Please, please, let's forget about the race factor altogether. As a welfare worker, I can assure you that the pathway of poor choices is a popular one for people of all colors. A black person is no more responsible for bad behavior on the part of other people of the same race than I am for white people who are irresponsible and/or criminal. To the other factors creating poverty--no marriage, children born out of wedlock, lack of education, using drugs--I would add criminal behavior, by the way.