Why do Black people?

Today is the day that I collect rent from my tenants at my rent-houses. I don't make a lot of money from these houses- I only charge 20% of a person's net income. My houses are in the worst part of town- in probably the worst town in America. My tenants aren't just ghetto, they're country-ghetto. For the the South, these people were born into the perfect storm of unfortunate situations: poor, uneducated and Black.
Some would argue that those three traits describe most Blacks. This frame of mind comes mainly from the media's portrayal of Blacks throughout history. Let us go back to the "golden age" of the sit-com - 1976 , Tuesday night, the 8:00pm time slot. On ABC- Happy Days, on CBS- Good Times. Both shows had upbeat sounding titles and focused on intact American families. Happy Days seemed, well... happy. Good Times portrayed the African-American experience as seen from the projects. Not only did America in general- and Blacks in particular-accept these precepts but they wouldn't be disputed until almost 10 years later with "The Cosby Show". (A show that most people see as "acting white".
Q- Why are so many Blacks so dependant on entitlements ?
A- Money alone doesn't solve the problem of poverty.
A lot of the poor are more interested (or knowledgeable) in looking rich -but not in actually acquiring the skills, abilities and mind-set that it takes to actually become rich. It's the first of the month and I see most of my tenants "pay day pimpin' ". They'll get their hair and nails did (sic), they'll get a new outfit for the club and/or go out to a dinner they really can't afford. I saw the worst examples of this after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Most of these people had never had $2000 at one time in their lives. When the government saw the receipts of what the FEMA aid, Red Cross,&Wall Mart cards, etc. were spent on, they noticed that they just gave a lot of people a paid (with benefits) extended vacation.
The government and ghetto-society both are complicit in the cultivating and perpetuation of this Government/entitlement mind-set. It's costs more to be poor: the price of goods and services (i.e. check cashing) have an added cost in the hood. Black churches are also to blame. Most sermons in the hood are about paying tithes to the church ( Really the pastor- who is usually the only member of the congregation to drive a paid-off Benz.) and the blessing you'll receive or the other sermon on how to get what you want. These same pastors miss out on the other half of the Gospel- the responsibility and accountability one has to their fellow man. I just had this conversation with a pastor at one of Beaumont's more popular Black churches. We came to the conclusion that the Black church needs to get to the point where we can stop talking about how to receive blessings and begin to focus again on how we can be a blessing to others. That's a step in the right direction.
All the fortune
All the fame
You're still a N----
All the same.
This is taken from a poem sent to Hank Aarron just before he was about to break Babe Ruth's home run record. Many Blacks feel that if you adopt practices from other cultures- you're selling out or that you're an Uncle -Tom. America flourished because it took the best aspects that every culture had to offer and adopted them as their own. No matter what a black person accomplishes or acquires- he's still BLACK. If -in our arrogance- we stick to the belief that our way is the best way and nobody can tell me nothin' (sic) and we fail to adapt- then we become extinct.