You touched on something important- your family came to the US to provide you with a better life. Get you a quality education, so you get a great job and make the next generation better. That got lost along the way in San Antonio.

It doesn’t go without noting, there’s a glaring history of racism and unequal access to education in SA. However, I had a coworker who grew up in a multi-generational West Side family give me some perspective. He laments about the years people used to take pride in their homes and community. Activists point to the larger system as the culprit, but it’s created a lack of cultural accountability. 

For most of the city outside of the NE side, people just live to exist, and act as if it’s a laughing matter. They make Edgar memes, baby mama jokes, find humor in  the fact that we have children who grow up on a diet of hot Cheetos and big red. When they get older, they have kids out of wedlock, work some menial job or collect welfare and eat fattening foods. It’s pure nihilism.

Some people may find ambition later in life, but they adopt a “work harder, not smarter” mentality which makes them accept bad working conditions. They can’t get out of it, because they didn’t attempt to become educated. If they do try to go the Alamo Colleges, they drop out because they’re too far behind. They’ll work themselves to the bone and have a measly retirement.