Your defensive response toward the white guilt narrative should help you to understand why taking responsibility doesn't gain popular traction in groups. Nobody wants to take the blame. The reality is that the conditions within the black community are, to a certain extent, attributable to racism but are also attributable to other factors within the black community itself. I do think that out of wedlock births is a significant problem. Consider, however, that the children born in to those situations have done nothing to cause them. They are not to blame for that in any way. They are also not to blame for the disparities in education funding which are attributable to the property tax collections. Housing in black communities is of lower market value and the property taxes used to fund schools in those areas is consequently lower. They will grow up within a culture that, to a certain extent, glorifies criminal lifestyles, rejects education and where credibility is given by showing a readiness to resort to violence. It is reasonable to expect a significantly greater number of adverse outcomes when you run children through that environment. Yes, there is choice, but there is also pressure to make certain choices. The responsibility that we should expect people to take for making certain choices should be mitigated by the pressures people are faced with in given situations. As to whatever adverse impacts racism may be having, it is something that should be tackled. Racism does effect outcomes. It isn't entirely clear to me to what degree internal vs external problems are causing adverse outcomes, but in the end it doesn't really matter.
As usual, I agree with most of what you said.
Groups, whether or not they deserve the blame, will want to avoid taking blame for anything wrong. It is hard taking responsibility for things.
But I feel that I rightfully blame personal actions over a system that ended many decades ago. Racism still has some effect, obviously. However, I disagree that the extent to which each is a problem is irrelevant. Maybe in the long run it is, because you want to solve every problem eventually. But when something like single parenthood can increase you probability of being in poverty by more than 4x, I’d say that definitely requires priority over something that has been ended and likely doesn’t have any huge effects currently.
I think we can disagree on that funding area. Simply increasing funding by no means increases education quality (New York spends the most per pupil but is ranked #22)
And while certainly these kids grow up in a community whose culture pushes kids to act recklessly, I think we need to put a big emphasis on personal responsibility, which blaming racism will make impossible because of learned helplessness.
Kids can’t be entirely responsible for their circumstances that they are born into, but it is up to them to stop the cycle and embrace a more responsible, non-thug culture. Culture needs to be changed from the bottom-up. The government can’t change it.
Perhaps I’m out of touch, but it seems to me that racism is blamed more than reckless choices and gangster glorification. If that is the case, no amount of government spending will EVER close any disparities. I think the war on poverty has made that quite clear.
