Sunday, April 01, 2007

Cents-less violence?

My last few posts were about the cause of the race-wealth gap. It's a subject that deserves attention, but more pressing is the conversation about the gap's effects on minority communities, especially in inner cities.

Two recent stories, in the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Boston Globe point out how a surge in violence among young, black and unemployed males -- is tied directly to lack of education and economic opportunity. (Recall, my last post asked whether the wealth gap was cause by lack of education or cultural factors).

In some cities, violent crime is up at an alarming rate. Philadelphia has already topped 100 murders this year. Boston, though its violent crime rate pales in comparison, has seen a spike in shootings, including a ridiculous incident last Friday when an 18 year old black male was shot in the head on a city bus -- just about a mile from both the Globe's offices and my own apartment. The increase in violence is happening as some economists say the economy is slowing down -- remember the adage about black folks catching the flu when the economy has a cold? In fact, Steve Bailey's column in the Globe points quotes a speech by Ben S. Bernake, the chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank, that warned about the consequences of a growing gap between "superstar" have and regular-people have-nots. (Coincidentally, Bernake quoted a story I wrote for the Globe earlier this year).

I talked to Steve after his column ran and he said he wanted to kick himself for forgetting to include one important stat from a study which pointed out that black male high school dropouts are employed at lower rates and earn far less money than either white or Hispanic dropouts. They also die violently at higher rates than whites or Hispanics. But for black males who go to college and graduate, the income gap narrows and the disparity in murder rates nearly disappears.

What's that mean? In short: regardless of what causes the wealth gap in America, a lack of education among black males equates to a lack of economic opportunity, which in turn equates, for far too many, to a quick trip to the graveyard. On the other hand, get some of these cats off the street and into a classroom, and there's a strong argument that not only does the wealth gap close, but the violence almost certainly disappears.

3 comments:

Chris said...

very rational argument in an irrational society, sir. White folks don't want to understand that young black men DO want to do right, but because of so many things setting black men up to fail, it's a catch-22.

onefromphilly said...

My girlfriend and I just had this very conversation recently. We are both from Philly, now living in the DC area. We are constantly kept up to date by family and friends who share the horror stories of what's going on back home. We both agreed that the culture of "excess" is driving some of the violence. Like you said "the growing gap between the superstar haves, and the have-nots". We are a society obsessed with excess, bling, money, cars, material possessions and stuff, and more stuff. It's on TV, radio, print, music. These youngsters are inundated with this every single day. Now throw in the fact that many of them are under-educated, unemployed,and without a strong foundation of people telling them the proper way to attain. So they come to the conclusion that in order to get, they must take, NOT EARN!

My husband use to be a correctional officer in the worst prison in Philly. I asked him and some of his fellow officers if they could guess how many of the young inmates were functionally illiterate. They all wondered where I was going with my question.
My take on it is that if you can't fill out a job application, and are too embarrassed to let anybody know you can't really read, because you've been socially promoted though school, but you can tell me how much a rock of crack should sell for and how to weigh out a dime bag of weed, which way are you headed?

It all boils down to a Nation obsessed with excess, with an under-educated young population, being raised or not raised by teenage parents who are also under-educated. Drugs, prescription and illegal, are the first form of escapism from poverty and hopelessness, violence is the natural follow up.

POPS said...

son, this joint keeps putting a smile on my face. i'm going to hit you up this weekend. stay up.