There is no doubt that race has certainly effected the black community and that racism still exists, however I would argue that the change needed must come from within and looking to government to correct it will just lead to more despair. I have Jewish and Italian family roots and both of these groups faced extreme hostilities and segregation when they immigrated to this country roughly 100 years ago. My great grandfather (Italian) was routinely called ethnic slurs, spit on and assaulted while working in the rail yards of Chicago. This was all done by white people and was never condemned by his employer for the 10 years he worked there. He saved money, started his own business and raised his own family and lifted himself out of poverty. Nothing the government did improved his life, he did it himself and despite the inhumane treatment he still loved this country. This does not condone anything he went through but racism exists in many forms and the way to combat it is to live a good life and focus on family. My wife's family is Jewsih and even to this day my young nephews are called Jewish slurs and they are now in high school, the best way to win is to be better than the person professing hate. My families have overcame adversity by having strong family and community bonds that allow them to largely ignore ignorance in people around them. The problems we face today i would argue are less about race and more about class, the poor of today tend to have weak family ties which lead to poor education, high unemployment, drug use, and lack of wealth accumulation. The issues being brought up today by BLM and the crime we see in Chicago, NYC, and elsewhere could just as easily be transposed onto poor white communities in Appalachia or the mountain west regions. The common theme in these communities is not a lack of government assistance but of tremendous rates of out of wedlock births and a complete dissolution of the nuclear family. Governemnt Government cannot and will not ever be able to replace the needs and interests of children that their parents can and as such the levels of despair and poverty will only continue until chqnge from with in occurs.
