Maybe I'm Crazy, but Racism for Control????

[headforspace]

I wonder if anyone has thought about this more than me, but I wonder if the government powers that be would rather see racism as a problem than class as a problem. I first noticed it after Katrina, when most of the news was about racial discrimination rather than class. Those who had the means to get out did, and those who didn't were not non-white anyway. After "George Bush doesn't care about Black People" and civil rights leaders, I started to wonder. While I know the majority was black, even the media reports reflected the recent highlight of poverty as mostly a racial issue. As I said before, race plays a part. But I believe it is easier to put a Condoleeza Rice or Colin Powell in power and be able to dodge the questions.
Every race has a large amount of poor, and I don't see many sympathetic to the issue in power. Recent cuts in fed assistance and tax cuts for highest 1/5 percent back this up. Part of a minority seems easier to deal with than the whole of the working poor. But, I cannot possible feel what everyone else is, so I that is why I am asking rather than telling.

 

[Hornburger]

The biggest division in this country is not racism, but classism. However, the lowest class of people in the U.S. also tends to be blacks...so the wealthy blacks won't be discriminated against or anything very much, if at all...but many blacks are not financially secure, so that I think is a main reason why the problem is sometimes seen as racism.

 

[happykat]

What exectly are you assking?
Is discrimination more of racial or class distinction? Yes. No.
Believe it or not, some people really do hate people of other races regardless of their class. On the other hand, others don't care about race as long as they have money.
More often than not, I think it has to do with money and class.

 

[headforspace]

The poverty rate for blacks is approximately double for that of all races, and a little more than double at half of the poverty rate (CPS Census surveys). While that is still a large gap, it is not as much as some perceive it to be.

 

[Schweddy]

3 times more for blacks, not double.

Year 2004

http://www.census.gov/prod/2005pubs/p60-229.pdf
Pages 39-41

 

[Billo_Really]

Originally posted by happykat:
What exectly are you assking?
Is discrimination more of racial or class distinction? Yes. No.
Believe it or not, some people really do hate people of other races regardless of their class. On the other hand, others don't care about race as long as they have money.
More often than not, I think it has to do with money and class.

That's a good avatar. Kind of hits ya when you don't expect it.

 

[happykat]

That's a good avatar. Kind of hits ya when you don't expect it.

Fits me like a glove. It's no Sam Kinison, but then again, who is?

 

[Technocratic_Utilitarian]

Well, I am not sure exactly what you are asking, but the very concept of racism in american society did not exist originally; it was, to an extent, a fabrication borne of economic or class conflict. The early aristocrats, planets, and elite rich of the colonies of teh 17th and 18th centuries needed a way to sew deceit, lies, and treachery among the population segments of the colonies which had a sense of solidarity. Fear gave birth to racism; not fear of actual people or colour, but fear of competition and retribution.

Today, racism has come a long way from its humble class roots. Today, I do not think that racism is synonomous with class conflict, but orginally, the two were heavily intertwined. It was sheer brilliance, actually.

 

[Employee_of_the_Month]

Im really glad that yall realize this.

Even though it isnt just as simple as classism because this country has worked on institutionalized racism for along time and that is a big part of the equation, the general struggle and distinction in this country and the world is class.