“Faced with the way the system does you in the 'hood sometimes, if you don't literally get out, your chances are slim. You'll definitely die mentally. You'll pretty much die physically.” according to American rapper Lupe Fiasco. Lupe Fiasco was born and raised in the housing projects of west Chicago. Fiasco had an unstable upbringing but he was a well educated child. Many people would assume that because of his upbringing and the neighborhood he grew up in, that he wouldn’t have become as successful as he has. That’s the problem, society has expectations and standards already made for you as soon as you are born. They have expectations based on where you live, who your parents are, the schools you go to, the people and things that surround you. Your neighborhood defines you because society makes assumptions based on where you live; how it will determine your future and your character. Some may say that your neighborhood does not define you as a person but those people are the fastest to pass judgement on someone because of where they are from. One tends to think that if you don’t come from a stable two parent home in the suburbs, with a decent income then you are bound to struggle in life. Much like in the ancient greek civilizations where your family status will determine your own once you are born. Not much has changed since then. Research shows that “black children who grow up in neighborhoods with high levels of poverty and unemployment have a 76 percent chance of graduating from high school, compared to a 96 percent chance for black students living in affluent neighborhoods...white children living in low-income neighborhoods have an 87 percent chance of graduating high school compared with a 95 percent high school graduation rate for white children living in affluent neighborhoods.” As you can see, the odds have already been stacked against these children because of where they live, something that the children themselves cannot change. The simple fact
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Children cannot control where they live or what economic status they are born into. Yet society still attacks these children with expectations and cruel assumptions. Children who are from families with low income tend to result to gang banging or drug dealing. This is because they are going through the struggle. They witness someone close to them struggle because of money. Many children begin to want to live better and make money but because of where they live, their options may be limited. Hence why children result to drug dealing later in life, it is fast money. A former drug dealer known as “Cruz” explains why he turn to drug dealing in an interview. “Cruz had grown up broke. At one point, he, his mom and his brother were living on $9,800 a year. ‘We tried to go through the bank. No financial institutions would lend to us, because we didn’t have repossess-able assets.’ Without the money Cruz made selling drugs, he never could have opened his legal, and so far successful, business. Once he had the money he needed, he stopped selling blow. When I asked him why, he told me, ‘If you don’t get addicted to the drugs, you get addicted to the money.’” Cruz is not the only this has happened to,many children result to different methods to finding money, most of which are
Children cannot control where they live or what economic status they are born into. Yet society still attacks these children with expectations and cruel assumptions. Children who are from families with low income tend to result to gang banging or drug dealing. This is because they are going through the struggle. They witness someone close to them struggle because of money. Many children begin to want to live better and make money but because of where they live, their options may be limited. Hence why children result to drug dealing later in life, it is fast money. A former drug dealer known as “Cruz” explains why he turn to drug dealing in an interview. “Cruz had grown up broke. At one point, he, his mom and his brother were living on $9,800 a year. ‘We tried to go through the bank. No financial institutions would lend to us, because we didn’t have repossess-able assets.’ Without the money Cruz made selling drugs, he never could have opened his legal, and so far successful, business. Once he had the money he needed, he stopped selling blow. When I asked him why, he told me, ‘If you don’t get addicted to the drugs, you get addicted to the money.’” Cruz is not the only this has happened to,many children result to different methods to finding money, most of which are