--- Dwayne Monroe <dwayne.monroe at gmail.com> wrote:
> You need to make these sharp decisions, grandpa
> says, *because* of
> structural racism. You can't afford to be a slacker
> because when YOU
> slack, when you make those bad decisions that addled
> Eastlander talks
> about you fall faster and farther than the White
> boys - who can slide
[WS:] I think that white boys who made those bad decisions slide just as badly as black boys - and I have seen plenty examples of that. What makes the difference is visibility - bad black boys get most of the public attention whereas white bad boys do not. Hece the impression that only black boys make wrong life turns.
I also think that black boys are, statistically speaking, more likely to make bad decisions because of culture of poverty (a part of which is the "gangsta culture") that poorly informs their life choices, as well as parental support or rather lack of it (statistically speaking.) Blacks, and Whtes, who receive adequate parental support and role modeling are less likely to make bad decisions.
We may debate whether parental influence is individual choice, but it certainly is not the structural racism that you assume in your argument.
But even if we took your - or perhaops your grandpa's argument - for it sface value - it would only explain racial disparity among those who made wrong decisions like ending up in jail (which nobody questions), but it does not explain why some people end in jail or in a ghetto but others do not.
So to sum it up, you do not need assume structural racism to explain most inequalities - parental influence and individual choices do a better job.
Wojtek
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