Hi friends, folks.

**Disclaimer: This topic is not racist. However, if you are sensitive to the topic of racism towards black people, please leave (for your own benefit)**

There's a topic I've always wanted to talk about, but it is so frowned upon to talk about things that remind people of things that hurt them. But it's a topic that I've wanted to ask questions about for the longest time.

Now I realize we have a decent sized black community in vgchartz, and though I'm afraid to offend, I wanted to ask a few questions that are important for me to deal with my perception of black people, which I personally am not comfortable with.

My first question I have is about youth violence in the american black community.

It's my understanding that a portion of the black community in america grows up in poorer disctricts of the country, in ghettosin the various states of America. I'm Canadian, so I wanted to know if that was real or if it was a false conception I took from tv and/or from movies.

Then, I see a video like this that gives me a different angle on the "reality" that a portion of the black community lives.

https://www.facebook.com/v/265716393467571

Shifting the scope onto Barrack Obama, the most popular african-american today. A well-spoken, well-educated man. It's my understanding that a portion of the black population is from his culture, one that puts a lot of importance on education and higher-learning, and civility.

Moving the lens to Quebec, Canada, where I'm from, where the haitian population is important and many of the people are of a disciplined culture, very adamant about discipline and education.

Then, we have of course the more outdated segregationist sentiment in the earlier part of the 1900s, only fading off in the later parts of the century. There are also the movies that depict racism against black people, I had a very difficult question to ask some of the readers here.

With all that, with everything tv and media has been feeding me, is it weird that I feel more pity for black people? The scene in Terminator 2 always hit me like a spear in my heart, where the engineer at datadyne's family home is attacked by the "crazed" Sara Connor. Is it normal that when I see a black person, all the stigma comes to my face and I have difficulty looking at them as just another human being?

The most complex part of all this, psychologically, is that I've had 2 best friends that were black, one in my kindergarden years, and one in my early adulthood, two people I love dearly. The second one who I met later, I don't see his skin color, but sometimes when we haven't been close for a long time I can't help the stigma.

Can somebody help?

Last question, do you believe that certain rap "stars" are a bad influence on black youth in America?

Thanks for the advice on this. I hate asking this, but I hate what I have to live with, I'd like to help work my way out of it.

There's Racism towards many races, not just blacks, Specially here in US. I'm Latino, I'm Educated, Well manered, I've never even had any criminal records. And you have no idea how many times, I've heard the word "Mexican, and among others" Even though I'm not mexican. I'm actually Hondurian.

But on to your topic, I think alot of people are Racist towards Blacks, It's because of the way people see black people in the media. Personally I have a couple of black friends, some which I grew up with since School. And they are awesome people. I guess what it all comes down to it's where and how they grew up, The "Hoodlum" type of blacks are the ones that people are usually Racists towards too, Because of the way they dress, talk and act.
And yes, I bealive Some rap stars are actually a bad influence to not just black youth, All youth in general. Don't get me wrong I'm 27 and I do like some of the current rap stars certain songs, But it's just not good for the youth of these kids.

I understand where your coming from as its a horrible thing, but this is a video games sales site, would this be better posted somewhere else?

I can't comment on American society as I'm English. I would say that its perfectly normal to feel different around people of different ethnic backgrounds, its like meeting people from different social classes, you don't have a common ground to bond from initially. If that feeling continues after you've started getting to know someone then it can move towards being irrational fear which is racism IMO.

One thing that must be understood is that it is debatable whether or not Obama is "African-American." Historically, this was an ethnic description, not a racial one. Since Obama is not the descendant of slaves from West African countries, nor does he have West-African ancestry - there are a few African-Americans who designate him as part of their racial group (which even that should be wrong considering his mixture), but that's all, not any more of their ethnicity as a White-Americans are, in some ways less, considering the Anglo ancestry African-Americans share. So any culture Obama has, is not derived from African-Americans, but from his mothers family - who are German-Americans. However; that does not mean African-Americans can't have such values, but that these values are not a matter of divergent evolution but convergence.

As for crime:

It is clear that African-Americans have a higher rate crime rate per capita. However; one must consider the predisposition. There are two African-American populations: those who live in inner-cities with huge problems caused by the War on Drugs and a multitude of other criminal factors and those who live in the high crime rate rural areas with the worst poverty levels in the country (in the deep south.) Having become accustomed to these life styles, crime is somewhat of a culture, if you will. It is a means of survival, but one that is deeply rooted in the population that it is hard to be rid of: hence crime influences rap/hip-hop and not vice-verse.

Because of this, you'll find that the overwhelming majority of African-Americans are not criminals, but they are more likely to be predisposed to factors which encourage criminal activity. Being poor is not the only problem at the moment, but it's one major one. The culture of gangs and the disregard for the law (due to past wrongdoings) is alluring to many youth who are very segmented in the innercity regions. As for the poor, rural regions of the south: crime is rampant among all races in these areas.

So what is the solution: well there isn't one solution. What is required is a cultural reform in which gangs have less influence over youth, and education is valued. Throwing money at the problem won't work, but utilizing that money efficiently to hit the origin of such cultural factors enables those who are predisposed to have more freedom in deciding how they want to live their lives. In the United States though, crime has been vastly decreasing over the last two decades, among all races. This is likely due to a few causes, but overall we're heading toward the right path. Even with the 2008 recession and our weak recovery, high unemployment, etc,etc crime has still been decreasing. So it's certainly not as simple as one being poor.

There are definitely a lot of poor black communities in America which has led to a lot of black on black violence. This being said, the majority of low income black people do not act that way at all. It's just that a few bad apple ruin it for the whole bunch as the saying goes. Also, there have always been some pretty bad stereotypes that are played up in the movies. Not all black guys are whinos, thieves, street hustlers, and pimps. Just like all Italian guys aren't in the mafia. Sadly, there are some black guys (like the rappers that you mentioned) that like to embrace the horrible stereotypes, and yes it is a bad influence on the youth but the same could be said about the Jersey Shore influence on Italian kids. Stereotypes are just that though. Most people from these cultures don't act like this at all.

Also, about the amount of racism towards blacks in America, it definitely is nothing like it was 50 years ago or even 30 years ago. Trust me, in the 80's a black guy would have never been president and the election of Obama has shown how far things have come in that way. I guess what I'm saying is that as the old and racist people die that the racism as a whole is dying off. That's not to say that there is no racism because some people will always not like people that look different, but if we were all the same color those types of people would be classifying each other because of each others noses or ears because they are just plain ignorant / scared of those that are different than them.

I personally have friends of pretty much all race and see actions instead of color. I say pretty much because the Swiss invented the clock and I hate them for that since it makes me have to go to work when people tell me to and not when I feel like it.

I hope this answered some of your questions.

If you ever want to watch a really funny movie about black stereotyping in America, check out Hollywood Shuffle.

Do we even know if the people flown in from NYC and filmed on Jersey Shore are Italian?

Not all of them are.  Snooki's definetly not...

Racism is about otherness, and on a strictly visual level, black people look more "other" to white people than any other group (aside from the Australian Aboriginal group). Plus if you don't grow up around people of any particular race, they're always going to stand out in your mind. My hometown is paralyzingly white-bread (a lot of poor folks, but the black ones are all in the city proper, and there were only a dozen black children in my entire school district for high school), so on a subconscious level, it's harder for me to see blacks as "normal," simply because they weren't around when i grew up. Going to school in Philadelphia really helped with that, however.

So long as you consciously acknowledge equality and your actions reflect such, you have nothing to worry about.

I live in Quebec and was born Haitian eventhough I never really lived there and let me tell you one thing racism towards black people is everywhere just like racism towards people of other cultures.

One thing I understood about racism is where are you from? How were you raised and what tv shows/programs/movies do you watch? I realised that when I moved from the country to Montreal. People in Mtl have a different views of people from different culture because most of them actually have to do many things with different people and were most often exposed to those differences at a younger age.

People from the country or from cities that have a low multi cultural population grow up with people that looks and behave only like them. They get in touch with other cultures mostly from tvs and newspaper (which are both bad as teaching culture imo). How, where and by who you were raised is really important.