And articles like this are going to help how exactly?

It doesnt help the situation. It probably at best keeps awareness in the minds of people who would otherwise avoid it and during that time it may be possible to spur them into action.

Do you think everyone should overreact to anything we think could possibly be stereotypical? Should we scorn those who avoid downtown because they don't want to get mugged?

You probably didn't mean to arrange the words in this manner because my answer to that is yes. The attitude that forms as a result of that stereotype provides the shield necessary to cause intentional harm to a segment of society. The "I'm not going to the South Bronx because its poor, dangerous, and beneath me" allows those people to block out the needs of those who have been born into that cycle.

So when all these community organizations form to combat the ills of society, they can't get help from the government at large or even the mindshare of the people. Then, when something happens to force these issues into their faces, you get arguments like "why don't black (read: poor) people stop killing each other. why don't black (read: poor) people stop selling drugs. why dont black people stop dressing differently from the normal (read: white) standard" and so forth.

What exactly would you expect white people to be doing, if they were to be trying to dismantle a system that benefits them? Mind, increased equality does not come at an expense to the second group. It benefits us all.

If I go through American history to the origin of the listed things to be fixed, we'd find that white people propagated the attitudes necessary for those conditions to exist and to go interrupted long enough to become self-perpetuating.

This is work that needs to occur over successive generations without interruption. This is work that has to start with the individual and spread beyond.

That said, what people should be doing is actually attempting to learn about cultures outside of their own default culture. Instead of harboring preconceived notions and stereotypes. The isolation of rural suburban America (read: white people) enables people to put themselves in the boxes necessary to believe the propaganda that's being sold to this population.

What people should be doing is actually having public conversation about these problems that keep getting swept under a rug because they're uncomfortable, because they question the foundation of your reality. We have to keep forcing the issue because the issue needs to be resolved one way or the other.

To me, white people need to begin the work of actively confronting the negative cultural behaviors that are responsible for the current state of affairs. You know, kinda the same way white people tell people to do something about black on black crime and gangsta rap. Because, I gotta tell you, I've crossed paths with very few white people who have.