Saturday, September 05, 2015

Fifty years after Watts

I was reading through this 50 year anniversary article on the Watts riots, summarizing the books and research, and see the writer STILL believes it's a matter of more government money. “Solving these problems through federal action, as well as local grassroots pressure that ties police reforms to economic justice initiatives, is essential to averting more rebellions in the next fifty years.”

Never mind the trillions spent on Head Start, housing, medical care, education, etc. and the 123 transfer programs.  And yet those black families who have moved on to the middle class and the upper quintile have behaviors and life styles and education not unlike their cultural cousins, white middle class and upper middle class. Marriage, education, jobs and family support. Look at every powerful black government official, including our President, and that’s what they’ve got. (Celebrities and sports figures are rich but have the opposite life style.) Why is that so difficult to see? Well, there's no money in advocating that, either for academe or government or churches.

http://bostonreview.net/us/sekou-franklin-watts-rebellion-50-years-later

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