06-11-2020, 05:13 AM
(06-10-2020, 11:56 PM)Sociopathicsteelerfan Wrote: That's a very reasonable assumption. However, the black family unit did not begin disintegrating until the early 70's.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African-American_family_structure
There are several theories for this disintegration. Some blame the war on drugs, which is certainly a possibility. Others blame the welfare state, for which I personally tend to lend more credence. The "war on drugs" certainly contributed, I would not deny this. But I think the degradation of self esteem inherent in being reliant on others to live coupled with the financial incentive to have more children is a more likely culprit. I fully realize that this position puts more "blame" for the problem on the left than the right, as opposed to blaming the war on drugs. It's very likely they both had a negative impact. The problem is both sides refuse to acknowledge the damage their political positions did. Help is not always helpful and punishment is not always character building or otherwise constructive. Acknowledging the damage caused by both positions would go a long way towards fixing the current problem. Of course, neither side would dare to recognize their role in this.
I have no idea, really. I feel like the most recognizable part of black culture from a national standpoint is entertainment and sports to a slightly lesser degree. Certain forms of black culture are wildly popular, ie hip-hop and the gang-associated image. It went from an urban lifestyle/image to arguably the bulk of pop music outside of country. Unfortunately, the images of social roles, particularly of men in the genre are pretty morally bankrupt and at worst both malicious and self-destructive. In some cases, this is what black kids have to aspire to as the pinnacle of achievement. It's a lot of materialism and violence to be immersed in, even for a kid that's not really from that kind of background. Those are the kinds of black men we see on TV and social media every day, and it has to imprint on kids to some extent. They definitely aren't examples of how the majority of African Americans live, but they are very visible.
White entertainment culture certainly has it's share of turds, don't get me wrong. You could argue that Eminem turned a generation of white trash kids into little assholes, too, and the great rock stars of the 60's and 70's were hardly moral pillars. What's different is that while white kids might fantasize about being rappers or rock stars or actors or athletes, at the end of the day they have people that they interact with that have much lower-profile careers but still have financial success and fulfillment. It's a big deal to be a doctor, lawyer, business owner, etc. It's practically expected for upper class examples. Up until recently, white kids were almost uniformly expected to do better than their parents from a career perspective. If they didn't, they'd kind of get looked at as losers by everyone, although most of the time people are too polite to say it.
I do see this changing a bit in the last 10 years or so, but the old tough-guy materialist image is still pretty apparent. The outlaw image will always be something that we take interest in as people, but there's truly almost never a future in it worth living out.
