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Mark Rudd is an African-American who moved to La Crosse from Madison around 1990. He's a 39 year old hairdresser and moved here because he thought the area was very nice and he didn't want to move too far away from home. Mark knows quite a few people in the community and thinks some of what draws minorities to this area as part of the recent migration are the education systems and benefits and the beauty of the area itself. He did notice when he came here though that some of the community wasn't as willing to learn or to reach out to an African-American person. For the most part though he tends to divide the African-American community into two classes of people: those that want to work hard and make their lives and the lives of those around them better, like Vince Hamilton and Dr. Mark Stevens, and those people who he calls "hood rats," who perpetuate violence and other "unsavory" activities (drugs and stealing) or receive welfare but aren't really looking for a job. The second class of people upsets him; they make things harder for the first group and fulfill those stereotypes that African-Americans have had to fight. He thinks it's a shame because there are so many programs set up to help out minorities and that class doesn't seem to be interested. Those programs, like Welfare, are important to the community though and have allowed at least one family he knows well to get back on their feet and off the assistance programs.