Chocolate Cities with Vanilla Rings

CHOCOLATE CITIES WITH VANILLA RINGS

Throughout the history of the United States, the race relations between whites and black people have been an issue that has greatly divided the nation. It has been so influential that it is now seen as an “ American Obsession ” by many writers. Race relations led to a lot of problems which affected other countries. The Civil War, for example, was fought due to the relationship between whites and blacks. While both Northerners and Southerners believed they fought against tyranny and oppression, Northerners focused on the oppression of slaves while Southerners defended their own right to self-government. The US, however, has come a very long way in its fight to stamp out racism from its country. This struggle reached its zenith in the civil rights movement of the 1960s. To put it simply, the result of the movement has been the criminalization of racism.

In America, there have been a lot of problems with blacks. Racism leads the Blacks to behave badly. The causes that lead blacks to behave badly arise from the behaviors of whites. For instance, real estate agencies often deter prospective black buyers from purchasing homes in predominantly white neighborhoods and white homeowners are always quick to move to other all-white residential areas once the number of black families moving into their neighborhoods reaches levels that are “intolerable” to them. Thus, the whites see the blacks as criminals by fleeing from the place they are in. Concerning about the problem, why is the escaping side whites? The blacks are the minority there, and whites are the superior one. So, it is interesting that the whites are the fleeing side from blacks. By escaping from them, they do not realize what they are doing. They are the ones who make up racism. In this way, the result is the creation of black ghettos in inner city urban areas with white suburbs circling them; a picture best described by the phrase “chocolate cities with vanilla rings”. (Biltes, 216) Such a separation results in overcrowded apartments, a lack of recreational facilities and the decay of the school system leading to an increasing rate of high school drop-outs, unemployment, drug-abuse, welfare dependency and finally to frustration, alienation and a sense of hopelessness and pessimism. Children who live in these circumstances are underprivileged by birth.

In a place where people have not got any rights, the poverty and the lack of hope for the future take their place. The blacks have equal rights with the whites, but it can not be realized; because they are not operated. “Young black men are more likely than white counterparts to be stopped by white or black police officers, more likely to be arrested for similar offences, more likely to be tried and, upon conviction, more likely to do time.” (Biltes, 223) Growing up in poverty-stricken neighborhoods leads thousands of black males to juvenile delinquency and joining street-gangs which promise them a kind of brotherhood and a lot of money through dealing with drugs. Blacks trap in the ghettos by finding guns and drugs readily available to them lead the criminalization of an entire segment of society. Why? Because, drug abuse and drug dealing skyrocket and those poverty-stricken recipients that are consuming the drugs sink into further despair while those selling them become criminals forming rival gangs and begin using the guns on each other in the struggle to gain control over this lucrative new market. Therefore, drug addiction and related illnesses and deaths become widespread and this leads families disintegrate from each other. How can a man do something that harms himself?! The people in the ghettos think they have nothing to lose and therefore live only for the moment, but not for their future. They try to escape their daily nightmare either through becoming very - even radically - religious and joining a church, through drug-abuse or leading a “fast life”, which is responsible for the increasing number of illegitimate births especially among teenagers and for the high percentage of AIDS cases. “The unemployment rate for black teens is much greater than that of white teens.” (Biltes, 231) In such a place; blacks can not have enough money. Those who do not have enough money to buy these drugs apply to some other ways. For instance, prostitution can become a job for young women and interception for men. Notwithstanding; these known as “Black Crime” are not their guilt; whites are responsible for all these happenings. If whites do not consciously oppress blacks, they must oppress them unconsciously. Had they been educated like whites, had they been instructed well like whites, had they eaten in the same restaurants with whites, maybe they could be more conscious