LETTER: Root Cause

I sat at my desk and read the Letters to the Editor in response to a column titled "Sam's place and the Evils of White Gentrification" (DP 2/21/92). My emotions in reading the letters ranged from anger to sorrow. My first reaction was anger and then as I read letter, tears came to my eyes. Everything that goes wrong in the black community is not the white man's fault. But, it is the fault of oppression in our society that has created the problems we face in the black community. The problems of crime, drug abuse, homelessness, chronic unemployment, illiteracy, and others are symptoms of what has gone wrong in our society, and it was by no means created solely by the black community. Oppression is the root cause of the problems we face today in the black community which now has impacted the white community. As long as whites and blacks in West Philadelphia, specially in the University area, refuse to see ourselves as one community, and the problems we face as our problems to solve together, we all will lose. There are no winners in the Sam's place tragedy. There is no right in what happened to all the people involved. What happened is the tragedy of what this society is breeding. If whites do not accept that the oppression of black people has helped to create this gigantic problem we have in saving our children and neighborhoods, and just continue to blame black poeple for all the problems, there will always be a dividing line between us. It truly is no longer just a black community problem to resolve. Blacks have to start banding together to make a difference for ourselves. We have to start helping each other. We cannot let our little black boys continue to get killed for robbing or stealing. We have to come up with the answers. We must hold ourselves accountable for our problems and not wait for society to resolve our problems for us. We cannot wait for the oppressor to resolve our problems that they helped to create. We have to uplift and empower ourselves. Education is the key to awaken the brilliant minds of our children. What society has done academically to our children in the past must stop. Our educational system has to be restructured to educate our children to succeed versus how to fail. The solid roots of our families have always been our strength. We have to plant solid roots in our families if we are going to save our children. We all have the power within us to help make a difference, whether we are white or black. Alas Rita, I do not cry everyday in my heart bleeding for every child that we lose to an unjust society. Bonnie Ragsdale Staff WHEV '86

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