The hood and its influence on youth culture - Essay Example

Hollywood movies often reflect the life in South Central Los Angeles and paint a picture in the minds of viewers about such stereotype but the media perhaps makes the bigger impact in such perception because of the reliability of the information given and the actuality of things that are reported. The media often show the poor neighborhood which is prone to violent events due to the obvious inequalities and the abuse of workers resulting to fights. Looking at the history of south Central L.A.

, proposition 13 can be blamed for what is happening at the ghetto. The proposition “cut funding for California libraries, universities, children’s programs, parks, playgrounds, and perhaps most importantly, its public schools” (Corwin, 174). This resulted to even worse quality of living conditions among the poor because the funds for maintenance and improvement of facilities were not enough. In relation to this, the low funding of schools have been affected by the building of prisons. It could be said that the priorities of the government have not been well-balanced.

It is ironic that more money was spent on prisons when the more important institutions that could have helped the people stay away from the jails should have been given top priority. Instead, the exact opposite happened. Corwin says that, “From 1984-1995, California built nineteen new prisons but the state has not built a new university campus in almost thirty years” (175). Considering this situation, had there been great efforts to construct schools or improve those which already existed, more children could have been molded in a better environment.

In effect, there would be no need to construct more jails if there was a better plan for the people that encourage them and show that there is a hope for a better tomorrow for the poor. Moreover, there is the “three strikes” law which demands more prisons to be built. The law is said to force more prisoners to stay in jail for a minimum of twenty five years to life even for petty offenses. The long period of punishment for offenders increases the number of prisoners at a faster rate and thus requires the government to build more prisons.

Other factors that affected the situation in the ghetto were the Watts riots which caused most white residents to flee the area. Then there was the fair housing legislation which allowed middle-class Blacks to move to better environments leaving the unemployed, single mothers, elderly and the welfare cases behind. Such groups of hopeless and helpless people were joined by Latinos who fled their country due to worse political situations. The competition for a low paying job among Blacks and Mexicans is high and is making their lives more difficult.

With the struggles that they are going through, the people often result to violence to express their cry for their rights however such actions make the situation even worse. Following out Corwin’s logic, the condition of schools should first and foremost be made a top priority for the government because this can be an instrument in the making of better citizens. The improvement of such institutions should be well-funded so that quality service will be given to the people. Teachers should be paid well so that they will stay in the ghetto even after years of experience.

Volunteer and substitute teachers may be accepted but they should not be the ones largely making up the faculty of the schools. The people, whether Whites, Blacks or Latinos, should be given equal