 dmegivern says: There is a great article in a Public Health journal where a woman compares two plants-one nourished, the other neglected. This is a metaphor for the kinds of investment we fail to provide to ghettos, yet expect them to flower. Cosby is both right and wrong. His basic error though is in thinking that the ghetto is a black ghetto. It is a functionality ghetto, a hopelessness ghetto, a "it would look unseemly if we just went out and bludgeoned them" ghetto. Cosby is right - if the people in these ghettos stood their ground and watched out for each kid and made sure they stayed out of trouble the kids lives would be much better. But if the parents in the ghetto had that level of functionality then they would be out of there. dmegivern, have you been following any of the writings of David Brooks over at the NYTimes? He gives some interesting insights (on the human condition - his partisan stuff is crap) from a ... Umm, I am from the ghetto, so I can describe a lot of the dynamics. Brooks does not understand poverty. Most of what he says about poverty is inaccurate and just amounts to an elite judging the poor from a far. We are both from the ghetto then and yet we (might) have slightly different takes. But I have not had time to dig for the Brooks articles that interested me so... I recommend the site, "David Brooks Hates Poor People" if you are looking for his poverty-related articles: http://www.myspace.com/red_hot_anger Having just returned again from the ghetto--went home for the holidays--I am fresh with my loathing of people who think they understand poverty but don't. I just don't want to hear it anymore after I lived 18 years looking up at the poverty line, 8 years of graduate school specifically on poverty, risk, and mental health, 3 years as a professor focused on poverty policy and mental health policy, and just about as much expertise as a person can have, I refuse to listen to rich spoiled David Brooks. Ugh, in spades. Then you are the _perfect_ person against which I can bounce ideas. That is of course, once you have the space for it. I'd love to discuss these things. Right now, I am completing an annual report, and I am very short on time, but after the new year, I should be more able to interact. |
View the Top Clips from November 19, 2007
Embed This Clip In Your Site...
|
