Reliance Breeds Compliance: When the Inner City Depends Completely on the Government.

Reliance Breeds Compliance: When the Inner City Depends Completely on the Government. By Kyev Tatum

FORT WORTH, TEXAS - In the heart of America’s inner cities, a quiet and devastating transformation has taken place. What was once a resilient, resourceful, and revolutionary community has been slowly reshaped into one that is largely dependent on the very systems that have historically marginalized it. This dependency has created a dangerous cycle, one in which reliance breeds compliance — not the healthy kind rooted in cooperation or mutual benefit, but one that conditions the mind and soul to accept limitation as destiny.

This essay is not an indictment of the people in the inner city. It is a challenge to the systems and structures that have encouraged dependency while stripping away dignity, self-determination, and ownership. It is also a call to awaken the sleeping giants within our neighborhoods — the entrepreneurs, pastors, mothers, teachers, and youth — to reclaim the spirit of self-reliance and to disrupt the culture of compliance that has taken root.

The Historical Trap of Government Dependency

The story is not new. After decades of redlining, segregation, underinvestment, and economic exclusion, many Black and Brown communities were pushed into survival mode. Government assistance — whether through public housing, food stamps, or welfare programs — became a lifeline. But over time, that lifeline became a leash.

When the government became the landlord, the employer, the healthcare provider, the grocery store, and the disciplinarian, the community lost control over its own development. What was once temporary assistance became a permanent arrangement. And in that arrangement, creativity was stifled, innovation suppressed, and boldness punished.

We became compliant — not because we lacked intelligence or ambition — but because the system rewarded submission and penalized risk. Those who dared to break away from the prescribed path were often met with systemic resistance. The cost of independence became too high for many to afford.

The Price of Compliance

What does compliance look like in the inner city? It looks like silence in the face of injustice. It looks like communities being told when and how to protest, how much food they can receive, which businesses are allowed to open, and who gets funded. It looks like city contracts that never make it to minority contractors. It looks like brilliant students being groomed for jobs, not ownership. It looks like churches asking for permits to serve the poor, and local farmers being regulated out of growing their own food.

This is not freedom. This is control.

The irony is that many of our ancestors were forced into labor, and now, generations later, we are often forced into inactivity. That too is bondage — just in a different form.

A New Narrative: Self-Reliance as Liberation

Yet, all is not lost. Across America, a quiet resistance is rising — one that is rooted in faith, fortified by economic literacy, and focused on local empowerment. From urban farms in Fort Worth to specialty coffee cooperatives, from youth expos to grassroots financial bootcamps, a new model is emerging. A model that says, “We can take care of our own. We can feed our own. We can employ our own. We can govern our own.”

Self-reliance is not about isolation or arrogance. It is about agency. It is about looking at the resources we already have and maximizing them for the collective good. It is about re-teaching ourselves the principles of ownership, stewardship, and service.

Financial dependence does not have to be the end of the story. It can be the beginning of a new chapter — one where we turn government assistance into launchpads for local ownership. One where we teach our youth how to not just get a job, but how to create one. One where churches move from soup kitchens to community banks, from charity to cooperative economics.

Conclusion: The Inner City Is Not Helpless

The narrative that inner cities are helpless is a lie. The people are not broken; the systems are. And if we continue to rely on broken systems, we will continue to be compliant with broken outcomes.

But if we dare to believe again — to rely on each other, to invest in our own, to trust in our God-given talents — then compliance will be replaced with courage. Dependency will be replaced with dignity.

Let us rise from reliance. Let us reject forced compliance. Let us reclaim our communities — one garden, one classroom, one dollar, one idea, and one soul at a time.

Because freedom was never meant to be outsourced.

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About the Author

Kyev P. Tatum, Sr. is a civil rights leader, pastor, educator, and economic visionary committed to uplifting marginalized communities across Texas and beyond. A native of Fort Worth, Tatum has dedicated more than 30 years to public policy, advocacy, and faith-based initiatives aimed at transforming inner-city neighborhoods.

He serves as Pastor of the historic New Mount Rose Missionary Baptist Church in Fort Worth and is the President of the Ministers Justice Coalition of Texas. Tatum is also the founder of Coffeeaires and the Inner City Coffee Exchange, developed in collaboration with the Texas A&M Center for Coffee Research and Education. These initiatives promote economic self-sufficiency through specialty coffee entrepreneurship. Additionally, he is the architect behind Farm Fort Worth, an urban agriculture project aimed at eliminating food deserts and creating youth development opportunities.

Tatum’s work fuses historical awareness, spiritual empowerment, and economic innovation, making him one of the leading voices in the fight for justice, equity, and self-determination in inner-city communities. His forthcoming works include Fighting Black in Texas, The Texas 6888th Project, and From Bean to Bank: A Blueprint to Brewing a Better Economy for the Inner-City Community.

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