Regula Falsi

Well... I guess most of my posts are an approximation in hope of refining a point to eventually develop a correct answer - and this one might be reaching a bit too.
(But I think it's pretty close.)

The thing that I notice more and more is that racist white people don't really hate poor under-accomplished Blacks and other such minorities - these seem to "Know their place".
The thing that gets racist whites the most upset are those who break the molds and thrive in an environment that was not set up to see them succeed.
Q: Who is the most hated Black man in America?
A: President Obama.
Why? Because many assumed that his position was endemic to their culture, race or ethnicity.
So success becomes the ultimate form of rebellion.
And success in someone else's game by their own rules is worse.

The problem with most powers is that they usually overestimate the value of strength.
But every power has it's flaws and every strength has it's weaknesses.
When Roy Jones Jr. was at the top of his game - he explained that his success was due to his ability to fight against his opponent's weaknesses (not necessarily to his own strengths).
Maybe this is why most attempts to rebuild the hood fail - in that we often choose to fight fire with fire instead of the logical choice of fighting fire with water.
Maybe we need a different and more logical approach.

The Hood Was Set Up To Fail.
Not necessarily in some master-planned government/institutional/secret society conspiracy - but because the ruling class needs subjects which to rule.
Because the hood is the dumping ground of those who don't easily fit into the larger society.
The way the game is set up - one group must suffer in order for the other to prosper.

Even though race is usually the most common tool to separate one group from another - it's really not a racial issue.
What it is is a survival issue.
Setting up a system that adds to the probability of one's progeny being the dominant group increases the chances of the continuance of one's gene pool.
One's race as a qualifier is as arbitrary as the color of one's hair.

How Do We Beat The System
Since the only way to beat a zero-sum game is by not playing - the solution seems to be to create one's own game.
In a game of limited resources - the trick would be to limit the pool of those who would be competing for those resources.
This is where "racism" could be beneficial to one's chances of survival.

Many view FreeMan's model as extremist and racist - but his model is more Pro-Black than it is Anti-White (IMO).
His model seems to suggest that one should Start From Strength - whatever that strength would be.

The best example of this type of philosophy would be that of Rap/Hip-Hop.
Rappers didn't set out to recreate Country, Pop or Rock music - rappers used the few resources available to create a product for their own that would eventually gain broad appeal.
Hip-Hop didn't go Pop - in fact Pop went Hip-Hop.
Hip-Hop made the music industry come to them (creating many millionaires in the process).
It wasn't that Hip-Hop was Anti-Country/Pop/Rock - it was just that Hip-Hop was Pro-Hip-Hop.
But Hip-Hop always understood the value in using the best aspects of the other genres to ensure it's growth and survival.

Outside Forces Don't Work
I now realize that my biggest and most important mistake in trying to help those in the hood was that I wasn't a part of the hood - instead, I was apart from the hood.
Even though I was (am) heavily invested in the hood financially and had a constant presence - at the end of the day, I still went home to my comfortable environment.
Even though I had resources in the game - I had no skin in the game.
In hindsight - I set myself up to be taken advantage of.
I set myself up to be another resource to exploit.
My mistake wasn't in going to the hood - my mistake was that I didn't live in the hood.

If I would have lived in the hood, I would have treated my possible neighbors as I do my current neighbors.
If I would have actually lived in the hood - I would have been dependent on the hood's success in order to ensure my own.
If I would have lived in the hood - I would have painted my house, mowed and edged my lawn.(Which is actually more important than one might imagine. Most yards in the hood get mowed but few are edged and even fewer have well maintained landscaping. Since much of the perpetuation of the hood is psychological - the visual aspect is important in the way people treat their things. People throw trash in a trash can. If the whole neighborhood is that trash can - trash gets tossed anywhere.)
If I would have lived in the hood - my neighbor's safety would have a direct impact on my own.

This is why any improvement in the hood has to be homegrown and organic.
Improvement won't come from outside forces which try to impose a system which cannot be understood.
Any attempt to turn the hood culture into another culture is doomed to failure.