| Having given much thought to the situation in inner city, | | | | Similarly, joining the military would not be an |
| based on both what is known in the media and much | | | | improvement for everyone in America; but for many |
| of what I gathered from the experience of good | | | | inner city residents, it very much will be. So that, when |
| friends who have lived there, I would like to make | | | | Beyonce says that she needs a soldier (rather than a |
| some suggestions. While I do not see this as panacea, | | | | gangster), she is speaking a home truth. The army |
| I believe it has the possibility of achieving positive | | | | people are not angels, but they do develop useful skills, |
| impact for many. And it is as follows: increasing | | | | habits and mindsets, and are more likely to work and |
| interest among black people in business and technical | | | | to stay with the family and to teach the children to |
| fields; setting up recruitment offices to direct young | | | | beeffective individuals. And while Beyonce stands to |
| men who would otherwise join gangs into military | | | | expect the military person to be just as domineering as |
| service; doing away with the anti-educational youth | | | | she would expect the gangster to be, he would be a |
| culture; providing better guidance for the youth. | | | | better influence on the children and will be more likely |
| I will go through these one by one. | | | | to keep them on a more viable path. |
| Business and Technical Fields | | | | Finally, there are enough black officers in the military |
| One part of the solution that I see is getting more black | | | | that those who don't want to take orders from the |
| people interested in business and in technical | | | | white man would be able to take orders from a black |
| professions. American black people have done very | | | | one. And with a black person being the president of |
| well in politics, law, sports and entertainment; but they | | | | the United States, the claim that they would be serving |
| are underrepresented in business and technical fields. | | | | "the Man" is not as credible as it once was. |
| This results in black people remaining poor on the | | | | Volunteering for the professional army would be, for a |
| average even in spite of great successes by individual | | | | person in inner city, a ticket to a better life for himself |
| black people in America. | | | | and a path toward improving the lot of the inner city |
| There was a job flight in 1980s out of the inner city as | | | | residents. I recommend stepping up military recruitment |
| businesses moved their production centers overseas. | | | | in inner city as a path toward improvement of the inner |
| This led to many not being able to find jobs; but | | | | city and of the lives of its residents. |
| ultimately the question becomes, Why rely on white | | | | Changing the Anti-education Culture |
| man to create jobs? A white businessman will only set | | | | Finally, there is a cultural problem that apparently is |
| up shop in a black neighborhood for as long as that is | | | | shared between the inner city and the population |
| convenient for him, and will go elsewhere, taking the | | | | known as "white trash." This is as follows: Total lack of |
| profits with him, when there is a more commercially | | | | respect for education. While the failure of inner-city |
| attractive option. The only way to make sure that the | | | | schools is frequently blamed on their lack of funding, in |
| money stays is to be in charge of the money as an | | | | fact that is not the case. The DC schools, for one, |
| entrepreneur. | | | | have high funding levels compared to schools in many |
| In a 1990s film, there is a scene in which a black man is | | | | other places. The problem is that the students do not |
| demonstrating outside of the bank after the bankers | | | | want to learn, and those who do get savagely |
| have told him that he is "not economically viable." | | | | attacked for it by other students andfrequently by their |
| There is a real way to avoid this kind of scene. Black | | | | families. |
| people should be learning business and finance, and | | | | It must be made clear that the students who take |
| they should be setting up shop and creating jobs | | | | studies seriously are not "acting white" or "think they're |
| instead of competing for them. And that requires black | | | | better than everyone else." It is not acting white to |
| people to themselves learn business and banking and | | | | study; it is acting intelligent to study; and Asians for one, |
| practice it at a level appropriate to their share of the | | | | not being white, are frequently better at it than the |
| population. | | | | white. As for the "think they're better than everyone |
| After the fall of apartheid in South Africa, there were | | | | else" line, the world consists of 7 billion people, most of |
| not enough qualified black businesspeople to take over | | | | them nothing like the people who ridiculously believe |
| the running of the companies that had prior to that | | | | they are "everyone else" and that the other 7 billion |
| been managed by white businesspeople. The reason | | | | people aren't; and forthese people to claim that they |
| was this: The anti-apartheid leaders were socialists, | | | | speak for "everyone else" is a far greater arrogance |
| and they did not favorably look upon capitalist system. | | | | than any of which they may be accusing the serious |
| The people now do not need to make the same | | | | students. And from the perspective of most in the |
| decision. The businessperson is the person who | | | | world, it is the people such as ones who believe such |
| creates jobs while providing something that people | | | | things - and, pursuant such beliefs, create a culture of |
| want to buy. And that means that business can be a | | | | brutality and stupidity - that are held in most contempt, |
| worthwhile and even noble endeavor when it provides | | | | and not those students in inner city who take studies |
| a way for one's people to escape poverty. | | | | seriously, have respect for knowledge, and want to |
| As for technical skills, these are always in demand, and | | | | have a better life than that of drugs and crime. |
| someone who has them is far less likely to be | | | | Money spent on inner-city schools is money wasted |
| economically nonviable. If enough black people learn | | | | unless the children actually want to learn. There must |
| engineering, computers, and related technology skills, | | | | be a profound cultural change among inner city youth |
| then they will be competitive, in highly-paid fields, and | | | | for education there to be effective. Having seen black |
| will be able to get good jobs in different economic | | | | people do exceptionally well in highly demanding |
| conditions. On the collective level, this will improve the | | | | learning environments such as the Moscow State |
| mean income of black Americans and help many to | | | | University, America's prime universities, and St. |
| rise out of poverty and to stay out of poverty. | | | | Stephen's and St. Agnes School, I can say with full |
| Setting Up Military Recruitment Offices In the Ghetto | | | | certainty that there is nothing keeping black kids from |
| The inner city has many young men who aspire | | | | doing well at school except for bad attitudes and bad |
| toward strength and toughness. The military cultivates | | | | beliefs. |
| strength and toughness; it also disciplines it. The same | | | | The more black youth do well at school, the more they |
| macho character that in the ghetto turns into gang | | | | will be able to go into middle-income and higher-income |
| violence, the military structures into controlled, principled | | | | economy. Also, the more the educational system will |
| strength that knows how to fight well enough to know | | | | work for them, and the more the schools of the inner |
| also when not to fight. The inner city youths would be | | | | city will be a success rather than a failure that they |
| influenced by the military into not only being the strong | | | | are now. With more respect for education, the black |
| men that they want to be, but also self-controlled, | | | | people will be able to achieve a higher intellectual |
| disciplined,effective strong men who can both manage | | | | standard and be able to achieve in such fields |
| their behavior and exercise positive effect on their | | | | asscience, mathematics, and medicine. This will give |
| community. | | | | black people more presence in these fields - fields in |
| The military has college scholarships, job skills training, | | | | which they likewise are under-represented at this time. |
| and in case of an honorable discharge a | | | | The more black people win Nobel Prizes in science or |
| recommendation that can take one to many places. | | | | pioneer great inventions, the more respected and |
| To people in the inner city, that spells a ticket to better | | | | internationally powerful the black people will be. |
| life. The habits that are taught in the military help make | | | | The anti-intellectual youth culture must go. Nothing good |
| a person more effective and more employable. The | | | | has come from it, and it is a disgrace to every race - |
| black people who've been in the American military | | | | black, white or Latino - which it infests. Smart must be |
| have done well - in many cases exceptionally well, | | | | cool, and knowledge and ambition must be respected |
| going as far as to becoming the Secretary of State. | | | | and cultivated. This is the only way that the black |
| With military training and scholarships and references, | | | | youth can avoid falling into the underclass and have a |
| the person from inner city will have everything that he | | | | fighting chance at a better life. |
| needs to be able to pursue a better way of life. | | | | Better Direction |
| A person from the inner city who goes to the military | | | | Finally, there is the problem of coercion among the |
| can then go on to pursue a middle-class or upper-class | | | | youth toward gang involvement, drug use, and |
| life outside the inner city; or, should he return to the | | | | pregnancy as minors. The males end up in the prison |
| inner city, stands to become a force for improvement | | | | or shot; the females end up working exceptionally hard |
| of the inner city. With military training he would be able | | | | to raise the children alone. There are those who think |
| to stand up to the gangsters; with principles he would | | | | that the solution to this is "traditional values"; but the |
| be able to steer them toward superior actions. A | | | | traditional societies of Afghanistan, rural India, central |
| person with disciplined strength will be able to not only | | | | Africa and Middle East aren't better than the ghetto, |
| stand up to people with undisciplined strength, but to | | | | they are worse than the ghetto. The real solution to |
| steer them away fromdestructiveness and toward | | | | this is better direction for theyouth. |
| more responsible conduct - which is something that | | | | The better direction comes from taking the interests |
| someone lacking either in strength or in discipline will | | | | and propensities and directing them toward a positive |
| find a lot harder to do. | | | | manifestation. Thus, the desire to be strong and tough |
| There are of course downsides to the military. The | | | | can and should be directed toward military, where the |
| military is tough and brutal; however the ghetto is also | | | | recruits become disciplined and effective strong and |
| tough and brutal, and having lived in daily brutality the | | | | tough men with the skills and the habits they need to |
| people from inner city would have an advantage of | | | | be effective and to improve their communities. The |
| experience over other recruits. The people who serve | | | | desire to have money or status or power can and |
| in the military are at a risk of dying in combat; however | | | | should be directed toward business and technical fields, |
| the inner city is a war zone already, and one stands a | | | | where these are constructively earned. The desire to |
| greater risk of being killed or imprisoned for life if one | | | | be validated as a woman, rather than having to |
| remains there than if one joins the military. Most people | | | | express itself through teenage pregnancy, can be |
| who go into the military never see combat, whereas | | | | directed to artistic pursuits and professional fields that |
| the people who live in the inner city are facing daily | | | | give the woman admiration and toward more beautiful |
| conditions of war. | | | | and more wholesome relationships. |
| For these reasons, for many residents of inner city, the | | | | And the competitive interest can be directed toward |
| military would be a major improvement over what | | | | achieving in school and then later in the economy in |
| they otherwise would be facing. And that - creating | | | | comparison to the white man, rather than into shooting |
| improvement over people's present condition, rather | | | | the next black man and raping the next black woman. |
| than expecting everything to be immediately equal - is | | | | The inner city youth does not suffer from lack of |
| the standpoint for constructive, workable social policy. | | | | talent. It suffers from lack of direction, bad guidance, |
| Sweatshop labor would not be an improvement for | | | | and self-defeating beliefs. It is this problem that must |
| most American citizens, but for hundreds of millions of | | | | be addressed for the situation in inner city to improve |
| Chinese people it has been a huge improvement over | | | | significantly. I fully believe that this improvement is |
| their previous lives. | | | | possible. |