Thursday, August 27, 2020
A New Awakening to the Sad Realities of Today's America
The same story is repeated again and again. I encourage everyone to watch the video by Doc Rivers above in reaction to the shooting of Jacob Blake. It is quite powerful. A white police officer suspects a black man of being a threat based on his image. The man is held captive and shot. The white officer goes home and the black victim (Jacob Blake this week) is either seriously injured and rushed to the hospital or killed on the spot. There are no immediate consequences for the shooter.
Why does this keep happening? I never truly understood the underlying roots of systematic racism until recent years and became much more aware of this since the rally in Charlottesville. Living in a safety bubble it appeared that these incidents were isolated. I now regretfully realize how naive I had been and that these are not isolated.
The more I read and learn the more awakened I have become. It becomes more apparent that much of our history has been based on a biased foundation. I just finished reading the book Caste by Isabel Wilkinson. Her hypothesis discusses this in depth claiming that our country was built on a system of inequities. At the bottom of the system are the exploited laborers who lay the foundation and served at the mercy of their superiors. The upper castes controlled the land and the structural basis of this country.
Although the titles of the lowest castes may change through the years, there are laws and methods to keep exploited and economically disadvantaged groups in control of those above them. Systems continue to manage those with lower economic power through gerrymandering, voter suppression, and unequal treatment in the eyes of many in authority positions.
It extends to efforts to eliminate the Affordable Care Act and hurts minorities most vulnerable to health disparities. It extends to fair housing protections by the current administrations announcement of rolling back policies of the Fair Housing Act. It extends to the postal service cutbacks that affect the poor, elderly and rural areas where residents depend on regular mail to get medications, important bills and payments via day to day delivery. It extends to education where public schools in disadvantaged areas will not get funding to safely reopen during the pandemic or in general to better educate all Americans.
As the late Congressman John Lewis said:
If everyone was treated on an even playing field perhaps we could eliminate many of the problems facing our country today. We can all do better. No one's life should never be considered a higher value than anothers.
I am sad to be American these days. America is in a crisis. The current leadership is to blame for much of this. Although inequities and divineness are cumulative the current administration is fully exploiting this to gain and retain power of their perceived dominant caste. You can witness this yourself by listening to the RNC speeches this week in contrast to the DNC speeches last week. Clearly the current administration can not say they represent change given they have created the extreme discourse we have today. The Biden/Harris platform clearly states Enough and is much more representative of all Americans.
I hope there will be a change in November. We all need to stand up for what is right and vote. We need to engage everyone we know to vote for this change. I invite comments below.
Wendy is a Realtor with Coldwell Banker Needham. This blogpost represents her personal views only and is not affiliated with her business.