Conservatives such as David Brooks claim that the real problem of poor black people in cities such as Baltimore is not poverty, unemployment or police abuse, but bad moral character.
Freddie Gray
It is too bad that Freddie Gray died in custody of Baltimore police, but he would have been a loser no matter what, Brooks argued in a recent New York Times column.
Now it is true that there are Americans who are so completely demoralized that they couldn’t thrive even in a high-wage, full-employment economy. I don’t know how many such people there are. The way to find out is to create a high-wage, full-employment economy and see what happens.
My concern is with the obstacles faced by poor people who are doing everything humanly possible to get out of poverty.
I’m thinking of people who work full-time at minimum wage, some at multiple jobs, and still are in poverty. I’m thinking of working people who don’t get paid sick days, can’t afford child care and have no transportation to work.
Not all are black and not all are in big cities, although black people in poor city neighborhoods are targets of abuse by virtue of living where they do.
Phil Ebersole's Blog 