Monday Map: Missing Opportunities in South Central L.A.
Published June 01, 2009 @ 03:46AM PT
The Crips and Bloods are still at war in South Los Angeles, and this map - from PBS Independent Lens - goes a long way toward explaining the causes of that war. People in disadvantaged neighborhoods join gangs because other opportunities simply aren't available.
Click here to check out the interactive map, where you'll find that south Los Angeles dwarfs the rest of the city is such undesirable statistics as unemployment (14 percent), available jobs (0.5 jobs per worker), health services, school dropout rate and the number of parolees living on each block. When poverty is concentrated in this way and opportunities are few and far between, gangs thrive.
The map is offered by Independent Lens as part of a recent documentary by Stacy Peralta: "Crips and Bloods: Made in America" - which examines the history and current state of gang culture in South Los Angeles and considers new methods to address the underlying problems of gang membership and violence.
Watch a preview of the film below.
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Author
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Matt has worked and volunteered in various capacities in criminal justice reform for several years. When he's not blogging, he works as the Online Communications Manager at the Innocence Project. Views expressed here are Matt's, and don't represent the positions of the Innocence Project.
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For the longest time I, as a woman who is not African American, as a teacher who has worked in a hardcore inner city school, and as one who marched in Civil Rights protests alongside my mother during the 60s, have been afraid to ask a question that has been in my mind for the last several years: And that question is, when did the Black communities fall apart? I have seen so much dishonor in the world on the part of Whites, so after a year as a teacher in a southern inner-city school, I was shell-shocked because I realized that the hope and the dignity that used to be part of the foundation of African American communities has largely disappeared. So my question is what was the last of the catalysts that caused this loss? After viewing the preview of the film, Crips and Bloods, I am interested in purchasing the film because therein may lie the answer. I have so much hope that has flickered into some faith in Obama, but one man won't change the whole picture. It will take all of us to stand up together, Black, Hispanic, White, Asian, and all of the people that are a part of this country, as well as community leaders and teachers and families, in order to rebuild our communities and make them and keep them strong and healthy.
Posted by Evie Romero Montoya on 06/01/2009 @ 12:05PM PT
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