Money Makes the World go round...

In Bangor, Maine no one dies. That is, not from drive-by shootings. There are no gang wars on the street, no pimps and Hos. It's quiet. I went down to Thai Lounge at 1:20am and no one worries about getting shot. I read on a blog that Maine was the 3rd safest state in the US. And that, according to a comment, it's because of the lack of minorities. I'm not going to say that it's wrong. But, the fact is, the most dangerous state should then be Mississippi, because of that has the largest number of African-Americans- 38%. But it's not. The most dangerous state is Nevada and there are 8% blacks. It doesn't follow.

I hate it when people think that the only criminals are blacks. And I hate that I've lived in Maine so long that I jump to the same conclusion. I'm sitting in class and my white classmate's telling our TA a story about how he had a gun held to his head when he lived in New York, and he's talking about being stuffed in a van and I remember thinking, wow, I bet those guys were black. But I couldn't tell from the story if they were or not. But we have this idea that all the evils of society are caused by minorities. But yet, I've spent 20 plus years in Maine. In my town, alot of people don't go to college, much less finish high school. Drugs are surprisingly easy to get. More girls that I knew growing up are pregnant than graduating. Some of the people in my town have bad grammar and drink cheap beer instead of Grey Goose. Everything that happens in "black communities" happens in my town. Everything that is supposed to be attributed to blacks (laziness, sexual promiscuity, drugs) happens in Maine. I'm not saying Bangor is Compton, because it's not. Nothing's perfect. But people should be looking at socioeconomic status, not so much race. Stealing for example. It's not that blacks steal.

At UMaine, everything from cars to bikes to jewelry to cellphones were stolen. But it's not blacks. Generally, people steal because they have nothing. Poor people steal. Often black people are poor. But that doesn't mean all people who steal are poor. It's not valid. It's not realistic. It's liking saying all white people are like reality show people on "The Hills". And we're also supposed to be stupid. The problem is segregation is still huge. Minority schools do not have money. When there is no money, there is no books, no teachers, no education. I didn't go to high school ( I was homeschooled). My local high school is majority white. But there is little support for academics. Students rarely graduate from a 4-year college, and there is no AP or Honors programs. If this were a "black" school, people would say the students are lazy and dumb. But it's not. So they don't say anything. But I just did.