After watching my city get looted and burned this last week and reading the comments on this thread I wanted to make a post to share my own views on the issue. This really isn't addressed to anybody specifically in this thread but I just wanted to share my own views on why the Black community here in the States is so far behind and maybe provide a bit more context for the BLM movement that is rarely elaborated on.
I agree that many of the issues African-Americans are somewhat self-inflicted. They certainly have a cultural image of promoting drug use and gang culture. For example, BET (Black Entertainment TV station) was/is famous for perpetuating racist stereotypes about Black people and even glorifying the negative aspects of their cultures that keep them down in the first place. Many seem to have lost the sense for family values and thus a disproportionate amount of African-Americans grow up in a single parent household. Most Black folk I've interacted with either have no respect for education or no respect for themselves and so do no pursue better education. There are a lot of internal problems that hold the Black community down.
However, it is an undeniable fact that there is a lot in society going against them. The neighborhoods they live in are basically ones they were corralled into after decades of policies preventing them from integrating with White neighbors. These neighborhoods have poorly funded education systems, and are sub-par at best. I often volunteer with an inner-city education program, and people expected to read and comprehend at an 8th grade level rarely do - not just the kids, the parents too. The water in these neighborhoods is tainted and not pure. The pipes were probably laid down during the 1950s or 60s and were never replaced or maintained properly. The water is basically poisoned. The communities that depend on these pipes are left no choice because constantly buying water or filters is too expensive in the long run. So from a young age they drink tainted water. The food they eat is mostly unhealthy. Fast food is cheap and easy. Who has time/money to work 2+ minimum wage jobs while taking care of kids and also go grocery shopping for healthy food and then prepping meals when you are a single parent? Compound this with poor public transport and a need for car + car insurance (super expensive if you are from an "at risk" community). So from a young age they are also eating food that does not satisfy the nutritional requirements for a growing mind (actually damages/stunts brain development at young ages). This is a recipe for people not developing properly. Poor education, poor nutrition, poor water, gang violence, prevalence of drugs and access to them from young ages, perpetual lack of money because everything is more expensive when you are poor and no spouse/family for support, constant media showing them that is is okay or even glorifying it and so much more.
So how did they get here? They were slaves, we all know that - but why are they in such a hopeless situation? There are plenty. This is where all the cries of systemic racism come into play. One example is because they were treated as second class citizens til the 1960s, most never really had the opportunity to build wealth beyond daily laboring. They were denied loans or given unfairly high interest rates simply based on their skin color and this was perfectly legal for the longest time. The law is also not blind in this country. Black Americans are sentenced more harshly and get more prison time for the same crimes as White Americans. Disproportionate time for the same crime. This is fairly well studied and greatly contributes to the amount of single family households in the Black community. The police themselves are more likely to use force and kill Black Americans which instills in them a huge distrust/hate for authority.
So what do we do? The main thing should be to provide adequate services to them. Ensure that healthy food is accessible to them (or regulate fast food to make it healthier), improve public transport so they can live in cheaper communities and commute to work, fix our pipe infrastructure, properly fund/reform our education system so they are at least meeting national standards, and for the broader public to stop viewing Black Americans as subhuman criminals. These things will result in them joining the ranks with the rest of society in prosperity..... over time. What do we do about the people currently in these situations? Honestly, I don't know. We can definitely address the underlying issues so that Black Americans tomorrow have better opportunities, but what do we do about those today? This is the difficult question nobody has an answer to or really wants to answer.
Their history was bad, and their treatment in the legal system is also bad, granted. But... Their bad history was 70 years ago, and their culture actually deteriorated since then. The more free they became, the less cultured they became. I mean WTF!!! And their legal treatment is much, much better than what it was 70 years ago.
The fact is everything you mentioned as bad for blacks is a luxury in India. Even our govt here doesn't recommend drinking water directly from taps, for water that they supply as 'drinking water'. Tainted? In India, you could die from it. So even the poorest of households in cities have a basic filtration system, or they at least boil the water before drinking it. A basic filtration system can be procured for basically nothing, probably less than a monthly phone bill and can last for years. 99.99% of Indians have no access to unsecured credit for basic education, but more than 8% now have a bachelor's degree (half that of the blacks living in the US).
Honestly, all I see is excuses.
Yeah, it's sad that they were treated badly before and they missed their own economy's golden age in the 60s and 70s, but the access and opportunities they have today is challenged only by a few countries, and they are still unable to take advantage of such a system. In fact they are not even trying to.
Here's something interesting I came across.
New data shows that overall federal student loan cohort default rates may rise to 40% in the near future and that for-profits are largely responsible.
www.brookings.edu
I suspect this has more to do with the family unit. The article says that 90% of blacks take education loans for 4-year UG degrees compared to 60% among whites. And we all know 4-year degrees are way more expensive than 3 or 2-year degrees, and not just due to the number of years. What I assume is white families start saving for their kids' college education early on, thereby saving a whole lot of money during their education. They may instead end up taking much smaller amounts in loans for the same degree. Otoh, the predominantly broken families among blacks force them to take much larger sums in loans due to a low savings rate for a more expensive type of education. The difference is pretty astounding, 2x.
As for their sub-par education, you need a basic understanding in spoken English in order to comprehend STEM fields. I have seen people understand and speak even less English than the blacks do and still graduate from Engineering colleges in India while giving their exams in English. And in India, it's all essay type answers. And I'm not talking about just 1 or 2. A single class has dozens who come in on govt quotas to Engg colleges into cities and barely speak even a lick of English, but still finish the course. A close friend of mine came from Kerala (the clue's right there) and couldn't even string a legible English sentence together when he joined and is now working in the Middle East as a telecom engineer, plus speaks English well. So this excuse of a sub-par education is only an excuse. Blacks could always speak English, but then even there they have screwed up the language.
As for their media glorifying their broken culture, I'm pretty sure at least 1 adult in a household has enough common sense to explain to their child how the world works. If the adults fail at fulfilling such a basic duty even, then again, it goes back to broken families.
Their biggest problem is their dads running away. Second biggest remains access to education. Third is everything else. They fix the first two, the third problem will simply disappear.