Featured A Pastoral Letter to White Americans

To keep the unemployment rate of Blacks at twice or more what it is amongst their white counterparts for 60 years IS some generational stuff too. But it doesn't have anything to do with not being taught hard work.

 

It just traditionally has Tony. If you look back through Biblical history, often times the ones who didn't have had to take things by force.

Shoot, it's the way we got this country.

And I'd say again, because you are white, just looking at the unemployment numbers alone says that you stood a better chance of pulling yourself up than probably would a young black man in your position. You haven't systemically had the same things working against your success as does the average young black man.

Back in June of this year, the unemployment rate for black teenagers was close to 40% as compared to a little over 20% for white teenagers. Blacks aged 20 to 24, had an unemployment rate around 19% whereas whites in the same age group were around 9%.

And I think people just get frustrated. When people want to work but can't find jobs or no one will hire them, people get frustrated and often in the language of the young people, "have to do what they gotta do" to survive. Unfortunately that often means some type of violence or getting involved with gangs or selling drugs or in the case of young ladies, prostitution.

Hard work doesn't always "work" when the system is working against you.