Anyone ever feel like you need to act like a thug to have a conversation with poor people?

[Marucha]

I think you're generalizing a bit and thinking too broadly. Poor people doesn't seem to be your problem. The 'hood' seems to be your problem. Poor people don't necessarily live or come from the 'hood'. Living in a small town blue collar community where people are 'poor' like somewhere in the bible belt would render you different experiences for example.

There is a difference and there are all types of poor people. In my case, I grew up in the barrio (Spanish neighborhood/ghetto), but I didn't have problems interacting with people. My race was more likely going to be an an issue because I was one of the handful of white students in a mixed minority (mostly hispanic) inner city school. I'm also female, so that might affect my perspective a little bit. I think girls get by more by chatting and socializing, but I tended to get along more with guys too since I'm a geek and a tomboy...

The only time 'hood' mentality became a problem was around middle school when the gangs had more influence on the kids and people were scared of them. There were other neighborhoods that I didn't live in that had gang problems. Those kids went to my school and there was a lot of pressure for people to look big by saying you will beat them up and I often got threatened to 'come meet them at the bus stop' or else. I told them what sane person would go alone to meet a bunch of kids at a bus stop who wants to fight them... they kept saying stuff just to say it, but then quickly shut up. Middle school just blows in general because of the peer pressure. Those kids that were trying to be cool had changed their behavior when they reached HS. The 'thugs', the true hoodlums had completely dropped out or got sent to the trouble school by ninth grade... I think because our school system was not afraid to tell them to shape up or gtfo.

Beyond that, I get along with people of all walks of life. I think it depends on the area... I just moved back from the East coast and I had been living there 7 years. I didn't like it because it seemed like although the area was 'hoity toity' by MD standards and nicer, people had a vague sense of how the world worked outside of them, the holidays/life in general was very commercialized and nobody had a sense or humor or all their ideas of 'fun' were incredibly boring... also, way too damn expensive for "paradise". $1000 at least for a 1 bedroom apt... I could get a house for that in a decent part of town in the city here. To each their own I guess.

If you want somewhere that is really similar to what you're talking about, look into Baltimore's social problems. I would say it has a lot of the characteristics of what you're talking about. There's definitely plenty of hoods there and you kinda have the self-perpetuated cycle of people being held down by their own ignorance and the system. It's partially true, but then it partially isn't the actual obstacles. It's ignorant to say 100% of the time it is true that someone can just escape. I think if you don't know how the world really works, then it's a problem... when I went to college up north, the kids there didn't seem to know jack shit about the world outside of what mother and father could afford... I would argue that entitlement is a problem that runs in all social classes.