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Institutional Racism with Camden Promise Neighborhood

October 11, 2023

Town:

Pennsauken

County:

Camden

CAF Theme:

Positive Youth Development

Topic Raised:

Strong Transitions to Adulthood, Race, Poverty, Fatherhood

Demographic:

Community Organization Leaders

Transcript

The barrier is, to me perfectly honest, this color of your skin. You know, I've said it before, a lot of people have said we haven't come too far from Dr. Martin Luther King. George Floyd gave people a lot of momentum. But it seems like it’s dying already. And we have to learn to stick together more as a people if we want to get something done. People have to stay focused, they have to stay on track. Because these things don't happen overnight. So these are the important things, you know what I mean? The poor communities are there for a reason. And I call it economic slavery. Those that be don’t want you to get too high up. So they do everything in their power to keep you poor. My daughter’s on Section 8, the first thing they tell you is you can't have your family over to the house too often. You know, I mean, they put a limit on that. What does that do? That’s keeping our families broken up and separated. And they put this plan into motion years and years ago. And it’s working. They want to keep us down and poor and impoverished.


So what happens? These young people get frustrated, and they go out and shoot people over dumb stuff. Because they’re frustrated with their life. They don't see where they have much opportunity. You know what I mean? I mean, let's be realistic. A kid can see a guy and making a couple hundred dollars a day hustling something, or he can go and make $300 and work all week like a slave at a fast food restaurant or something with some peanuts, where they pay you just enough money to survive. That’s the economic slavery thing. So I can’t sometimes I really can’t blame some of these use for taking that other route. Because they see that there's not much opportunity, doing it the right way.


If there was more opportunities for these children and people to do, even the fathers – they need more of those programs, where they teach you trades and stuff like that. Sure there are some out there, but there aren’t many. There need to be more of them. You know what I mean, you have a problem getting a job? Go out and learn how to be an electrician, go to a free school, become an electrician, all of a sudden, now you’re making a decent living for your family. They have to make these programs more available to people.

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