| > How do you go from pervasive single-parent households to consistent two parent households? I can’t. I’m a white dude and completely outside that experience, to the point that I would have to drive more than an hour to get somewhere it’s happening. I believe cultural is by and large a result, not a root cause. As a society we must identify the causes of the negative culture, work to change those things, wait, and modify our approach based on observation as time goes on. In terms of concrete ideas I would say: 1: judicial reforms. All else being equal, Blacks receive longer sentences than Whites. Stop that, through any means necessary. For the immediate future, the President and state governors should look for Black offenders in particular that are serving time and grant clemency and pardons as appropriate. 2: legislative reforms. Crimes that are predominately committed by Blacks have harsher prescribed punishments. Cocaine possession versus crack cocaine possession is a great example of this. Mandatory minimums should be significantly reduced or eliminated. We should consider some means of reducing the latitude that judges have for determining sentencing. 3. social support. This doesn’t have to mean the government spending tax dollars - it could, and that could be effective, but I’m sure you can infer from my username that that’s not what I want to happen. The biggest thing here would likely be the people who “made it” staying involved in their local communities. A child who grows up seeing all of the adults around them either struggling to survive in a dead-end job, incarcerated, or actively involved in criminal activity and apparently better off for it has the deck stacked against them. I live in a poor, rural area. I take every opportunity I get to show kids what I do, how I got here, and what it would take for them to take a similar path. AFAIK, that’s simply not happening in most poor Black communities. |