Politics Café
Urban Struggle
by Jerome Clement
In the book “a mother and her family in urban American” by Leon Dash, his book describes blacks harsh ship growing up in the ghetto. He examines a single parent name Rose Lee struggle to support her family. Lee has eight children before she is twenty years old. She is also addicted to drugs most of her life. The drug addictions in her early adult life cause her to lose her memory and have seizures. Lee addiction to drugs also causes her to lose control of her family. Her children by the time they become teens are drug users or have committed crimes. Dash does a good job at explaining how difficult it is to succeed as a black person when you live in a neighborhood where there is drug transactions and prostitution going on everyday. Dash book about Rose Lee life is a great book because he enlightens people on how crack cocaine destroys families, how lack of income oppresses black families, and how black families have a lack of interest in politics.
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Rose Lee had eight children and only two of her eight children did not use drugs. Rose Lee two sons Alvin and Eric made it of the slums. Alvin and Eric did not use drugs because they saw what drugs do to a family. Alvin and Eric clean criminal record and never use of drugs cause them to get jobs, families and homes when they became older. But, the rest of Lee children and like most black people living in the ghetto, they do not always get the chance to succeed in life. Black people living in poor neighborhoods have excesses to drugs. A teenager in a poor neighborhood is surround by people that uses drugs. A teenager sees friends using drugs, uncles using drugs, and many of times parents using drugs. A teenager at some point in time will be ask to use some drugs from a friend free of charge the first time. The friend is sometimes actually a drug dealer trying to make a new customer. The friend knows all it will take is dose of the drug to have someone addicted. Many teenagers do not have the strong mind, strong family background, or the father figure to keep them away from drugs. Teenagers often start using drugs because their friends talk them into it. Once, they start they can not stop. They sometimes will do anything to get high. For example, Dash describes how some of Lee drug addicted children as “yet three of the four children living with herexpend enormous amounts of time and energy every day doing anything that comes to mind to get the money to buy cocaine and heroin” (page 23). When people uses drugs they lose focus. Lee children should be spending energy at school doing homework, then going to work to help the family. But, her children are addicted to drugs. They are killing the family by not getting educated. But, are they really responsible for how they are? Drugs are not the only things that kill blacks families in the ghetto; sometimes the lack of income kills families.
Black Families sometimes lack the income to keep the family together. If black families have the 200,000 dollar yearly income many white families receives, than black families could buy cohesiveness for the family despite being in a bad neighborhood. Many black families are like Lee’s the only income is welfare, food stamps, or a minimal wage job. The three incomes will not even come up to 20,000 dollars by year-end. The lack of money only depresses black families and leads many family members to use drugs to give happiness to them. Dash describe money is Lee house as “welfare payments and food stamps don’t begin to account for all the money that comes and goes in the apartment” (page 24) Dash is describing how Lees can not even save any money for late use. Many black families deal with this problem that are on warfare and food stamps. So, many black people use drugs to provide a moment of happiness for themselves. But, in reality drugs are keeping black families from moving up in social class. Jobs that pay well above minimal wage require that your take a drug test and have developed some type of skills. So, if you take drugs you will not be able to get the more elite jobs because you will not pass the drug test or your skills might not be up to par because of the use of drugs. If black families could earn a 200,000 dollar yearly income, there would be less problems in poor black families. A black family with a 200,000 dollar income could buy counseling to fix anyone in the family with a drug addiction, buy home schooling for the children to keep them from talking to people that sell drug, and they could buy the materialist things to keep the family happy. But, most black families in real world do not have the big income to support the family. The lack of income to keep black families together is closely related to black family lack of interest in politics.
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Many black people do not know politics because are not interest in politics. Politics is very important. If you do not understand politics than you have no power. Black people like Lee do not even have a clue what politics can do for a black community. For example, Dash describes how Lee feels about Inauguration Day when it is President Bill Clinton turn to take oath of office, Lee said, “white people are going to treat us like they want to... white people have all the power, and they don’t care about blacks. I wouldn’t go two blocks to vote. I have seen too much and hasn’t nothing changed” (page 223). Lee is upset on how white people get elected into office. Dash shows through Lee how black people get caught up in believing that because a political figure is not black; they are not going to do nothing for the black community. It may be true that white people may not do much for the black people. But, that is only true because black people do not work hard to establish black politics. Black politics is black people in political offices. Black politics will help fix up black communities by getting rid of the drugs and by putting money in recreations for the black youths. But, black politics will only prosper when black people change spiritually. We have to learn not to have anger and jealousy towards the white people. White people just doing what Black people would do if they were in power. Black people have to learn to love politics and become more dominant in political office. Right now, we are still the minority in political office that is why we still live in bad ghetto and whites live in luxury neighborhoods. Whites are in political office with the majority of votes to vote for keeping places where they live free of drug and black with drugs. They know the easiest way to keep other cultures down is to provide drugs for them. So, they want get educated and gain political power.
Dash book does a great job of providing evidence that the black communities need help. Dash major purposes for writing this book is to show readers how drugs cause chaos to families, how many black families do not even make enough money to survive, and how the lack of understanding of politics among black families keep them in the slums. Black people need to start acting Lee two sons Alvin and Eric. Alvin and Eric managed to get out the ghetto and establish families despite growing up poor. If more blacks start following their footsteps, then black people can establish stronger black politics, which can help black people, live a better life.
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