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well, every community has an issue, not just blacks. There are people of every ethnicity that give their ethnicity a bad name. But I do agree, the black stereotype is the worst, and rap music isn't helping a bit. As long as we all speak our minds of this subject and don't bend to public opinion, we'll be fine. We should try to show that being racist isn't going to stop black hate, but give more reasons for it.

AMEN

It wasn't Bush, drugs, or even racism that caused us to collapse as a race.

It was us as a whole forgetting who we are as a race the accomplishments, the struggle, and the hardship. We all for the most part take our freedom and we abuse it to where we make our own stereotypes.

If we were simply to unite not as a race but Americans and mend our names then I think we can make it as a race, but if not we're doomed to isolation and abuse from others.

Essentially this is my take on the matter.

Firstly, I'm going to say that this is only really true about the United States, as, from what I hear persons of African or eastern oriental descent, are what I would call "on par" with the other ethnic groups in Canada.

I'll start with history. Obviously in the United States the vast majority of persons of African descent could be found in the south. After slaves began to be freed or began to escape they scattered about in the north, but this wasn't really enough to be noticable. Then after slavery was finally abolished most African Americans found themselves in the near feudal state of tenant farming, as they had no money, were mostly illiterate, and were only trained in southern farming operations. Thus they stayed in the south.

Then, with the advent of unionized labor in the north giant masses of unemployed (or willing) black persons found themselves trucked up to the north as strike breakers. To be truthful, a large amount of the black population of industrial centers such as chicago can trace back their arrival in chicago to this or that big strike. Then, once the strike was resolved the African American folks were turned out of work and left in a strange environment.

Thus, in most industrial centers, and already in the south, persons of African descent were already in the lowest strata of society. This caused a reaction in the early 1900s that saw many rich (mostly white) families move into the suburbs and left all of the racial ghettos in the inner city. Then, after the civil rights movement, persons of african descent did finally start to be allowed to make it in society, and they too moved out of the impoverished inner city, to the suburbs, now vacated en masse by the rich.

Now, in the United States the actual majority of people who are poor or impoverished are white. But large portions of the black community are either working class or impoverished. Poverty necessarily breeds drugs and high birth rates (due to the inability to afford birth control) and the psychological escape of drugs (though of course drugs are a problem for the rich and middle class too, but for different reasons) and as the saying goes, if its a recession for America, its a depression for African Americans.

I would say the problem with the stereotyping now is that the media only focuses on the impoverished portion of black America, and that the majority of especially wealthy African Americans with access to the media likewise came from impoverished inner cities.

Obviously, I would say the solution to all the problems are more funding for school and after school projects, free socialized day care, free healthcare, and socialism all around, but I'm sure that that is to be expected from me. The problems of the inner city are not race specific, but it just so happens that many black persons come from the inner city, and that a few who do have come across quite a great deal of fame, thus bringing the problem of the inner city to light and to a limited extend, popularizing it.