I'm not ignorant enough to think it's realistically possible, especially with the government having any involvement in it, but it's true that poverty is the primary factor. Notice how culture is a function of its surroundings...black culture formed around being poor as hell and uneducated (regardless of whose fault this is why it is). I'm not advocating that we go around and give these people homes, but I'm sick and tired of the race baiting and finger pointing- by both sides.
Jake8x7
Exactly how "ignorant" are you then? The acceptance of "poverty" is a personal
choice. It is a condition which many have chosen to rise above - some through personal preparation via education and training, others through developing their abilities in sports, and yet others through criminal activity. Being
born into poverty is no excuse for
remaining poverty-stricken. If one accepts an impoverished spirit as their lot in life, then the blame for their lack of success in this world falls upon
them. Not all people of color work in menial jobs, nor are all white people business executives. You will find those who choose
not to rise to the challenges of life working side-by-side on assembly lines, at convenience stores, stocking shelves at Wal-Mart, pumping petrol at your local gas station, or living off the taxes (paid by those who
do work) via "welfare", etc.
From the Department of Health and Human Services (regarding "The Low-Wage Labor Market"):
Even in jobs that require relatively little in the way of formal education or credentials, employers often seek a variety of basic skills in their job applicants, and a set of personal characteristics that they think reflect those skills. The skills and characteristics generally sought by these employers can be summarized as follows:
Job readiness
Social/verbal skills
Basic cognitive skills
Job-specific skills
From the Department of Labor:
Declining Male-Female and Black-White Wage Gap
While wage inequality has grown among education groups, wage differentials have narrowed between men and women as well as between whites and blacks. Overall, the male-female wage gap declined from 37.1 percent in 1984 to 23.8 percent in 1995. Over the same period, the wage differential between white and black men declined from 26.7 percent to 18.0 percent, and the wage differential between white and black women declined from 8.7 percent to 6.0 percent (Lerman, 1997a).
Much of the remaining difference in hourly earnings for white and black men can be explained by differences in their level of skills before they enter the labor market (Neal and Johnson, 1997).
(Statistics have never particularly impressed me - the old saw "Figures can lie, and liars can figure" sticks in my mind) But, when there has to be an "objective" means of measurement to show disparity between groups of anything (people, animals, electromechanical devices, etc.) running stats seems to be the only globally accepted way of doing so. Keeping that in mind -
Yes, according to these stats - which are
15 years old - in 1997 (the date of the completion of the Lerman study) there was
still an earning disparity between sexes and races. But, that disparity had been
reduced by a statistically significant amount during the preceeding 11 years. Does it still exist today? Possibly, but I couldn't find any more recent studies on those relationships.
When I lived in North Carolina -
several decades ago - I worked for a while at a textile mill (at that time, textile work was probably the single largest employing industry in the area). I had been on the job for about four months, and received
four pay increases. So, one day I decided to ask a
very senior worker (
doing the same exact job I was doing), how much
he was being paid after
25 years on the job...
a nickel an hour more than I was making! I found other employment shortly thereafter.
Normally, "success" in life
does not just fall upon someone. It requires preparation and focused effort on the part of the individual, to achieve his/her goals. Different people have different goals. Some goals are
almost attainable by the simple act of birth, while others require moderate effort. The loftier goals require detailed preparation, planning, unwavering focus and surgical precision in their execution. These last are that
top 10% of earners. The "Bell Curve" for the distribution of earnings (without regard to any other influencing factors - simply
income) looked like this in 2005:
The "average" earnings in this country (in 2005) was $37,000 - significantly more than
I have
ever earned in my life. I am not a "person of color", but I did choose a relatively unrewarding career path (
financially speaking). I chose to enlist in the U.S. military. Twenty years later, when I "retired" from the military as an E7, I immediately sought and found employment (in order to continue supporting my family's bad habits of
living indoors and eating), and attended college part-time. My income has always been "sufficient" (as in: "
not even approaching substantial"), and I
do not regret any of my employment choices. I
earned that which I had
prepared myself to earn. I accept both the
blame for not fully capitalizing on my abilities, and the
credit for achieving all my goals - it's called "ambition", and some folks have more of it than others. Some folks have neither ambition nor personal pride.
And now, the question...
WTF do any of the preceding half-dozen-or-so posts have to do with OC? 
Pax...
