I agree. Though I'm a white guy, by choice I lived in North Philadelphia for 5.5 years. It was a real hood, and I was the only white man living in the area. The first 6 mos were dicey b/c everyone thought I was an undercover vice cop. I got fucked with constantly, threatened and on a few occasions accosted, but surprisingly the bangers accepted me as a neighbor after I threw a couple parties having soul food catered in and hiring a local DJ that was trying to break into the biz. The bangers made money in four main ways, *******, ******* and black-market sales of various items (booze, tobacco, etc.)
I got to know some of their whores, and they did not have a good life. First, they almost all came from broken homes, were sexually abused by multiple men (fathers, uncles, brothers, cousins, stepfathers, stepbrothers, etc.) both familial and not including by cops. They were all substance abusers, alcohol, crack, prohibited chemical, heroine. Each pimp ran a "crew" of hoes who had assigned areas and man, did they have to deliver because if they didn't, they could get the ******* kicked out of them by their pimp; on more than one occasion I saw a pimp beat the crap out of one of his girls.
Another time I was on my stoop drinking beer with a couple neighbors. Across and about 5 houses up the street was a banger who was a leader in his gang. A van came up the street and parked. Two bankers got out and opened the panel door. Out came a black woman and another banger holding onto a white woman who was not from those parts. She looked terrified, had been beaten up and was disheveled. she didn't have any shoes. They marched her into the house and a little while later about four more bangers showed up. My neighbors told me that they probably snatched her from N.J. and shot her up with heroine to control and get her addicted fast. Now that she was here they'd make her continually smoke crack an addictive white substance and/or prohibited chemical, and all those guys would take turns fucking her until her spirit was completely broken. Then once she was an addict and soulless, they'd put her to work. Pretty messed up. I moved out about 18 months later and sure enough, I saw that woman walking a shift every day. Like most ****** they eventually disappear to God only knows where and she was no exception. In summary, don't play with this fire b/c you may wind up in a ditch.