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TechnoratiUN Panel Finds Two-Tier Society
UNITED NATIONS - The United States government is drawing fire from international legal experts for its treatment of American Indians, Blacks, Latinos and other racial minorities.
The U.S. is failing to meet international standards on racial equality, according to the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) based in Geneva, Switzerland.
Last Friday, after considering the U.S. government's written and oral testimony, the 18-member committee said it has found "stark racial disparities" in the U.S. institutions, including its criminal justice system.
The CERD is responsible for monitoring global compliance with the 1969 Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, an international treaty that has been ratified by the United States.
In concluding the CERD report on U.S. record, the panel of experts called for the George W. Bush administration to take effective actions to end racist practices against minorities in the areas of criminal justice, housing, healthcare and education.
This is the second time in less than two years that the U.S. government has been found to be falling short of its treaty obligations. In March 2006, The CERD had harshly criticised the U.S. for violating Native Americans' land rights.
Taking note of racial discrimination against indigenous communities, the Committee said it wants the U.S. to provide information about what it has done to promote the culture and traditions of American Indian, Alaska Native and indigenous Hawaiian peoples. It also urged the U.S. to apply the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
The CERD also voiced strong concerns regarding environmental racism and the environmental degradation of indigenous areas of spiritual and cultural significance, without regard to whether they are on "recognised" reservation lands.
The Committee recommended to the U.S. that it consult with indigenous representatives, "chosen in accordance with their own procedures -- to ensure that activities carried out in areas of spiritual and cultural significance do not have a negative impact on the enjoyment of their rights under the Convention".
In its 13-page ruling, the U.N. body also raised serious questions about the death penalty and in the sentencing of minors to life without parole, which it linked to racial disparities between whites and blacks.
In their testimony, Bush administration officials held that the treaty obligations do not apply to laws or practices that are race-neutral on their face but discriminatory in effect. The Committee outright rejected that claim, noting that the treaty prohibits racial discrimination in all forms, including practices and legislation that may not be discriminatory in purpose, but in effect.
The CERD panel also objected to the indefinite detention of non-citizens at Guantanamo prison and urged the U.S. to guarantee "enemy combatants" judicial review.
The panel said the U.S. needs to implement training programmes for law enforcement officials, teachers and social workers in order to raise their awareness about the treaty and the obligations the U.S. is required to uphold as a signatory.
Human rights defenders who watched the CERD proceeding closely said they were pleased with its observations and recommendations.
"The U.N. is telling the U.S. that it needs to deal with an ugly aspect of its criminal justice system," said Alison Parker of Human Rights Watch, which has been monitoring discriminatory practices in the United States for years.
In a statement, Parker hailed the U.N. panel for rejecting the U.S. government's claim that more black children get life without parole because they commit more crimes and held that the U.N. criticism of the justice system was fair.
"Once again, the Bush administration has been told by a major human rights body that it is not above the law," said Parker in of the indefinite detention of terrorism suspects at Guantanamo prison.
Other rights activists also held similar views about the outcome of the CERD hearings in Geneva.
"[It has] exposed to the world the extent to which racial discrimination has been normalised and effectively made permissible in many areas of American life," said Ajamu Baraka of the Human Rights Network, an umbrella group representing more than 250 rights advocacy organisations.
As part of its recommendations, the Committee has asked the U.S. government to consider the establishment of an independent human rights body that could help eliminate widespread racial disparities.
Lenny Foster, Diné (Navajo) and representative of the Native America Prisoners Rights Coalition, was a member of the indigenous delegation to the CERD. He observed during the examination that the United States was "in denial".
"Spiritual wellness and spiritual healing is paramount to the very survival of the indigenous nations," he said. "There are efforts to prohibit and impede the spiritual access. Corporations cannot be allowed to prohibit access and to destroy and pollute and desecrate the sacred lands."
Bill Larsen of the Western Shoshone Defence Project delegation also testified before the Committee, making a strong case concerning environmental racism and the deadly pollution caused by mining on their ancestral lands.
In March 2006, the Western Shoshone leaders had received a favourable response from the Committee to its complaint about the U.S. exploitation of their sacred lands. The U.S. is obligated "to freeze, desist and stop further harmful activities on their lands", but failed to take any action.
Indigenous leaders said they welcomed the Committee's decision to ask the U.S. to submit its report on compliance within one.year.
"It is important that all Native Peoples within the U.S. know that they have rights that are recognized by international law even if the United States refuses to recognise them or act upon them," said Alberto Saldamando, one of the indigenous delegates attending the Geneva meeting.
"Now it is not just us," he continued, "but the international community that has recognised that indigenous peoples within the United States are subject to racism on many levels and has called for effective steps by the U.S. to remedy this situation."
© 2008 Inter Press Service
62 Comments so far
Show AllI grew up in a two-tiered family in at least two major ways; racially and economically. This subject transcends mere race. It is a class issue. It is about people who believe they are superior enough to put others in "their place".
Treefrog -- Very well said. Most Christians are good people, trying to do their very best.
I've been thinking so much about psychopaths recently, it has twisted my mind's usual tolerance.
I've been told that SOURCE energy cannot be manipulated for EVIL purposes, but I'm beginning to better understand that this is likely relative, as so much in life is.
I would appreciate any knowledgeable assurances
that all of this potential avalanche of EVIL will not enter my loved-one's lives,
unless I somehow make that my intention/wanting and create it so
as so many zombified Americans have apparently done
¿ Perhaps the more I resist this apparent EVIL conspiracy, the more life that I give it?
I AM JUSTICE,
I AM REVERENCE FOR LIFE
Namaste
As if Bush cares about what the UN or anyone else says about our discrimination. To begin, what would be a blessing is for Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity and others like them to be replaced on the radio. And what was not included was our continued discrimination of women, their constant threat to independence if abortion should be made illegal. We have too many nuts speaking their insane ideas on tv, especially the right-wing evangelists, neo-con members of the legislature. Too many crazies in posts of power, especially in some of these so-called Christian churches. Shut them up or at least don't allow them air-time Yes, I know, freedom of speech, but that doesn't mean they should be given so much free air time.
Surrender says: I got another "minority" for you that NEVER makes these kind of statistics: The Working White Poor"!!!
Please do not be bitter. I agree that if you believe studies, you might think that all whites are fairly well off. Perhaps having lived and struggled as whites in poverty, we know this is not true.
But it is not the minorities' faults that this happens. It is a long tradition that prefers to ignore class in the United States. It is extremely annoying at times, particularly when spouted by people whose only contact with minorities is their house servants. The response should be to talk about shared poverty and how to cure it, not to resent minorities.
Namaste
There are fine people in all walks of life that believe in things above themselves and it makes them better people. Guess it will all sort its self out...
I was saddened but not surprised at Geraldine Ferraro's comments. It seems the more advances and accomplishments blacks and other minorities make the harder the greedy racist frauds push back. They keep saying they want us to succeed but then quietly, meticulously create the conditions for us-others to fail.
http://www.bccmeteorites.com/misconduct-planetary.html
SRD
Treefrog -- I like to understand where many of their member's self-satisfied arrogance and overwhelming hubris comes from, as it certainly isn't about Jesus nor anywhere in the bible.
Perhaps so many feel so good about themselves because they've been told that their attitude is ALL that matters, so they work really hard to make it look good. Knowing full well that it is a superflicial farce - but hey - it's all about commercialism, materialism, and going shopping, right? Otherwise, why would Christmas shopping be so important to the economy?
I guess I feel a bit like you do, as Gen Patton said of the French,
"I'd rather have the Germans in front of me, than the French behind me"
earthbound -- You ask "If only we knew what it is that one person can see the truth for what it is and another swallows the propaganda hook, line and sinker. I'd like to bottle the antidote."
It's very simple, in fact inhumanly simple:
IN a dog pack, the alpha male leads, until he falls, and there is but number ONE (and he gets all the babes, and first dibs on best food).
Every other dog is placed into the pecking order based on how well he fit's in with the alpha male. If one has his nose up another's dog butt, you can guess who's in charge.
ON THE OTHER HAND, humans have higher reasoning capacities, if they choose to use them. Regardless, nose-in-butt syndrome occurs often in political circles, and corpo_rape settings.
My compassion is usually fairly high for animals, and dogs in particular -- but not this bunch of wicked traitorous murdering sociopaths.
Of course there are an estimated 50 million psychopaths (and their underlings) involved, obviously some much more so than others.
It is time for the information to start being leaked onto secured whistle blower web sites. The bigger the waterfall, the lower the level of consequences, at least as I see it. One's mileage may vary.
Sorry, Whenever someone tells me they are a christian something inside me cringes, I feel go across my face and try not to let people see it by looking away. They do see it though.
If only we knew what it is that one person can see the truth for what it is and another swallows the propaganda hook, line and sinker. I'd like to bottle the antidote. Who can think of such concepts as preemptive warfare, manifest destiny, and so forth. Psychopaths indeed.
We are so brainwashed from day one, and our school books were (?are) so full of one sided untruths. As is mainstream media. This is a massive compaign to win over minds, to enslave us to a life that benefits mainly the rich and powerful. The mold needs to be broken. It seems to be imploding.
Yes, a little compassion would go a long way.
Is there a reason Treefrog and b-n-b were not included in "continuing a discussion about spirit?"
New Threads, ciao!
D n G and Earthbound -- Thank you for continuing a discussion about spirit, for too long it has only been in a bottle.
For what I now can understand, the Christians ~ 500 yr ago, made a "devil's deal" to postpone any accountability for their acts on Earth, until they die. This came out of Descartes splitting asunder of mind/body (which drove the techno-wizardry blindingly forward), and encapsulating the spirit into the care of organized religions. With thereby no one responsible for watching over Nature, and it's evil association with ~ 3-6 millions dead witches during Inquisition's torture - the rape of Gaia was orchestrated and condoned, including all non-Christians everywhere.
Most other world religions, and original Christian/Judean beliefs included a balanced male/female (Genesis) God, which allowed for continuation of native practices of the sacred Earth (and female).
What is sacred now days for most is comfort, profit, and leisure -- there is little or no spiritual heart (nor compassion) to be found in most places of "worship" -- it's just not convenient to confront people if one wants to keep up the attendance (and minster's income).
The superficial life is not worth living, but nonetheless many continue so, with little urge to end their (near) worthless lives. Considering what European common people did raising great Cathedrals out of their faith and commitment to salvation -- current practices (also) going to war to max out the profits just doesn't compare at all.
Reparations, apologies, and actual practicing of real religious/spiritual beliefs would be a welcome change and improvement.
Perhaps the ragtag psychopathetic fascists would have had no opening for entering our society, if we held to (some/any) moral principles.
Namaste
… … … … … Mahatma Gandhi … & … ML King … … Inspiration … … … … …
« We must be the change we wish to see in the world »
« There is a sufficiency in the world for man's need but not for man's greed »
« We adopt the means of nonviolence because our end is a community at peace with itself » — MLK
Appreciate Doom n Gloom's thoughts.
What to do when over 90% of the earth's population believes in some type of organized religion and each think his or hers is the way to eternal life?
I agree that one cannot profess to be of a certain religion and only believe in the pure teachings of its prophets/gods. Religion is much more than a god belief, it is a way of life, family traditions, habits, clothing, day to day cultural interactions. You can't separate the two. Man seems to have made a wrong turn when belief in a life after death became more important than our life here as part of the earth. The earth which is our lifeblood and which we need to protect with all our might. Many feel that one can ask God for forgiveness to purify one's soul, making it all right for injustices committed. We should be asking our fellow human beings for forgiveness, and also the animals, sky, earth, air, water for the damage we have wrought.
GO femme fatale -- You left out the part where his daughters gave him AIDS, after he forced them out on the street to earn their keep, to help pay for their new "sisters".
If christians followed the path of Jesus the same thing that happened to him, would happen to them. They don't allow spiritual freedom and the only way you can see how this affects other people is to have spiritual freedom. I think this why native american can see things christians don't. Jesus tried to teach people about spiritual freedom but they ended up worshiping him instead of practicing thier spiritual freedom. We should learn from each other because we see different things. People live with racism and don't even see it until it is the elephant in thier living room, and even then they ignore it. Have a slice of racist pie?
Femme Fatale: '"bottom-tier" white man who gets all his "facts" from biased web sites'
And here on Commondreams.org, we don't know anyone who goes to biased websites pushing an agenda.......
So we get a UN report concluding that the uS is a deeply racist society, then we get remarks like jruebl and Surender (and Geraldine Ferraro) to prove it!
Riverman: You're hilarious. I'm assuming that horribly misspelled, completely inaccurate, and absurdly biased rant was meant to be a caricature of the ignorant, sexist, "bottom-tier" white man who gets all his "facts" from biased web sites and probably sexually abuses his own daughters. Awesome! It was totally believable. However, ignoring your wildly amusing side journey, it would be refreshing to see the main-stream (translate--feces-clogged sewer) media covering the material in Haider Rizvi's article with the same enthusiasm that they've jumped on the supposedly "rascist" comment of Ms. Ferraro. Oh well, that wouldn't help them elect their man.
Mellie - Great Summary of THE SHOCK DOCTRINE. I copied it to pass on. ... And for me too, when I read THE S.D., all the pieces fell into place, and I understood ... a return to a feudal culture with the Lords of the Manor, the "Knights" [private army of Blackwater mercenaries] to guard them, and the rest of us, no matter what race, reduced to serfs, with the weaker dying off or disappeared or killed. Not a pretty picture, but I believe quite accurate.
You also said:
"But also troubling is de-regulation.
For it means: neglect of maintenance for public infrastructure (see New Orleans) neglect of roads, bridges, schools, hospitals, public housing etc."
Read recently that various governors or members of particular legislatures of poorer states are selling off their roads and bridges and other transportation systems to private corporations who will be responsible for their maintenance and also be able to control transportation, where it goes or does not go.
Expect high tolls on new toll roads, and likely not the best maintenance on roads that "don't count."
All that is happening is very chilling. But it is happening and the hobbles around our ankles are being drawn tighter.
Thanks, Mellie.
peace ...
It's
Ok, this is the last one. Christianity as it is practiced is a bit of a death cult. Its like they bathe and worship the one they killed through their own guilt. Then they go and kill others in his name. Death cult. That is probably the best way to describe these people.
One last thing. Speaking of a two tiered society. And Christ. Why was Christ born in a manger? They were impoverished people. That is where you stick the pregnant poor people - in the barn.
barksnotbites, reality suggests that Christ kills. The words "thou shalt not kill," is window dressing. The proof is in history and modern reality. The thought that Christians are god's chosen people and thereby have the right to invade Iraq, a Muslim country, and kill one million people for their resources, is beyond hubris. Where are the christian leaders openly condemning dominion? Where are christian people openly condemning dominion? Nowhere. Christ kills.
mellie, I think about the things you brought up and, personally, I see things the way you described them. I especially agree about the damage deregulation has done and is doing. And also "outsourcing" jobs normally done by people working for the government.
Without looking for any sources to back up what I am typing, I am positive that these outsourced government jobs nearly always cost more and aren't done as well. That's because the companies aren't doing a public service. They are in it to make a buck as quickly and cheaply as possible. And so roads, bridges, levees, water and electrical service and on and on, are falling apart all around us.
I know there are plenty who will disagree, but I believe there are certain things that the government simply must do. We don't have a government just so we can start wars and take what we want from the weak. The government is supposed to serve the people, not the other way around.
Doom n Gloom, I respect where you are coming from, but from my own experience you are throwing out the baby with the dirty water. I admire the peaceful and revolutionary teachings of Christ, Buddha, Gandhi and many other great people who have lived. The only reason I dont name all the Native Americans I love is that they were not taught in any schools I attended. History as we know is written by the Rulers who slayed everyone in their path to attain power including slaying Christ.
I agree that most church going Christians are hypocrites and it is why I am not a Christian. I respect the Native teachings, but I am discriminated against from another form of racism. I am the true lost tribe. I find spirit and truth where they find me.
I must admit before I read Klein's 'The Shock Docrine' I would have been floundering about for an answer to this question.
It is not about racial equality. It's about people equality, in general about rich and poor people.
We have Milton Friedman's Chicago University School of Economics graduates flooding out polluting the planet with their 'disaster' doctrine.
Yes even here in Australia.
Global free-market economics is designed to channel all wealth to the 'elites', to get rid of the middle-class and moderately wealthy, to create an enormous 'pool of the poor'.
The three planks of Friedman's infliction upon us are:
1. 'Privatize' everything in sight -
that is sell off to the wealthy at 'bargain basement' prices, everything we, our forebears & ancestors worked so hard to pay for with our taxes)
2. 'Deeply cut' government social & welfare-net policies - in other words, let the handicapped, the frail, the ill and old, the unemployed, the chronically poor, just disappear - 'die-off'.
3. 'De-regulate' government. That means 'outsource' gov. business to the 'grasping only for profit' private sector. Our quality of life in nearly every area suffers here.
The first two points are obvious and spell disaster for 'ordinary' citizens, our children, and our grand children's future.
But also troubling is de-regulation.
For it means: neglect of maintenance for public infrastructure (see New Orleans) neglect of roads, bridges, schools, hospitals, public housing etc.
It means slipping standards regulating food & drug hygene, and the 'horror scenario' that follows on from that.
It literally means 'anything goes', it's 'open slather' for business & corporation.
I am urging everyone I know to read this book. You will understand what's happening to you and everyone else in this world when you do.
This is not any sort of a 'paid announcement' or anything like that. I am an ordinary woman who was never remotely interested in economics. But I have to say this book has changed completely the way I see the world. I am grateful (also horrified) that I have been truly awakened to a terrible truth, but at least it IS the truth, and perhaps 'united' we can all do something about the situation we find ourselves in .... Mellie
What "Bill Larsen of the Western Shoshone Defence Project" says seriously applies also in the case of the FNP, First Nations Peoples, of Canada, as well as other North American Indians (U.S. area), and surely indigenous populations of South America; applying, therefore, to many indigenous populations of ALL of the Americas.
" jmacneil March 12th, 2008 11:18 am
The U.N., such as it is constituted, is a phoney organization pretending to address issues while subjugating themselves to the U.S. foreign policy, which policy is the embodiment of evil such as this world has never seen before in all of it's sordid history. ..."
I WON'T READ that whole post, though noticed that jmacneil says some things that are also of my and others' views. This is only to say that I don't wholly agree with what's quoted immediately above, that the U.N. is a phoney organization pretending ..., for while I agree with that in so much as it is (unfortunate) reality, the human rights part of the U.N. has not been always of unwelcome conduct. The two directors who resigned due to their efforts to try to get the 1991-2003 genocide of Iraqis stopped was NOT phoney at all on these directors' parts.
The human rights part of the U.N. has often been very right, just that it's prevented from even contributing to the achievement of honest U.N. ruling; because of not the UNGA, but the rotten UNSC, which the imperialist West elites have always intended to do what they want with, while knowing that the U.S. was military superpower, so there'd be little resistance, and none that would be effective, from other state members of the UNSC.
If we lived in a world in which the elites are honest, honourable characters, etc., then there'd be no need to ever bother with forming a body like the U.N., or certainly not the UNSC anyway. The humanitarian aid part of the U.N. could be justified, for helping to quickly provide help to populations going through crises, such as environmental ones, f.e. But there'd be absolutely NO justification for a UNSC, for security, the kind the SC deals with (and very improperly) wouldn't be an issue.
I perceive a justification for a UNSC in the real world we live in, the problem or question not being this, but for the SC to stop criminally supporting totally and irrefutably criminal vetoes, of which I know of only the many placed by the USA. Of course the peacekeeping forces would or DO also need to be cleaned up, rendered authentically peacekeeping in purpose and effect; NO criminality, none against human rights anyway, whatsoever being allowed.
That of course means that the USA must cease being the world's hellbent hegemon, hypocrite, etc. of a BEAST, and this seems like a "pipe dream", open-ended and at both ends; the dream appears at one end and then disappears out the other end, not being capturable so that it can be stabilized, maintained, and "for [real]".
That leaves what, besides either hope or despair? We don't hope for things we already have, and we don't usually despair when we're content. We have hope and despair, and some of us experience both, "interchangeably". We hope due to being for human rights and believing that it's humanly [possible] to wholly respect these rights; while despairing when we, and preferably only momentarily, realise that there is little or no [real] hope. I mean reality-based hope; seeing that what we hope for is right and needed, but while not being really achievable.
Not achievable? I believe not, and because we individually don't have the power required, while the rest of the reason may be that we just refuse to unite in real, honest, energetic, integral, ... solidarity.
I'm not sure to correctly recall which Spanish conflict this was about, but believe it was the Spanish Civil War, and the Abraham Lincoln Brigade going, against U.S. law siding with Gen. Franco's, and his allies', fascism, etc., to help the innocent of Spain to try to win against these superpower backed fascists and their coup d'etat, etc. It's the following article.
"The Abraham Lincoln Brigade:
A Profile in Courage, Honor and Hope",
by Stephen Lendman, Dec 26 2007,
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=7683
If it's not the right article, then it's another by him and am certain that it's with respect to the Spanish Civil War.
Anyway, Lendman explains that Franco, et al, may possibly have been defeated, or else not able to win anywhere as strongly as they did, if the Spanish resistance had not been "bloody" split on their ideological differences. One participant in the war, on the resistance side, is quoted as having said that this ideological internal friction needed to be stopped and for everyone to wholly focus on fighting the war to stop the fascist takeover, but the resistance members or groups wouldn't stop their damn bs.
If they wouldn't have won, anyway, then they surely would've made it much more difficult to be taken over and then badly oppressed, ..., by the fascists that took over; imo.
There are ideological problems with the so-called anti-war, anti-torture, ... groups in the USA today; it's been like this from the start of the invasion being launched against Iraq, f.e. There are hypocritical biases among these anti-... groups and individuals, and they do NOT focus on tackling one urgent issue, or even two, but every one they can find. They try to fight too many battles on different fronts all at the same time, which does what? It WEAKENS resistance activism, is what it does!
It takes IDIOTS to try to undertake many important tasks all at the same time; the really effective people would instead accomplish one at a time, and not moving on to another until the one being worked on either is completed, or it's determined that it [cannot] be completed, in which case there's no point in spending more time and energy on that failed project. And such failures can be only temporary, by which I mean that maybe a failed project would be accomplishable after other urgent tasks are first undertaken and completed, sufficiently anyway, for (an abstract) example.
Iow, we certainly do not have only the UNSC and our govts to fault, we have OURSELVES to also fault, for we are guilty too. Voters repeatedly elect and re-elect political candidates who are UNFIT for service in public offices, and then these idiot voters pretend that they have any just or ethical grounds upon which to stand when bitching about elected officials these very voters elected do something wrong; although some wrongs aren't recognised due to individual biases. F.e., some opposed to the war on Iraq wholly side with Israeli hell on Palestine and other countries of the region.
Many want Obama or Billary for president as of Nov. 2008, yet both of them really do promise to continue the wars on Iraq and Afghanistan. They try, with their verbal words, to deny this, but all we need to do is to critically pay attention to what their policy positions tell us. It's then easy to SEE that they really promise to continue these wars, and much more than only these.
I'm critically opposed to the veto privilege being continued in the UNSC, and regularly state that I perceive the SC as [criminally] complicit in Israel's crimes against Palestinians, and more, for it's criminally complicit by allowing the USA's irrefutably criminal vetoes. But to fault only the UNSC is mistaken judgement.
Whether or not the veto privilege served any really good purposes since the start of the UN, I don't know, and will just accept that the answer is probably 'yes'. But it has to be eliminated today; it's not served or being used for any good at all for a few decades or more, and use of it is not going to improve, not before the USA ceases to be superpower anyway. In any case, the veto should be eliminated, and the UNGA and the UN's humanitarian or human rights sub-bodies need to be granted full respect. If we want and demand for democracy, then we can't side with the SC overriding any other part of the UN when the latter are right.
Cleaning up the "act" of the overall UN might prove fruitful; it might prove that there really is a good basis for maintaining the UN. But it needs to be de-corrupted, FIRST.
Anyway, I appreciate the UN panel highlighting the many U.S. abuses and denials of human rights in the USA. The least such an article can be good for is "FOOD FOR THOUGHT", awareness, education.
Don't blame ME. I voted for Carol Mosely Braun.
I hear all these people here, asserting that studies of this type neglect the suffering of poor white people.
I look to my representatives in Congress and I have to say, that most (not all) of the Black Caucus members BETTER represent the cause of low income White people, than ALL the White Representatives combined.
The issue is poverty AND race and they ALL acknowledge that. Ya'all just ain't listening. To ignore the matter of Race, given studies like the ones cited above, is preposterous. No one is saying that low income white people are better off... although, they do have ONE advantage.
This is just like the other hot button issues they use to divide working folks... immigration especially... seems that the propoganda is working when I hear self-described "progressives" parroting the incessant whining of KKK types about "quotas" and "reverse discrimination."
Mission accomplished.
You self-described "intellectuals" are nuanced to the extreme of indecipherability. Better to not wrap your heads around such big ideas. As Louis Black commented regarding John Kerry, "By the time he got half way through the second paragraph I thought "Oh my GOD, I didn't bring any bread crumbs.""
This sort of info will stir up some sentiments if such forums like Common Dreams but will be ignored outright by the MSM.
namaste - you're absolutely on the mark.
If you and others are not familiar with BYRON KATIE ... www.thework.com for ego-busting in a kind and gentle way. The Work woiks because of one's own realizations when asked a few questions and then turning them around to self and for self to answer. Quite astounding.
The few books available on The Work are invaluable, including the next to the last - A THOUSAND NAMES FOR JOY, based on 6th-Century B.C.E. sage, Lao Tzu and his TAO TE CHING ... THE WAY.
BYRON KATIE is author [with Stephen Mitchell], and who woke up one day after about ten nightmare years and understood. Since then she lives and does THE WORK.
www.thework.com
... and like chicken soup ... takin' a look can't hoit!
peace ...
Daniel David__ You wondered when the Latino`s were going to wake up and realize how much better off they would be with a mixed race president.
You could also ask-- When are the older white women going to wake up and realize how much better off they will be with a mixed race younger man president.
We get treated good here because we are white? This is news to me.
I am a white 52 year old woman and have struggled to find work most of my life. Also do I get extra points being uninsured?
All said and done no one is getting a free ride here. It is more about corporate interests, over population and the government's lack of accountibility for our tax dollars.
This country has never been about a level playing field and never will be.
It is all about status.
As the amazing historian and poet Barbara Mor points out, we living creatures are the literal result of what The Earth imagined---moved to make possible and actual out of the stuff of material being. Self-conscious nature...and for "only" 4000 of tens of thousands of years our "cultures" have been teaching us to forget/deny that for the late invention of male-centered imperial profit; instead of guiding us along the proposition that self-realization and harmony are not incompatible opposites. Freedom and slavery are opposites. Our slavery is dressed up in lies about freedom, generated by profit to rape the wealth and powers that communities of living things create. Sexism/racism speak the same lie-language, serve the same imperial function. This is a country that cannot ratify an ERA to The Constitution and claims that it wants to export its "freedom" once again---Everybody duck! http://ancientgreece-earlyamerica.com
"The "catholics" and "protestants" are not true Christians because Jesus was against any dominating sect which imposed their views on society and His superlative ideas were not predicated on imposing goodwill on anyone at the expense of moral values."
I know the jesus followers well. They are cultural thieves. They lack the courage to reject jesus teachings (christian teachings) and impose themselves upon traditional Indians by participating in our ceremony. There is a name for this affront it's called cultural genocide.
Jesus followers can no more separate themselves from christianity than satan followers from satanism. The evil done by both rests squarely upon their followers. To suggest otherwise is purposeful rationalization and denial. One cannot escape responsibility through purposeful separatist beliefs. Jesus and christianity are one and the same and the great evil in them is rooted in the belief in dominion. There will be no peace on Earth until christianity officially rejects dominionism.
But when we elect Barack Obama president the divide will disappear. Right?
Ah-huh.
It'll still be there, but then there'll be no pressure to talk about it.
After all, there is no divide, a black man is in the White House.
the only way the racial headcount will even up with Bu$h the inferior and the neocons in control is if they get their way and can torture all those who disagree with destroying our rights like habeas corpus and only Constitutional warranted search and seizure.
Or if we locked up ALL the politicians involved in illegal sex and unethical campaign money collection.
Please explain to me how Spitzer's appalling behavior is worse than Larry Craig weirding off in the men's room. In favor of Spitzer it was private and mutual consent - although I don't approve at all.
I got another "minority" for you that NEVER makes these kind of statistics: The Working White Poor"!!!
Never mind destroying the ego!
First we must get rid of all religions, all the nonsense that each one of them promotes, all the wealth that each one possesses, all the false promises that each one makes, all the strings that each one pulls in government and the media, and all the guilt that each one generates.
Religion is a massive con carried out by an unscrupulous minority on masses of ignorant, gullible people. Santa doesn't exist and neither does god!
Sorry.
www.dangerouscreation.com
Good point, hybridoma. We're a long way from there. Actually, posting here is the ego convincing us that what we think is what is real when what is real is beyond thought.
I'm very sad at how many black kids we incarcerate while white kids get sent back home.
kathyodat
Namaste, you brought up the one thing that all spiritual beliefs have in common: the shattering of the ego. I don't doubt that if we were all able to align our thinking in a positive, spiritual way, that the world would change quite rapidly.
I wasn't careful and simply picked the word hope to express my thoughts, rather than think more deeply.
While your spiritual development and awareness are far more developed than mine, I repeat that I do recognize the ego as being the first thing we must destroy before we can truly begin to see the world in a different light.
There's plenty of evidence that incarceration itself is the wrong punishment in many cases ... even most cases for nonviolence crime ... or very short incarceration followed by genuine parole and followup and access to jobs training and other services ...
But actually I didn't come here about to respond to that ...
I have been wondering what Obama's "post-racial" talk is about ... I mean I think there are places that may well feel post-racial, academia or law firms, or very young places ... but most of what I envision as "post-racial" is pretty affluent and well-educated and likely well-traveled ...
I certainly have never felt my work place was "post-racial" and I'm certain my black co-workers never felt that same work place was "post-racial" ... it was well integrated and the administration worked hard on recruitment and retention ... but there were prejudices (hardly overt blatant racism, but prejudices just the same) and anxieties ... and obvious conflict was unheard of, but the whispering was common.
In terms of job and educational opportunities, two tiers, three tiers, more ... it's almost like a caste system where only a few escape the lowest castes.
So, what's "post-racial" all about .... huh?
How many in jail are innocent of the crime they were convicted of?
Thank you, Namaste. :)
Well, Doom n' Gloom,
You must realize first of all that there can be no separation between true Christians. The "catholics" and "protestants" are not true Christians because Jesus was against any dominating sect which imposed their views on society and His superlative ideas were not predicated on imposing goodwill on anyone at the expense of moral values. The "sects" which try to usurp His teachings for their own empowerment are not representative of his ideas. If you study His views you will find that they are in complete agreement with Socialist values and He always meant for the diverse peoples of the world to live in harmony without distinction between race or circumstance.
The so-called "powers" of the world use the "idea" of Jesus as a tool, the same as they use psychology (which is nothing more than "behaviorism" such as was employed by Jane Goodall among the apes) to control societies. To get caught up in, and get lost in, the machinations of imperialist dogma is to be detracted from the real issues.
No doubt, it is difficult for people to sift among all the imperialist propaganda to discern the truth. If such is wanting, then it would be an excellent idea to study the Cuban society, because, even though they are not religious, they engender all of the best qualities of Christianity as Jesus espoused them.
A rat done bit my sister Nell with Whitey on the moon.
Her face and arms began to swell and Whitey's on the moon.
I can't pay no doctor bills but Whitey's on the moon.
Ten years from now I'll be payin' still while Whitey's on the moon.
The man just upped my rent last night cuz Whitey's on the moon.
No hot water, no toilets, no lights but Whitey's on the moon.
I wonder why he's uppin me. Cuz Whitey's on the moon?
I was already givin' him fifty a week but now Whitey's on the moon.
Taxes takin' my whole damn check,
The junkies makin' me a nervous wreck,
The price of food is goin' up,
And as if all that shit wasn't enough:
A rat done bit my sister Nell with Whitey on the moon.
Her face and arms began to swell but Whitey's on the moon.
Was all that money I made last year for Whitey on the moon?
How come there ain't no money here? Hmm! Whitey's on the moon.
Ya know, I just about had my fill of Whitey on the moon.
I think I'll send these doctor bills
airmail special....
to Whitey on the moon.
Whitey on the Moon - Gil-Scott Heron (1972)
jmacneil wrote: "The fact that unscrupulous groups used, and continue to use, the teachings of Jesus as a platform for their machinations and profit do not detract from the forward thinking, and socialist views, of Jesus Christ. If anyone would have been adverse to the dominating schemes of organized religion, as practiced by such organizations such as the Vatican, it would be Jesus."
Strange then how Protestants and Catholics continue to fill the Christian churches on Sunday. Christian dominion does in fact emanate from the Bible and Christians by their very presence in the services and in their daily activities show no inclination to change it, but in fact continue to support it. Their wealth springs from stolen land and resources, and broken treaties. Christians are in fact responsible for the greatest genocide in the last five hundred years, the American Indian Genocide and have done little to change it. So arguments by Christians to the contrary are just another form of denial. First Christians must openly accept responsibility. Any apology must be accompanied by serious corrective actions or they are just more white man words. Anyone who calls himself a Christian and in the same breath attempts to separate himself from Christianity is a fraud.
Unfortunately, there is little here that is new. Numerous reports/studies have described the horrible effects that the idea of white supremacy has wrought upon this nation and the world, including Europe and Scandinavia, where it originated.
I remember the Kerner Commission report of 1968 and the Myrdal studies before that and so many in-between. Unless/until we fully use accurate language to describe white supremacy and other racialisms, we will be stuck.
"the Bush administration has been told by a major human rights body that it is not above the law" But the US is above the law. It regularly spits in its face, whether launching invasions and occupations of other countries or torturing people. And how does intellectual America respond? Alan Dershowitz recommends changing the law so that the President can do such things under warrant. Then it is only in contempt of international law. How does ordinary Joe America respond? He votes for anyone who promises violence and vengeance and against anyone advocating peace and non violence. And he (and she) watches tv programmes which essentially teach everyone shuld be above the law, that everyone should buy a gun or a knife, and everyone should be able to deal out death to the "bad" guys after a vigorous session of torture. The days when US tv had the courage to oppose brutalising prisoners, carrying out torture and sentencing to capital punishment are long past. The audience wouldn't wear it.
How to help the situation:
1. Abolish the Catholic church. The Hispanic community will be helped in many ways by this.
2. African Americans should get rid of Hip Hop. That would help as well.
3. Abolish American Anti-Intellectualism.
Doom n' Gloom,
"...Old Testament-premised claim that Christians, as "chosen people,..." --- For clarification, Christians were not present in the Old Testament and could not be construed as a group until after the presence of Jesus, which great personage was the herald of the New Testament. The fact that unscrupulous groups used, and continue to use, the teachings of Jesus as a platform for their machinations and profit do not detract from the forward thinking, and socialist views, of Jesus Christ. If anyone would have been adverse to the dominating schemes of organized religion, as practiced by such organizations such as the Vatican, it would be Jesus.
Societies and organizations which use Christianity as a tool to mask their criminal intent of dominating peoples have nothing to do with the views of Jesus Christ. That generalization includes all classes of criminals, whether they call themselves kings, presidents or popes.
The Euro centric science world view is insufficient to understand the traditional Indigenous world view of Spirit. It is only through respect for human and Indigenous rights that co-existence can be achieved. The genocide driven efforts to assimilate traditional American Indians has failed. Further efforts are futile. We (American Indians) are distinctly different and we will remain different. Our lifeways are ours and as free and independent Nations pre-existing the constitution we remain independent of the claim of American plenary power according to international law.
The basis of American Indian Law, Johnson v. M'Intosh, (The Christian Right of Colonization) American Indian attorney, historian, and teacher demonstrates that this important decision has it's roots in Christian theology and therefore violates the American Principle of separation of church and state and therefore may well be unconstitutional.
Newcome writes, " My book, ''Pagans in the Promised Land: Decoding the Doctrine of Christian Discovery'' (Fulcrum, 2008), unpacks many layers of meaning found in the 1823 Supreme Court ruling Johnson v. M'Intosh. It poses an alternative view by identifying the doctrine of ''Christian'' discovery in U.S. law, and posits that a failure to account for the role that the Christian religion plays in Marshall's reasoning in the Johnson ruling is a failure to crack the cognitive (mental) code hidden or buried in that decision.
The ''great nations of Europe,'' Marshall said, had historically established ''a principle'' (a guiding generalization) that they acknowledged as ''the law'' by which the right of land ''acquisition'' (colonization) would be regulated among them, thereby avoiding bloody and costly wars over territory in North America. ''This principle,'' Marshall explained, ''was that discovery gave title to the government by whose subjects, or by whose authority, it was made, against all other European governments.''
Nothing in the wording of the previous sentence even remotely suggests that the Christian religion had anything to do with the claim that ''discovery gave title'' to the European government said to have made a ''discovery'' in North America. However, Associate Justice Joseph Story, who was on the Supreme Court at the time of the Johnson ruling, published a book 10 years later in which he drew a specific connection between Christianity, the pope (the Vatican) and the ''principle'' of ''discovery'' adopted by the Supreme Court.
In his ''Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States'' (1833), Story identified a papal decree as the origin of the ''principle'' of ''discovery'' that his friend and mentor Chief Justice Marshall had written into the Johnson ruling. As Story stated:
''Alexander the Sixth, by a Bull issued in 1493, granted to the crown of Castile the whole of the immense territory then discovered, or to be discovered, between the poles, so far as it was not then possessed by any Christian prince.
''The principle, then [therefore], that discovery gave title to the government, by whose subjects or by whose authority it was made, against all other European governments, being once established [by the Pope], it followed as a matter of course, that every government within the limits of its discoveries excluded all other persons from any right to acquire the soil by any grant whatsoever from the natives. No nation would suffer either its own subjects or those of any other nation to set up or vindicate any such title. It was deemed a right exclusively belonging to the government in its sovereign capacity to extinguish the Indian title, and perfect its own dominion over the soil, and dispose of it according to its own good pleasure'' (emphasis added).
Above, Story thereby makes a direct link between the Vatican papal bull and Johnson. Notice, too, that Story characterized the ''discovering'' government as a ''sovereign'' with its ''own dominion over the soil,'' which it had the right to ''perfect'' by exercising its ''sovereign capacity to extinguish the Indian title.'' According to this theory, the ''discovering'' Christian prince (monarch) or government was understood to have a right or title of colonizing dominion (domination) over indigenous soil, even before taking physical possession of the land, and before any ''Indian title'' had been extinguished.
The above theory is the background of the following wording from the Johnson ruling: ''While the different nations of Europe respected the right of the natives, as occupants, they asserted the ultimate dominion to be in themselves; and claimed and exercised as a consequence of this ultimate dominion, a [colonizing] power to grant the soil, while in the possession of the natives.''
So long as the lands said to have been ''discovered'' were not ''possessed by any Christian prince,'' then, according to the international law of Christendom, that Christian sovereign, or ''lord conqueror,'' was considered to automatically obtain a colonizing ''sovereignty'' and ''dominion'' over lands inhabited and possessed by non-Christians (referred to by Marshall in the Johnson ruling as ''heathens''). This political sovereignty and dominion - or in Christendom's feudal parlance, ''Lordship'' - could be transferred by treaty from one monarchy or government of Christendom to another, such as from Great Britain to the newly formed United States in 1783.
Validation of this interpretation of the Johnson ruling is found in the way Marshall illustrated the ''right of discovery'' (right of Christian colonization). As just one example, Marshall cited the John Cabot charter as a key instance of England's ''assent to this principle'' of discovery: ''So early as the year 1496,'' Marshall wrote, ''her [England's] monarch granted a commission to the Cabots, to discover countries then unknown to Christian people, and to take possession of [colonize] them, in the name of the king of England.''
My book documents that behind the Johnson ruling is the tacit, Old Testament-premised claim that Christians, as ''chosen people,'' have a ''God-given right'' to colonize (conquer, subdue and possess) the lands of ''un-chosen'' indigenous nations and peoples.
In the case of the Cabots, for example, they were authorized by King Henry VII's letters patent, to ''find, discover, and investigate whatsoever islands, countries, regions or provinces of heathens and infidels ... which before this time have been unknown to all Christians.'' James A. Williamson explained ''a very wide implication of the patent.'' ''It was at that time,'' Williamson said, ''accepted as a fundamental law of Christendom that all Christians were in a state of war with all infidels. This was the justification of the permission to 'conquer, occupy and possess' and profit from any non-Christian territories that might be found.''
Finally after 500 years the Doctrine of Christian Discovery and Dominion is being challenged worldwide by Indigenous Peoples. The upsurge in the election of Indigenous leaders in South America is a direct result of this challenge and should not be interpreted otherwise. The Indigenous belief system is at the root of this change.
America continues it's racial abuse of American Indians and today is among the worst violators. The passage of the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2007 is a great step forward in the elimination of continuing genocide. The U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD)"found "stark racial disparities" in the U.S. institutions, including its criminal justice system." According to Steven Newcomb, the entire basis of American Indian Law is under question.
The United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, all Euro/colonized countries are the worst offenders today. Racist beliefs rooted in institutionalized Christianity die hard in Christian nations.
Anyone who is allowed to run for either wing of the U.S.A. mafia party is a vetted crook. The only acceptable candidate for president of the U.S.A., from a moral perspective, would have to be a socialist who would have nothing to do with that rotten trash which currently runs the U.S.. Martin Luther King, jr. would have made a good president. Obama is nothing but a tinted version of the same old same old.
Hey Ferraro, did you read this?
The sooner that everybody in America who is not white notices that Obama is not white (and not "black" either),
the sooner we will appropriately elect a multi-racial president for our multi-racial nation. We really do need the hispanics to wake up and wonder just what it is they think they will get from Hillary that they would not better get from a man of two races leading for all races.
The U.N., such as it is constituted, is a phoney organization pretending to address issues while subjugating themselves to the U.S. foreign policy, which policy is the embodiment of evil such as this world has never seen before in all of it's sordid history. As long as the U.S. has a veto power in the U.N. no fruitful and conscientious program of great magnitude can be advanced because the U.S. casually vetoes any reprimand against themselves and their evil associates, thus making a mockery of any sustained advancement toward a just and honorable human society.
To mildly rail against the U.S. for it's treatment of the original peoples, which treatment has been as obscene and genocidal as any vile action undertaken in the history of civilization, is to pander to their own propaganda whereby they try to present themselves as being "not such bad people". Any true judgement of the U.S. would reveal and charge them as being the worst mass murderers in history and punish them accordingly. Regardless, the way history is eloquently evolving, there isn't going to be a U.S.A. much longer and any country which would like to persist into the future would do well to disassociate themselves from that evil nation as quickly, and as fully, as possible. As a wise man once said: The meek shall inherit the Earth.
The UN panel missed an essential facet: money. There is also a divide of rich and poor as stark as during the worst excesses of the Robber Baron era.
Hey, International Community, cut us some slack! Cultural changes come slow. It has only been 120 years since the indigenous were heathen savages; we're trying to bring them up to civility and inclusion. And it has only been 147 years since the negros were chattel, slaves, property. Again, give us time, we're working hard to bring them into the fold. And it only been 160 years since we had to remove the Mexicans from the land we inherited via Manifest Destiny. Look at all of the jobs we're giving them, and look how grateful they are.
C'mon. International Community, be patient! We still have to get a little more for ourselves so we can be comfortable and in a position to really help those poor creatures. Patience, their time is coming!
"The U.S. is failing to meet international standards on racial equality" -- and this is news? Seems to me its been that way since before independence.
This is what it is going to take - the UN and International community stepping up to meet humanity's moral obligations by showing America where it is failing. This current American govt. has no moral compass, seemingly no ability to gauge its own actions and its affect on humans, the global environment and the terrible suffering caused everywhere it treads. This is the beginning of what I hope will be much more International Justice. It is time again for Nuremburg trials.
hybridoma2001 -- There's so much more than just clinging onto HOPE. How can spirit be broken, as it is not of this physical world. Perhaps it is EGO and willfulness that is suffering and broken, and that is actually a good thing.
The ineffable power of spirit is what supplies the massive black hole at the center of our galaxy - do you not think that when we align with it that everything can change in a flash ?
The _ G r e a t __ A w a k i n g _ that is now occurring, closes the shattered circle that SIOUXROSE mentions.
Descartes was quite in error “thinking” that thought was the true basis for existence, and not until John Paul Sartre came along did anyone begin to question exactly ‘who was it that was doing/being the “I AM” part’. So typical of our modern world, we’ve missed the essential aspect of the SPIRIT that imbues the mind/body “dichotomy”. Both of which are aspects of the non-physical being that we ALL are, that is the hidden owner of our thoughts and bodies.
¿ Have you ever wondered who is it that possesses the thought “I AM THINKING”, as we know similarly each of us possesses a body and experiences ?
The answer is what finally closes the circle, and places us back into the grace of the ONE that IS. TAT SWAM ASI = THAT WE ART THAT.
Our balance has been so distorted with ego and broken roles, all as a misplaced turmoil to (hopefully) find solace and PEACE - while all along the center of the circle has laid just beneath the circus of chaotic thinking, hardly noticed (other than by a few special saints and mystics).
The techniques of biofeedback (goto Wild Divine) and meditation are easily accessible for ALL now, and we will out of this transform EVERYTHING in this beautiful world (life goes on within and without me).
Each of us is within our heart of hearts, the same as the precious source of all beauty, love, and vibrant exuberant joyous living. Find yours, and join in celebrating this fantastic life we share in common dreams.
Our WAR of EGOs is the common fault line, as each will take their position that is making them feel better (having control over, undercutting the other, invalidating their basis).
The sickest part of this reality, is the illogical “being right” (but evil) actions taking precedent over actions that actually would have been consistent with the apparent possible solutions and stated objectives. This inconsistency on both sides of any war, make everything so much harder to unravel.
Per P O G O, We are our own worse enemies, when the EGO reins supreme
The endless violence is resolved through human understanding and empathy, but how to get there? The dissolution of the EGO is what softens the battle lines enough to again see the other (eventually) as ONE with us.
Let us all fight the ultimate evil EGO within each of us, and the rest of the details will actually take care of themselves - once we get out of the way of healing life force and common humanity.
Each of us associates themselves with the EGO (and brain machinations), while we are really so far beyond that intrinsically, as quintessentially spiritual beings living an apparent physical existence. The wars are always being fought by the biggest EGOs, and as Doom n Gloom, we clearly pointed out, it does take a lot of blood and pain to have the shell of EGO fall way in common suffering:
“Until the thirst for blood is rendered in common pain, and each and every heart is broken beyond repair, and the dark spirits lay face down in the mud, there will not be peace in the Middle East.”
There is an abundance of truth and common vision herein this thread, and ultimately it always comes down to exactly ONE person. _ O U R S E L F _.
As Margret Mead is famously known for saying about world transformation:
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”
Please become the change _ Y O U R S E L V E S _, and we can then all live together in PEACE and abundant harmony.
_ W O N D E R _ again as childlike innocence,
with one’s vessel empty seeking knowledge.
¿ How can one receive wisdom,
when full of themselves ?
What is wondrous is the plethora of questions,
while having so few answers.
The children should well inherit the world,
if we would REALLY care for them, which is a kindness
As is kindergarten, or a children’s garden.
Is being right a better thing,
when that future is an abomination
Ask any child,
they’ll always go with kindness over
self-inflated righteousness
Namaste
… … … … … Mahatma Gandhi … & … ML King … … Inspiration … … … … …
« We must be the change we wish to see in the world »
« There is a sufficiency in the world for man's need but not for man's greed »
« We adopt the means of nonviolence because our end is a community at peace with itself » — MLK
I'm glad to see this report. Not that I expect my nation to do anything in responds, but at least someone is noticing and trying to call it to our attention.
My main comment is that the cause and effect is backwards. America is creating a two-tiered society. Or maybe more tiers than that if you looked closely. But I think that's more the cause, while this article describes it more as the effect.
It happens based on the existing patterns of wealth and power that minorities tend to end up in the lower tier. But, since this group was studying racial matters, what they didn't see was that a lot of whites also end up in the lower tier.
The problem is the inequality our system has been encouraging between the top and the bottom. And America's growing acceptance of this. Its fascinating to me as someone who likes to read history because this is so incredibly anti-American. One of the big driving factors of America early in its history was its rejection of the class-based system from Europe where some people automatically got wealth, power and respect just because of the family they were born into. America was strongly opposed to that in its early years.
Of course this report by the UN will be dismissed outright by the USA. But at least the UN held the hearings.
I think it will take the rest of the world to turn this nation around, along with those groups who really do care about the US constitution and racial issues here in the USA.
Only then will the people of the USA who are ignorant about the role of the USA in the world (past to present)might perhaps begin to reflect on their "Great" nation's actions.
I know I'm assuming a lot but I haven't completely given up hope yet. That's the last thing I'm clinging to - hope that we as a people and a nation aren't already broken beyond repair.
In general anything that alleviates racism helps poor white people. Racism is intertwined with poverty and denial of rights. Some form of ordinary robbery is almost always part of racism: robbery of land, robbery of homes, unpaid or underpaid labor, suppressed business. Racism concentrates move power in the hands of the powerful, and this power is also used to keep poor whites down.
The benefits of expanding economic opportunity and rights for ordinary people of any kind spill over to poor whites. This has always been the big shining truth hidden. MLK was killed when this message began to resonate with whites.