Robert Coates In Our Kids

Coates believes that black Americans do not have equal opportunity as white Americans. Coates is also an advocate for redistribution of money back into these communities. He does not think it’s right for these communities to be left behind when they started with a disadvantage. Coates believes in constructivism, that markets are society constructed rather than naturally. Because America was build upon 100 years of slavery and oppression, markets are imbedded to favor whites. Coates desires markets to be altered to be equal to all races. To Friedman this is simply not true. Markets run naturally against constructivism. Dr. Murphy, a Friedman thinker, would agree with Coates in the area of education. To decrease inequality education

Murphy. Education is one of the root problems to inequality, and can help lift up the impoverished. On the other hand, there is more to the story than fixing education. Culture and individual decisions have a huge role in inequality. In building out this argument I’m quickly brought back to a previous reading, In Our Kids by Robert Putnam. Putnam discussed family and parenting before examining schooling. Many of the problems minority communities face is having children out of wedlock, high school drop out rates are much higher than those of whites, and incarceration rates are much higher due to crime. These problems emerge not because there’s a system set against them, besides drug policy. The promise lies within the community

When Putnam analyzed Bend, Oregon he found that in the nicer part of town the dropout rate was about 15 percent (Putnam 49). While, on the other side of town, in the poorer neighborhoods, the dropout rate was about 50 percent (Putnam 49). These numbers are alarming but can be figure out through family structure. I believe these children don't have a firm family structure to allow them to believe in themselves. It creates a vicious cycle of poverty. The government can put all the money they want into education, but if kids are not graduating then it will do no good. The solution then lies within the communities themselves. Parents need to hold their children responsible to graduate and stay out of the streets. In places like Detroit and St. Louis, with some of the highest black on black violence, there needs to be urgency in weeding out the crime that engulfs these communities. If a change is made then I certainly believe poor areas can be lifted up from