuck in the bright kid, but he's black rut...
I'm in the "one of the good ones" category...
degree, appearance, etc...
i haven't said forget it yet...because i still have hope...

biznesschic...
that was a great comment that you left...
out of all that was said...and of course there is more...
i think that the illegal war was the best part...

oh...but a big part of the corruption of rap music is that blacks still buy into what the white media perceives as good/bad, pretty/ugly, etc...
except that it's more subtle when it comes to what is released on cd and played on the radio...
all that is bad or wrong with rap shows on video/radio in HEAVY ROTATION...
rap is the new rock 'n roll...and we've figured out that not all rock 'n roll isn't bad...
to anyone who questions rap please try to listen to what is NOT played on the radio...
there is a lot of news reporting to be heard (street/world news)...
there are a lot of people who would like to get their point across of what happens during the everday struggle...the good, the bad, the ugly and WHY...
just remember that the WHY is very important...
the WHY is not to be used as an excuse, but is often the catalyst behind the actions of the underpriviledged...
(THERE IS JUST SOOOOO MUCH MORE THAT I HAVE TO STOP HERE...)

So because someone/some other race creates a stereotype about another, does it mean that the stereotyped race must embrace and live up to that stereotype? Why must White American males, because they are called greedy, self absorbed, crystal meth using, mass murdering, pedophiles, war mongers become greedy, self absorbed, crystal meth using, mass murdering, pedophiles, war mongers? Don't whites have the brains, the minds, the will to change these stereotypes? I truly hope so...

So because someone/some other race creates a stereotype about another, does it mean that the stereotyped race must embrace and live up to that stereotype? Why must black American males, because they are called thugs, become thugs? Don't blacks have the brains, the minds, the will to change these stereotypes? I truly hope so...

What happened to the motto "each one teach one?" When I grew up, no one showed me the value of hard work and education. Someone did show me how to make a fast buck stealing something or selling drugs. The gangstas were the ones who were respected. The girls thought a baby would make some boy love them. The 'harder' you were, the more respect you had. It was a shortsighted view of things. I started to see my peers getting incarcerated, shot and killed. I didn't want that for myself. I found my way out before it was too late. Now everychance I get--I show someone else the way to a better life. I try to show a young person what rewards come with education, hard work, NOT being having unprotected sex and having a bunch of kids with a bunch of different partners... Being black, or being labeled a thug is NOT something you have to try to be. It's how people see us--point blank!! Because there is some truth to stereotypes, people expect you to be thug/gangsta and just a menace. I'm mixed race black and asian and even my asian family members (as well as people who don't know me) expect trouble from me. People don't expect me to be someone who votes, has an education, and contributes to society. I KNOW I've been treated bad because of my race/ or look-- But you know what? I keep my eye on the prize. I prove them wrong. I try to lead by example. I get better then I turn around and show someone how NOT to live in a shortsighted way, how to get ahead and live a decent life.

Stereotypes aside, it doesn't matter what color you are, black, white, whatever. The odds of someone breaking in to your house, (as a burglar) coming in to your bedroom and shooting you are very low--unless you are involved in some things you shouldn't be. Now I don't know what kind of neighborhood he lived in, but in the neighborhoods I have lived in (which are lower middle class type neighborhoods), people very seldom ever do a break in/shooting. Burglars don't come into the bedroom and shoot you. Burglars who are that aggressive are armed robbers, not burglars. I am a biracial person, and IMHO he had to be involved in more than we know about. I feel great empathy for his family. But a lot of times people who all of a sudden have a lot of money get into things they shouldn't (ie drugs, etc). It isn't a stereotype, its just a fact. The odds of some burglar walking into your bedroom and shooting you is very very low. Burglars don't want to run in to homeowners. They prefer an empty house, or they stay away from the bedroom. I would assume that this family lived in a nice neighborhood. Something is just not quite right here. and there is no racial injustice or problem at all.