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Thanks. What a brave person with a mission for justice, and a sense of humor.

His work shows the other side of 'true grit'. I love his work but disagree with his statement of white racism as the cause for all the homeless blacks. Did he blame white racism for all the homeless white people he admits were more common in the earlier days of his work. Homelessness is not a result from racism, never was. It has many other documented origins/causes.

Thanks Heather. I wish I could shoot such work. Beautiful and at times very disturbing.

Take a walk down State Street in Santa Barbara, where an overwhelming homeless community resides - most of them are middle-aged white men. Many of them are mentally ill and/or addicted to drugs and/or alcohol with nowhere to turn because the state hospital was turned into a university.

I have a couple of thoughts. A similar picture documentary could be made of rich white folks, showing their misery and true homelessness, despite having multiple McMansions. Also, white racism has to seen in its deep, almost invisible pervasiveness to appreciate how it causes poverty among all races, including non material dearth in its own. The true American Pictures are taboo to look at in our culture but this Hamlet like Dane has at least given us a glimpse past the carefully constructed socially correct screen of denial.

Dana and Alyeska referred pointed out that most of the visible homeless people on the street in Santa Barbara (and in Ojai)are white middle-aged men. A staggering number - I think the estimates I've read say 1/3 - of the homeless in America are Veterans. How valuable is our freedom to us? Valuable enough to rent apartments for these men and pay for them to receive the care they need to make their ways in our society after the trauma of war?

Back to the racism question: Do you think black Americans ever got the same opportunities as white Americans? From slavery to Jim Crow to segregated schools, American domestic policy has placed Civil and Human Rights for those of African descent(and others too) a distant second. I think there is certainly reason to believe that institutionalized racism plays a huge part in the current state of racial affairs in our country and in the homeless state of many black Americans.

First to clarify, though I think maybe you meant to say, but wasn't clear to me, is that someone(anonymous) in reference to my comment, said, that walking around Santa Barbara found that an overwhelming number of the homeless there, were middle aged white men, then went on to say that many were mentally ill and or addicted to drugs along with alcoholism.

Now to what I said. The photographer claimed that when he went to the states and began his photography journal here, that the homeless were predominantly white. Later in his travels, he claims that white racism put out blacks, creating a preponderance of black homelessness during some of race wars of the (50s?), 60s and 70s.

As Anonymous said above, and I agree, is that many homeless are mentally ill, addicted to drugs, alcoholics. That was the case for many back in the photographers earlier travels as it is today. But then as with now, many are simply down on their luck needing a hand to get back up.

It was those very problems along with a dysfunctional parley of family values that increased black homelessness, just as it did with the white community.

To answer your question, "Do you think that black American ever got the same opportunities as white Americans?

Not during most of the time frame that you defined. But certainly in the last 50 years, particularly, the last 25, they have had the same, and in some cases, a better opportunity than whites. But due to their inherently dysfunctional popular culture, they have squandered many opportunities. It's not just me who makes this claim. Bill Cosby, who is from Philadelphia, has been saying this for years. He tells his fellow black countrymen to own up to there responsibilities, take care of the kids that they bring into the world. To get jobs and pay the bills as other Americans do. He tells parents to enforce the values that make a strong society. He has been on the road for years telling black America to quit blaming others, particularly white America for all their failings. He points out to the parents and to the kids that Rap is bad for them, that Rap re-enforces all that is wrong in black America: Blaming whites for their problems, teaching that black women are trash, bitches, hos and anything else that runs them down, glorifying drugs and gangster mentality and style.

Most of my black friends admit to me that their popular society is a mess. I'll admit that our popular white society is becoming a mess.

The opportunities to make a good life are here for all. That is why so many from other countries come here to take part in the not so gentle, but free enterprise that has allowed so many to have and enjoy leisure in freedom while contemplating the maintaining and enhancing of their stake in our society.

The Korean community is an example of a society that saw the chance for success in the U.S. and thrived in Black communities where black businesses were virtually nonexistent. Respectfully, draw your own conclusion.