Am I supposed to feel bad?
Sure I feel horrible for the situation the two kids are in, but if their mom wasn't dealing drugs they wouldn't be in that situation
shareLol I know. How dare they be born to a drug dealer! Next time they will know better.
Fact: 87.3% of IMDB users belong to the secret society of cynics.
Its the mom who should know better.
shareFor a lot of the kids in the ghetto, drugs really are the only way out. You look at Tupac, Biggie, 50, Jay-Z, etc they literally had no other way to escape the ghetto except by slinging dope.
I don't know what y'all supposed to feel, but know that the system needs reform. When dealing drugs is the only way to make a living wage, then you know the system needs reform.
Sorry, the drug excuse does'nt fly with me. It's the fastest way to a lot of money without working hard for it or winning the lottery maybe but it's not the only way to escape poverty. One of my former roommates came from the inner city and stayed in school and got his education rather than go out and risk his life and freedom on the streets. He knew that even those rappers you mentioned never left the street life behind despite the fame as you can see by the fate of some of them. That being said, he was lucky. He had two working parents in the home to encourage him.
Most of these kids aren't as dumb and ignorant as they try to appear. They just want the easy way out rather than working for it. They think they can rhyme or dribble their way out of poverty. It takes more than money to escape that mindset.
A lot of this falls on these parents who are no more mature than their own children. Women who have pre-marital, unprotected sex and multiple births with multiple deadbeat men who lack the balls and morality to take care of their responsibilities much less supply financial support. These are not the type of parents any child can count on for security, guidance and encouragement.
The system isn't perfect but it doesn't need reform. It shouldn't have to compensate for immature and irresponsible behavior.
Okay let's agree for some slinging is the only way, or for others they are just being lazy and not taking advantage of opportunities.
I mean you blame the parents true, but also what caused the parents to be that way. I don't know if you ever lived in the inner city or worked with inner city citizens, but I have, and know that for a lot of them the inner city is depressing. For example, inner city Detroit. The city is broke, the city's workers are underpaid, they barely skirt by in their jobs and they dont care. You can see it when you work with inner city youth to see their level of knowledge, there is a huge disparity with suburban kids. Most inner city school districts are emergency level, I know because my mom worked in one of them, and really you're lucky if half the kids graduate.
Some of the parents are on welfare yes, but some parents are slaving around all day at 8-10$/hr and trying to raise a family on that amount. Check the news today, people are rioting in Seattle and elsewhere because minimum wage is not enough to raise a family, take care of yourself, pay for bills, housing, food, etc. Think of what they see around them, see on TV. People that don't know them calling them with derogatory terms, or thinking they're good for nothing. Where they are racially profiled or marginalized. When you've been abused, grow up in a broken home that's falling apart by some infestation, or have no positive role models growing up, the choices aren't that easy for most of us suburban kids, where we have a church, counselors, sports coach, safe parks to play in, friendly police officers, you know the whole nine to have a healthy life. Seriously you can't really judge a person until you walked in their shoes.
That being said, yeah there are some really lazy people, who've been helped, given opportunities and did nothing, and after a few chances I'm in the same boat, that you can't helped them out. I worked with plenty of inner city kids, and you'll have some that flame out, but when you help and give people a chance, and see them succeed where everything is telling them to fail....well that's a beautiful thing. So yeah for me, I'm going to continue believing in people no matter who they are, and I'll give them some chances and after that it's up to them.
If you don't have much experience in the inner-city, a good realistic show is "the Wire" to show how this topic is not so black and white, there's a lot of complexities in what's wrong with inner city america. Then of course there's the community service and working directly with people which I believe to be more fulfilling and think every suburban-grown kid should try to experience at least once in their life.
Yes,
We all should feel bad, because this is the end result of the decay of society that we all have to live in.
We should feel bad because the erosion of any kind of moral values means the kids these represent grow up without fathers, and when Mom can't shoulder the burden they have nobody. Something like 3/4 of the men now in prison grew up without a father in their homes. How do you think that compares with college graduates, for example?
We should feel bad because we've developed an entirely new class of people in society, from all races and cultures, from areas rural, suburban and urban, who have been divorced from the world of work. They don't finish school, they don't get jobs. The areas they are concentrated in are blighted with crime and corruption.
In a society where a Bachelors degree is becoming a minimum, how are they supposed to get by on what is barely an elementary school education?
We should feel worse because the people who do work have been forced to pay to accomplish all this for generations now, to the point where a lot of us are having a hard time getting by because we have multiple layers of government riding on our backs. The insult to the injury is as much as is taken is still not enough and now we are being saddled with enough government debt for generations.
There is something to be done and I do it every day.
On the most hellish winter day when it is 15 degrees outside and I'd rather stay in bed I get up and go to work. I pay my taxes, I do my job which I qualified myself for by staying out of trouble and doing well in school. I keep an eye on what my kid is up to, I teach him right from wrong, and make sure he tries hard at school. I keep loyal to my wife by not screwing around with other women and I do what needs to be done to take care of both of them.
I do what I can to leave my corner of the world a better place than I found it.
I stay out of trouble for many reasons, a big one of which is I have responsibilities and owe those people me staying employed, alive and out of jail.
Part of being a grown-up is recognizing your share of your own problems and making changes. Sitting around waiting for the Government to make your life great hasn't ever worked, and is just more of the problem, not the solution.
@elcherino
Yay---a fellow Detroiter who knows what's going on! Thank you for that testimony--it was really nice.
[deleted]
Sure, there are plenty or immoral, lazy wealthy people. The difference is they are their family's problems (at least until they cut them off)
The poor can't afford an undisciplined life. When you are rich you can put 6 kids through college. When you are poor you are lucky if you can even manage one. Moral: don't have six kids. When you are rich you can coast along on your resources if you lose your job. If you are working poor you are already destitute and if you become unemployed you hit a wall immediately.
An undiscliplined life is a path to poverty. If you are rich it will get you there. If you are already poor it will hold you there.
This is not just a "ghetto" problem either. I know a town up in western Maine that is as rural as can be and as white as snow. at least half the town is on welfare and hasn't worked a day in their lives. Even if enough jobs showed up for everyone they will not have the discipline to show up on time and do what they are told. Their grandparents knew all these things by heart, but their whole culture has been changed by having a check show up every month without having to earn it.
You might say "But there aren't any jobs for them there!" and I say "If there aren't any jobs why are there still people there?" My grandfather found himself in this position, scraped up some money, turned his back on his home, boarded a ship and went where there were jobs. Despite the prejudice against him he went from poverty to owning a house within ten years.
I talked to a farmer in Pennsylvania one time and he told me what a hard time he had hiring farm hands. He paid better than welfare but nobody wanted the job because the extra money just wasn't worth having to show up every day and work. These weren't "ghetto" people either.
As a system of ending poverty, Public Assistance has been a miserable failure. It has ruined lives, families and communities. It has impoverished people in ways that go far beyond just money.
People all over the world that want better lives and are willing to work hard for it will get the prosperity that our poor will never see.
-at least they've earned it.
@elcherino
At least all of the rappers you mentioned rapped their way out of the ghetto---the problem with the first two was that they couldn't leave it behind, hence their horrible fates. So you can't say they had no other way to get out.
Amen!
shareTupac and Biggie weren't ghetto. It was a marketing move on their part, especially Tupac. Biggie alluded to such in an interview I once saw. Tupac got too much into his alter-ego, and started acting a plum fool. He did not grow up in poverty.
shareActually both Tupac and Biggie did grow up in the ghetto, they just were never the gangster types they promoted themselves as being,that's all.
shareLol I know. How dare they be born to a drug dealer! Next time they will know better.
Usagi-chan
[deleted]