Imus proved that there is a dark underside to us that carries these problems from our earlier evolutions, that we can't let go of. It's like saying-"Well that's just the way it is and it's just the way I am." Limiting possibilities is a major problem in our development.
The past is just a nostalgic reminder of how easily we were deceived. We look back on these times as honest and truthful because we didn't have all the information to challenge what they programmed us with. Information was fed to the people and never researched for factuality. Thank the universe for the Web and the instant information we have based in facts and statistics. "Opinion" means you don't want to do the required work to develop a critical viewpoint- widen your lens so to speak.
Try this site to find some real info. They even have a forum where you could take your opinions and discuss them, if you feel certain about what you say. Personally I'm tired of our ancestors telling us what we have to believe based on opinions. War is an opinion, and I'm tired of that too. Just saying it's fact, negates the possibility that we could rise above it. We have to eliminate impossibilities we've been fed to believe.
http://www.radicalmath.org/browse_socia ... p?t=wealth
Some of the items to read-
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2. Being Black, Living in The Red (external link)
Abstract: Being Black, Living in the Red demonstrates that many differences between blacks and whites stem not from race but from economic inequalities that have accumulated over the course of American history. Property ownership--as measured by net worth--reflects this legacy of economic oppression. The racial discrepancy in wealth holdings leads to advantages for whites in the form of better schools, more desirable residences, higher wages, and more opportunities to save, invest, and thereby further their economic advantages.
Resource Type: Book
3. Black Wealth/White Wealth: A New perspective on racial inequality (external link)
Abstract: The award-winning Black Wealth/White Wealth offers a powerful portrait of racial inequality based on an analysis of private wealth. Melvin Oliver and Thomas Shapiro analyze wealth--total assets and debts rather than income alone--to uncover deep and persistent racial inequality in America, and they show how public policies fail to redress the problem. Compelling and informative, Black Wealth/White Wealth is pioneering research. It is a powerful counterpoint to arguments against affirmative action and a direct challenge to our present social welfare policies.
Resource Type: Book
5. Cheaters Monopoly (internal link)
Abstract: A satirical article that discusses how the game of Monopoly could be recreated with new rules based on oppression of people of color and Native Americans by white people.
Resource Type: Article
7. Data on Income Growth from Government Tax Return Records (internal link) -Abstract: This document contains a dozen different charts that look at income growth in the US over the past century, as well as current income levels and percentiles. It also looks at who (the wealthy) have benefited the most from recent tax cuts.
Resource Type: Chart
8. Doubly Divided: The Racial Wealth Gap (external link)
Abstract: African Americans and other minorities hold far less wealth than whites. But why should the wealth gap be so large, greater even than the racial income gap? It turns out that government has played a central role. Throughout U.S. history, countless specific laws, policies, rules, and court decisions have made it more difficult for nonwhites to build wealth, and transferred wealth they did own to whites.
Resource Type: Article
10. How Class Works: An Interactive Exploration (external link)
Abstract: From the NY Times' "Class Matters" section, this interactive, multimedia website is divided into four very user-friendly topics: Components of Class, How Class Breaks Down, Income Mobility, and A Nationwide Poll.
Resource Type: Website
18. The Color of Wealth: The Story Behind the Racial Wealth Divide (external link)
Abstract: Why does the median family of color have less than a dime for every white dollar? The Color of Wealth exposes how people of color have been barred from government wealth-building programs benefiting white Americans. This uniquely multicultural economic history covers the asset-building stories of Native Americans, Latinos, African Americans, Asian Americans, and European Americans.
Resource Type: Book
19. The Growing Divide: Inequality and the Roots of Economic Insecurity (external link)
Abstract: This curriculum is useful to help students understand the growing gaps between people in the US along income lines, examining both the causes and consquences of this problem.
Resource Type: Curriculum
23. Ultimate Field Guide to the U.S. Economy: A Compact and Irreverent Guide to Economic Life in America (external link)
Resource Type: Book
24. United for a Fair Economy (external link)
Abstract: UFE raises awareness that concentrated wealth and power undermine the economy, corrupt democracy, deepen the racial divide, and tear communities apart. The website contains reports, fact sheets, cartoons, games, and a library on information on economic and racial inequities in our society.
Resource Type: Website
25. Washing Away the Veil: Katrina and the Racial Wealth Divide (external link)
Abstract: Explores the racial wealth divide that is so prevalant in our country, which isn't new, but was at least brought back into public discourse by Hurricane Katrina.
Resource Type: Article
Here's some facts from the Katrina article-
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Long before Katrina, racial wealth/income inequality undermined the quality of lives of African-Americans in Louisiana. For like the rest of the country, Louisiana is plagued by the deepening racial economic divide. In Louisiana, the average income for African-Americans is $21,461, while that of whites is $40,049. While African-Americans comprise 31.5% of the population in Louisiana, 69% of the children in poverty are African-Americans. Additionally, compared to white women, African-American women are twice as likely not to have health care. It is no surprise, then, that the majority of those left behind to face Hurricane Katrina were African-Americans, Mexicans, Hondurans, and other people of color. The class position of these people is intertwined with race. In Louisiana, the state with the second highest rates on inequality in the country, it is clear that race (and class) matters.
But if you think that racial economic inequality is peculiar to the south, think again. It is the norm nationwide. By the standard (and limited) measure of income, racial inequality is readily apparent. The typical African-American family makes 59 cents for every dollar earned by the typical white household. The wealth divide is even greater. In 2001, the median household net worth of the typical white family was $121,000, while for the typical African-American family it is $19,000. This means that Blacks have less than 16 cents for every dollar of assets held by a typical white household. In other words, there is a $102, 000 dollars net worth penalty for being Black.
Hurricane Katrina made the burden of this penalty immediately accessible. The veil was washed away. The folks of color in New Orleans, Biloxi, Mobile, etc. who had no savings accounts, no insured homes, no other sources of income besides a low paying job, and no health or retirement security suffered from the combined forces of malignant government neglect, systematic corporate plunder, and deeply rooted racial wealth and income inequality. By revealing all of these factors, Hurricane Katrina is forcing the society to grapple with the cost of being poor, a person of color, and/or an immigrant. Critically, Hurricane Katrina rendered particularly visible—the cost of being asset poor and Black.
Yet, the mantra—race does not matter—is repeated. Many whites are rejecting race as a factor in inequality and in the government’s response to Hurricane Katrina. According to the most recent Pew poll, while 71% of African-Americans think that racial inequality is still an issue, only 32% of whites share those sentiments. And while 66% of African-Americans believed that government response would have been faster if the victims had been white, only 17% of whites agreed. Why is this? One part of the explanation is the widespread belief in the mythology of a colorblind society. Another part of the explanation is the growing economic insecurity faced by most whites. Stuck in the logic of “zero-sum game” thinking (and racist thinking as well), many whites believe that any benefits to other people come at their expense. The unstated belief is that whites are the most important race, and they are entitled to get theirs before people of other races get any. Therefore, they remain resistant to measures to remedy racial wealth inequality.
But it need not be a zero-sum game. Most whites are not doing well in this economy. Household income has been decreasing since 2001. Wages have been stagnating. Jobs are harder to find, often pay low wages, and tend to provide minimal benefits. In this “jobless recovery,” Black unemployment rose from 7% in 2001 to 9.6% in August 2005, but white unemployment also rose, from 2.75% to 4.2%. As if economic insecurity was not already too great, the Bush Administration is attempting to privatize social security and increase pension insecurity. They also want to end the estate tax for the benefits of the super-rich at the expense of hard working people. Consequently, whites, like everyone else, are feeling the squeeze of anti-people and pro-corporation economic policies.
Finding scapegoats is not the answer. People of color are not the beneficiaries of the growing wealth/income inequality. Along with many white people who have limited incomes and wealth, they are being pushed into greater economic insecurity. In fact, people of other races are even further disadvantaged, since they continue to face barriers to wealth accumulation that compound historical disadvantages, which render them most vulnerable in times of crises. This is one of the crucial lessons that we should take from Hurricane Katrina.
There's a lot more to this issue than just name calling. Imus showed that theres an underlying acceptance of right to be mildly racist and bigoted and that is still acceptable. The message gets out and social animators, like him,, and so are usefuland used regularily to stir up foment within the masses. Worked in Germany and it's working in Iraq as well too!
Somehow we let people legitimize this dehumanizing as normal without questioning people for why they do it. It's up to whites to correct whites since they don't seem to want to stop it. Blame shiftig is no excuse, and unlike the Indians you can't just kill everyone off and claim their land. You invited them into your country, or took their land from them and expect them to sit back and take it? I'd like to see what any white person would be like if the roles were reversed.
Again, this comes from the top down. When I was young and growing up, I knew nothing about race difference or religious difference. I was introduced to it. It was not inherited. It came down from parents or authority figures and was transmitted by peers. It's called a "social construct". Religion, patriarchy, politics, power- all social constructs that evolve and perfect themselves until they make perfect idealized sense. Racism and bigotry have this purpose as well.
Human nature is a funny thing- how it operates-andwhere it comes from- it allows us to divide based on difference of appearance and beliefs. Since most things that are subtle and intended come from a place of wealth, I must assume you enjoy protecting the wealth and privilege that whites obviously enjoy. Perhaps you are just another unwitting patsy of their intentions, believing that since it makes sense it must be accurate, but I noticed you apologized for your words on several occasions, yet have no problem feeling someone is getting a free ride. Again, this is a common lament for those who don't want solutions- especially if it means someone gets something for free that they think they have to pay to their disadvantage, while they have all the cards in the deck. Cheaters Monopoly perhaps?.
I hope that this information might help you to understand that this problem is much more serious and common- to varying degrees. As historical accounts prove, it is a common trait we have used to divide and not bring us together. That it is the rich mans game and has no place in our world any longer is obvious. Any christian can surely see that.