(I’d like to get the rest of this article but will have to go to the library since the Economist charges to view it on their webpage!)
LOS ANGELES BRIEFING
August 2005
News this month
Blacks in Los Angeles
Jul 21st 2005
From The Economist print edition
A deep problem
Blacks in Los Angeles often face profound inequalities. Just how deep those problems run is revealed by a new study from the Los Angeles Urban League and the United Way of Greater Los Angeles. Blacks, who make up just under 10% of the local population, score badly on just about every economic and social measure. Most disturbingly, the study reckons that 32% of black males born in 2001 in LA County will spend part of their life in prison. Their prison terms are also longer: the average sentence for blacks charged with violent offences is 46 months, compared with 39 months for Latinos and just 13 months for whites.
They also have the highest rate of homelessness and are three times more likely to die of murder or from HIV/AIDS. On an “equality index†of economic and social data that puts whites at 100, Asians score 98, Latinos 71 and blacks a depressing 69.
See article: The darker side, July 21st 2005
and that’s pretty much how it looks for the rest of the country. W. J. Wilson wrote a book about this, he blamed deindustrialization (lack of low-skill industrial jobs that had been the way for most poor to get into the middle class) he also blamed “class-flight,” where the middle class leave the inner cities for other areas. teachings about racism is one of the hardest things, but most people always understand class inequality.
i just got the gravatar thing, i hope it works.
one more thing (the gravatar worked, thanks elenamary!) most people blame “black people’s culture,” (“Culture of poverty argument”) and rarely mention the workings of race, class and gender. for republicans and a good number of democrats, blaming “their culture” (family structure, childrens low expectations in schools, etc.) has been a way to cut funding for social services. as if poor people were not part of this country.
I have also read the deindustrialization arguement for mainland USA Puerto Ricans and the reasons why we’re “the poorest” Latino group, as well as that ridiculous “culture of poverty” arguement which was spread through the promotion of Oscar Lewis who did a very non-academic “study” on poor islanders and migrating Boricuas to the mainland.
…interesting…I’m black and I live in Los Angeles so this is not news. As a native son of the the Mid-Atlantic South East, seeing an entry re: this was intriguing, I’ll admit…Byron Williams has a new piece featured on Working For Change today that speaks to a broader perspective on this very topic and bearing all that in mind, the “de facto” way that the race game is played out here wasn’t anything at all shocking to behold.
What did raise my eyebrows, however, was the way that the overt racism is written off as something from “over there” but never to be considered on this coast…They do the same thing in the North East to this day too…how many blacks reside in south Boston? Ironically enough, the first man to get killed in the melee that lead to America’s Revolutionary War was black. His name was Crispus Attucks…but I’m sure that’s a given and if not, shameful…
Jim Crow’s alive and well, sadly, and in places that many wouldn’t think to look…but he’s definitely still around. A few weeks ago I got that last re-iterated during this series about electing “The Greatest American”…Ronald Reagan won the poll…revolting, yo…That said, I try my damndest not to give those “player haters” the time of day by getting angry at all this. Just say no to nabobs. Be they from Georgetown or Guadalajara…I was talking about the brown-on-black-on-black-on-brown hate that takes place out here to a friend the other day and they didn’t seem to believe me…the fly in the buttermilk syndrome is alive and kicking…even out here in “liberal-ass Southern Calee-forn-ya”…while I can feel the angst coming from the Boricuas, ‘Ricans and South/ Central Americanos who got beef about the way earthly things are going around these parts, to them I say this: at least you HAVE a homeland that you could repair to if the shite REALLY hit the propeller blades…now, having said all of that, I think the time to get a little more forward thinking about what we’re going to do about the reality of our surroundings has revealed itself…it’s all well and good to speak progessively in a forum but I’m a firm believer that change in the world without grows from within…those who can, do. Those who can’t, teach…and those who can’t teach, coach…it’s high time that we stopped waxing philosophic, dropped the platitudes,bromides and shibboleths and got real…(looking around, wild-eyed like Jerry Maguire holding a gold fish in a plastic bag)…who’s coming with me?…who’s coming with me?…
Who says Boricuas have a land to turn to when the “shit hits the propeller blades.” We’ll be in the USA whether in California or in Puerto Rico.
Tin, eres tan chingon…man you always get me a think-ing. I love your gravatar.
CeeP, when you refer to Guadalajara are you saying they have black on brown and brown on black hate? I’ve never seen this in Mexico.
Xavier, say it loud brother!
This post was brought to you by the letter “G”: No ma’am, I wasn’t saying all that. No player hatin’ in Guadalajara that I know of…never been there. I was just encapsulating geograpically with location names that began with a “G.” The black-on-brown, brown-on-black cock-ups are prevalent here, in L.A….when I first got here from the east coast it was a slap in the face to witness how polarized these two minority groups are out here in certain places. I dated a Xicana I worked with who lived in East Los, Boyle Heights (whose family was, ironically, from Guadalajara) whom I could never visit at home because if I went down there I’d probably get smoked because of my darker-brown gift wrapping…to her credit, her family was cool to me…I just never went over…she always had to come to my crib because of the “haters” in her barrio…I never had that problem in the Bronx…Despite what I’ve heard, every time I go to Mexico I have a great time…