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Reparations for me are a touchy subject...I guess that I'm against the handing out of money directly to individuals, but I am strongly in favor of investment in depressed communities. As a sociology major, I've done a lot of reading on the conditions that exist in primarily minority neighborhoods, and found some telling statistics. The most telling one in my mind is that unemployment is the single biggest factor in crime rate for all races, and further that whites and blacks have the same incidence of crime among the employed populations and the unemployed populations - ie. that the crime rate among employed whites and employed blacks is almost exactly the same (within statistical values of error), as is the rate among unemployed whites/blacks. Simply put, the creation of jobs can lower crime rate undoubtedly.
However other issues are very interconnected. Namely education and the discrepency between academic programs at suburban schools and inner city schools. Education brings up even more issues about testing bias, and tracking systems and teacher expectations and so on and so forth...
I find it very unfortunate that some people are unwilling to hear crys of help in their fellow humans. As KSig RC pointed out so eloquently many of these demands are actually universal wants/need/desires.
Finally I think that everyone...no matter your political affiliation should determine how they can be a better human being. We, as greeks, often talk about reaching out to other GLO's, and working together to improve the image of the Greek System, and I'm sure that many rituals are based on this type of mutual aid and the helping of others in doing the right thing. Why can't this extend out to the others in our communities, states and our country? We can do all the philanthropy we want, but until we as voters elect people who want to create real change (and not just the candidate with the most cash) I cannot believe that any of these demands will ever be accomplished, nor will there be very many steps of progress to achieving them...
<steps off of mini soap box> As you can see it's hit a nerve with me...if anyone wants more information try PM me and I can give you some places to get information.
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