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US' Racism, Prejudice and Discrimination . . .

http://cpusa.org/article/articleview/730/1/130/

If Katrina had a salutary effect it was to reintroduce the fault lines of racism and
poverty into the nation consciousness and conversation. For the past quarter century
right wing ideologues have been saying, with some assist from centrist democrats,
that we live in a post-civil rights era in which rough equality of condition among
peoples has been either achieved or, where it hasn’t, is explained by other factors
than race and racial discrimination.

But Katrina and its after shocks challenged this myth. It brought to the nation’s
consciousness that millions of African American people and other people of color are
locked into conditions of poverty, attend understaffed and under-funded schools, live
in substandard housing and hyper-segregated neighborhoods, receive inadequate health
care, experience long bouts of unemployment, work overwhelmingly in low wage jobs,
and are denied dignity.

Or to put it differently, thanks to the Katrina, the American people have a greater
awareness that racism is not simply a prejudice and little more than that. They now
see that it decisively shapes the material and spiritual conditions in which tens of
millions of racially oppressed people live.

As images from Katrina cascaded across their television screens, millions of people
were shocked and asked themselves “Why?”

Why do so many racially oppressed people live in poverty? Why are so many young
African American men unemployed? Why are so many African American men and
increasingly women filling our jails? Why hasn’t the high school drop rate of young
people of color changed appreciably in decades? Why are high schools that are named
in honor of our nation’s great civil rights leaders more segregated now than they
were thirty years ago?

These questions still await an answer, but the important thing is that they were
asked and that millions are disposed to consider a different narrative that explains
the conditions and persistence of racial inequality in our country.

But as we know windows of opportunity don’t stay open forever, thanks in no small
measure to the ability of ruling elites to change the subject of conversation. It is
easy for people to return to old explanations and understandings rather than confront
new narratives that lead in a different direction, even where it is in their
interests to do so.

I don’t think that the window has closed yet, but leaders of the progressive movement
have to take initiatives on an ideological and practical level, beginning with the
rebuilding of New Orleans and the rest of the region.

Another field of struggle is the collective bargaining arena both private and public.
A crucial struggle is taking place in the auto and auto parts industries. Delphi, the
world’s largest auto parts manufacturer, is attempting to impose, using the cudgel of
bankruptcy laws and judges, draconian cuts on 34,000 active workers and 12,000
retirees in the United States and many thousands more worldwide. And GM is not far
behind in its demands for shedding health care benefits and pension responsibilities.
No matter how you slice it, this struggle constitutes a major test for the entire
labor movement and its allies and is a critical piece of a larger class wide struggle
to protect retirement security.

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I intend to last long enough to put out of business all *****-suckers
and other beneficiaries of the institutionalized slavery and genocide.

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"The army that will defeat terrorism doesn't wear uniforms, or drive
Humvees, or calls in air-strikes. It doesn't have a high command, or
high security, or a high budget. The army that can defeat terrorism
does battle quietly, clearing minefields and vaccinating children. It
undermines military dictatorships and military lobbyists. It subverts
sweatshops and special interests.Where people feel powerless, it
helps them organize for change, and where people are powerful, it
reminds them of their responsibility." ~~~~ Author Unknown ~~~~
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