Chicago is on fire. Let me paint a picture for outsiders. These kids are growing up in a literal warzone, with ptsd like symptoms. They are scared walking to and from school. Imagine your moms on crack and your dad is locked up. There's no food in the house and you haven't eaten in days because your mom spent the money on crack. It's hard to concentrate on school when you haven't eaten in days. School lunch is sometimes the only food these kids get to eat so weekends can be hard. You have no father figure and the only people you see around you with money are drug dealers, gang members and pimps. Nobody wants to hire you because you look like a thug yet you need to feed your siblings because your mom isn't doing it. Family and friends are dropping left and right do to gun violence. With all that stress it's easy for these kids to get caught up in gangs. They want to feel like they have family and feel loved. Sometimes that's the only love they get. The rap hip hop culture glorifying gang life and drugs isn't helping things. Add to that occasional systematic racism and a country that already expects you to fail. It becomes a self fulfilling prophecy.
f you want to know how it is growing up and going to school in these areas I recommend this vice documentary. Chicago is on fire. The biggest threat to a black male is another black male.
Expelled From Every Other School: Last Chance High (Episode 1)