I don't know George, it's a different scene here. More like inner city problems. Had friends like Althea who grew up in inner city DC and became a professional accountant. The biggest problem was social pressure from friends and family. When your uncles and other family are getting by selling drugs and running scams who are you to do differently. And as she rose academically the fewer friends from her social structure she had. And the more you get away from that life the more you are shunned. Went ti high school with a girl that was half Cherokee. Her father was an Air Force Lt. Co. and she told the same story. Said she hated to go to the res to visit family, broke her heart. Funny, she had white friends but no black friends. Maybe because she was taking college track courses. Blacks thinking about an academic track were shunned and physically intimidated. Here you see similar. Great little kids. Then puberty and they're looking more to adults around them and everything changes.
I have no idea what the solution is. This native pride thing the tribe has been pushing seems to help but it is, in the end, divisive.
