Current Situation
Americans elected the most non offensive black person in the
history of politics and felt very good about themselves. They voted for him
twice and their job was done. All past sins and future sins were now washed
away.
After the depression the American middle class flourished.
Strong unions, government programs and general prosperity led to the
fulfillment of the American dream. You went to work for 30 years at the same place,
retired with a comfortable pension and social security and Medicaid were in
place to make sure that your golden years were comfortable. The problem was and
remains that the prosperity that was enjoyed by white America, was simply not
available to those of color. The net worth of an average white family is 10x
that of an average black family.
The dismantling and vilifying of unions that started under
the Reagan administration and continues to this day has eroded what was once a
robust and growing middle class. The average CEO salary went from 10x that of
an employee to 1,000X that of an employee across a couple of decades because of
consistent legislation designed to push wealth in only one direction. That
brilliant strategy has left behind a middle class fighting over the scraps that
have been left by the absolute greed of those in power.
The genius of the plan however is that those at the top have
been able to convince those left behind in their money grab that the problem
lies not with them, but with the people of color who are coming for everything
they have. They are coming for your jobs, homes, daughters and sisters, your
piece of the American dream is under threat from those who don’t look like you.
And middle America bought this lie hook, line and sinker.
A program as seemingly harmless as Affimative Action has
been under attack from the beginning, because it might deny someone an
opportunity. They don’t even see the irony in that criticism. If you think we
live in a meritocracy, you are sadly mistaken. If you think the same rules
apply to all then you live in a fantasy land. If you think all people are given
equal opportunity to succeed, then you have chosen to live your life with
blinders on.
Most people are well meaning. I believe that most would be
happy to give a hand up to someone who is down. However that hand up comes with
the understanding that you then don’t intrude upon their comfort zone. As long
as the perceived gains are not at their expense, then all is good. School
busing, which was put in place to try and level the playing field in education,
led to white flight from the inner cities. Blacks move into the neighborhood,
it’s time to start looking somewhere else.
I simply have no hope that this is ever going to change. I
guess I gave up a while ago. My feelings are not event based. I don’t have to
have someone killed on camera by a policeman to realize that our society has
failed to live up to its basic creed and never will. This isn’t a situation where there can be a
few new programs or commissions to study the problem and things will get
better. It’s systemic, it’s human nature. We as humans need to have someone to
point to. We need to have someone to be better than. We only prop ourselves to
stand over someone else.
Education
Education is the first, best and only starting point if
there is going to be any systematic change. It is also the only place where I
am the least bit optimistic that there can be real change. Currently Public
education in grades K-12 is systematically unbalanced. I can’t speak to all
states, but I know that there is usually federal & state money that goes
out equally to all districts based on enrollment and then local money is added
to that from property taxes. You hear people talk about moving so they qualify
for the “good” school districts. This is primary a function of personal wealth.
Everyone knows where the “good” school districts are and if they are
financially able, people will move there. What moving to the “good” school
district represents however, is leaving behind a bad one. And what of those
children whose parents aren’t fortunate enough to have the money to move to
another school district? They get left behind, literally and figuratively.
Public school education is guaranteed to all of our children, but there’s
nothing guaranteed about the quality of the education you will receive. In most
cities you will find schools well stocked with computers with great campuses
and facilities and very manageable student to teacher ratios. In that same city
you will find kids going to school in old buildings in need of repair with
students being forced into closets because of lack of space, with limited
access to computers and facilities. The best teachers, for the most part, chose
to teach in the better school districts, so naturally, those students get a
better education.
Of course there are magnet schools and school vouchers and
the like that now allow kids to travel for school, but along with those
opportunities being limited, the bigger question is why should they have to
travel outside of their district in order to get a decent education? This is
the question that should be answered. Why should children be forced to wake up
at 5am to take a bus across town just to get an education that is guaranteed to
them by the government? Is that fair? Is that equal treatment? We have set up a
system whereby we are choosing which kids get ahead and which kids get left
behind. You have parents who can afford to live on the “good” side of town,
then you get to go to the “good” school. You have parents who can afford to
send you to private school, then you get a great education as well. You have
parents or in some cases, a parent, who can’t afford either of those things,
then you get stuck with the leftover school in your district.
The system of education that we have in this country is
basically set up to provide a permanent underclass. We as its citizens seem
perfectly happy to have a separate and very unequal system of education our
children. We seem content as a country to condemn a portion of our children to
a life without opportunities. We end up sending out a portion of our children
to a gun fight armed with a butter knife and expect them to compete on equal
footing. And then we are so quick to point a finger when they fail. But how
could we expect anything else? The truth is that we don’t expect anything else.
We need a permanent underclass in order for our wonderful system to keep on
humming. I asked this simple question in a post I wrote a few years back and
I’ll repeat it to end this segment, “why, do we as a county, value some
children more than others”.
We have Paramilitary groups that are charged with keeping
the peace in our communities. They are set up to be insular and excuse the pun,
self-policing. They see themselves as constantly under attack and their only
defense is to create a wall of silence that cannot be penetrated. Instead of
being a part of the community, they see themselves as being above it. Only they
can see the evil in the hearts of men. Only they get to decide whether you are
a law abiding citizen or an evil doer who deserves to be punished. You see with
police, everything is black and white. Good or bad, warning or ticket, arrest
or death. They say ultimate power corrupts absolutely and have to look no
further than your local police officer with a badge and gun and the immunity
that comes with being a member of the last great defense to the downfall of
western society.
Of course, I exaggerate slightly. There are people who join
the police force with the genuine belief that they are going to be helpful to
their communities. Those people are quickly absorbed by the unstoppable and
all-encompassing notion that it’s them against us. People are always quick to
point out that it’s “just a few bad apples” in each department. I am very sure
that every officer in the department knows who those “bad apples” are and yet
they refuse to say anything. Their silence makes them complicit in everything
the “bad apples” do. They also do their best to cover for the bad apples if
someone makes a complaint against them or if they commit some horrendous act in
the line of duty. That makes them all bad apples as far as I’m concerned. I believe
that NWA made the definitive statement about the organization and we can leave
it at that.
The fact that police in this country were originally created
to track down run-away slaves should not be lost on anyone. When the start of
your endeavor is steeped in racism and slavery, it makes a permanent and
indelible mark on all of your activities going forward. The police in the
country have been used to enforce every despicable racist policy that the
government has perpetrated against people of color. They are too numerous to
mention, but just know that the police force has been there to provide their
whole-hearted support and violence to each every one of them.
I honestly don’t see a way out of the current situation with
the police. The police unions and the policemen and policewomen themselves are
unwilling to accept any other role than overseer of a plantation. They stand
above us with their whips waiting to deal out justice should anyone get out of
line. A reduced role for the police would be a start, but that can only go so
far. Give someone a badge and a gun and their worst tendencies will almost
always emerge.
Economic Situation
The average black family has 1/10th the
accumulated wealth of the average white family. Try to comprehend what that
means. Basically, after 150 years of freedom in this country, black families
have 1/10th the accumulated wealth of white families. That’s not
even the 3/5th of a person that black people were counted as when
our founding fathers decided to create this wonderful experiment in democracy.
Can you imagine the long term systematic obstacles that have to be in place in
order to keep an entire race of people from making any economic advancement in
100 years? Well, you don’t have to imagine it because it’s been going on since
the 1860’s and continues to this day. There is no disputing this fact, so
either you believe that an entire race of people are inferior or you understand
that we have decided, as a country, to keep a system in place so despicable
that most can’t even fathom it or acknowledge it.
Protest
The groups or institutions being protested against cannot
dictate the terms of that protest. If protest (regardless of the manner it
takes) makes you uncomfortable, then it’s working. Protest and dissent are what
this country was founded on, but the public only likes it if it’s nice and
quiet and doesn’t interfere with the football game. If everyone joins in and it
becomes the cause of the day, then it’s no longer a protest, it hopefully has
morphed into a movement. The problem with movements is that they are easily
co-opted by those who have motivations that may have nothing to do with the
original protest. When NFL or NBA owners say that they are willing to take a
knee with their players, it has nothing to do with justice for African-Americans.
That has to do with the almighty dollar. They have seen which way the wind is
blowing and they don’t want to get left behind. Their goal is to get back to
being comfortable as quickly as possible. I didn’t see any owners taking a knee
with Colin Kapernick. He was drummed out of the league and the owners couldn’t
separate themselves quickly enough from the controversy. Ratings were down, and
the public was upset, so they stepped in to make sure that the money kept
flowing. I see the images of police at protests taking a knee, but if they
wanted to make a difference, they would just point out the racists in their own
precincts. They know who they are.
I am never happy when people start looting and burning cars
and buildings. I understand that some are there to take advantage of a
situation, but I also realize that some are so frustrated by their situation
that they don’t see any other alternative. I saw clips of inmates burning their
own stuff in a prison because they couldn’t get proper protection and health
care for the Covid crisis. That’s the kind of frustration that people feel
against a system that is rigged against them and refuses to acknowledge the
problem, much less try to address it. I don’t condone looting, but I don’t
condemn those who participate either.
That’s about all I can say today. There’s so much more but
frankly, I’m tired. And just like everything else I’ve ever done or said, it
ain’t gonna make a damn bit of difference.
1 comment:
Devastating read my friend. I can't say I have anything to offer in the way of a counter assessment or further elaboration so I'll just tweet and forward this bit of required reading and tough medicine and keep my mouth shut by way of support.
-SJ
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