Poverty: A Choice?

First glance at this question, I was like "Of course not! What?!!" But, then I realized that this question is rather difficult. Very general, I do not think poverty is a choice. I believe that the decisions that people make that lead them into poverty are a choice. But, think about it. Not everyone makes mistakes to land in their poverty, some people are born into it. In that particular circumstance, poverty isn't a choice at all. It becomes that persons lifestyle. I wonder a person born in poverty would feel like they were in poverty. If nothing is all they've known all their life, then would they really look at their life as the outside world does? Would they see themselves as poor or misfortunate? I digress. People can make the choice to get out of poverty but, considering their current circumstance, that would obviously be easier said than done. Then, you have your set of people who have done things probably knowing the consequences and then ending up in poverty. Those would be the people who abuse drugs and alcohol. Someone could be in poverty because they lost their job thus, losing their house. That wasn't a choice they made. I really don't know. I think it's very important to establish what poverty is physically and morally. Once the world has agreed on a definition (we don't agree on anything) then I'll have a straightforward answer.

Malcolm X: Light Skin Vs. Dark Skin

Though this blog is late, I still felt obligated to talk about this issued of Light Skin vs. Dark Skin within the African-American race. Around my freshmen year, right when I graduated from 8th grade, Lil Wayne came out with this song called "Every Girl" where he says "I like a long hair thing red-bone." Red-bone means those of a lighter skin complexion and they were obviously expected to be prettier and have longer hair than those of a darker skin complexion. Anyway, this song started the most foolish trend. Every light skin girl was branding themselves as "red-bone" and "light bright" and every guy would only go looking for light skin girls. Then, Chris Brown came out with this song called "Look At Me Now" where he says "Yellow Model Chick." Once again, he was highlighting the nature of being light skin. If Malcolm X were alive, he would probably say this is brainwash. He would ask why lighter is better and why longer hair is more preferred. The theory that I was told was quite interesting. I was told that light skin African-Americans are preferred because back during slavery, there were the "house slaves" and they received better treatment than the dark skin people who were "field slaves." How foolish is it for a people to be oppressed so long, finally become liberated, and then characterize themselves by those who oppressed them? It is rather hypocritical and idiotic. African-Americans can never be taken serious if they are just puppets. I believe my generation is corrupt. For some reason, our history has gone to the back of our brains and our definition of beauty has become an unrealistic goal that can only be achieved by compensating for what was not given to us. As Lauryn Hill once said It's silly when girls sell their soul because it's in.Look at where you be in hair weaves like Europeans. Fake nails done by Koreans." Why can't we appreciate who we are? Why can't we love us, for us?