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Black America at the Bottom
The nation’s economic news is grim indeed, and is the grimmest of all for black Americans. Recently released census data shows that while the median yearly income in this country is $50,000, it is only $32,000 for black people, the lowest of any other racial group in the country. Hispanics had a median income of $37,000, whites $49,000 and Asians $64,000.
Simply put, black Americans are at the absolute bottom of the economic heap in a county still teetering from the effects of a seemingly endless recession. The term recession is something of a misnomer because it does not adequately describe the worldwide crises endemic to capitalism. As western nations take their citizens on a dizzying race to the bottom with various austerity measures, the fate of people already on the bottom grows more precarious by the day.
It is not coincidental that the dismal economic prospects for black people has occurred at the same moment that black politics limps along on life support. Black politics traditionally affirmed a right, indeed an obligation, to speak directly to the needs and aspirations of the masses of people. It has been substituted with feelings of vicarious joy when a black person reaches a high office.
Enter Barack Obama, the beneficiary of both black loyalty and a system which he assessed astutely as being ready for the right black man to come along. He fills the duel roles perfectly, giving good feelings about his presence in the White House but this presence is a result of promising to do nothing that the 1% would find inconvenient.
Sadly, the bloom is not yet off of the Obama rose, with a continuation of bizarre poll results indicating that the group doing the worst has the greatest degree of optimism. But the income and other indicators don’t lie and don’t change because most black people still love the president who looks like them but who goes out of his way to ignore them and their needs.
While phony government figures claim that employment numbers are improving, more than 46 million Americans are now receiving food stamps, a record. As the leaders of European countries struggle to keep the crises of Greece, Italy and Spain from spinning out of control, it is tempting to anticipate the post capitalist world. The thought experiment is interesting, but one thing is clear. When the dust eventually settles, black people will be at the bottom of a destroyed system.
If Barack Obama is re-elected, it is likely that black support for him will also continue, and the downward spiral will continue too. What is the future of a group always living on the cusp of disaster when a huge disaster takes place? No one can predict if the world economy will collapse Armageddon-like, or whether it too will limp along, under performing and slowly putting millions of people in ever more dire conditions.
It is difficult to imagine a worse scenario, but imagine it we must. The Obama phenomenon has silenced a people who were once the most likely to speak out against inequality and injustice. The death of movement politics has made black people the perfect victims of the descent of their nation’s and the world’s economies.
Barack Obama’s role in exacerbating the crisis goes unnoticed while tangential characters are given needless attention. Every hateful statement from the mouth of Newt Gingrich is dissected and railed against but Gingrich has not been in power in this country for a long time. He played no role in the bank bailout and he did not declare that Social Security would be placed on the budget cutting table. Obama did those things and put an already suffering group further and further behind.
There has been a ray of hope lately provided by the Occupy Wall Street movement.
The group condemned for a lack of focus has focused on neighborhoods with high housing foreclosure rates and acted to put people back into their houses. The Occupy Our Homes actions are doing what movements have always done, forcing the powerful to respond to popular demands.
Black Americans do not have to continue acting like sheep going to the slaughterhouse. They can remember their history of bold action. They do not have to continue being last on the income list, and the political list. If movement politics can be resurrected the group at the bottom now does not have to stay there. There is hope for a different future, if people are unafraid to remember how great changes came about in the past.
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20 Comments so far
Show All>>The nation’s economic news is grim indeed, and is the grimmest of all for black Americans. Recently released census data shows that while the median yearly income in this country is $50,000, it is only $32,000 for black people, the lowest of any other racial group in the country. Hispanics had a median income of $37,000, whites $49,000 and Asians $64,000.
I do believe That the Aboriginal Americans are at the bottom of the heap and those advocating Social Justice should not leave them out of such comparisons as if they did not exist.
These groups have not just been ignored by Team Obama. Team Obama has called them "f____ing retards and the professional left" whenever they have demanded the least bit of accountability.
As long as aboriginal Americans continue to support Obama at high rates, just like Blacks do, they will continue to be ignored or worse, just like blacks are.
Why would Obama do anything for groups who will unconditionally support him?
He won't.
That's why I don't support him at all.
These are some of the 99ers who are most sorely aggrieved, in dire need of redress-of-grievances. Therefore, in promoting the general welfare of the 99ers, we must make sure their welfare is tended-to. I'm practicing framing for 99ers who are white guys, so they'll quit looking at white-guy billionaires and imagining they are seeing themselves in a mirror. They have FAR MORE in common with these 99ers you've mentioned. I am serious.
re: "If Barack Obama is re-elected [...] the downward spiral will continue..."
Too true. Of all the things the betrayer in chief has come up short on, it's the historical exigency to improve the lot of minorities and those who are discriminated against which he has most flagrantly neglected. I wasn't looking forward to 4 years of easy sailing when I voted for Obama. I wasn't expecting America to simply abandon centuries of racism, discrimination and inequality — I expected a fight for social justice, and not just from the back and margins of the pack. I expected Obama to uplift minorities to the snarling and gnashing of teeth of the racists among us, I expected some type of overdue reconciliation, some real emulation of the ideals of MLK.
And this is what we got. An Uncle Tom? Not quite. A changling, a Trojan Horse, an oreo, a skunk in cats clothes, a sellout. Who does Obama rub shoulders with, when he's not posing for a heart-warming photo-op? Who does he place at his side, and who does he remove? Where does he vacation? Who's interests is he really serving?
Perhaps it was Obama behind the dropping of the threat of death against Mumia Abu-Jamal?
LOL.
I get the impression that Obama doesn't really consider himself black unless it's politically expedient for him. He is half white, after all, and was raised by the white side of his family. He doesn't seem to really understand the black experience of racism in the United States, although I'm sure he endured some. Basically, he's a lackey for the ruling class and they were brilliant in their selection of him as president.
GwNorth:
"I do believe That the Aboriginal Americans are at the bottom of the heap and those advocating Social Justice should not leave them out of such comparisons as if they did not exist".
A most salient observation. The American Indian and the African are victims of European "Empire". In Africa, Empire succeeded in turning brother against brother. In America, Empire succeeded (if the popular narrative is true) by dividing brothers. One cannot imagine invaders succeeding against a combined populace. No matter. the historical scenario, both lost in their confrontation with European Empire. Both have continued to lose. The election of Mr. Obama to the Presidency is a phenomena, so beyong logic, it approaches the Divine. The veracity of Dr. King's assertion about Justice in the Universe is tested against the facts governing the lives of native Americans and Africans in America. The ability of Mr. Obama to engage the trust of the African American Community without allegiance to it is kin to the spirit that yielded to European Empire and allowed brothers to sell brothers into slavery.
To. Ms, Kimberley, I congratulate you on an otherwise fine article and defer to a "Temple of our Familiar" where the Spirit of another Margaret resides in the following words:
"Let a new earth rise. Let another world be born. Let a
bloody peace be written in the sky. Let a second
generation full of courage issue forth; let a people
loving freedom come to growth. Let a beauty full of
healing and a strength of final clenching be the pulsing
in our spirits and our blood. Let the martial songs be
written, let the dirges disappear. Let a race of men now
rise and take control.
I would say Ms. Kimberley, the Spirit of that new world lies in the nexus of "Citizenship" as required in a Democracy.
.
"The nation’s economic news is grim indeed, and is the grimmest of all for black Americans"
Native Americans are the grimmest Margaret. Do you even care Margaret? Do we even EXIST in the Black mind? Why do you lie for political sympathy and gain? Blacks never suffered genocide in America, American Indians still do. If we are to achieve unity Margaret, we must begin with the truth.
Stone, I've been very vocal in my support for the First Nations/Aboriginal peoples here in America and elsewhere. However, don't let your affiliation with them blind you to facts. Blacks have and are currently experiencing everything that our native cousins have. Don't blame Margaret for emphasizing that Blacks are at the bottom of the heap, as this is her group. Besides, there is one advantage that our native cousins have, that Blacks have never had. Tribal sovereignty and a land base, however marginal, is a huge advantage that we, a colonized and homeless people, will probably never have. Native peoples have wise spokespeople that attempt to inform us about their struggles. Let her do the same.
I believe that unity is the goal as well so, let's look at some tough truths, Stone. There were many Native tribes, like the Tsalagi (Cherokee), who tried to be accommodating and integrate with the Europeans, even to the point of buying and owning Black slaves. This is well known. In the meanwhile, the descendants of those slaves, who were promised membership in the tribe after given their freedom, were kicked off the rolls and treated as second-class 'indians'. Again, also fact. Hell, I could see how one could come to believe that, in America, Blacks ain't got a friend in the world, We seem to have no real and lasting friendships among the majority European ethnic groups, nor the Asians, nor Latinos or Aboriginals. When those groups want help fighting for their rights, freedom, security and safety, they have no problem with joining with us. As soon as they become part of the establishment, in any locale, they act as if we Blacks don't exist.
None of that matters to me. We Blacks aren't going to be a part of any national recovery, because ultimately, we aren't considered a real part of the nation, by many peoples, tribes and groups. Words and talk mean nothing as compared to action. The only way that I can see forward, is for my people to acquire some sort of land base, gain and protect our own sovereignty, and then work with other groups to help them to do the same. Charity starts at home.
Black Anarch:
Well Said. Charity begins at Home.
Each year that I am able, I go to visit one of the most destitute regions in the United States, the ever-impoverished Mississippi Delta. There are hundreds of tiny towns strewn quite apart from each other, and in each of these tiny, dirt-poor towns, I find only fast food chain restaurants, local catfish, hushpuppies and BBQ shacks, perhaps a gas station here and there, a few general stores and several funeral parlors; no where have I seen a market filled with healthy foods such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains.
Many people in the Mississippi Delta, most of them black, are left completely ignored and poverty-stricken with little access to a proper education, healthy foods, [affordable] health care; many live in lean-to shacks with no hope for a better future. The people of this region of Mississippi, the second poorest state in the union (Louisiana is the poorest), are largely ignored and there is always a severe lack of resources for them. How, exactly do you get ahead with those kinds of conditions??? Generation after generation, there is NOTHING to do BUT play & sing the Blues. And they certainly have MASTERED THAT...
So, it is with that that I say, once more, the drastic lack of resources for black Americans and now for most people in all of America today, thanks largely to DEREGULATION, is so vastly widening and obviously so; the criminal conspiracy on Wall Street that brought this country to it's knees, and the (mostly Republican) government's draconian cuts to ALL of the most crucial and the most fundamental aspects to any "civilized" society, i.e. education, health care, food and shelter, have utterly shattered so many lives it's unspeakable.
In my 43 years here on earth, most of my time here in America, I have never before witnessed such reckless and such foreseeable decimation of an entire society. All that had once been great about this, my own country, has been literally squandered to unimaginable ruins by the insanely myopic, thoroughly shortsighted decisions, designs and policies of the self-absorbed, infantile and stupid-to-the-core politicians.
It's nothing more than a game to these people; Almost every single one of these worse-than-useless government hacks and their flunkies are nothing more than base prostitutes, so glaringly whoring everything to the ghastly and obscene corporate empires that are quite literally running every single industry straight through the ground and into hell; and they do it in broad daylight, without a single thought and with absolutely no conscience whatsoever. Actual FACTS mean NOTHING to the likes of these these people, as they are thoroughly self-important, self-centered, greedy, stingy and covetous cretins, not to mention pathological liars and sociopaths. Just like undeveloped two-year-olds fighting over a cheap plastic toy.
Christina, If it's any consolation, I share your sense of outrage, and have also witnessed everything that you've related. And I rail against those in the forum who seek to normalize the escalating injustices by suggesting that it has ALWAYS been this way. I also admire the author of this article for so bluntly stating the disappointing truth about Obama. I thought that, at the least, he'd slightly shift the direction of State away from the approaching abyss. There once was some light, or policy differences, between the "two" parties. No more. Big money bought them both off; for as we know, the big pockets often fund both teams just to hedge their bets. The entire political dog and pony show is an elaborate game of quid pro quo. As to the families living on the rural outskirs, one has to admire their fortitude; that they can live with so little and still find joy in their existences. Perhaps those with nothing to lose will be best situated when the big tent utterly collapses. I think that's inevitable. Radiation spewing from Japan, contaminated food and other products from China, a global finance system that resembles a casino out of control, and climate change producing massive weather (and geological) events of recurrent severity. Then there's the war, war, and more war, with jobs shipped overseas and costs of everything rising. Could a more compelling recipe FOR disaster be created in the imagination of a dystopian sci-fi writer? And so many close their eyes or manage to PRETEND that it's really all okay. A few in this forum appear to be paid to do precisely that. Evidence of Fukushima's radioactive emissions increasing, no big deal. Evidence of European nations' economies faltering, no big deal. Millions being made homeless, no big deal. ETC. The only caveat, as per the prophecy, "May you live in interesting times..." it's that and more, on steroids!
Why do "Black" people support Barack Obama? Really?
Uh .... it's because the vast majority of "Black" Americans identify with "race" first-and-foremost. Yet, if / when "White" people so-called, do the same thing, it's labeled racist and that is simply intolerable .... intolerable!
As several writers have already commented, the descendants of aboriginal Americans are doing much worse economically than "Blacks".
Progressives, I have an idea .... quit separating human beings into shades of brown and stop hyphenating us.
What say?
Sure, no problem, Widhalm. I'll stop identifying as Black when the vast majority of non-blacks, stop identifying me AS Black, okay? When the color of my skin isn't an issue for getting gainful work, good living space, adequate safety, and any of the other things that we all want, I'll be more than glad to let it go. When there is a real attempt to ameliorate and restore my people to some semblance of wholeness, I'll step back and praise being a non-hyphenated Amerikan. Until then, I'll side with those who are identified as Black by non-Blacks.
I laugh my ass off at people like you, Widhalm. I'm sure you don't want to know why but, I'll tell you anyway. When Whites identify us as Black, and use that identity to marginalize us, that is okay. When we accept that we're being marginalized and come together for our common defense against that marginalization, we're considered to be 'racist'. That's like telling a rape victim that she was raped because she was "asking for it". You don't get to blame my people for seeking unity and protection amongst themselves; while facing extinction in the urban wilds of Fortress Amerika. By the way, Widhalm, it was Whites who hyphenated us to begin with. Even Whites from different areas of Europe, identified with their cultural heritage in the form of the 'hyphen', isn't that right, Irish, Polish and German-Americans? Because of slavery, I don't even have a country to identify my heritage with; simply a skin color. You want to take that away from me? Please do. Ensure that my people are made whole for the past and ongoing systematic abuses and deprivations and I'll be glad to not be 'Black' anymore.
You should learn a thing or two about the differences between bigotry and racism. Any person of any group can be bigoted. Only those with the power to enforce their bigotry can be racist. Only those who control the economic, political, societal, communications, legal systems and all the enforcers of those systems, can be racist. Racism involves an element of power that bigotry does not. Come bitch to me when you've lived under an unjust power structure that we Amerikan Blacks have created, okay? Until then, you have no basis to even comment on what, why and how we Blacks do things.
As for your loaded question as to why Black people (as if we all did or do) support Blobama, lets do some math, shall we? We Blacks make up around 13% of the total population here in Amerika. Even if every single Black woman, man and child were able to vote (didn't and won't ever happen), AND did vote to support this fascist bastard, AND no other ethnic group voted for him, he still would've lost. There were many Whites, Latinos and Asians who supported, voted for him and still support him! Why don't you direct your question to all of Amerika? Your question pretends that all Blacks suddenly found that in the face of vote suppression, ballot tampering and legerdemain, that our votes suddenly became more than enough to elect a half-Black man to the office without any other group needing to vote for him.
That was an amazingly good response, but I'll be positively shocked if he actually listens. If I could bet online on this, I'd put money on his response being some variant of...
"Well you're just an angry black man!"
I am an angry black man. More importantly, I'm an angry man. If I was the benevolent dictator of Fortress Amerika, I'd void all property deeds and cede the land back to the First Nations. I'd then humbly ask permission to stay and help renew the land back to its former pristine beauty. Deep in my heart, however, I'm sure that my Native cousins would tell me, just has the Whites have, to go the fuck back to Africa. I'm of the mind that, unless and until we Blacks stop asking permission to live and begin actually living and doing for ourselves, by any means necessary, we have nothing to contribute to any other group. One cannot demand that the ox plows the fields, while bleeding it to death at the same time. We cannot help others until we can help ourselves.
We've tried everything we could here to peaceably coexist. Blacks have been at the forefront of fighting for rights, freedom, justice and prosperity for ALL Amerikans, not just ourselves. What have we seen in return? Criminalization of our skin color, gentrification and/or active dereliction of our homes and communities, destruction of our families by government fiat, neighborhoods that are occupied by paramilitary police forces by day, and ruthless criminal gangs by night, no grocery stores, banks or any other vital services that are provided to other groups, as a matter of course. Everyday, my people wake up on the wrong side of Capitalism. Every war fought within Amerika (the Wars on drugs, poverty, terrorism, etc.) has put my people in the cross-hairs. I understand that we all need to unify and that we all want the same things. We Blacks want good work, safe homes and communities, education, adequate food and clothing, peace, freedom and a decent life, just as you do. However, as I said before, when everyone else demands those things, we Blacks rise to the occasion and fight with you. When you've received whatever goodies that the powers that rule us all give you, you turn your backs and act as if Blacks are sub-human. It's ridiculous and personally, I'm not really with that anymore. Who fights for me and mine, I wonder?
Widhalm and his ilk believe that we're just whiners; lazy people who don't know how good we have it. He doesn't see how the situation really is. His people (Whites I'm assuming) have had the run of things for 500 years or better. My people just received the full right (which is being taken away as we speak) to vote in 1964. The situation is equivalent to a world class marathoner racing a man who's been hobbled in chains for 20 years. There's no contest. Unless there is a serious redistribution of wealth here, my people really don't stand a chance. Try waking up everyday, Widhalm, and knowing that, in the end, your people stand a damn good chance of going extinct here. See if you can still smile and play Step'n Fetchit for your boss. See how easy it will be for you to live your life with joy, pleasure and without fear. See how angry you become, eh?
Poverty, crime, ignorance and fear aren't Black things. They are human things. Whatever happens in this country, never forget that unless we all have freedom, justice, and prosperity, none of us really do. Black Anarch out.
Do you ever think that Martin Luther King was kind of a mistake in a sense? That if he saw what the United States would turn into after him-that we've had 40 years of worse than useless leadership, a bunch of martyrs safely in the past, and that by just about any positive ethical standard, the country has gotten worse, he would've been a very different person?
I personally believe that MLK was treated the same as Gandhi was under the British. It was much easier for him to appear as moderate and accommodating in the face of leaders like El Malik al-Shabazz (Malcolm X) and Bro. Huey Newton, who believed and taught that we have the right to defend our rights, by any means. As a matter of fact, it is not commonly known that the two brothers were probably a year or less from meeting together and I'm sure that they would've ironed out their differences and united our people. Martin started speaking about injustice, poverty and war in general, and Malik, after his conversion to Orthodox Islam, began to call for the U. N. to investigate and step in to enforce human rights for all Amerikans, not just Blacks. Think about how different this country would be if they had succeeded...
re: "When we accept that we're being marginalized and come together for our common defense against that marginalization, we're considered to be 'racist'. "
(and all the rest)
Much respect, Black_Anarch. Your comments in this thread ring clear with the force of truth.