We've invested almost 15 trillion dollars into the "ghettos", and they are worse off today than when they began in 1965. That is not the answer; that is treating a symptom. Like many government programs, well-intentioned as they may be, they usually deny the root cause and treat symptoms. Then, the “government agencies” begat programs to treat the symptoms of the symptoms. The "investments" need to be redesigned to stop encouraging the breakup of the family unit. Statistics from all sides of the political spectrum bear this out. The black unemployment issue needs a lot of work, and policies that encourage investment and business growth (to supply jobs) need to be established. As we have seen, to the current "socialist" administration's embarrasement, the "shovel ready jobs" never were and were a bunch of lying political hyperbole". We also need a welfare system that encourages education, in the scholastic sense, and the expansion of skilled trades development (there is an extreme dearth of these in our country). The details of this one are for another discussion.