How can we stop the cycle of poverty in neighborhoods like Sandtown? One step Americans can take is to try regarding the black kids in the ghetto, the Hispanic kids in the barrio, and the Native American kids on the reservation as "our kids." Their problems are our problems.
As has been noted by historians, much of the opposition to federal and state spending on programs to benefit low-income and poor Americans is the belief among many whites that the money will be going to racial minorities (despite the fact that the overwhelming percentage of government subsidy programs benefit white people). I recall how President Lyndon Johnson focused on helping poor whites in Appalachia to sell his War on Poverty. Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Social Security legislation had to exclude jobs held by poor blacks to win support from the white Dixiecrat congressmen. And, of course, certainly some of the opposition to Obamacare is the fact that it is perceived as helping minorities and that it was pushed by America's first black president. For much of America's history, many white Americans have held a kind of tribal attitude — if you're white, you're a "real American" but if not, you're just "The Other," someone to be feared and kept down.
Embracing all American kids as our kids would deliver more state and federal dollars for anti-poverty programs that work. Together, we can get this country on the road to greater freedom, justice and equality for all.
Jay Hilgartner, Baltimore