AMERICA'S POOR: THE GROWING "HOME BOY" POPULATION

AMERICA’S POOR: THE GROWING “HOME BOY” POPULATION

Written by James J. Crook

There is a growing population, among America’s poor and disenfranchised, of unemployed teenagers and young men and women who appear to have nothing to do and exist or, more accurately stated, “vegetate” in their parents’ home well through their teens, twenties, many through their thirties, and even some into their forties and fifties. They are America’s “home boys”. They cannot find employment because, usually in their teens, they got into trouble with the law because their poor family needed income, and acquired a criminal record which employers pick up on a background check. Background check businesses are now a thriving industry in America destructively barring millions of Americans with criminal records from employment even though they have paid their debt to society. These “home boys” are usually from minority groups such as Hispanics, blacks, and orientals”, with Mexican boys and young men constituting the bulk of America’s home boys. These young men, for the most part, have nothing to do with their lives except to wander, drink alcohol, do drugs, and get into trouble, to kill the monotony of their non-active lives. As they say, “an idle mind is the devil’s workshop. They appear to live lives without hope and seem to be experiencing deep depression because of it. No light at the end of the tunnel for them. Tattoos are a popular time killer among them. But sociologically, what social and economic dynamics produced these “home boys”? What happened to them? While other American teenagers are graduating from high school and heading for college, and working at summer and part-time jobs, with money in their pockets, living happy lives full of hope and promising futures, the “home boys” have appeared to have lost all hope in life, just vegetate, and run to alcohol and drug addiction for relief to escape their dreaded existence.

Is the problem with “home boys” that they are the victims of heredity? Is it as simple as that? Coming from poor parents who can’t make ends meet to take care of family needs so these disenfranchised teenagers are forced to drop out of high school to help support their family? Sort of the generation curse of the poor? A heredity thing. First, second, and third generation welfare recipients who become role models for their children who then come to expect no more from life? Welfare and dropping out of high school becomes their perception of reality i.e. their reality? In summary, the profile of the “home boy” is school drop out, criminal record, unemployed due to criminal record, alcohol and drug addiction, selling drugs as the only source of money which results in a larger criminal record, hence, a life that becomes more and more hopeless in a somewhat vicious cycle and whirlpool these young disenfranchised poor cannot climb out of. A life with no opportunity. How did their parents wind up so poor and at the very economic bottom of life. Does illegal immigration have something to do with it?

If illegal immigration is at the core of America’s “home boy” problem, these young people have parents who can’t get a job either due to no social security number. This results in the uneducated, unemployed, illegal parents having to have their children drop out of school to try to work or sell drugs to help with family expenses. Illegal immigration also drains America’s welfare funds for health care and shelter. Will illegal immigration have to be addressed before the “home boy” problem goes away? Or is the “home boy” problem much larger than mere illegal immigration and really the result of American poverty and its disenfranchisement of the poor due to such issues as minimum wages that are too low as set by the states and the federal government? Further, is the lack of a high school diploma making these teenagers and young men undesirable for employment? What about depression? With all these negatives in these young people’s lives and with very little light at the end of the tunnel for them, depression must be a major factor in these people’s lives. Depression that kills all energy and joy and leaves one immobile and unable to perform or do anything. The lack of inspiration in their lives can only result in “dead batteries” for these kids to energize on. It is tragic indeed especially considering these disenfranchised young poor people are American citizens living in America.

It is quite understandable that intelligent young people, realizing they are the innocent victims of the heredity poor and see no light at the end of the tunnel for them, flee to alcohol and drug addiction for relief to escape from this brutal reality not to mention the major impact upon their self image as the penniless bums and losers and the unwanted outcasts of society. When into drug usage and pushing, it is just a matter of time before these people are arrested, further deepening their hopelessness. “Home boys” then become a burden on taxpayers who have to pay for their imprisonment at the rate of $50,000 per inmate per year. A tragic heredity spiral downward with seemingly no hope of ever surfacing to a hopeful and promising life. Suicide becomes a kinder option along with dying young for America’s poor kids who find themselves out on the street in the cold of winter, hungry and penniless, once their parents pass away, because no one will give them a job. For America’s “home boys” locked into poverty by genetics and heredity, their future appears to be a journey into hopelessness and represents a waste of life. Thousands of lives of innocent young Americans who had nothing to do with their heredity of the poor and the hand that life dealt them. These young kids are not to blame for the misery being heaped upon them. A human tragedy. Cruel indeed. It is only a heartless society that doesn’t address this problem and try, at least a little, to show some mercy and come to their rescue. These are kids who went to school with our kids.

The number of America’s “home boys” are growing which indicates their socio-economic problem is worsening. What can be done to help these children of misfortune? It is tragic indeed when an American citizen’s future fate is sealed into a hopeless existence from genetics, ethnicity, and heredity alone from birth. No human life, American or otherwise, should be forever hopeless from the circumstances of their birth. This is economic injustice at its most ignoble level. It is obvious that if America is to reduce its “home boy” ranks that illegal immigration needs to be addressed and remedial social programs need to be set in place to start rehabilitating the lives of these disenfranchised kids to enable them to rise above their heredity and the welfare state of their parents, to end this terrible economic cycle of misery. The following remedial suggestions might be of assistance for America’s “home boys” i.e. America’s heredity victims:

1. Increase the amount of in-school psychological counseling and support groups for “home boys” for whom American society appears to have abandoned;

2. Establish off-campus visitations with parents of “home boys” to determine how to increase their opportunities, keep the kids in school, address their depression, and show them a window to hope which they can no longer see;

3. Build more technical schools which train young people to be artisans such as auto mechanics, electricians, plumbers, etc. and programs which teach them how to open up their own businesses since employers will not hire those with a criminal record;

4. State and federal legislation to increase minimum wages;

5. Pass laws to outlaw criminal background checks by employers declaring them illegal;

6. Pass laws prohibiting employers from inquiring verbally and on employment applications as to one’s criminal record;

7. Prohibit public criminal records access and return criminal documents to the confidential records of police departments and authorities, prohibiting their viewing by the general public much like a doctor’s medical records of patients;

8. Encourage the United States Supreme Court to follow the “close scrutiny” rule regarding employment discrimination lawsuits against employers who refused to hire individuals based upon their criminal records; and finally,

9. Lobby the United States Congress to add an amendment to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act – Employment Discrimination – to include individuals with criminal records as a “protected class”. If such individuals have already paid their debt to society in full, they shouldn’t have to pay again double jeopardy style, and should be allowed by federal law to be economically rehabilitated.

All the American “home boys” and any other world citizen ever needed was income to survive on. Since society no longer barters, income is the equivalent of modern day survival. Without income from a job, the things of basic sustenance and survival cannot be obtained such as food, shelter, health care, heat, clothing, and education. Without charities and America’s welfare programs, there would be actual mass starvation of the thousands of poor right here on American soil. If no income due to employment discrimination, how else would America’s poor buy food? This very employment discrimination is driving thousands of “home boys” every day into crime as the only portal of income. The law is creating crime. The only thing America’s “home boys” need to get back on their feet is some money jingling in their pockets and income dollars in their wallets i.e. hope re-instilled in them with opportunities to obtain the things of survival. America’s poor school children need America’s help. With such help, America will not have its ocean of “home boys” living a hopeless existence.

America can do better for its poor. What is that axiom “But for the grace of God go I”? Any one of us could have been born into a poverty stricken family and suffered the same curse of heredity as the “home boy” we speak of. Hope is indispensible to the human psyche. Without hope, there is no reason to continue living. Why? To live in pain? These “home boys” had nothing to do with which parents they were born to or the following hand that life dealt them of economic disenfranchisement. For an American society to abandon its “home boys”, victims of heredity, is nothing short of a national disgrace. We can do better, can’t we?

Food for thought.