I figured I'd take this week to talk about the hot button unemployment rate for graduates of college right now. I hear a lot of websites and articles buzzing with the impending student loan bubble that will pop with thousands unable to pay back their loans. Then I put it into the context of just barely making it into college and the whole thing is quite worrisome. If your sibling is the pride of the family and they just barely graduate from college and end up returning to "the hood" what impression does that give you of college? What happens when these first generation graduates go back home? If you think it's bad that so few impoverished students make it to college imagine what'll happen when they return. Do you think parents will think its worth the expense or effort? Some call this sort of thing a form of modern slavery intended to keep people poor and incarcerated and I agree to an extent. Part of me doesn't believe that this system is intentionally malicious but instead a product of the development of the country. But there are also good sides to being a "ghetto" kid with college issues.
In the Latino community at least, the families are closely tied culturally and at the very least your mom or dad will want you back. In some cultures that's true at least. I remember going to Atlantic City when I was 18 with a bunch of the older women from the neighborhood on one of those tour buses that rather shadily departed from the street corner across from the lottery vendor. Pennsylvania prohibited gambling at the time so the only alternative for those with the "itch" was to buy tickets to AC for the day. I remember on the ride back how happy most people where and the incredibly loud laughing and joking that went on. People would often say "we're poor but man do we know how to have a good time" on those gambling trips.
That was a valuable lesson back in those days, we viewed most people around us as equals. We had no class system, no division within our community. In my entire time living there my house was never broken into, our car never robbed nor our possessions stolen on our particular block. The drug dealers didn't appreciate people bothering those who lived in the block they sold on. It kept us safe as long as we stayed within the confines of our narrow street and were home and inside by 7pm. At school we were often told that drug dealers would try to entice us to try drugs so they could keep selling to us and lure us in. This wasn't entirely true in our case given that they care for our safety. If you tried to buy drugs at the corner you could be sure that they would drag your ass home to your mom and tell her what you were doing. They were far more interested in selling pot/coke to suburban kids of the same age who would drive up in their parents cars. To us, seeing the duality of their behavior ingrained a powerful image of "us" vs "them" in our minds. Of course at the same time they were the ones bringing violence to our lives. They were the same ones shooting us when their arguments got out of hand and we were in the way. The drug dealers also threw out any notion of protecting us from drugs as soon as turned 17-19 years old. They considered you a "man" then and worthy of joining a gang or pretty much doing anything you wanted.
But for those of us who didn't get involved in their mess we ended up maturing into very different adults. We see a crackhead, a homeless person, a drug addict, a prostitute or other "undesirables" very differently. There's something to be said about the kids that do make it through college. Their perspective on poverty and class ethics is invaluable to society. But these perspectives still need education and training in humanities to mature. I don't think people with these characteristics just pop up on their own once they "make it out". It's part of the reason if anything I think some college should be part of a persons life when coming from these situations. Otherwise they may turn out financially secure but with a very "fuck you got mine" mentality about the world or even hating those who were once just like them. It's something to consider as the future for these kids becomes increasingly uncertain.
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