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<p>At no point in this discussion have I ever condoned the actions of inner-city black youth. I’ve only elaborated on the realities of their situation. Selling drugs is never OK. That doesn’t mean that the War on Drugs isn’t misguided. Poverty has extremely ill effects of educational attainment. However, I don’t believe that harsh circumstances excuse underachievement.</p>
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<p>In my experience, it doesn’t. Rather it emboldens them further. Understand that a large portion of the African-American community is fatalistic. They look around and believe that nothing that they do will change their circumstances. And to some degree, I understand why.</p>
<p>I’ve volunteered in inner-city schools countless hours. I’ve seen valedictorians get a 1300/2400 on their SATs. I’ve seen straight A students drop out after their college freshman year. Their circumstances are beyond bad. It’s not just a lack of resources that are harming these kids. Even the teachers that instruct them are pessimistic about their potential and prospects. They don’t even try. Worse, some are severely under-qualified. In some cases, it would be better to leave students with a book and pray.</p>
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<p>I’ve seen countless more crushed under the weight of their circumstance. We can’t blame them for not being able to surmount nearly impossible odds. </p>
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<p>Fine. But don’t blame the kid either. You don’t pick your parents or your environment. I really don’t think it’s fair to say, “Hey, absent father, broken educational system, ghetto neighborhood, overworked and largely absent mother, and poverty be damned – rise above it! Learn math you were never taught – that you don’t even know exists. Read books. Write. Don’t worry about hunger or stability! Books will sate you. Math will be your foundation!” And if you think that it’s fair to place such an impossible burden on someone, then I suggest – DEMAND – that you spend any amount of time in the ghetto. Get to know some of those kids that are standing near the entrance of their block’s liquor store. Ask them about their family lives. Ask them about their education. Ask them about their lives.</p>
<p>And then ask YOURSELF if, under the circumstances, you would have actually been better off. Don’t place you, the one that has been molded by your semi-affluent neighborhood and and good parenting, in his circumstances. Place the bare you – unshaped clay – in their lives. Absorb their values not knowing any better. Feel their desperation and fatalism. </p>
<p>Do you think you would have been any better? I’m not sure I would have even graduated high school had I grown up in a ghetto.</p>