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| Re: Working-class Whites: The real second-class citizens? (267582) | |||
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Re: Working-class Whites: The real second-class citizens? |
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Posted by Eric B on Thu Dec 6 13:26:47 2007, in response to Re: Working-class Whites: The real second-class citizens?, posted by BMT Guy on Wed Dec 5 21:47:40 2007. Thank you!Basically, it is all about BACKLASH. Because of the egregious racism of the 50's and before, plus the rest of the cultural upheaval (the wars, white kids rebelling against the phony "Father Knows Best" image of society, etc), there was a lineral revolution, with all the "reverse discrimination" programs, designed to try to make things even. It benefitted some, but by the 80's, there was then another backlash from the right now, that this was "unfair". Part of this was proclaiming the middle AND even upper class white male as the "real" victim, of not only unfair policies, but also public derision, and most importantly, TAXES; supposedly going to "social programs" beneffitting "undeserving, nonworking lazy minorities" who just blow it all on expensive clothes and jewelry. So over the past 25 years, with the conservatives screaming at campaing speeches, media figures from Morton Downey to Rush Limbaugh helping to sway the public consciousness, and finally the Republicans dominating (the "Reagan revolution", basically), a lot of those programs were overturned, or at least modified (workfare, etc). On the link someone posted on "reverse discrimination" cases; most of them were several years ago, now, with the number decreasing as you approach this year. So I don't understand what people are still complaining about. Meanwhile, the real problem in this country is the runaway "market", where prices go up, up, up. In the 70's, the cities were all allowed to decay, but all of a sudden now, all of these lots are being built up, and buildings fixed up or replaced; including whole neighborhoods, sometimes (Nets Arena plan, etc). And it is almost all condo's, most people cannot afford. Decades of neglect, and all of a sudden, out of nowhere comes all of this "development", but the people who suffered long in the inner city still suffer, by being forced out, now. In the 14 years since I have been married, over here in Ridgewood of all places; my rent has almost tripled, and many of the new apartments (that are still rentals), are almost double that! I think the system is screwing EVERYBODY, and we are all locked into pointing at each other from the past issues. So black leaders complain about the difficulty by screaming "racism", as if nothing changed from the sixties. Whites, who also find the cost of their standard of living increasingly hard to maintain, then continue to throw the blame back at the minorities, ironically telling them to stop "whining", and being lazy/wanting something for nothing; and that they are the ones still being robbed through taxes by the government for their sake, and now, "illegal immigrants" (from south of the border) are the new scapegoat. Both sides are blind; but I get more annoyed at the right, because they are the ones defending the very system screwing them, and actually blaming the least powerful instead. (while they don't even notice that they have almost solidly gotten their way in city, state and national elections; yet there is still a problem they are complaining about!) When the market makes it hard for minorities, while individuals with power can pull strings and make millions and billions, they tell them "that's the way the market is", and to stop whining, being lazy, etc. and pull their bootstraps like they did. However, when they stop and think of the fact that they are struggling too, that then is not the market, that is the "liberal" government overtaxing them and the companies raising the prices, and salaries of CEO's; with even the Republicans being called "too liberal; no different from the Democrats" by many (who then push for radical movements like the Constitution Party). So while they have us all pointing at each other with this played out "left vs. right" theme; nobody questions, yeah, just what is controlling this "market"? If education is the way to pull up your bootstraps, then why is that going up so much, where you already have to have a lot of money to get the credentials you need to be able to earn money? No; one side defends the market as if it was God, and blames "reverse racism" instead, and the other doesn't even seem to address the market at all, but just continues to blame the original racism. One thing that should make us think, is that Both Martin Luther King and Malcolm X preached for decades, angering the system. King helped force integration and equality, while Malcolm took a more critical approach, and taught Nation of Islam doctrine that whites were devils, and blacks should have their own nation. And all of this time, they were allowed to live. However; it was when both became disillusioned with their respective movements, and realized class was actually a bigger problem underlying the race issue; in which case they not only began moving towards each other ideologically, but also began looking to the same problems in rest of the world (beyond just minoroties in America); THAT was when they became "dangerous" enough to finally be eliminated! This should show us that this is the real issue we are being steered away from, and if politics seems deadlocked, with people unhappy with both parties, whom they see as "just alike—the same old thing"; it is because we are still locked into this whole "right-left" pattern, which is really just a smokescreen for the real power struggle. Right and left have always been two sides of the same coin, really. Communism was called "state capitalism". The government held all the power simply divided up by "private" business in this system. Fascism and Naziism are on the opposite ends of the spectrum from Communism/Socialism, even though they are ultimately so similar to each other. Focusing on race has kept the tension alive, with many blacks holding a lot of resentments, hip hop taking on an anti-white streak years ago (though influence of groups such as Five Percentism), and whites constantly feeling persecuted, and lashing back "we tried to help them, but they are still whining; maybe there really is something wrong with them after all" (hence "Bell Curve" theories surfacing at times, or "moral" judgments from many). Now, we have all of these racial attacks (from both sides to the other), and even a rsh of cross burnings and nooses and stuff. So it looks like we are actually going backwards in race relations, while cost of living continues to get harder for all. (and in all of this, the alarming issue of the future of health care not even being discussed!) So we all need to stop just going with the flow, and towing the party line and start asking some hard questions about what is really going on out here! |
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