There is indeed a conspiracy against angry young black men. What this conspiracy means that if a poor black man protesting against police murders in Ferguson Missouri were checked on one year from now he is like to still be black, and to still poor, and very likely still be angry.
There is a conspiracy to keep certain knowledge from you. There is a conspiracy to keep money and jobs from you. There is a conspiracy to keep success from you.
1) If you are poor in Ferguson Missouri and if you cannot find a job there you need to move. Anyone who failed to tell you this is not your friend.
I am a 58 year old black man living in Dallas Texas. I have paid off my house, my car and my wife's car. Or combined income is over $100,000 per year. For the past 10 years I have never made less than $80,000 per year. If you are not having that kind of success in Ferguson Missouri you need to move.
I have bachelors of science and a masters of science degree. The United States Air Force paid for both of them. So in my opinion, the first key to having a good life in America is getting someone else pay for your education. Fortunately, the federal government is eager to do that if you sign up for the military.
By the way, I have never shot at anyone. No one has ever shot at me . I have never dropped a bomb on anyone. I have never been to a country in a state of war. Not everything that the foolish and ignorant tell you about the military is true.
Yes you could join the marines and become a front line soldier with a gun if that it what you choose to do. However, many people in the military never see combat. What the foolish and ignorant don't know is that there is what is know as a tooth to tail ratio in the military. What it means in a nutshell is that every weapon takes a lot of people to test it, fix it, procure it and maintain it. Many if not most testers and maintainers never see combat.
There are some sayings about the military which are not necessarily true. One is: Never volunteer. I would amend that: Never volunteer for combat unless that is what you really want to do. You should almost always volunteer for any technical training. High tech folks are earning most of the money in this society--myself included. By the way, be sure to create opportunities of yourself in you get in uniform. Do it like this, gee sarge if should would make thing organized around here if we had a database hold hold , process and store information. And since no one in the unit is database savvy, I volunteer to take database courses at government expense and become our database guru.
I knew my father. While I did not agree with everything he did and said, still he provided and example and disciplined me when I needed it.
Many young black men do not know their fathers. That is a recipe for disaster. It is a simple fact that in a harsh environment where there may be gangs, drugs, prostitution and violence, and young man's chances of turning out alright are not good. The only ones around to teach him how to be a man are older boys who are already getting into legal trouble.
In the bad old days when a young man had no father or had a rotten father, the society as whole had sure fire way to fix that. The young man was put into the military. In the military he learned self discipline. He learned out to take order, directions and criticism. He learned how to be respectful, a work ethic and how to show up on time. All the things a father is supposed to teach, largely by example, were taught instead by the drill sergeant in the military. You might say that the opportunity to join the military is a cross between a wake up call and an IQ test. Are you smart enough to realize that you need to structure in order to success in life?
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Not everything is black and white. The military is not for everyone. But we still need you to succeed. The basic principle is still the same. Get your employer to pay for your education. The way to do that is to take a trainee job. Get a no experience necessary job and have them train you. The easiest jobs get that fit that bill are salesmen and managerial jobs. Search the newspapers and the internet for those kinds of jobs.
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How to Get a No Experience Job
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It has been said that to get everything you want, you must want everything you have. This philosophy may well work for a Buddhist monk with a beggar's bowl by the side of the road. But is it not an option for an angry young black man.
However, the example of the monk is not totally useless to us. He teaches patience and forbearance. You will need much of both if you are to succeed in life. There is a character flaw that is common to almost everyone who currently sits in prison. It is called: Failure to delay gratification. A simpler way to put it is: I want it all and I want it now. If you are intelligent, you know that is not likely to happen. Even star athletes have to go through years of effort in high school, college and sometimes even the pros before they get that million dollar payday. So if you are going to get a success life by legal means it is not going to happen fast and it is not going to happen without effort. Many if not most of the people who did not understand this are currently in prison. Some are not. They are dead.
And so an attitude of entitlement is not useful and will not get you anywhere but jail or dead. The world does not owe you anything. Even though slavery, segregation, and racism were facts, they do not entitle you to anything. Most of the people who think they are entitled wind up poor and angry all their lives or jailed or dead. If you read the news you will see that not even people that our society seems to entitle, star athletes get the five finger discount. Even star athletes get punished for stealing or looting.
You will note that the so called leaders and community organizers who state or imply that you should be able to get your way by stealing and violent rioting, conveniently avoid such activities themselves. And while you go to jail, the get back on TV and lament you imprisonment. And again, a year later the profession provocateurs will still be making money off your poverty and you will still be poor. Was that the way you planned it? If it wasn't, stop making the community organizers rich by keeping yourself poor find a good job and do what you need to do to get that job. Any young black man who can do so should certainly join the military since you cand get free training and you can get money for college. If you don't have a high school diploma then get GED and get into any branch of the military, including the coast guard, national guard and reserve that is still taking people.
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Not all opportunities are 9 to 5 jobs in the corporate sector. There are opportunities to make a good living at short endeavors.
It has sometimes been said that only suckers mine the gold during a gold rush. It is after all unlikely to find enough gold to make a living during a gold rush. The real money is finding what the gold miners need and then selling it to them.
The relevant example in modern times is often an energy rush. Sometimes there will be a sudden boom in some northern state for coal, oil, shale or gas. Suddenly there will be many jobs but no place for anyone to live. The housing will get so expensive that people will start living in their cars. An entrepreneur who brought in mobile homes or prefabricated homes could make a good deal of money. A builder who built new homes in such a boom could make some money. Even a guy who drove RVs with all the amenities could likely do alright for himself.
Taking advantage of such opportunities requires an inquisitive mind that always looking at how and what different areas of the country are doing.
There used to be a time when used cars where really cheap in one state like Texas or New Mexico and really expensive in another like Califorinia. So an auto mechanic who was able to refurbish a car and make sure that it met emissions and legal standards in California could make some money by bying clunkers in one state, fixing them up and selling them in another.
Sometimes a small farmer might need his melons hauled to farmer's market. A guy with a truck could sometimes make some money that way.
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How to Deal with the Police
Your primary tool for dealing with the police is avoidance. On a good day you don't deal with police, firemen, lawyers or doctors. To avoid police the best way is to stay away from places and times when they might be aggressive, hostile and after you. You should always plan to be indoors after dark.
You should never be out after midnight. In particular you should know that nothing good happens in a bar after midnight.
Never hang out with thugs, thieves or drug addicts. Never hang with anybody on the corner. Don't hold or deliver drugs or unknown packages for anyone at any time.
Never fight with the cops. You can't win if you are dead. Never, lie, cheat or steal, don't loot.
If you are approached by the police your bet strategy is compliance. Do what they say. Don't speak unless spoken to. When you do speak use calm and respective tones. "Good evening officer. How may I help you." If you have done something wrong then it is even more important to be polite and respectful.
Again, our world is a giant intelligence test. It's not that you can never fight. It's not that you can never win. It's that you must be smart enough to know when to fight. When you are talking with you lawyer is your one chance to win. That's when you bring up police brutality and show any bruises or broken bones you got during the arrest. That's when you speak of being in fear for your life.
Never give an igorant racist with a gun a chance to kill you. Wait until you get into court and sue him instead. However, the justice system is not something a smart man willingly gambles his life on. If you have carefully watched the news then you have seen that sometimes even billionaires loose in court. So although the courts are your only chance to win should you get into a confrotation with police, if you are really smart, you will never get into a confrontation with police.
No speeding.
In fact, when you are in public, you should never do anything to attract attention to yourself. Save your personality for your friends behind closed doors. That secret that the smart people with all the money have been hiding from you is that you should never flash the goods in public. Never tempt thieves or the cops to take your money or your life from you.
How to deal with the police. Don't. Stay away from them. If you do encounter them then compliance and non-violence are the only winning strategies.
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