The Problem wasn't the White Man.

In my summation of the reason why poverty was such  a main feature of my childhood, I find that the spoken causes weren't really the causes at all.  If I state all the givens of race, gender and the trappings of both, I see an obstacle, but I would not call that the reason.  The reason was a compromised constitution and lack of God.  I will start with my birth.  My mother and father began a family before they were able to evaluate if they wanted a family.  It was no secret that they were fornicators who got caught in their sin by an unwanted and unplanned pregnancy.  Having sex too young ensures that the young will make stupid mistakes and could cause a life to come into this world that they are not ready to receive.  When that life came into being, my mother was in high school so she dropped out.  My father dropped out as well.  He went to the army during Vietnam because it was a guaranteed job for someone with no education.  My brother came first and then came me.  By the time they had me, we were in poverty due to another reason.  My parents grew up into the fact that they were not right for each other.  They should have never been married in the first place.  That is what happens when you put the cart before the horse.  Sometimes, the horse is pulling to be unhitched and sometimes the wagon gets broken in the process.  Divorce took a meager two income home and split that sucker into two insufficient parts.  We were back on aid.  My mother decided to go back to school at the shocking age of twenty six with two children.  That meant that we were living off of food stamps while she got her life together.  In the meanwhile, we starved.  After she obtained her license, she married a man fresh from jail with no education.  They fornicated and had two more children outside of wedlock.  They were two children neither could afford to have.  My father never paid a consistent dime in child support.  It did not surprise me that by the time I was ready for college, there was absolutely nothing to go to college with.  You can blame the white man, but the white man had nothing to do with my parents decisions.  They did that all on their own.  Sin is what made our lives miserable.  Bad decisions is what affected us.  We lived like paupers because of lifestyle.  In the African American community, seventy percent of our children are born out of wedlock.  I would love to see the percentage of those children born on systems of support like WIC, LINK and various other forms of support, who then go on and have children out of wedlock as well.  That is a the lifestyle that first impacts that child.  If the stat holds true that it is easier to have the second baby after the first one has come, than the first child is set up to spend years impoverished.  Thirty percent of African Americans do not marry.  That is high, but I understand why it is high when beginning a family without a husband is acceptable.  As I say, "Why buy the cow when the milk is free".  I became a christian to become a better person, so that I would not live out the common flaws of my race and gender.  I did not want children outside of marriage.  I did not want to be divorced neither did I want to fornicate.  In a culture where that is common, I seem uncommon.  I don't regret my decision.  I sleep real good at night even though most people would despise my position.  I am so glad that God saved me before I got a chance to sow seeds that it will take generations to uproot.  As for those who think that they can say a simple prayer and erase the stuff they have done, good luck.  Reaping and sowing happens even if you repent.  Now, I look at the lives of some of the people who indulged their every whim and I see this look in their eyes like, "Who do you think you are?".  They often try to make me feel like there will be no difference between me and them.  I beg to differ.