Elliott C. Back: Technology FTW!

Why are they all black?

Posted in Law, Politics, Science by Elliott Back on October 15th, 2005.

Why are most homeless people black? When I lived in Seattle, I noticed that all the homeless people I encountered were black. All of them, nearly without exception. Another thing is that there are few, if any, young homeless. Probably there is such a stigma currently on being in that state that most young people do not consider it to be an acceptable choice of destiny (for indeed, it is a choice). Which means that, at some time, this generation of homeless people will die, and with no one to replace them (see the abortion theory of Steven Levitt), we won’t see people on the streets with nothing to do and nowhere to go.

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 15th, 2005 at 8:24 pm and is tagged with steven levitt, homeless people, stigma, abortion, destiny, seattle. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback.

Viewing 9 Comments

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    Being homeless can put a damper on a large number of possiblities - possibilities we see happening everyday. 'Regular' people getting lucky with life, and believing that one day they too will be the next 'Google' or maybe just a few million instead of billions. We are the new generation, raised by 'self-esteem' freeks (our parents) - people who grew up in a time (the 80s) where if you had a bad negative attitude, you were definately surely going to not be successful. Being homeless is not really acceptable. You can throw yourself into debt, work a fulltime job, and have more money than the average American, and while you're doing that, you can hope to get lucky, have your big project come through, your little hobby become the next 'pet rock', your new idea become the foundation for what most people do on saturday nights.

    Very good post!
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    Nice 'related resource' :D

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    On topic: black people simply get less opportunities. They aren't being treated equal to white people. Not in the USA, not in Europe, not even on a global scale. That's probably one of the most important reasons.
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    Isn't this simply because when these older blacks were younger, they had to face a great deal of racism and poverty in their lifetime, which tends to lead to alcoholism and drug addiction? They had much fewer opportunites, compared to the younger generations. I'm sure there must be a correlation...
    I would like to believe that if there are less homeless people in general, it is due to societal improvements as a whole (eliminating racism, improving educational opportunities, better treatment and outreach programs, etc).
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    Yes, Marco... I noticed that adult related resource pulled up for us truly by the default search options of MSN search. Guess they need to work on their content filter a little more!
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    Got any numbers to back up your anecdotal evidence? I currently live in Seattle and work near S. Lake Union, so I end up in downtown a lot. I guess it depends on where you are looking. All of the beggers I see near the off ramps for I-5 I see are white. Most of the homeless I saw in lower Queen Anne for the 2 months I stayed there were white.I saw one black guy sleeping in Capital Hill when I was over there on Thursday and Scab Man is black. All of the homeless kids on University Way are white (and more than a few are fat. How you get to be homeless and fat is beyond me). Every bum I've had ask me for spare change outside the Elliot Bay Book co. has been white and usually older.

    My experience has been that Seattle, for all it's claims of diversity, is lilly white with a little splash of Asian.
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    What I don't understand about your piece is the statement that homelessness is a choice. If you can't afford to own or rent housing, you're homeless. Is the underlying assumption that homeless means unemployed? Because that's not the case. A lot of homeless people are employed, they just don't make enough to pay for rent. Which then makes me question the theory that we'll eventually not have homeless people. I mean, I guess that's true, when we don't have poverty. But I'm thinking that might be a ways off.
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    Minimum wage at $5 an hour is $40 a day, $200 a week, and $800 a month. You can't get a nice place for that money, but you can find somewhere to live, to chare low income housing, to leverage government housing projects, etc. Really, if you want to, you can live on minimum wage--that's why the concept even exists.

    Now you don't have a point anymore.
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    Because they are all a bunch of worthless crackheads. You know how I know this? Because I am homeless myself in Texas.

    All the whites are alcoholics, and the blacks are hopeless crackheads. I have never met a black homeless guy with ANY class whatsoever. Moreover, they steal from the homeles white people.

    I know this to be true. I am not predjudist, I have a valad excuse to be racist.,
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    Young homeless usually live 24/7 in places for the homeless,
 

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