Could it be that the ruling Elites who own both parties have made sure that the working class never unites. Could it be that they make sure to have the leaders of both parties constantly stoking racial division?
CLASS and RACE
In this country we don't like to talk about or admit that we have different social classes, but we do. Income, education and social class have a far greater effect on people's everyday lives than their race.
There is a lot of talk about racism and privilege these days.
Ask yourself, who is better off: a black lesbian middle manager at a bank or a white male working at Walmart.
At this point the middle class is open to people of any race. The things Black Lives Matter talks about are true and need to be addressed, but more important to people's everyday life is how much money they have.
The political interests of a poor black person in the South Bronx and a poor white person in some rural town in Ohio have a lot more in common than either does with middle class people of the same race. Martin Luther King recognized this, it's probably the main reason he was assassinated.
It has been in the interests of both political parties to keep us divided by race. It is a lot easier to talk about changing cultural values than to go about the business of making sure that society works for all people, not just middle and upper income classes, for instance nationwide rent control. Maybe that's deliberate.
Instead Republicans have convinced their voters that it would be an infringement on their freedom and dignity to require businesses to share profits equitably. Their socially conservative constituency already has a lot of negative attitudes towards poor people. Meanwhile Democrats, with a large constituency of people who have been oppressed, have distracted everyone from talking about class by their constant emphasis on identity politics, while doing very little when they actually are in Congress or the Presidency.
PRIVILEGE
Is a homeless person with a shopping cart privileged over a homeless person without?
Try going up to a homeless person with a shopping cart and telling them how privileged they are compared to the homeless person without a shopping cart. That’s how it feels to poor whites being lectured about white privilege. They get angry, especially when they're being called privilege by some entitled middle-class kid who had mommy and daddy driving them everywhere because they didn't want them to take the bus.
Poor people in this country have a terrible situation regardless of race or sexuality.
It is fair to say that poor whites have it less shitty than poor black people in a lot of places, but
having a less shitty situation does not mean you’re privileged!
Is someone carrying a 300 pound weight on their back privileged over someone carrying 500 pounds?
having a less shitty situation does not mean you’re privileged!
it just means somebody else has it worse.
Martin Luther King never lectured people about white privilege, he constantly stressed the common interests of working class people of all colors.
Most of the people talking about white privilege are white middle class people who have conflated their class privilege with race. Black people are more inclined to the attitude “this shit has got to stop”, something far easier for poor whites to hear and understand.
It is quite interesting how many of the activists are middle class people who are more comfortable talking about racial privilege than talking about their class privilege and have a lot of trouble understanding or admitting that working class people of all races need to be united, not divided.
Housing is probably the single greatest concern for most working class people of all races and genders. Currently we accept the model that landlords can charge as much as they wish with no relation to what people enable to pay based prevailing wages. It is a thorny question to maintain the incentives of a private enterprise yet also ensure that people have access to housing.
That is the most important question in most people's lives. We talk about it in generalities but as a national issue very few specifics are offered, even though this matters more than almost anything else to working people. It's a class issue.
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FACTORS
Class
Race
Urban or rural
Region (west coast, south, etc)
In most of the country the most important factor of privilege, regardless of race or anything else, is how much money you have.
Class Privilege
Ask yourself whether you’d be better off as a middle-class black lesbian making a good income or a poor white male working at Walmart.
The caveats to this would be where specifically you lived, somewhere where the old race and sexual prejudices are still the main factors or somewhere where the society has gotten past that. And--as far as where you live, in this country prosperity is to a large extent confined to some of the big cities. Outside of those jobs and money are a lot more difficult to find.
At this point in time, for most of the country the amount of money in your pocket is the most important thing regardless of race or any other factor.
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This is not to ignore that class privilege is entwined with past race privilege. Due to a lot of the banking, hiring, educational and prison practices of past years, the current generation of white people has inherited far more money then the current generation of black people and other races. Wealth is generational as much as it is currently earned. Even though today whether you're white or black is not going to have that much effect on whether you get the bank loan for the house, the amount of money you inherited or were able to borrow from your parents is going to have a huge effect.
Also the educational status of your parents will have a huge effect on your own educational and social development. If you grew up in a home with poor uneducated parents it's a lot harder to get comfortable with studying and books.
There have been efforts at mitigation such as Affirmative Action and some Diversity programs, so in some instances you are actually advantaged if you are non-white or non straight or non male and disadvantaged if you are.
There are still prejudiced places in the country where non-whites and especially poor blacks get treated differently than poor whites. I’m not ignoring or defending that, I’m not saying it shouldn’t be addressed.
There is still racial prejudice, both personal and institutional, there is still sexual prejudice, the effects of the past still linger, but
on the whole, in today’s America, if you look at the situation on the ground for the people here right now
CLASS PRIVILEGE IS THE MOST IMPORTANT
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Poor people in this country have a terrible situation regardless of race or sexuality.
It is fair to say that poor whites have it less shitty than poor black people in a lot of places,
but
having a less shitty situation does not mean you’re privileged!
it just means somebody else has it worse.
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AN EXAMPLE: Rethink the police
A lot of the protests going on are simply venting with no measurable, achievable goals. I offer this as one tangible example of specific goals that benefit all working class people. If the protesters would talk about these goals they might find themselves with widespread support.
# RethinkThePolice
If we choose the wrong people, give them inadequate training, then effectively give them immunity from prosecution, all of which we do, then it is not surprising that we are having the problems we are having.
We need to seriously Re-Think how we do policing
There are racist cops and institutional racism, and
Re-thinking how we do policing is an issue for everyone, especially less affluent Americans, not just black people.
Many people have correctly pointed out that there have been many many police abuses against white people and other races, almost always against poor people
Protestors need more than outrage, they need clear measures to call for.
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1 WHO WE CHOOSE
The tests and qualifications we use for choosing cops
Being a cop requires a mix of
A) having the temperment and skills to defuse situations and
B) the psychological and physical strength to successfully apply force when necessary.
Right now we choose only based on strength.
********Choosing the right people is the single most important thing we can do!!!******.
2 TRAINING
A) HOURS OF TRAINING
Comparing American hours of police training to many other nations, we basically hand people a badge and a gun and turn them loose.
B) TYPE OF TRAINING
Much more communication, mediation and de-escalation training needed
3 LACK OF ACCOUNTABILITY
The fact that police feel they can murder people with cameras rolling tells us they feel totally unaccountable.
The only reason the Minnesota cops are being held responsible for murder is because it was filmed and was so outrageous. Otherwise it would be one more unknown police murder.
But even when the murders are filmed, as in the case of Eric Garner, the cops get off.
Most likely if the Minnesota cops hsd simply shot George Floyd or strangled him it would never have gotten the same national attention and the cops would be far more likely to get away with it
Local officials are simply unable to deal with the problems because of their dependence on the police and the political power of the local police union.
* Even in the case of known murders very often the cops were acquitted
* There no national database of police records
* Even cops fired one place get hired by the next.
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* Police unions protect bad cops
* Other cop protect bad cops
*There are No incentives for police to police themselves.
*Right now no one is effectively policing the police.
*They are a law unto themselves and often abuse that power with little or no consequences.
None of this is tolerable anymore, not that it was before. Just like all the rest of us, Police need to be held accountable for bad behaviour and abuses of their power and rules need to be changed to no longer enable bad behaviour with impunity.
Cops should not be above the law
****A National Database of police records
and
***a federal agency
to investigate and prosecute police misconduct,
an agency not subject to local pressure
is necessary
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We shouldn't hate the police. Police departments are necessary. It is a dangerous and stressful job and mistakes happen, sometimes tragic mistakes
and
Americans, in particular black Americans, should not have to be afraid of being harmed by those who are supposed to be there to protect and serve them.
*Cities are paying out massive settlements rather than the money coming from police pension funds, meaning less money for other city services and agencies.
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Additional problems
*Heavily militarized police forces
*Tough guy macho mentalities and cultures
*Many cops are quite racist
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SUMMARY
If we choose the wrong people, give them inadequate training and then effectively give them immunity from prosecution, all of which are what we do, then it is not surprising that we are having the problems we are having
#RethinkThePolice
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HATRED DOES NOT CEASE BY HATRED
The question for anyone who wants to accomplish a goal is what is the best way to do that? My whole purpose in this writing is to point out that the way so many are trying to accomplish the goal of social justice is a poor strategy more likely to create opposition and resistance than positive change. It is very emotionally satisfying to vent rage and hostility; it is a very poor strategy for achieving positive change. Strength and perseverance are needed, hostility is counterproductive.
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Tribalism, the idea of "us and them", is the basis for all conflict and ill treatment of others. Seeing everyone as "us" is the way to peace and justice. Martin Luther King knew this. Whether it's left right or center, most people in America today seem firmly entrenched in "us and them" thinking.
We have been living in an ongoing cultural civil war for a number of years. For most of American history traditional forces, Christian male white straight capitalist conservative for the most part, controlled the country and perpetrated a litany of abuses and exploitation on everyone who didn't meet that definition.
At some point the non traditional forces, despite all efforts to keep them suppressed, including the war on drugs, which was really just a devious way to put black people and cultural/political dissidents in jail and thus disempower them, started gaining some sense of empowerment and now are probably more powerful than the traditionals, although it's pretty close to 50/50 at this point.
Still, for groups suppressed, lynched, beaten, abused and exploited for centuries, there are a lot of old crimes to be angry about. Some new ones too. The old traditional European American culture was explicitly based on white male Christian supremacy. Everyone else was seen as being there to be used and ruled by them.
Not surprisingly, a lot of the current people who say they are for social justice, racial equality, tolerance and diversity, are just as filled with hate as any right-wing hate group. Forgiveness does not come naturally.
Now there is an entirely new set of prejudices, bigotry and hatred which many in the new society direct against those of the old order. Very often they refuse to admit their hatred and prejudice but it's there, usually mixed with a lot of contempt. Much of this comes from people who are rightly ashamed and appalled by the old crimes of their race and sex but then mistakenly show their condemnation of the old crimes by espousing a new set of racist and sexist beliefs, the only difference being that they direct them against those of the old order, not understanding that two wrongs do not make a right.
There are new political theories which see people as inherently racist because of their race. Many of the anti-racists seem just as racist as any conservative, just against different people. Many of the people working for women's equality see men as inherently violent and oppressive. Many people hate Christianity and Christians. Replace many of the statements made about "men" especially "older white males", with the word "women" or "Jews"; one can hear just how much prejudice there is.
It's quite easy to understand how people would feel angry and want revenge after centuries of abuse by those of the old order and one cannot blame them for feeling that way but it's a thought process of eternal war.
The reality seems to be that many people want revenge, not justice. They are perfectly willing to be unjust against those of the old order. Anonymous complaints have been enough to ruin businesses and careers, especially at universities. Left wing McCarthyism. One can look at many of the statements McCarthy made and if you replace the word communism with the word racist they sound like things people are saying today, statements which many find acceptable.
One of the issues is that people often don't admit, even to themselves, just how much they hate and want revenge. They think of themselves as good people. The mirror image of traditional Christian conservatives, who thought of themselves as good people working for good causes, while persecuting and oppressing others.
Moral self-righteousness is an extremely dangerous thing.
Here's the problem:
Hatred does not cease by hatred, that's just a recipe for eternal war. When the left and progressives vent their hatred and contempt it just terrifies the old conservatives into doubling down on their old beliefs and strengthens their current opposition with the adrenaline of fear. Who wouldn't be terrified if people were telling them how much they hate them and wish they would just disappear off the face of the Earth. The result: Donald Trump and a lot of conservative backlash.
Justice, equality, fairness, an end to a variety of problems such as those addressed by Black Lives Matter, these are all noble and worthwhile goals worth pursuing. However the way so many are going about pursuing them is almost guaranteed to stimulate opposition and fierce resistance and make it less likely that the goals will be achieved. If we go up to somebody and tell them how much we hate them, what a terrible person they are, how we are doing everything possible to eliminate their kind, then tell them how we want them to change, is that an effective strategy?
Restated:
The objectives are noble, the strategy is deeply flawed and works against the objectives being accomplished.
Simply exercising power and forcibly suppressing viewpoints you don't agree with is a recipe for ongoing civil war with no end in sight and of course the danger is that at some point the people you have told how much you hate them may again have power over you. Traditionalists are experiencing this now.
Tribalism, the idea of "us and them", is the basis for all conflict and ill treatment of others. Seeing everyone as "us" is the ticket to peace and justice. Martin Luther King knew this. Whether it's left right or center, most people in America today seem firmly entrenched in "us and them".
Hatred does not cease by hatred. telling people how horrible and stupid they are is not a good way to get them to change. Martin Luther King Jr understood this better than anyone. He acted firmly and with conviction but without hatred and bile. He acted from the belief that we we are all human beings and he exercised a lot of forgiveness. He did his best to unite us all rather than further separate us. That is a path for success, at least if people really want peace and social justice more than they want revenge and power.
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The issues Black Lives Matter talks about are real, but the way they are going about trying to create change is far more likely to provoke opposition than support.
Along with his opposition to the Vietnam war, one of the things that got Martin Luther King Jr assassinated was his belief that the interests of poor whites and poor blacks were fundamentally the same and that they should unite together to fight for Economic Justice.
Black Lives Matter activists have forgotten that viewpoint and have gone about fighting for their cause in a way far more likely to provoke opposition than support from poor whites, meaning that the changes they want to see happen are far less likely to happen anytime soon.
Try going up to a homeless person with a shopping cart and telling them how privileged they are in comparison to the homeless person without the shopping cart. That's exactly how poor whites feel when they hear how privileged they are. When they hear about programs targeted at benefiting poor people of color they think "what about me, I have it pretty bad myself", especially when it is comfortably middle class people calling them privileged.
There is certainly a strong case to be made that poor blacks have it worse than poor whites, just as the homeless person without a shopping cart has it worse than the homeless person with a shopping cart, but if you want to create support instead of opposition and thus have a far better chance of making real change, a far more effective approach is to make the case that all low income people need to be protected against all the abuses and have Economic and Social Justice.
Most of the BLM issues are primarily suffered by low income black people, not the middle class black population. Low income white people suffer from almost all the same issues. If the emphasis was on Social and Economic Justice programs for all low income people that would accomplish almost everything the black lives matter activists seek. When racist abuse occurs, it would be far easier to make the case that that no one should have to be treated that way and get support from the whole coalition.
Donald Trump has been justly vilified for a variety of racially divisive remarks but there is a case to be made that the whole Democratic emphasis on racial politics has been just as divisive, only in a far less obvious way, and they have been sowing that division for years, a very convenient way to avoid dealing with the class issues which would create unity and real change, something which perhaps the wealthy donors of both parties would not like to see.
It certainly benefits the established political parties to create a racial divide in which the Republicans get the poor white people and Democrats get poor people of color. Low income people are split in two and fight each other instead of the wealthy elites who oppress them. Very convenient for the wealthy elites who want to maintain their control. Divide and conquer.
There are centuries of repressed anger and resentment over centuries of wrongs that has never been allowed to be expressed and it does need to be discharged, but if the goal is really to improve the lives of black people and eliminate the abuses of systemic injustice, then the best way to do that is to form a united front with poor white and other people, even if they do have some attitudes. Many of the same people who voted for Trump voted for Obama and for the same reason, they feel like they're sinking and no one is throwing them a life preserver.
Make the argument for Economic and Social Justice on the basis of class, not race, unite all lower income people in a multiracial coalition and those improvements are far more likely to be made. That was the vision of Martin Luther King Jr.