The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age
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    This Is Gonna Sound Ugly, But Let's Keep It Real And Save Our Children, Black Folks

    By Wattree on Sat, 09/05/2015 - 6:57am |

    BENEATH THE SPIN • ERIC L. WATTREE

    This Is Gonna Sound Ugly, But Let's Keep It Real And Save Our Children, Black Folks
    .

    Let's keep it real. While the crimes being committed against Black people are unconscionable, in many cases we're allowing ourselves to be victimized. Of course, there are those who are going to accuse me of blaming the victim, but the fact is, sometimes the victim is partially to blame for his situation. The concept of placing oneself in harm's way is very real, and that's exactly what we're allowing to happen in the Black community.
    .
    Let us take an extreme example of that concept at work to make my point.  If a person is told that the Klan is having a rally in an isolated location at midnight that night, the person getting that information would be perfectly within his rights if he decided to go home, comb out his Afro, put on his most colorful dashiki, and walk past the rally singing "I'm Black and I'm Proud." But if he ended up being shot or lynched and someone suggested that he had acted stupidly, it would be next to impossible for the man's family to claim that the critic was blaming the victim, because the critic would be right. Yes, the Klan definitely committed a heinous crime by killing the man, and the perpetrators should get exactly what the law prescribes for their murderous act. But we can't avoid the fact that the victim was, at the very least, partially responsible for his own demise, because he failed to utilize the common sense to ensure his own survival, and that's exactly what's happening in the Black community..
    .

    In order to protect our interest we should be doing everything in our power to see to it that anyone who is abusive or takes any life is brought to justice. We should consider abusive behavior and the taking of life as unacceptable - period. But we're not doing that. While we go absolutely berserk (and we should) when a cop kills an unarmed Black person, we literally step over the bodies without a whimper when a home-grown criminal kills another Black person. In many cases he's made a hero of the community for being so tough.  that's why so many youngsters try go for bad, and brag about their "Gats."
    .
    That attitude not only makes our community less safe, but it lessens the chances that bad cops will be brought to justice - and there's a very clear-cut reason for that.  When we allow criminals to operate with relative impunity in our community, it contributes to an environment that is so violent that potential jurors tend to give bad cops the benefit of the doubt because they see them as operating in a war zone. In addition, when we single out cops - and not EVERYONE who murders another human being - it makes us look disingenuous. It makes it look like we don't care about Black lives at all; we're just using the death of a Black person as a pretext to go after cops. As a result, jurors tend to close ranks to protect cops - even bad cops. But don't become confused over my position, I want to make it absolutely clear that I have absolutely no sympathy for either an abusive, or a murderous cop whatsoever, but with that said, I also want to make it absolutely clear that I'm equally hostile toward a murderous criminal as I am a bad cop. To me they're one and the same - they're both criminals. While one might say, "But a cop should be held to a higher standard," I disagree. EVERYBODY should be held to the SAME standard - YOU DON'T KILL PEOPLE!!! 
    .
    Thus, the Black community must mount a concerted effort to correct the conditions that tend to make the community vulnerable to injustice and abuse, because the very first thing that any society does before it commits genocide against a people is to denigrate and demonize them. That serves to dehumanize them to the point where the larger population becomes comfortable with the fact that it's okay to exterminate them - it was done to the Native Americans (savages); it was done during slavery and Jim Crow to African Americans (niggers); and it was recently done to Muslims (terrorists). But now they've added an ingenious new wrinkle to this technique.  Now they're paying Black people to demonize themselves, by producing and distributing ten minute commercials around the world portraying Black people as gangsters, drug dealers, and worthless human beings.
    .

    Okay, now here comes the ugly part that I spoke of - If we placed as much energy into education, community affairs, voting, and supporting Black businesses as we do saggin', flo-showin', and making people like Dr. Dre billionaires by calling the very womb of our culture "bitches" and "hoes," we'd be the ones running the police dept. in the black community.  But many of us are much too busy trying to make it look like we've attained the "American dream" as individuals, to be bothered with trying to create a better, and more wholesome, community for our children. Our minds (including my own when I was raising my children) was more fixated on getting out of the area. African Americans are the only group of people in the world, that I can think of, who measure our self-worth by how far we can get away from our own culture. Instead of loving and supporting our culture, it's about "look at me; I ain't like the rest of y'all!" That's Willie Lynch, hard at work.
    .
    I placed an early draft of this piece on Facebook and a well-meaning defender of the Black community by the name of Lynda said the following:
    .
    "Who's we?  Maybe you don't or your associates don't. These kinds of statements don't not reflect 'all' Black people. Just speak for yourself! When you say stupid stuff like this, it reflects on everybody."
    .
    In response, I pointed out the following facts to Lynda:
    .
    "What I've said reflects on enough Black people where it keeps us at the bottom of the socio-economic ladder. It's also reflective enough where people can come here penniless from other countries and step right over us to become our bosses, landlords and the very people we're protesting to. So tell me one thing that I said above that's not true. The fact is, you can't. That's why you didn't do it in the first place. Instead, you just said my words were "stupid." But I beg to differ. What's stupid is SAYING my words are stupid without being able to show me HOW their stupid; and what's stupid is sticking your head in the sand because you don't like what you see on the surface. Another thing that's stupid is trying to be so supportive of your people that you support helping them commit cultural suicide instead of simply facing the truth and addressing it. Now THOSE are things that are stupid.
    .
    "So I repeat - "If we placed as much energy into education, community affairs, voting, and supporting Black businesses as we do saggin', flo-showin' and making people like Dr. Dre billionaires, we'd be the ones running the police dept. in the black community. Now tell me, what's either stupid or untrue about that? Let me answer that for you - not a damn thing, so I won't take the time to wait around for your response.
    .
    "Wake up lady and face reality. The Black community is hurting because there's a cancer growing in our midst and people like yourself keep insisting it's only a heat rash.  You seem to feel that all we have to do is demand that the White man come and bring us a little ointment and everything will be alright.  Well, let me tell you something, sister. The White establishment don't give a damn if our asses fall off - or, they has to blow 'em off. So what we need to recognize is, we can't out-scream him, because he controls the media, and we can't out fight him, because he controls the military and makes the guns; so all we can do is stop being "stupid," educate ourselves, and learn to out-think 'em.
    .
    "But people like yourself aren't about that. You're too worried about our image. You want to just keep sittin' around saying, "We shouldn't air our dirty laundry in public?" Well, I've got one question in that regard.  Where the Hell ARE we suppose to air 'em, in secret!!!? If you'll pull your head out the sand you'll see that trying to hide our dirty laundry ain't been workin' for us. The only people in the world who don't seem to see right through us is ourselves, and all that hiding our dirty laundry philosophy has led to is our kids being shot down in the street like dogs while the rest of the community is walking around in dirty draws.
    .
    "I know it's unpleasant to face our shortcomings, but we can't correct our problems if we refuse to acknowledge them. And believe me, failing to acknowledge what's killing us is as stupid as it gets."
    .
    I BEAR WITNESS
    .
    I sit, I watch,
    and I grow ever more obsolete
    as I bear witness.
    .
    I bear witness
    to a once vibrant people greedily gulping down society’s hemlock. Even as they claim to be "keeping it real," they continue to maim, kill, and despise their own in hot pursuit of the prime directive with the passion of a sheetless Klan.
    .
    I bear witness
    to Black fists in the air in false solidarity promoted by self-serving poverty pimps as the world looks on and giggle at crooked fingers pointed elsewhere.
    .
    I bear witness
    to the superficial attempt to ban the “N-word” while the new "un-niggas" stand around watching children killing children and fathers drugging sons, as they celebrate, lionize, and enrich those who denigrate the very womb of their culture with impunity.
    .
    I bear witness
    to a generation of lost knowledge, cut off from its roots by Ronnie’s “Just say no” generation of crack, greed, death, and political corruption; A generation where the new N-word is pronounced “Responsibility” and the keepers of the flame completely ignore the destructive power of "bitch," "slut," "hoe," and "tramp."
    .
    I bear witness
    to the reckless disregard of the words "uneducated," "irresponsible," and "classless." Should we not ban these words as well, or should we ban banning words altogether as we celebrate their meaning?
    .
    Yes, I do bear witness.
    I bear witness to a new world -
    a world where gross ignorance comes disguised as enlightenment, and funky sneakers look down with disdain upon the sweet smell of Florsheim; a world where saggin’ pants and gaudy glitter enable country bumpkins to masquerade as elegant, and the exquisite surrender of eloquence is the very essence of what it means to be hip.
    .
    Where's Langston? Where's Baldwin? Where's Oscar Brown, Jr.?
    We need you stormin' this beach, because . . .
    .
    I now bear witness
    to a world where motherhood stands alone, to be “dope” renders a smile, and posterity is forced to embrace the wind for paternal sustenance; A world where the walking dead strut about rapping the wisdom of idiocy, and we praise the illiteracy of vulgar nursery rhymes as profound; a world where the mother of salvation's final gasp is compared to the pigmentation of brown paper bags.
    .
    Malcolm, Martin, where are you?
    I once stood with a crowd.
    Now seemingly alone,
    I'm forced to bear witness -
    horrific witness . . .
    to the imminent demise of our people,
    .
    And my heart bleeds.

    Comments

    Eric

    I have grown tired of the meme that the black community ignores the problems in urban communities. As we create posts on dagblog today, there are twelve parents in Chicago conducting a hunger strike to oppose the closing of a neighborhood school. The closing would mean that some children will have to travel 16 miles to get to the "neighborhood" school. In Chicago, students will have to take two buses and a train to get to school. Do not dare tell me that those parents don't care about their children. Also, don't tell me that the Governor, Mayor, city council, school board, or citizens of Chicago give a damn about the minority children impacted by the school closing.

    We love pointing to the pathology in black neighborhoods. We excuse away the pathology that places stress on black neighborhoods by stating that black people cant expect any help from those in power. The idea that blacks who are trapped on an urban reservation and witnessing the removal of a source of education cannot ask for better is ridiculous. At its core it is evil.

    We love to look down on the poor. All those parents have to do is organize their own schools, buy their own books, hire their own set of teachers. They the. Have to rent their own building and meets fire codes. Then they have to buy their own computers. Stop asking government for anything. That is the message that we expect from The GOP. Fend for yourself poor people. Pull yourselves up by your own boot straps.

    People in Chicago are trying Eric. We are giving them no help and criticizing them for having no bootstraps. Think about this Eric, teen pregnancies are decreasing. People are trying. We know that young mothers have stresses that tend to make them poor parents. The young woman has made the right decision. Her reward is to have a school removed. We do not give a damn about poor black people. We ignore the stress they face.

    All black parents have to do is tell their black child who is having educational sources removed, lives in an environment of high unemployment, or is in a low-paying job in fast food that requires food stamps to be able to eat the bare minimum, to avoid a life of crime. We are hypocrites.

    All the poor people in New Orleans doing minimum wage jobs in the casinos and bars had to do is pool their money to rent buses to go to another city when warned about Katrina. Now that their houses in the low-lying lower 9th Ward are destroyed, all they need to do is pull themselves up by their bootstraps. Of course, when they tried to rebuild homes in NOLA, they had to file a lawsuit to get the full replacement value of their homes. At every step of the way, we go out of our way to make sure poor urban people stay poor and uneducated. We then feign surprise when there is crime.

    The black urban community has been active in looking for something better, they haven't been successful. Given that they are fighting the government and their fellow citizens, that is not unexpected.

    Eric, we are going to be judged by how we treat the poor. We expect miracles as we sit and shake our heads at the poor conditions of urban neighborhoods, not lifting a finger. God will judge us. For the mire secular, history will judge us.

    Those who live in urban poverty have not solved their issues. They are despised. 

    We have had multiple mass shooting including the slaughter of children in Sandy Hook. We have had the murder of a reporter and cameraman on live TV. There will be no change in gun laws. There will be no push for background checks. We do not call gun-control advocates failures. They are fighting the good fight. On the other hand, we call the poor failures. We are hypocrites.

     


    by rmrd0000 on Sat, 09/05/2015 - 11:54am

    I am also going to note that the NYT ran an article Monday about the recent spike in crime. Black Lives Matter has been labeled a terrorist group by some. Others who look at crime question that there is a true crime epidemic. But since perception is everything, we will be in crime panic mode.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/new-york-times-ferguson-effect_55e83...


    by rmrd0000 on Sat, 09/05/2015 - 12:07pm

    RM,

    Many of the problems that the Black community is facing across this country is a direct result of our tendency to be reactive rather than proactive.  Take Ferguson, Mo, for example.  The Black community could have avoided the problems they had in that city by simply voting.  The Black population in Ferguson is 67%, yet only 7% turned out to vote.  As a result, the police department is 94% White. In the last election they corrected that problem with record Black voter turnout, but it was a little too late for Michael Brown. So let us learn from the Ferguson experience and be PROACTIVE in our response to what's taking place in Leimert Park, because much like in the case of Michael Brown, it's going to be much too late to try to demonstrate AFTER the fact. So NOW is the time to get up-in-arms. 
    *

    ON THE ISSUE OF GENTRIFICATION:

    Tatia Dokes of Denver said:
    .
    "We are facing this same issue in my neighborhood. The last historically black neighborhoods in Denver. We have gentrification meetings and how to combat it every month with less than 5 black folks there and the rest are white folks wanting to "understand." 
    *
    COMMUNITY ACTION:

    Fed up with essentially begging for access to affordable, quality food,      residents of this predominantly African-American and low-income neighborhood decided to open their own grocery store.
    .

    "After learning about cooperative businesses, they decided to open a community-owned grocery store. The store would meet local residents’ needs for access to quality food and dignified, well-paid jobs. And now it’s going to happen. When the Renaissance Community Cooperative opens in 2015, it will be a conventional grocery store (like a Food Lion or Kroger) where wages start at $10 per hr."
    *

    BLACK SPENDING POWER:

    So based on Professor Neelankavil’s data, the African American community’s buying power of $1.1 trillion is equal to the economy of Germany, the third largest industrial economy in the world. We control $127 billion more than France, and $607 billion more than the gross national product of China. But here's the problem.     Currently, a dollar circulates in Asian communities for a month, in Jewish communities approximately 20 days and white communities 17 days. How long does a dollar circulate in the black community? 6 hours!!! African American buying power is at 1.1 Trillion, and yet only 2 cents of every dollar an African American spends in this country goes to black owned businesses"(http://www.clutchmagonline.com/2014/02/african-americans-1-1-trillion-dollars-buying-power-putting-good-use/).
    .
    But in spite of the $1.1 trillion passing through the Black community, there are many who still insist on coming up with the excuse that the problem is with the banks - they won’t finance Black businesses. That’s a lame excuse, and we really need to stop trying to make excuses for our condition, because by coming up with all of these excuses, we’re simply giving ourselves a convenient excuse for failure. With all of the money that passes through the Black community, if we came together we could establish our OWN banks. 
    *

    The Black Community Is Gradually Being Erased, And Black People Are Being Turned Into Nomads And Cultural Refugees
    http://wattree.blogspot.com/2015/05/the-black-community-is-gradually-being.html
    *

    *

    CASE CLOSED


    by Wattree on Sat, 09/05/2015 - 12:32pm

    Eric the case is not closed. You give the case of a community-owned grocery store to tell me that the black community is not doing anything. They opened a grocery store. Black entrepreneurs and businesses are commonplace. I gave you a link to millennials impacting Detroit, you apparently did not read it. Here is another link about entrepreneurs in Detroit. I hope you will read this one.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/17/detroit-black-owned-businesses-...

    Businesses owned by black women have increased by over 300% since 1997. 

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/07/02/black-women-fastest-growi_n_771...

    You are simply unaware of what has been going on in the black community 


    by rmrd0000 on Sat, 09/05/2015 - 1:14pm

    Here is the story of 100 black men welcoming students on the first day of schools.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/black-professionals-greet-kids-first...


    by rmrd0000 on Sat, 09/05/2015 - 1:29pm

    Whatever happened to the drive for desegregation?  Most of what is now discussed is better segregation but an improved ghetto is still a ghetto and even the more affluent segregated areas are just separate but somewhat equal.

    These  segregated areas are almost totally dependent economically and politically on outside forces and produce little of their needs including jobs, finance and even the drugs that plague them. Breaking this dependence and emptying the ghettos  would be extremely difficult but their continued existence means continuing exploitation, poverty and repression.

    Move the working people to better neighborhoods with better schools and closer opportunities for improvement, there are millions of foreclosed cheap homes available, send the old folks to Florida and Arizona  where there are plenty of empty condos just as White people do with their elderly. Send the troubled youth not to jail but to Forest Service camps where they can learn wildland firefighting along with other conservation skills which are desperately needed. The first Smoke-Jumpers were all Black men from the Triple Nickel during WW2 sent to the Northwest to fight the fires caused  by Japanese incendiary balloons.

     

     

     


    by Peter (not verified) on Sat, 09/05/2015 - 2:34pm

    Another idea would be to invest where people are not already living. Small business loans. Building schools instead of tearing them down. People have friends and relatives with their neighborhoods, they may not want to leave.

    As an outsider, I could see an argument that moving out of low-lying parts of New Orleans seems reasonable at first blush. I realize that once the land grab occurs more attention will be paid to creating a levee system that actually projects the area would be the first order of business. The reason for moving is that we don't care about the lives of blacks especially when they are poor.


    by rmrd0000 on Sat, 09/05/2015 - 3:28pm

    RM,
    .
    You're not getting it.  The problem is not just about Black entrepreneurs; the problem is about Black people educating themselves to the point where they understand how the system works. Clear evidence of that is the difficulty that I'm having relating this a basic concept that SHOULD be clear to everyone reading this thread. And personally, I'm convinced that the problem goes beyond education. I think that many Black people understand the problem, but they're more interested in arguing that "It's not our fault,"  than they are addressing the problem.  If White supremacy and our history was actually the problem, then ALL Black people would be living in a state of destitution, but that's not the case. So the situation MUST be based at it's root on individual behavior.
    .
    A HOME IN THE BLACK COMMUNITY OF BALDWIN HILLS, CALIFORNIA


    .
    When my son and daughter were in elementary school, I managed to get them in school in the community above, and they're both doing much better than I am today as a result of it - and they ain't having no problems with "the White man."  In fact, they're living right along side of him - at least, those White folks who can afford to live in their neighborhoods. So upward mobility is a LEARNED  behavior that's EARNED.  It's not something that's BESTOWED upon you by White benevolence.    


    by Wattree on Sun, 09/06/2015 - 1:03am

    Comment/picture removed. We don't allow garbage here.

    by Resistance on Sat, 09/05/2015 - 2:38pm


    by rmrd0000 on Sat, 09/05/2015 - 4:29pm

    From the dash cam footage

    From the dash cam  

    Why is this person running from the police?  Is he wanted for murder? 


    by Resistance on Sat, 09/05/2015 - 8:21pm

    Running from the police is a crime. What do you think the punishment for that crime should be? Do you think summary execution in the street is an appropriate punishment for that crime?


    by ocean-kat on Sat, 09/05/2015 - 8:28pm

    In Resistance's mind the police officer, who lied about the circumstances of the shooting is doing what Jesus would have done. 


    by rmrd0000 on Sat, 09/05/2015 - 9:32pm

    Comment removed.  

    Resistance, I will remove every personal attack I see coming from you.  it is a blatant violation of Dagblog's TOS and you know it.  You've been warned. 


    by Resistance on Sat, 09/05/2015 - 11:33pm

    Black Lives Matter has taken no lives. That is a lie. People hate the authorities when they shoot unarmed people in the back. They question the morals of people who are apologists when police shoot unarmed people in the back. Rant on.


    by rmrd0000 on Sun, 09/06/2015 - 12:12am

    .


    by Resistance on Sun, 09/06/2015 - 7:04am

    Again, I am not surprised by your denials

    Just as you and the supporters of the "Hands up don't shoot" movement will never admit, the support of that LIE led to violence in Ferguson 

    Just as you would now deny the violence against police officers could be due to the BLM  

    I understand denials and a lie serves your cause;  better than admitting the truth.


    by Resistance on Sun, 09/06/2015 - 7:08am

    There is no assault on police officers. This year, the number of gun deaths of police officers is on track to be at a historic low.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/fox-news-hypes-imaginary-boost-in-vi...

     


    by rmrd0000 on Sun, 09/06/2015 - 10:31am

     But many of us are much too busy trying to make it look like we've attained the "American dream" as individuals, to be bothered with trying to create a better, and more wholesome, community for our children. Our minds (including my own when I was raising my children) was more fixated on getting out of the area. African Americans are the only group of people in the world, that I can think of, who measure our self-worth by how far we can get away from our own culture. Instead of loving and supporting our culture, it's about "look at me; I ain't like the rest of y'all!" That's Willie Lynch, hard at work.

    I question the "only" part of this statement. I worked hard to get out of the scene I was in. I don't think I live in a culture of the kind you speak of. I don't belong to a people. Taken strictly as a report of your experiences, you don't either.

    Many people i have met come from lots of different places and their hard work gave them relative control of their lives but they don't talk about how they secured the future of a culture. There is a culture of survival and it has been glorified by some but it is not a place for nurturing a future by design.

    The pernicious cycle of privilege that gives advantages to a few at the expense of many is not something to glorify. I share your lack of respect for those who embrace that. And there are many people from many places who understand that very well. I see more hope in that common understanding than each of us hunkering down into groups.


    by moat on Sat, 09/05/2015 - 8:01pm

    Eric 

    You keep mocking poor black people by bringing up the magical trillions flowing through the black community. Those dollars are not through many people on the urban reservations. People are surviving on $2 a day. 

    http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/12/extreme-poverty-unemployment...

    Professor Edin has a new book that describes the lives the poor actually live. People are trying but the system is geared to crush the poor. We cannot be surprised by the results we see. The poor are victimized by landlords and employers. This is how we allow American citizens to be treated. 


    by rmrd0000 on Sat, 09/05/2015 - 10:39pm

    Listen, RM,

    You can't tell me anything about being poor.  I'm a hood rat. My first memory in life was of the police coming to my house in the middle of the night, shooting my dog, and dragging my father off to the pen. Thereafter, I went in and out of juvenile institutions and jails all of my teenage years, between the ages of 12 and 19 years old. I was born in Watts and raised in the Pueblo Del Rio Projects 10 miles away, an area where even the most dedicated criminals were afraid to come into - even to get drugs.
    .
    At 16 I was shot in the head, and shot and killed the 36 year-old guy who shot me (I didn't graze him). At 17 I was busted in the head, resulting in 5 stitches, while in a scuffle with the cop (Sgt. Foster) who first arrested me when I was 12 years old (the guy just wouldn't leave me alone, so  I decided to kick his ass).  At 19 I got involved with some of my father's old associates and ended up getting arrested with a briefcase filled with heroin, Seconal, and various other kinds of controlled substances.  Thereafter, I spent several months in jail while I was going through the judicial process (And my cell partner during those months was Sonny Barger, One of the original founders of the Hell's Angels).  After my convictions, that same cop whose gun I tried to take from him, showed up at my sentencing hearing and convince the judge that I should be sent into the military instead of prison because I wasn't criminal, I was just dumb.  That cop died just one year before my son's graduation as a DEA agent from the FBI Academy. If it hadn't been for that cop's actions, my son, daughter, or any of my grandchildren would have been born, because I would have been in prison.
    .
    So please don't lecture me on what it's like to grow up in the hood.  I know it from every perspective.

    SONNY BARGER
    .
    Image result for Sonny Barger 

    The Hood Rat

     

    *
    Baby,
    I’m sure you know that I love you.
    You’re everything I need.
    You fit the bill of all my desires,
    a perfect match for all of my dreams.
    From the moment I first laid eyes on you,
    You were everything I craved -
    that luscious vision
    from across the tracks,
     
    that delicate flower
    just beyond my blade.
    *
    But what you ask is foreign to me.
    You need something that I’m not.
    You said, just tweak my nature a little bit,
    and you’ll give everything you’ve got.
    *
    But that "tweak" you need is who I am -
    it’s my essence, can’t you see?
    So how can you speak of loving my soul,
    while denying the hood rat
    that makes me, me?
    *
    While "hood rat" may seem trite to you,
    it’s the very essence of my being.
    So forget about what other’s say,
    here’s what it means to me:
    *
    I’ve been brutally dragged through the pits of hell,
    yet, managed to survive,
    well educated, and fully functional,
    when I came out the other side.
    I scrounged the lessons taught at Harvard -
    because knowledge, I found, was free.
    But they’ll never obtain the lessons I’ve learned -
    or grasp
    my knowledge of adversity.
    *
    While the "elite" may have heard a mournful Trane,
    or Miles muted on a Summer night,
    not in the context of hunger and pain,
    or hopelessness, hatred, and blight.
    *           
    So while I've lived the life of a hood rat,
    I’ve reaped a knowledge that money can't buy; 
    a knowledge passed on to my son and daughter,
    which has greatly enhanced their lives.
    * 
    So I wouldn't change a thing about my life -
    I’ve faced hell and passed the test.
    I have a PhD in adversity, and
    it's made me much more,
    rather than less.
    *
    So unlike the people at Harvard and Yale,
    who try to buy intellectual clout,
    they only listen to the genius of Miles and Trane,
    while I'm who they’re playin' about.
    *
    So when snobs try to slur me as "just a hood rat,"
    I say, "thank you," and don’t take offense.
    I take great pride in surviving the pits of Hell -
    That’s what gives me my confidence.
    *
    The Ivy League degrees of those of means
    are only paper compared to mine;
    they merely have a "receipt" for knowledge and learning,
    while my knowledge is ETCHED in my mind.
    *
    I can TEACH philosophy to Aristotle and Plato
    with the adversity that I’ve endured,
    and any snob
    who seeks to match my wit,
    will come up short, and
    that’s for sure.
    *
    Snobs walk about quoting Socrates and such,
    due to their "education" they are prone;
    but while they’re spewing the thoughts of various dead men,
    I spend my time developing my own.
    *
    We should never give the thoughts of ANY man,
    priority over our own;
    collect the facts and think for yourself,
    that’s where
    Harvard and Yale has gone wrong.
    *
    Thus, being seen as a hood rat has its advantages -
    especially against racists of limited wit;
    I simply quietly wait for their condescension,
    then show ‘em that they ain’t shit.
    *
    God made birds to fly and fish to swim,
     
     
    but man to think, and that's the key.
     
    So any man who claims superiority
    will have have to PROVE
    he can out-think me.
    *
    Thus, knowledge is the key to set us free -
    it doesn’t matter what the people say,
    and there’s nothing more formidable than
    a knowledgeable hood rat, and
    that’s what you’re
    looking upon today.
    *
    Yet, these are the things you want me to purge -
    you want me to spurn the life I’ve led.
    Well, I’m sorry, my love,
    as much as I adore you,
    the soul of a hood rat is my edge.
    *
    Eric

    .


    by Wattree on Sun, 09/06/2015 - 9:29am

    We're never too old to learn. As rmrd's linked chart intimates, being poor may have changed quite a bit in the last 20 years. Drugs and murder may be less the challenge than super extreme poverty that perhaps didn't exist under the Great Society. Certainly I see a tick in the graph when Bush took over in 2001 and the growth of the superpoor hasn't stopped growing since. As Oceankat and now rmrd pointed out several times, money flowing through black homes doesn't dual wealth. If I now pay $800 for rent exactly where I used to pay $400 I'm not twice as wealthy - I may be running twice as fast just to stay still. The housing bubble burned blacks on property taxes, then foreclosure, then inflated rents - a lot of wealth flushed down the shitter rather than accumulated, even as single parent households increased and I imagine the extended family support system is not as strong today as in the 60's or 90's. It's easy to extrapolate our 50-year-old memories on the situation today, but not all will be valid - perhaps this is not your father's poverty but something different.

    by PeraclesPlease on Sun, 09/06/2015 - 3:14am

    Eric you have identified the current problem without even realizing it. In a post above, you note that you were able to get your children in a good school and they prospered. Where I grew up, we were segregated. The benefit of this was that I lived within walking distance of people who owned their own stores, were the first commanders in the fire department, were world class musicians. I had a black pediatrician and a black internist. You could get a full ride to college if you did well in school. My parents owned their own home.the church was part of an activist movement.

    Your experiences were much different then mine. Have you reflected that the same actions you committed as a youth would land you in prison today? When we grew up education was valued and scholarships were more common. A kindly judge would offer the military rather than prison. Today they are closing schools. Governors and legislators are decreasing funding for higher education. Imprisoning black bodies has actually become a for profit industry.

    I got an education as did your children. Like your children, I left the neighborhood of my youth. Most of the people who went to college and became engineers, chemist, physicians, lawyers, physicians, teachers, etc. left as well. Over time those left in the 'hood had less money. Gentrification occurs because those left behind don't have the financial resources to fight the good fight. The people in a better financial situation are gone. The connection to the old neighborhood is severed.

    We were fortunate Eric. You need to realize that. 

    Corporate profits are high. Unemployment is low, but wages are stagnant. There had to be protests for fast food people to obtain a livable wage. Welfare as we knew it is gone. People are working but they are still poor. We are appalled by conditions in China were workers are forced to live in closed work environments and are the beck and call of the factory. Yet here in the U.S., Poor workers have flex hours determined by the employer. An employer can call you at anytime to come in to work. You have to be available at 48 hours notice or you can be fired even if you lost your job. I implore you the read the link about workers living on $2.00 a day. If you are making minimum wage and can be asked to come in at any time, you can't take a second job to bolster your income because you could be fired from the first.

    Eric, I really don't think that you are aware of the pressures facing the poor in 2015. You are trapped in the past.

     


    by rmrd0000 on Sun, 09/06/2015 - 10:16am

    That's not true, RM,
    .
    It's just that I look at life from a different perspective. I look at what CAN be done rather than what can't. If things were so impossibly dire as you suggest NOBODY would escape the hood.  But the fact is, in spite of all of the stumbling blocks that you mentioned, a huge number of people are moving forward. That alone defeats your argument.
    .
    I don't subscribe to the arguments that you're making.  We were taught those arguments by poverty pimps who wanted convince us that we needed to hire them to represent us before "the man."  But all that mindset does in the end is give young people a convenient excuse for failure.  All it takes to succeed is knowledge, and knowledge is FREE. 
    .

    If we concede that the White man can hold us down, we're also conceding that he's superior to us. I'm not prepared to do that, and I don't bother to entertain any argument that even begins to suggest it, regardless to how convenient and self-serving it happens to be - "It's not my fault I'm a miserable failure; it's the system." Give me a break, man. If you're on your ass, and you're not suffering from some kind of disability, it's your fault.  My gardener is proving that everyday.  When I first hired him about five years ago, he couldn't speak English.  He just knocked on my door with a lawnmower and pointed at my lawn.  Today he has three trucks, and he supervise his crews from a BMW - and one other thing, he speaks English as good as I do.  We were discussing Donald Trump last week.  
    .
    So RM, you can spare me those horror stories.  Yes, there is injustice in America, but the best way to address it is through intellectual development, and the use of common sense - period.   
    .
    A Sensible Response to White Supremacy
    Let Excellence Do Our Swaggerin'
    http://wattree.blogspot.com/2013/06/a-sensible-response-to-white-supremacy.html


    by Wattree on Sun, 09/06/2015 - 12:03pm

    Eric

    Now, I'm completely confused. You were arguing that the black community was not active or doing anything to deal with the challenges they faced. I argued that the black community was fighting the good fight. Now you are arguing that a huge number of black people are moving forward. I agree that black people have not just been sitting watching BET, ESPN,etc. I am glad that you agree with me. Black people are a phenomenal group of people.


    by rmrd0000 on Sun, 09/06/2015 - 11:42am

    RM,
    .
    There's nothing confusing about it at all. One part of the discussion is regarding Black people as a collective community - generally portrayed in the media as those who are complaining about a lack of opportunity - while the other part of the discussion is regarding those Black individuals who are not waiting around for the White man to deliver gift baskets, and who are simply educating themselves, investing in their own excellence, and moving forward.  The latter are the people who are prospering, which proves without a doubt that upward mobility is a choice.
    .
    So we're going to always have people at the bottom of the heap - both Black and White - but this is due more to their behavior and the individual choices they make than anything else. Thus, there are actually two Black communities - one made up of people who are taking care of business, and another that's putting all of they're energy into bemoaning their failure INSTEAD of taking care of business.    

    . 


    by Wattree on Sun, 09/06/2015 - 7:18pm

    I disagree that people are just bemoaning their fate. As I said, today prison is the more likely option than being offered a chance to enter the military. Today, my parents home may have faced foreclosure due to predatory lending practices. We were fortunate. You cannot admit that. I knew from infancy that education was important and that I was going to attend something called college. If we had to leave our home or the place were my father worked, circumstances would have been different. I may have made it to college, but it would have been more of a toss up.

    Observing that the system is biased is not bemoaning a condition, it is facing reality. Businesses have shifted employment to cheaper workers overseas. Factories have closed. Schools are being closed. Times have changed. There is profit in targeting people for ticketing. There is profit in putting people in privately-owned prisons.

    We will continue to disagree. Enjoy your Labor Day weekend.


    by rmrd0000 on Sun, 09/06/2015 - 1:12pm

    Of interest Alicia Garza one of the founders of Black Lives Matter, is also Special Projests Director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance. She is working to ensure that domestic workers have the same workplace benefits as other workers. It took a lawsuit for home are workers to be "granted" minimum wage and overtime protection. Those "lazy" poor people have to fight for every crumb. They are not whining about their plight. They are not bemoaning their situation. They are fighting for their rights as others blame them from being poor. 

     


    by rmrd0000 on Sun, 09/06/2015 - 1:42pm

    RM, you said, 
    .
    "Observing that the system is biased is not bemoaning a condition, it is facing reality. Businesses have shifted employment to cheaper workers overseas. Factories have closed. Schools are being closed. Times have changed. There is profit in targeting people for ticketing. There is profit in putting people in privately-owned prisons."

    If you'll notice, RM, what you said above is all about what the the White establishment is doing, and it says absolutely nothing about what WE  should being doing in response. What I'm pushing here, and one of the most important lessons that Black people must absorb is, life, reality, and our existence is not based solely upon what the White man does, but also, what WE do.  We must learn that WE are in control of our own destiny, not the White man. Your very mindset has been inbred in us through slavery.  Yes, we live in America, but we CAN achieve economic and social independence.
    .
    And I'm sick of even hearing about the prison/industrial complex, because, as I've pointed out above, I have extensive experience with jailin' - and let me tell you something about that - 99.9% of the people who are in jail SHOULD be there. I BELONGED THERE. If many of these people weren't in jail, they'd be on the street victimizing the Black community. So that's a none-issue for me.  That's one of the few issues where I think the system is working in the Black community's interest. Yes, the system is unjust to Black criminals, but on the up side, it's keeping people who would be murdering, robbing, and extorting Black people off the street.  So again, this issue is not high on my priority list when it comes to social injustice. There are literally MILLIONS of Black people who have never even seen the inside of a jail.  So the best way to deal with the prison/industrial complex is simple - don't get busted.


    by Wattree on Sun, 09/06/2015 - 8:21pm

    Eric

    I keep pointing out what the Black community is doing. The community is working at jobs. The community is battling injustice. You were lucky in avoiding prison. You ridicule people who weren't as lucky. You became an upstanding citizen. There are many in prison for non-violent offenses. They were not lucky. Many would benefit from rational drug policies. Many would benefit from a second chance.

    Violent criminals can be keep in prison. Unfortunately, there aren't enough of them to satisfy the profits demanded by prison corporations. There is also the legal issue of parole. There are many examples of people imprisoned who have made the most of a second chance. One man a carjacker, Reginald Dwayne Betts Jr., wrote two books of poetry and is in Yale Law School since his release. Actor Charles S Dutton was convicted of manslaughter. He was released and went to prison again for possession of a deadly weapon. After getting out he got his GED and attended community college sending him on a path to Broadway and Hollywood. Violent people can change and become non-violent.

    I realize that a lot of what got me through life, is two loving parents who had a good financial situation. They encouraged reading. Being aware of the fullness of black history got me through the negative stereotypes about black people. I also had perfect examples at home that proved the stereotypes to be lies. Under different circumstances, things may have been different.

    Neurosurgeon Ben Carson tells the story of being so angry as a youth that he almost stabbed a fellow student to death. It was a changing point in his life. He had a supportive mother. He went on the Yale.

    Let us not fool ourselves that we got to positions in life all on our own. We both had support. We should not laugh at those who don't have the right kind of support in their lives. Carson is a neurosurgeon who did pioneering surgery. Betts is in law school. Dutton is a world class actor. We all were fortunate. Lucky us.


    by rmrd0000 on Sun, 09/06/2015 - 8:30pm

    Well said.


    by barefooted on Sun, 09/06/2015 - 8:42pm

    Eric, you are sounding more and more like a Bootstrap Republican who use this same nonsense argument when talking about poor or lower income White working people. Many of the about 25% of young people who attain a degree are now relegated to the ranks of lower pay working class existence. Even the better paying professions are now susceptible to outsourcing and other Capitalist manipulations, look at how many young university instructors are treated like day laborers to keep costs down.

    Black and Hispanic college educated households have been especially hard hit by the Great Recession losing more than half of their wealth much of it actually stolen in the housing loan swindles targeted at minority families. The idea that if you get an education the crooks and liars won't screw you is a pitiful myth. Higher Education itself has become a profit center so that most students are deeply in debt before they even begin their career. The ex governor of Indiana want's to sell students to investors who will be treated as indentured servants after graduation.

    You seem to take an arrogant pleasure in denigrating the majority, Working Class people young and old, Black and White because they only want to work and advance as far as they are capable in jobs that offer reasonable rewards. No one who works should be poor but millions are, not because of their behavior or choice but because Capitalist profits are maintained by keeping then poor.

     

     

     

     

     

     


    by Peter (not verified) on Sun, 09/06/2015 - 2:29pm

    RM, you said,

    "Eric, you are sounding more and more like a Bootstrap Republican who use this same nonsense argument when talking about poor or lower income White working people. Many of the about 25% of young people who attain a degree are now relegated to the ranks of lower pay working class existence. Even the better paying professions are now susceptible to outsourcing and other Capitalist manipulations, look at how many young university instructors are treated like day laborers to keep costs down."

    My message is clear and simple.  Man up.  Stop viewing the White man as your daddy.  As long as you do, you're going to be his bitch.
    .
    You can call it "bootstraps" or whatever you want - I don't get caught up in that ideological bullshit. I give truth priority over ideology.  I follow truth wherever it leads, and regardless to whose ox it gores, and as far as I'm concerned, the thought processes of anyone who doesn't embrace that prescription can't be relied upon. It's not about my side against your side; it's about truth.  That's my position. 


    by Wattree on Mon, 09/07/2015 - 8:34am

    Peter made the comment.

    The truth is you were fortunate. You had the opportunity to Man Up.


    by rmrd0000 on Sun, 09/06/2015 - 8:32pm

    That's the reality that wattree sometimes admits but when talking about others he doesn't seem to have much empathy. We all walk a path with obstacles in the way. Some paths have more obstacles and others less. Some people on the path get a hand up, no help at all, or even a push down.

    Individual choices matter but some of the obstacles have nothing to do with individual choices. Wattree has mentioned an ancestor some generations back who started a school. How did that educated ancestor affect the respect for education in his family? That alone could have been a leg up from birth. Was there enough food for the baby/child or was he malnourished? Was he lucky enough to not get seriously ill and did his parents have decent health care when he was unlucky? Some people get a push down at a hurdle before they even have a chance to make an individual choice.

    Wattree had a preacher at a small church that helped him along. Not everyone gets that hand up. He had a cop that helped  him get an enlistment in the marines instead of years in prison.  Sure he had the intelligence and character to take advantage of that hand up. That's an individual choice, but not many get that hand up.

    Even later in life he posted that he was hassled by the cops and even ticketed. But when the cops learned that his son was a cop they saw him as the weird dad of a fellow cop and gave him a pass. Some other person might have gotten his ass kicked or even been killed.

    I'm sure there were more but that's all I can remember off the top of my head.

    The simple fact is minorities. LGBT. and women have to walk a path with more obstacles. That's not an individual choice. And generally they are less likely to get a hand up and more likely to get a push down when navigating those obstacles. That some people can succeed in spite of the extra difficulty doesn't mean everyone can and it doesn't mean we shouldn't have to work to at least make the number and difficulty of the obstacles more fair, to stop the push downs. and to make more efforts to offer a hand up.

     


    by ocean-kat on Sun, 09/06/2015 - 9:57pm

    We are products of the good fortunes or misfortune we face. I think there are times when we wonder why poor people just don't move away. We sometimes lose contact with the reality of what poverty in the United States looks like.

    Ben Carson benefited from welfare. He even admits that it helped his mother go out and do better. He was fed on food stamps. Carson now boldly states that welfare robs those "other" poor people of incentive. He is a hypocrite. 

    Clarence Thomas tells a vicious lie about his sister being dependent on welfare. When reporters tracked down Thomas' sister in 1991 when he first told the story, she was working as a cook at a local hospital. She spent four years on welfare, but was able to find employment. One son was a veteran, another a carpenter, the third son had recently been laid off from a job at a bakery. Her then fifteen-year old daughter was in school Thomas' sister was not welfare dependent or a welfare cheat. Clarence Thomas is a liar.

    We love demonizing welfare recipients even though they are working. We are hypocrites.


    by rmrd0000 on Sun, 09/06/2015 - 11:14pm

    If you're saying Watree was born on 3rd base with nobody out and Hank Aaron at bat.....bases loaded....I dunno...gotta check that bio again.


    by NCD on Sun, 09/06/2015 - 11:24pm

    No, the point he was given the opportunity to make corrections in his life.


    by rmrd0000 on Sun, 09/06/2015 - 11:38pm

    Yeah I was thinking maybe Harmon Killebrew instead of Hank...more of a K king..

    by NCD on Sun, 09/06/2015 - 11:45pm

    Please translate 


    by rmrd0000 on Sun, 09/06/2015 - 11:54pm

    You and OceanK making excuses on how easy life was for Watree is as lame as your imagining and faulting society for why others failed because they didn't have all Watree's 'lucky breaks'. 

    Next I suppose we can feel sorry for those who had all the advantages in the world but still screwed their lives by saying it is societies fault for not making them live in south LA for a month or two, or go thru Marine Corps boot camp at Parris Island.


    by NCD on Mon, 09/07/2015 - 11:13am

    Where did I say life was easy for Wattree?

    Do you think the majority of people living in urban poverty are lazy?


    by rmrd0000 on Mon, 09/07/2015 - 11:33am

    This is such a gross distortion of my comment that I find it difficult to believe your reading comprehension is bad enough that you actually believe it. This type of hyperbole makes rational discussion difficult and is one reason I rarely dialog with you.
     


    by ocean-kat on Mon, 09/07/2015 - 2:58pm

    That's a pretty silly exaggeration of my post and I think you know it. I think we all know that straight white male is the lowest difficulty setting there is.  But from the few posts I recall he's had some advantages that most other black men and women didn't have. I wouldn't bring it up if he wasn't posting nonsense like, "If White supremacy and our history was actually the problem, then ALL Black people would be living in a state of destitution, but that's not the case. So the situation MUST be based at it's root on individual behavior." That seems to be the central premise of everything he's written in this thread.

    White supremacy and history is a big part of the problem. His conversation in this thread is so lacking in nuance and any acknowledgement of the complexity of the problem. As a white male I acknowledge a certain lack of experience in this area but much of this seems like victim blaming to me. And that's especially obnoxious coming from someone who has received some significant hands up that many others in similar circumstances didn't receive.

     


    by ocean-kat on Mon, 09/07/2015 - 12:10am

    Eric

    The best reaction to realizing that your home loan is predatory is to protest. You argue about organizing for the benefit of the working class. Now you criticize citizen protests as asking the white man for stuff. There were lawsuits against Wells Fargo in Baltimore to combat predatory loans and the subsequent foreclosures. In New Orleans, people in the Ninth Ward filed a lawsuit to get the true cost of replacing their homes replaced. That is not pleading for stuff from the white man, that is fighting for your rights. In Detroit, the early stages of a lawsuit to object to the actions of an unconstitutional "special master" appointed by the Governor of Michigan is underway. People are doing the exact type of protest that you complain is not going on in a section of Los Angeles and you say stop asking the white man for stuff.You complain when people do nothing in California. You ignore when people in Maryland, Louisiana, and Michigan fight back. Black people are flawed.

    You had a very hard life and you triumphed. Congratulations, but you had help. I have three  female acquaintances who had pregnancies in their teens. They were encouraged to continue their education. They got support from family, teachers, and other mentors. They are respectively a physician, a professor of mathematics, and an engineer. The engineer's daughter is studying engineering. They all point to the help they got that helped them get where they are.

    You should be proud of what you accomplished. You should also realize that someone may not have received the help that you got and crashed and burned. That person is not lazy, but just not as lucky as you.


    by rmrd0000 on Mon, 09/07/2015 - 10:06am

    RM,
    .
    Most people have opportunities to change their lives. Every day of our lives we make decisions.  those who prosper make more good decisions than bad.  The key to life is to recognize opportunities and take advantage of opportunities when they arise.
    .
    There are two Black communities.  There is one that is made up of strivers.  They use the adversity inherent in the Black experience as an educational tool to make them more rather than less.  They understand that it is through the effort to overcome adversity that we grow. They also recognize that the only reason we can walk is because we got tired of having to crawl.  Thus, they have the insight to understand that having to deal with both overt and covert racism every day of their lives provides them with an opportunity to EVOLVE,  and to develop an intellectual muscularity to become masters over their oppressors.
    .
    Then there's another community.  This is a community that's made up of slackers, people who refuse to grow and invest in themselves.  It's made up of people who find it more convenient to use adversity as an excuse for failure rather than to see it as the challenge that it represents.  These are the people who claim that White supremacy is keeping them from moving forward. But the fact is,  if these people are allowing the White man to hold them down, the racists are right - they are inferior, but it's wrong to attribute it to race.  Just like in the case of a White barefoot Hillbilly, yes, such people are inferior, but their inferiority is a matter of individual character, and has absolutely nothing to do with their race.

     


    by Wattree on Mon, 09/07/2015 - 11:54am

    Eric

    Yes people have opportunities. You assume everyone has the same opportunity. You were able to change your life via the military. You became a striver. The guy who came behind you with a similar record went to prison. Your life wasn't easy. The next guy's life wasn't easy. You got a break. The next guy didn't. You are a striver. He was unlucky. I don't understand why you cannot take this into account. You had help. Some people don't.


    by rmrd0000 on Mon, 09/07/2015 - 11:49am

    Prison obviously has a negative effect on employment, but there are still strivers among ex-felons. Do you tell your employer that you were in prison?

    http://www.vice.com/read/why-is-getting-a-job-after-prison-still-such-a-...

    I gave examples of a Yale law school student and an actor above who were strivers despite being in prison.


    by rmrd0000 on Mon, 09/07/2015 - 11:57am

    What percentage of blacks do you consider strivers? What data do you use to support your assessment?


    by rmrd0000 on Mon, 09/07/2015 - 12:00pm

    I apologize for not moderating this thread better, and for allowing Resistance to once again disrupt with ugly distractions having nothing to do with the topic.

    It took someone who lurks here without commenting to bring it to my attention. That person wondered why he was allowed to stay here.  I wonder myself sometimes. I'm asking all of you once again to stop responding to him.  It's not that hard to do, once you realize his only purpose for being here is to disrupt.

     


    by Ramona on Mon, 09/07/2015 - 2:04pm

    Thanks. 


    by trkingmomoe on Mon, 09/07/2015 - 2:47pm

    Thank goodness for black people who keep asking the white man for"stuff". The rest of us call this "stuff" basic human rights. The men who mutinied on "the Amistad" asked for stuff. Leaders of slave revolts like Denmark Vesey asked for "stuff". Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois asked for "stuff". Martin Luther King Jr. asked for "stuff". Fannie Lou Hamer asked for "stuff". Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton asked for "stuff". They were not whiners. They were asking for their rights.

    Today, people who ask for their rights are considered troublemakers and of wanting free stuff while not doing anything to "earn" their rights. Lets' forget about thr "alienable rights" crap that somehow was mistakenly used in the Constitution and talk about asking for something not earned. Poor people are currently put in situations were there are no jobs providing a liveable wage for their skill set. Some live in extreme poverty.

    Those  "strivers" who use the abuse of the current system to make them selves stronger morally, should realize that the loan scandal targeted them and wiped out much of their wealth. they might take time to stop laughing and criticizing the poor and realize that their wages have been stagnant. They might realize that the cost of sending a child to college has ballooned. Today, the children of many strivers who send their children to college will have children paying for college into their fifties. If you are not complaining about stagnant middle class wages and college costs, you have been bamboozled.

    If you think ridiculing the poor because you are more moral, you fail to realize that you pay for the fact the some people who worker full times jobs still don't make enough money to feed their families. We have to supply food stamps to working and military families. We are dupes.Thank goodness fast food workers were enlightened enough to ask for "stuff" like a wage that allowed them to feed their families without taking our tax dollars. Thank goodness for home health care workers who protested to get benefits. The asking for "stuff" meme is nonsense.

    Most of the poor people I know work harder than I ever have. I have lived my life in air-conditioned buildings not doing heavy physical labor. Many of the poor people I know have back breaking jobs. They are not criminals they are strivers who are lumped in with criminals because they cannot afford housing in better places.

    Thank goodness that they are not content to suffer and fight fo their "stuff" rights just like the rest of us.

    It is interesting that some who complain about asking the white man for "stuff" and ridicule the poor have written about fighting against abuse in the work place in a government agency created to deliver the mail. They should recognize that other strivers can find abuse in the workplace and need champions and not criticism


    by rmrd0000 on Tue, 09/08/2015 - 11:27am

    Hear, Hear! Especially "Most of the poor people I know work harder than I ever have...Many of the poor people I know have back breaking jobs."

    I've had some pretty enlightening conversations over the last couple years about raising the minimum wage. Talk about it for long enough and you'll invariably arrive at the fundamental objection folks have about it. Get past all the bogus "Economic" arguments--hurts small business, will create higher prices, job killer, teenagers won't be able to find a job--and the true, ugly reason people have rears it's ugly head: folks who flip burgers at the Mac Donalds don't deserve a higher wage. The work ain't worth it. Ask 'em what it would take for them to work there forty hours a week and you'll soon discover $30, $40, $50 per hour isn't enough. Of course, for the work they do, they're worth every penny and then some. The ruling class has us right where they want us.


    by kyle flynn on Tue, 09/08/2015 - 11:58am

    We used to depend on the power of Union Labor to drive increases in pay throughout the economy but those days and that power are gone. The reason those Union wages could be increased is because productivity could be increased in those skilled labor jobs and the Corporations could be forced to share some of the increased profits without raising prices dramatically.

    Our Capitalists Masters didn't like the idea of sharing the wealth so the destruction of Union/Worker  power began and now only about 7% of private employees are unionized and they have little effect on wages in the economy even their own. Many of those skilled labor jobs, union or not, are gone never to return and many of the people displaced from those jobs are reduced to competing with their own children for those pitiful low wage 'careers' at McD's or Walmart.

    Corporations will never give up profits to satisfy workers and if you use government to force pay increases they will either pass on the cost or find other ways to reduce labor costs, such as automation which will reduce the number of jobs. There is no way to increase productivity in most of these low wage jobs except to remove workers from the equation.

    Trying to push wages up from the bottom without any Labor power from above is a pitiful example of how degraded our economy is for workers as a class and it will only drive us towards the day when workers will not be needed or wanted anymore. With 3-D printers, robots and computers some people are predicting no manual workers  will be required in a very short time frame possibly as short as 30-50 years.

     

     


    by Peter (not verified) on Tue, 09/08/2015 - 1:38pm