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Pioneer I hear you and understand what you're saying. I haven't done a lot of research on this matter, so I tend to stick with what I know and that's Memphis and San Diego. I won't add LA to the mix. Your discussion points just don't fit Memphis and they don't fit San Diego. 30 years of my life between both locales establishes for me that people tend to make shitty decisions and this is what contributes to the problems in their cultures. I guess ultimately and finally I have to say I just don't believe the discussion on lead in the water bolsters your analysis of violence and lack of focus on education. I actually think it's a red herring and takes the focus off of where the problem really lies and that is with the individual and with the structures in place and reinforced by government laws.If I had to address government then your attachment to the discussion of lead and the water makes perfect sense because it is something that can be fixed by the government removing one of the many problems. I guess I'm just frustrated with the lack of personal responsibility in our communities. Talking about simply reinforces my frustration which is why I spend my time creating businesses and trying to help other people do the same. That is empowering and building and inspires my day. Talking about this stuff actually drains my energy for a few minutes and then I have to refocus and remember what's important 1. Clicking through and making sure I give a pageload and impression to AALBC 2. Sharing the information I've learned by failing and succeeding in small biz. 3. Giving people support via small actions and big ones on a daily basis. 4. Being a great parent and preparing my kids for a difficult world. I understand what you're saying, I guess reading about it just makes me feel that with so many reasons for the lack of success, why aren't we focusing on the reasons for success? Why did you make it out? Why did Troy make it out? Why are people willing to buy the hoax instead of the remedy or truth? How do we get people to buy the good and support. I don't know.

So @Pioneer1, if you had children you would not get them vaccinated? You believe vaccinations are a conspiracy to destroy Black people? Man, we need Black journalists now more than ever. If not for anything else to lay these rumors to rest (or prove them to be true). Conspiracy theories die hard even in the face of facts and truth. Recently I decided to focus on the dispelling the Willie Lynch Letter as a hoax. This was a hoax I pretty much thought was dead, but once I started promoting a book, Death of the Willie Lynch Speech: Exposing the Myth by Manu Ampim, which explained and proved the letter was a hoax. I was surprised by the number of people who reacted by saying it does not matter if the letter is a hoax, it is the "message" that is important. This reasoning nonsensical to me. But the reality is that issues likes these are completely emotional and reasoning does not apply. As result, we are stuck on stupid and make no progress--in fact we regress. I thought about removing the book, The Willie Lynch Letter And The Making Of A Slave, from my website because I was helping to promote the lie. Instead I thought it would be more impactful to post the following on the books page: "AALBC.com Note: Despite the popularity of this title on our website, the Willie Lynch Letter is a hoax" Despite the disclaimer, the Willie Lynch letter book outsold the book dispelling the letter over the past 30 days. Obviously conspiracy theories are not limited to Black folks. Even white people believe vaccines cause autism. There are communities where devastating diseases that were eradicated are now on the rise, because white folks are not getting their kids vaccinated. This puts us all in danger. But I understand why people don't trust the government. The government has largely proven itself to be untrustworthy. White folks believe the government is causing autism due to gross incompetence, negligence, and being owned by the pharmaceutical lobby. Black people feel it is genocide. These are all plausible given our government's behavior. We are so grossly misinformed, by the shallow, sensational, revenue-seeking, social-media-driven, news cycle, we are suspect to believe anything. Two days ago I got a social media update the Chinua Achebe recently died....

IMO, In many ways black people, like everybody else, are better off materially than they were 75 years ago but spiritually they have lost something because they have become captivated by false values and addicted to instant gratification. And all the modern conveniences they enjoy have merely made the inconvenience of ongoing racism a little easier to endure. In the big picture, to me the question has always been, why have many blacks risen above their lowly circumstances and acquired financial independence, while others have not. I agree with Chris in that it would seem to have something to do with certain people having superior coping and decision-making skills. (The same can be said about white people because they, too, have an underclass of poor people.) Everybody is created equal, but every body is not endowed with equal intellect, abilities or talents, so when all is said and done, it really does seem to be about the survival of the fittest; or at least the thriving of the fittest. And, of course, Capitalism and Democracy are not compatible so America is a country suffering from a conflict of contradictions. Socialism is what admirably blurs the distinction between the "haves" and the "have-nots" but that form of government is stigmatized because, among other things, it stifles the free enterprise - that exploits others. Race inevitably enters the picture because of visible differences and a lingering xenophobia. Naturally, the race in power strives to maintain its supremacy over those who are perceived as a threat because they are the "them" against their "us". This simple scenario plays out in the war going on between Neanderthal cops and the sons of Lucy and it will probably get worse before it gets better. The complicated black problem in America is entrenched. One reason is because black apologists tend to intellectualize it, and in their analysis they start out with a premise. Then they can't figure out why the "ergo" they come up with doesn't work when tried, never considering that their premise was a false one. Once they state the problem correctly taking truth instead of idealism into consideration, maybe the solution will be more realistic.

CD I've been working hard on several projects so all I could do was read, but I have to ask Pioneer this, since most of the areas are being gentrified are the same pipes in use? I know for a fact that in Memphis, downtown and North Memphis has been gentrified and the projects were torn down. The short answer would be........ Some of the gentrified areas are using lead tainted water mains that are part of the original system of the earlier urban infrastructures...other's aren't. Because of this, many of the upper middle class White communities are suffering from the same problems that come from lead poisioning as the poor Black communities they replaced suffered from such as ADD, high rates of autism in their children, and violence....but more so than homicide you see SUICIDE. As Troy was talking earlier about the high rates of suicide in New York and other urban areas where you see a lot of yuppies and "hipsters" congregated together today. Just a generation ago those places were plagued by high homicide rates. Same violence, different forms of release. When you realize that psychologically speaking ANGER and DEPRESSION are both forms of frustration that are expressed in different ways.....you realize that homicide and suicide are both violent releases of frustration through the separate paths of anger and depression respectively. Unlike poor Black folks who can blame poverty and racism for their violent feelings, many wealthy Whites don't know WHO to blame so they internalize their feelings until it releases itself in the form of depression and suicidal thought. But a more indepth answer contains muliple compents that we need to understand: 1. I'm not saying the lead is the ONLY chemical that is poisoning the Black community. I believe the vaccines also play a major role in the poisoning of Black children and is responsible for a dramatic decline in Black intellectual performance as well as a dramatic increase in autism and other mental problems you see among so many Black youth. If you look at Black students who were born and raised in the United States verse your Black students from other parts of the globe...you'd have to admit seeing a type of stupidity and poor academic performance that you just don't see among unvaccinated Black children from Africa and the Carribean. 2. Lead poisoning and it's symptoms are strongly influenced by NUTRITION and the lack of it. When a person isn't getting enough zinc and other minerals in their daily diet then their nervous system is more likely to "suck up" minerals from the environment that are potentially toxic like lead and mercury to try and compensate. Most pediatricians and neurologists will confirm this fact. So wealthy and well fed children can be exposed to the same environmental toxins as poor and malnurished children but still do better because their bodies aren't as quick to absorb those toxins in an attempt to compensate. 3. Realize that there are 2 groups of pipes that your water goes through before it comes out of your faucet: 1. The municiple water system. 2. The pipes from the building you're residing in. In the case of the former residents of urban areas. They were getting lead from both the CITY'S old plumbing system as well as the old plumbing system of the buildings and houses they were living in. But in the case of the recently gentrified residents, at best they're only getting lead from the old CITY'S systems....the newer buildings they're living in almost surely has no lead in them. And in some cases even the city's pipes in the gentrified neighborhoods have been replaced so their entire homes are lead free. So most newer White families are getting LESS than half of the lead exposure former Black families were getting. 4. Finally, keep in mind that most upper class White people in these urban areas don't trust tap water ANYWAY. Most of them drink fance bottled water at home and where ever they go and most have water filters in their homes so even if they're in the same communities as the poisoined water they and their children aren't being exposed as much. Even if you didn't accept the factors I just listed, my argument for the lead and violence connection could still fall back on the high rates of suicides found in recently gentrified urban areas in comparison to the high homicide rates of the former residents who both shared the same water supply system to various extents. Both groups exhibit signs of psychological distress and violence but just release them in different ways. ......but that would be low hanging fruit. I'd rather say that although those recently gentrified White communities are and will suffer from the same effects of lead poisoning like higher rates of autism and other mental problems as well as high rates of homicide and even higher rates of suicide....they still shouldn't be expected to experience the SAME type of devastation you see in the poorer populations who occupied the areas before them because too many OTHER important factors are different.

I think the Black community, was better off 75 years ago. America was far worse, but the Black community was superior. We had our own media, universities, and we worked together to make due with the limited resources and freedoms we enjoyed in this country. If the Black community was as tight as it was back then today we would be thriving. Insteading we kneel on the sidelines or tweet our outrage while waiting for someone else to make things better for us. But what do I know? I yield to the older folks in this regard. What I do know is that we should be doing MUCH better than we are currently.