Pre Class

In the reading on West and Inigarary it focused on the ideas of race in society. It mentioned the problems and how we view blacks as" problem people." The conservative ideas of our nation is that we need to dive deep into the poor parts of the nation, where unfortunately there are high numbers of African Americans who live in poverty. I watch a National Geographic episode on the Drug Problems in North Philadelphia. As a child, i was told by my parents to stay away. It was a place of abandoned houses, and mostly african american families who lost everything. Philadelphia was known to be a city filled with big factories, and as the factories shut down, the lower class was left to go nowhere, and they ended up in places like Kensington, there is some of the highest amounts of Drugs, as they are sold on every corner. This is what they do to survive, and it is because society has placed them and offered them no other alternative. When there were factories the lower class was given a place to work, now they are depended on the illicit activities to survive. We need to create a new strucure of society, to allow everyone to gain wealth, to at least survive on, without having to do things such as the Drug game to risk their life and families. The reading talked about how liberals believe that we need to look at the poor and make them fit in to society, and "act and dress" like the middle class and up. We need to understand the flaws that our society provides, rather than look at the black people and blame them. It is wrong to do that. They are just caught in the flawed system of the United States. It gives them and the poor class nowhere to gain, nothing to reach or achieve, so they are merely forced into the negative aspects that society offers, such as Drugs and violence. We talked about "sketchy people" last class, and we all thought about how much safer we felt when there was authority nearby. I think most of Rollins College can say that they were raised relatively sheltered in a Suburban neighborhood, and for us it is only scary because it is what we are not used to. When i travel from the Burbs to the City of Philly, i at times do feel uncomfortable, because i am not used to seeing homeless people, and such a vast array of people. It in reality is something that grows on you. My father and many others alike work in the city and live in the suburbs, and they understand the different parts of the city that are completely safe, even without seeing authority, and by just restricting ourself to those areas, we can feel comfortable, but if i was to travel to Kensington in North Philadelphia, i would be scared to death, just from the news and myself feeling like a minority in the heavily black location. My family friends own a factory in Kensington, and they employ all local workers, and they say that they are all very nice people. It is this negative viewpoint that we have on people before we meet them, and it causing there to be many problems in the country. This is not to say that everyone in the area is friendly, but i believe that they are pleased to have a stable job in a area where there is less amounts of steady work. There are 20,000 abandoned homes in Philly, and unfortunately, they house many homeless who live in poor conditions.