Inner-City Perspective

Many of you may be aware that I changed jobs recently from a relatively information heavy office and corporate training job, and now to a youth development position for highly disadvantaged youth.

All I can say right now is "Ouch". It's probably why I have not blogged much lately. My thoughts are caught up in petty arguments, fear for the future of these youth, and questions about my own capacity to endure. Without oversharing, I just am struggling with the sheer distance I see between where these youth are at today and where a productive place for them to contribute their abilities and life to society lies. It feels like the staff takes the brunt of the fear, insecurity, anger, and frustration these youth have been carrying for 16 - 20 years.

It's hard to even explain to people who are so removed from the lifestyle of the inner-city. On one hand, inner-city culture has been tragically marketed and glamorized in mall front stores, rap music, and music videos. On the other hand it has been blacklisted by businesses, those with wealth, and the media. The truth is far more difficult to grasp.

We, in America, are facing a rootless culture that is severely broken and neglected. Why it is in its current state has been the source of argument for decades. People lightly throw around topics like slavery, drug use, abuse, economic abandonment, fatherlessness, godlessness.... all in some desire to explain the disparity between life in many American urban corridors and life in "productive America".

It is difficult to understand the scale of the problem. A culture is being passed from one generation to the next that serves to foster a spirit of desperate hopelessness. Life exists for the moment. Take what you can. Laugh at what you can. Protect your ego, your family, your car, your friends, and your wallet... in that order.

It seems that urban America is deeply in need for a new cultural movement, one to define it, to encompass it, to guide it. Other cultures, such as the Jews, have experienced repeated decades of slavery, abuse, and being forcibly taken from their homes... yet their culture, their government, their hope, the norms and rituals that defined them have also served as internal beacons to guide them back to life when they once again had the opportunity to decide what they would do with their own lives. Perhaps it is due to the territorial, violent, fractured nature of many of the West African tribes in the 1800's that there were few cultural markers passed down. One would hope that there would be some internal call to a lifestyle that reflects some of humanities more noble qualities. Instead, most African Americans seem to be waiting. They do not fully reflect the tribal nature of many of their ancestors., nor do they accurately reflect Western culture, the culture that brought them to America. This seems to be a very difficult thing for them to accept. In general, it seems that the culture has unified around victimhood in reaction to Western culture, as well as fighting for turf and power (which is actually far more similar to the tribal roots).

I do not deny abuse. I do not deny slavery. Nor do I deny the holocaust, the pograms, or the inquisitions. Our history is ripe with one culture using their superior resources to forcibly take advantage of another culture. Though I struggle with what appears to be a lingering question in urban America... "Who are we?" There seems to be little consistency. Family structure is incredibly fractious. Escapism is prevalent. Violence to protect pride is the norm.

Wealthy America seems to struggle to understand inner-city culture, unless there is an opportunity to make money from it. Bleeding hearts weep for it. Politicians leverage it. But the answers do not come easily. How do you reform a culture without meddling?

I believe there is a shift away from racism and prejudice. I believe that recent generations are demonstrating a new respect for differences in cultures that is newer to America's timeline. I do not believe that racism is the primary hindrance to forward progress any longer, nor the issue of slavery as the primary cause of the current state

It seems today that there is a true sense of lostness in the inner-city. The "Who am I" is not answered in a productive way. The abandonment of resources and flight to the suburbs gets interpreted as a continuation of prejudice. I believe it is more fear motivated and most suburbanites are concerned for their families. The media feeds the fear frenzy and although the race-based hatred may have subsided considerably, the polarization seems very similar. The end result does not look terribly different than the 1950's.

It seems that there is a great need for a redefinition of urban culture. The gangsta culture continues the cycle of tribal violence, abuse, power battles, turf wars, slaver, and the like. It is not a quality answer to the question. It leaves a message of live for the day, live for the dollar.

I wish I had a clear answer to fix the disparity and desperate need in American inner-cities. I feel like an outsider looking in, little qualified to serve as more than a voice. I hope that some day soon a movement emerges from within that creates a new culture that embraces the past but guides the future toward some noble goal.