Will economically repressed minorities be the catalyst for real change?

It seems to me that with the new fuedalism taking shape they will take the hardest hits.

Will they hit back? Will they move dramatically to the Left?

I certainly hope so. I also hope that we can all work together in this stuggle too.

I am not hearing Dems address the abandonment of the inner cities, for instance, or the ludicrous and draconian drug war, or the imprisonment rates among young black men. And still both African American and Hispanic voters still vote mostly Democratic. But how many don't vote at all? Far too many, I think. Why should they see a reason to, other than the lesser of two evils arguement? That's not much of a motivator when things just keeping getting worse every year.

Not to offer "help" but to offer our hand in solidarity.

*

...for the welcome.

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

Thanks for the greeting!

The jobless in this country watching their jobs going overseas are beginning to ask questions about the ploitacally organized treaties which helped the fat corporate bottom lines get fatter.

Time for people to see who is running our country...it's not Washington.

complex economically repressed minorities and i cannot say whether we will be the "catalyst for real change," but one thing is sure, we will as you say take the hardest hits

but then, we always do
we're used to it by now

a childhood friend i speak to from time to time said to me a few months ago, "Our whole lives have been an experiment in terrorism."

he was not speaking ironically

edited for typo

I'm serious about this.

As a "white" male there may be little that I can do, due to trust, but maybe there is?

and the cooperation and organization will follow

the civil rights struggle of the 1960s is not so distant in memory
neither is Vietnam

Like study harder in school, complete high school, don't get pregnant, work hard at work. That would do alot to help them obtain economic freedom. Government can't make them do their homework, can't make them stay in school, can't make them use condoms, and can't make them work hard. Of course I'm generalizing, and there are millions and millions of minorities who do succeed because of a good education and hard work. We are talking here about the "economically repressed". They need to help themselves first before they look for government solutions.

and if you have, did you have a structure, resources around you that enabled you to overcome your helplessness?

But what does that have to do with staying in school? Not trying to be argumentative, but people gotta help themselves as much as they can and THEN, the government should step in and help them out.

one thing that you would note is that it's not the kind of environment you want to stick around in, diploma or not

and what does a high school diploma from a bad school get you when there's no job for you to go to anyway, unless you are truly resourceful, intelligent, and maybe even lucky

or if you have dreams, vivid irrepressible dreams about escaping the nightmare

but if you're just an average Joe, you may not have that extra something

you may not have any idea about how to pull yourself out of the dire situation you find yourself in, that were born in, and will more than likely die in

I however know that I was lucky and not everyone had the advantages that I had.

Dad's who have absconded without paying child support.

I know a few boys who quit school in order to take jobs and help their mothers support a younger child. And I live in white utopian rural America. With a good school even.

These people are doing every damn thing they can, society is crumbling all around them and most people don't even notice. The problems in the inner cities with job exports are just starting to be noticed in suburbia. NOW it's a problem.

Richard Pryor said it years ago. When you notice a problem in black America, you might want to pay attention. Sooner or later it always comes to white America where it then becomes an 'epidemic'.

...and for the record, I am a white woman. Have you ever been to the inner cities? The jobs left over twenty years ago. There is nothing there but for people to "work" at. There are no jobs. Stay in school? Visit some of the schools. When there are no jobs you have to live on welfare. And you can't eat through the month on welfare. Oh, and if you manage to get out, to come to a place in upstate NY, for instance, listen to people talk about how you are bringing the "criminal element" into their fair city. "They need to help themselves first before they look for government solutions." You need at least two sticks and some fuel to build a fire. Your post ignores the entire history of the last thirty years, not to mention institutional racism which I won't even try to go into.

We'd be good friends. :-)

As you say. And going on a tangent. Even when minorities do everything right, they still get derailed. That's the issue we're trying to address.

The oppressed in this country are caught between two elite. One is an economic elite, the other is an intellectual elite. The economically oppressed are caught in the no-man’s land of invisibility. The economic elite looks on them as tools. The intellectual elite views them as fools. No one addresses their vision; their hopes and they are currently locked out of the political equation. Where they will go is not so much the question as who will take them.

Perhaps Stan Goff was right when he said in an interview with Truthout (I think it was) that,"Liberals are just guilty Conservatives, I'm not a Liberal.".

We really do need to get out shit together when it comes to our most natural constituants.

My first sort of career level path job was at a union factory. I remember reading the newsletter for the more progressive side of the union. It had a statement about how we all need to unite. It said something like "Mangement (and all of big business) has used differences like race, age, sex, ethnicity, and religion to divide us. We must resist these efforts to divide us and unite." I was rather moved by this statement, which was put much better than I just wrote. Really, people of all races are being economically repressed. People without some particuliar training are no longer promoted to management except in some industries like fast food where store managers work 80 hour weeks for their middle class income. Hardworking and talented workers are certainly not promoted since they are doing such a good job where they are. Many college graduates are not getting good jobs in the current economy because more experienced people are out of work or working in unbearable working conditions that people with no or little experience cannot compete. They instead take jobs at retail stores and factories like the non college graduates and after a few years they will be seen as the furniture salesman and not the college graduate when they try to apply for a better job. There are certain direct career path track degrees and training programsthat are probably a lot of people's best bet out there. Just be sure you really want to be a nurse because if it turns out that you really hate it, you are in the same boat as everyone else. Of course, people with connections don't have to worry about any of this. Children of rich parents with business connections simply need to graduate from college, which their parents fully pay without sacrafice. Then they get a good paying job. Everyone else is economically disadvantaged unless they get extremely lucky. We should all unite. Only then will there be real change.