I can't help myself

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OK. I guess I just can't help myself.

Privilege/Class/Social Inequalities Explained in a $100 Race
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4K5fbQ1-zps

We need to work on the big problems and stop wasting our time polishing the chrome on this rusted out old Edsel.

Comments

Liberalism Is Not a Panacea

I live and work in St. Paul. I have, in the past, lived and worked in Minneapolis.

We are the land of Lake Woebegon (prior to the Keillor scandals.) We are the home of Hubert Humphrey. We are the proud home of Ilhan Omar. We embraced LGBTQ long before the group knew what to call itself with anti-discrimination laws.

Yet - the New York Times states and quantifies that we are one of the worst places in the United State for Blacks to live.

We consistently vote BLUE by a wide margin, yet we're the poster child for police killings.

We are neighbors to the 6th district. That is the home of the far-right Tom Emmers and his predecessor Michelle Bachmann. It could not be more RED. It has been gerrymandered to the max. It is one of the areas in the state where vaccinations are dragging along at between 20 and 30% while the rest of the state is over 50%.

The Liberal in me suggests that the police for Minneapolis and St. Paul are imported from that district, but there is no truth to that . . . that I know of.

No . . . social inequalities are not purely the product of a conservative society hell-bent on ignoring the least amongst us.

We all are culpable. We all need to up our game.

I understand privilege. If you grew up in a rural community or small town you know what it means to be born on the wrong side of the track. I remember crosses being burned in my hometown when I was very young to let the Italian family know they weren't welcome. I remember how poorly the only black family in town was treated. I remember how we treated the fat boy in our class. How he was mocked by everyone, including the teachers. I remember how the athletes were placed on pedestals. I remember how ugly and plain girls were vilified for not making the effort to be pretty.

Life can be a real bitch.

These things have long-term consequences.

I've had a wonderful life. I've also had some very bad things happen to me. Late at night, I wonder. Did that bully in high school break my leg because I was giving off female vibes? Did that partner conspire with those people to steal a business from me -- that was worth several million dollars -- because he hated my female nature?

I can think of at least a dozen things that happened that I suspect occurred because of my trans disposition.

The politicians in many states are going entirely in the WRONG direction. They should be working to right the social inequalities for trans youth instead of creating more.

It is time to quit pissing on other peoples' parades.

Jill

Angela Rasch (Jill M I)

Well said.

Angharad's picture

Unfortunately, politicians have to justify their existence, which they do by pointing out differences rather than try to heal them, many priests do something similar, so I am afraid I view these two groups of malefactors with the same degree of contempt.

Angharad

If left to the hedge

crash's picture

If we let the hedge decide how to govern it will outlaw hedge trimmers. Unfortunately we have let politicians decide how to govern. They have done exactly what is to be expected. They work to arrange things so that they get to decide who votes. We need to reverse that.

https://represent.us/

Your friend
Crash

Far too many Politicians

want to keep themselves in the News so they'll jump on any bandwagon going.
Just look at all the talking heads that suddenly appeared on stations like Fox when Mr Potato Head came headline news?
They'd rather complain about a decision of a private company rather than dealing with important matters such as Job Creation, Climate Change, Human Rights etc etc etc.
I call this the 'Fiddling while the capital burns' syndrome.
Then the leaders of the official opposition party in DC don't help. Moscow Mitch loves to complain about things in a way that would be more suited to 'Much Ado about Nothing'.

While this is going on, the states are virtually free to pass all sorts of laws that discriminate against anyone who isn't a WASP. Just look at the new laws in Florida as an example. Madness.