Maybe a lot of black young people have learned not to get in to the "system". I have been the head of a black family for 25 years. I have helped raise three step children and my own daughter. I am of southern birth. All my kin fought for the Confederacy. We, as far as I can ascertain from my family lore were simple yeomen farmers, with a smattering of professionals in the family tree. My wife's family were simple yeomen farmers who joined the great migration to the north in the 40s and 50s. They worked as maids and labors and some became reasonably prosperous, The first generation worked in packing plants and assembly lines, the present generation are teachers, soldiers and government employees. We are all gravitating to Texas. Black kids are LESS likely to use drugs, and if there was ever a glamors side of the gangster culture, it has long lost it's luster. So what is left? Black people down at my level worry about jobs and paying bills,kids and household. They are for the most part much more conservative than is the accepted norm in the Democrat Party. In the near future I can foresee mass defections from that population from the established party platform. I don't know if it will be within the Dem power structure or out, but the animosity between Hispanics and African Americans is potent. If the "Mexican" vote goes Dem I can see at least 40% of the AA vote going Rep.The ignorance of black youth about their own heritage is appalling. At this time that is the primary strength of the present party affiliation. The Democrat Party is the party of the KKK, Jim Crow and segregation. The policies and programs enacted by Democrat administrations have done more to destroy the black family more than slavery could. A large number of the folks I see are getting dissatisfied with the position they find themselves within the Democratic party now.