If you want wealth, you need to save and invest. Even those who inherit wealth have ancestors who saved and invested.
You also need to learn how to save and invest. Many financial advisors, stockbrokers, and insurance salesmen are out to take advantage of the financially naive.
Many pundits have said that if took all the wealth in the US, and distributed equally among all the households, in ten or fifteen years it would be back where it started. There is a lot of truth in this idea. This is why government cash redistribution schemes seldom work as intended.
You can go ahead and try reparations if you like, but you'll probably just enrich a bunch of white salesmen and stockbrokers.
40
The US financial system created the racial wealth gap by taking land and labor for centuries, and financing farming and cotton textile manufacturing. It continues the racial wealth divide by denying access to low-cost credit because it is overly dependent on credit scores--unavailable to 45 million adults--and denying low-cost loans in low-income rural and urban places.
8
Reparations are not the answer. Poverty impacts everyone, and it would be unjust of the country to view poverty in one group as somehow more important to remedy than in another group. Racial inequities in economic empowerment however do need to be addressed and eliminated.
7
Let Post Offices take on the role of payday lending and savings. They can become bank to the unbanked without charging exorbitant fees. And give them something important to do now that mail is becoming obsolete.
7
It’s expensive to be poor (black), and that perpetuates poverty.
Poverty is inherited the same way wealth is and that cements poverty from (black) generation to (black) generation.
We have a whole industry that preys on the poor: pawn shops, pay day lenders, banks, slum lords...
I would call it outrageous if a median white family has double the wealth of a median black family, unacceptable if triple, catastrophic if ten fold, but 41 times?
This wealth gap even reaches the super rich, Oprah Winfrey has an estimated wealth of 3 billion and Jeff Bezos of 100 billion, 33 times as much!
Slavery and colonialism set the foundation of this injustice and racism has since then built on it.
As a nation we have to acknowledge first that systemic and institutionalized exploitation has caused this prosperity and social justice gap.
Symbolism will count a lot. It will be the solemn duty of Congress to find this nation guilty of injustice in writing, quasi a preamble to the constitution and make it a national priority to overcome.
13
Unless you were joking...the Winfrey -Bezos comparison is apples and oranges.
5
@Oliver Herfort Many whites are poor as dirt. They are living in their cars, on sidewalks, etc. They are lumped in with the Koch bros and Bezos.
4
@Liz: the median household income is used and not the average to compare. The median is robust towards outliers when numbers do not follow a normal distribution. Hence the Koch brothers do not effect the median white household income
2
I'm getting to the point where I don't see the purpose of columns like this. This is the same government system that can't even get a regular budget passed without shutting the entire government down. The same government system that struggles to get the slightest things done due to such deep political gridlock. Yet you are going to find money & political capital to hand out reparations? Reparations are not just far fetched they will never happen...ever. Let’s not force people to pay reparations for something they had nothing to do with. That won't help heal the racial divide it will widen it.
22
My fellow commenters, you are taking my breathe away and making my heart weep. Please educate yourself about trauma, abuse, poverty, health, redlining and asset-stripping in our country's history, and its intergenerational impact on humans of all races. Drop the facile generalizations about how easy it is to lift oneself up by the bootstraps. Those bootstraps are held up by your ancestors, and if those ancestors had education, income, assets, and physical and mental health, and didn't self-medicate with alcohol or drugs because they had access to healthcare, your road to success in school will be considerably easier. You'll probably be in a better school district, too.
When I first found out that my great-grandmother attended college - at a time when few women did - I thought, How incredibly cool that my middle-class family was forward-thinking and invested in girls. Now I know that four generations ago, they were already prosperous enough to be able to send her to college, and for her to be adequately prepared to succeed there. No wonder I was able to get into Stanford *all by myself*. All it took was my own intelligence and hard work ... made possible by generations of middle-class stability, health, and comfort.
Low-income people - of any race - shouldn't have to be superhuman to escape their circumstances and break the multi-generational cycle of poverty and its impacts in our country. Shame on us.
29
@Kim Everyone of any color is now up against the elites running the show.
2
@Kim: thank you for speaking so clearly and insightful
6
The institution of slavery in this country did much damage and still is causing damage. For so long, it was acceptable to dehumanize people. For this reason, even today we collectively lack compassion for fellow human beings. We accept that some people deserve less. Individual blame is placed for being less and not doing better. Enslaved people did not receive compensation for their work and never will. Entities that inherited wealth from this system were allowed to keep it and pass it on to their descendants. The descendants of enslaved people still bear the same burdens. History can not be undone. Reparations should start with teaching true history of the African Diaspora. I have noticed that homogenous societies seem to have more compassion for their fellow citizens. I hope the points the author pointed out are not just ignored. These issues need to be studied and addressed.
14
I'm all for it, as long as I'm on the receiving end and it's someone else who pays. We can all agree on that!
3
So why are there so many whites living in abject poverty? Their skin is supposed to confer prosperity and yet somehow it doesn't. Their ancestors were not subjected to slavery and yet they are in just as bad, if not worse, conditions than many blacks.
4
@Liz: your question should be phrased: why are there so many more African-American living in poverty?
3
@Oliver Herfort Maybe shooting their neighborhoods to pieces has something to do with it. If they didn't do that, houses could increase in value.
4
@Liz "Why are there so many whites living in abject poverty? Their skin is supposed to confer prosperity." Not confer prosperity - shield them and their forebears from the aggressions, minor and major, that have been inflicted on blacks. But that doesn't mean their road was easy. As we can see from these comments, Americans hate poor people. Blacks, Latinos and Native Americans are more likely to be (and continue to be) poor than whites. But that doesn't mean we care any less about poor whites or don't want to help them. It's not a zero sum game. No matter their color, they're all our fellow Americans, which is why US anti-poverty programs are income-based, not race-based.
5
No income tax for AAs.
It's an elegant solution. It would encourage employment and self reliance. Prosperous AAs could be required to donate part of their windfall to black charities. It should be Republican policy. It'd finally get AAs to see the soft slavery the Democrats offer.
This is such a tired subject, regardless of race, the more education, drive, into an element, luck you have, the better job and compensation you’re going to get .
Simply being poor and black isn’t a good enough argument to put you in a CEOs position, affirmative-action can only take you so far, at some point you’re going to have to point the finger at yourself, and hold yourself accountable
8
A free get out of poverty program -- first complete your education, then establish a career, then marry, then have children.
Of course those without a high school diploma will have problems. And if those persons add to their problems by quickly having children out of wedlock, why ought everyone else be made to pay for their obviously poor choices?
But wait ... here comes Courtney Martin to tell us that none of this is anyone's fault in particular, that it's society in general that causes poverty, so we need to subsidize counter-productive behavior?
I'm more realistic -- What we'll get is what we pay for.
12
As we know, money is randomly bestowed on Americans, and has NOTHING to do with cultural emphasis on education or other factors.
5
If our systems could get the crime under control, black prosperity might rise. I have lived in 2 neighborhoods that were shot to pieces by young black and hispanic males. Toddlers in their yards, etc.
8
@Liz: if “our system” could fix racism then prosperity of black Americans would surge
1
@Oliver Herfort So what accounts for poor white people?
2
I think about the difference in housing values by our cutting through the neighborhood Collar City Bridge of Troy, NY. I know so many Troy people that are volunteering and mentoring our youth, but more actual investments in our laborhoods are needed. I remember the cruel summer of 2015 in #TroyNY. Watch over our neighborhoods and free us from the drugs/guns/$$ trade that provides guns to impoverished teens in our cities. Save us from the hopelessness that leads to both opioid addiction and the corner drug dealing by our youth. Watch over the people and neighbors working to #preventGunViolence.
I am not so sure it is a good idea to have a young-ish, white author lecturing us on reparations for African-Americans, Native Americans and others.
True, Ms. Martin mentions Henry Gates and properly cites Ta-Nehisi Coates and numerous other sources, as one might in a term paper at Barnard. However, I think her comments and exhortations would have more weight and persuasive power if they came from those who are supposed to benefit from reparations.
I hope Ms. Martin and the NYT do not mean to suggest that African-American, Native Americans and other POC are incapable of speaking for themselves. Back in the day I worked closely with Native Americans from several tribes as well as members of various African-American urban communities, but I made absolutely sure never to presume to speak for them.
5
@Mon: it is pretty obvious that the author doesn’t speak for African-Americans but to the many white people who still don’t understand (and many responses indeed make that clear) the pervasiveness of racism in our culture and institutions.
@Mon Ray wow, you've done your homework. I did, in fact, go to Barnard. I wish I had written more term papers on the racial wealth gap. All of the experts cited in the piece, in fact, are people of color, most of them black women. I think white people, journalists included, must be accountable on this topic. Race is everyone's beat.
Reparations was just part of a larger article. And the writer seemed to be open to the idea, so not sure what you’re offended by.
1
Nothing will ever be enough. There will be an endless series of demands.
12
@Liz
I think you can relax...those demands were not met in the past, are not being heeded now, and there's little reason to believe that will change in the future.
As I heard it, Professor Gates had his driver try to enter his house while he, Professor Gates, sat in the car. Therefore, the neighbor called the police on the driver and not Professor Gates. So, it's not true to say that the neighbor called the police on Gates. He was still in the car and out of sight.
Prof. Gates is a dapper man in a bow-tie who stands about 5' 6" (if I recall correctly) and uses a cane. Physically speaking, he is one of the least imposing people you'll ever meet. He is also very recognizable.
6
@Anti-Marx
If I saw an unknown man (of any race) trying enter my neighbor's house, I'd call the cops too.
5
What is revolting justice-wise is that we see so much poverty in such a wealthy country, an inequality that is much more than just the economic aspect; witness the ongoing institutionalized violence in the form of segregation in housing and in jobs; in health care and in education, and affecting mainly people of color; and the native population placed in so called 'reservations', seemingly forgotten by our societal networks. These inequities have been getting worse, particulatly now, when the Trumpian times are multiplying the problems we brought upon ourselves by a lack of solidarity. Trump's mantra of misgoverning on the basis of fear of 'the other', bigotry and division, is despicable. If politics is the art of the possible, can't we stop 'politicking' and start contributing by getting involved, and educating ourselves in our subconscious biases and change for the better? And stop discriminating on the basis of ethnicity, and the color of our skin?
5
Median Income by race, US census:
Asian-American. $81,000
White-American. $68,000
Hispanic-American $50,000
African-American $40,000
Why/how do Asian-Americans out earn, by large amounts, everyone else? They have the lowest suspension rates, highest graduation rates. Largest number of advanced degrees.
It’s hard say that white racism is the cause of that success. Why not investigate why Asian-Americans are so successful?
28
@Michael Haddon there is a lot of great research on this, but first and foremost, I'd point you to slavery. The origins of this country do not include forcibly moving Asian Americans and enslaving them, a fact that has long term economic, social, and spiritual consequences, as I try to point out in the piece.
5
equality of opportunity exists.
We have had black President, Secretary of State, Attorney General, Senators, Supreme Court Justices, many many many CEO's, professional athletes, entertainers, directors, actors, business owners, etc.
Individual responsibility.
many immigrants came 100 years ago, across the Atlantic penniless. They found a way.
Reparations? White Americans paid for the end of slavery with their blood; millions of Americans dies in the civil war, white, black and other. Blacks suffered under slavery; long long ago. Any living being who suffered under slavery should get reparations.
Meanwhile actual slavery continues in Africa, Asia and other places. Let's use our energy to free beings today.
Let's not practice the politics of envy but of hope.
19
@Joe Yoh
While the outright slavery had been ended long ago, apartheid, chain gangs and other discriminatory measures continued long into 1970-s.
There are still living people who were forced to attend subpar schools or not being able to go to a "whites only" gym.
7
There are also women still living who couldn’t vote and gays who missed out on serving in the military Reparations for them too?
7
Redlining kept African-Americans from amassing wealth in the form of their primary residence.
1
Perhaps the wealth gap is due to a gap in ability or motivation, rather than the lingering effects of racism?
15
Perhaps the gap in ability and motivation is due to the lingering effects of racism.
1
i think it is easy answer to say its due to ones ability, motivation, grit etc. Over the years, i have come to see that this answer that i also used to give is just that. An easy answer. The real reasons are many. One is the mere lack of opportunities in certain communities. i have seen communities that were deemed worthless, dumb, lacking a drive to thrive with an arrival of one factory. Kindness and a genuine desire to understand may provide you a glimpse of reality.
Pewresearch.org informs us that "In 2016, the median annual income for Asian adults was $51,288, compared with $47,958 for whites, $31,082 for blacks and $30,400 for Hispanics."
This piece references Inequality.org which pointedly omits references to Asians.
Do you expect to win your argument by omitting inconvenient facts?
23
@disappointed liberal The relevant issue is household wealth, not income. The income gap isn't as big and has improved somewhat over recent decades. It is the wealth accumulation over generations that has continually been impeded for African-Americans since "year zero" (i.e., emancipation) which is the relevant measure of inequality.
5
@disappointed liberal: you confuse statistics of income with statistics of wealth. That can happen but this article even in the header makes clear that it talks about wealth!
The median white family's wealth of 41x is skewed because the top 1% is mostly white. If you're going to pay reparations, take them from the top 1%. Of course, they'll find a way to get out of it and once again the working middle class will pay for everything.
6
@nwo. Keep on expecting the top 1% will fund everything you need. I’m sure that will work out for you.
3
@nwo, whatever you need to tell yourself.
The bottom 54% pay zero income taxes.
The top percentiles pay nearly all the income tax.
This is reality.
6
@nwo The median isn't effect by the top 1 percent, that's why they use median and not average. The differences in average wealth would likely be larger.
2
Are the incomes of black athletes and musicians included in the study?
14
@Anti-Marx
Yes. There aren’t enough to move the needle very far.
2
@DavidK
The amount of earners might not be high, but collective amount earned is high. There are only two Koch brothers, but their worth is often referenced. Jay-Z, Russel Simmons, LeBron, and Von Miller might have as much collectively as one Koch brother.
If you allow people like Carl Ichan, Steve Cohen, and David Einhorn to move the needle, you have to let Jay-Z and Calvin Johnson move the needle.
2
Income inequality is not a political issue. Justin Bieber has more money than I do.
High homeless rates and high personal debt might be political issues, but nobody ever said everyone would have the same income. We have
- equality of opportunity
- equality before the law
Rich people may be able to afford better lawyers, but it's not like it was 400 years ago in England. Back then, a lord could rape a peasant and walk away.
I wonder if everyone had an income of 100k, would people still be angry that some people have an income of 1,000,000? Is the anger about not having enough or about others having more? I drive an 80k car. People I know have cars hat cost 200k. I'm not angered by that inequality, because I feel like I have enough.
Is this about envy or is it about enough?
Income inequality is not a political issue in that it's not a breach of any constitutional right.
13
@Anti-Marx the problem is the equal opportunity and equal before the law. If you can't see that, then I'm not really sure what to tell you.
6
@A black guy
I'm white. I've received 4 speeding tickets in the past three years. It's not like they let me off, just because I'm white. But I don't drink or use drugs. So, I've never been arrested for a DUI.
As for opportunity, I was reading Dostoevsky at age 11. I worked at a little bookstore and was paid in books. I read every Dr Who book by age 12. The key to advancement is reading. In terms of success, reading/literacy is the most important thing.
Most of the successful people I know have three things in common:
1) they don't drink
2) they read
3) they listen more than they talk
6
Income inequality can be a direct result of unequal opportunities. Many of our policies either produce or hamper opportunities. Politicians make policy decisions that are heavily controlled by lobbyists to help the "haves" at the expense of "have nots". So it is a polictical issue. Your car example indicates your out of touchness with the reality. Millions of people are in abject poverty. Envy is not a feeling in their realm. You may wish to check out a book called Evicted by Matthew Desmond. it was an eye opener for me; when i thought my eyes were already wide open.
1
Such a learned paper - but no mention that 75% of black children are born to unwed mothers and most black children grow up in single parent homes. Do you think that could possibly be a contributing to the wealth gap?
46
"Why don’t people of color, particularly black and Native American, have more money?
All roads lead back to what Americans might think of as their country’s original economic sins: colonization and slavery."
How does the second sentence answer the question or give the explanation?
9
"the professional world being so dominated by white norms"
What are white norms? And what are black norms?
47
@areader i.e. girls of color at a middle school being expelled for their hairstyles.
5
Very interesting article raises critical socio economic issues, provides illuminating empirical information and asks incisive questions. The conclusion that reparations are the answer is unconvincing not to day even disappointing. Real policy and intelligent regulation would be a more convincing approach. For staters- the control of predatory financial and commercial practices and businesses that prey on the poor and low income populations is an easy first step, but wait- the pay to play system the GOP enthusiastically promotes already weakened the consumer protection agency, and promoted the comeback of payday loans and for profit colleges. While we talk about this the powers that be in DC are pushing for contemporary Russian style capitalism that is getting medieval on our derrières
2
@Rafael Gavilanes. Consumer protection has nothing to do with this, it’s a outbreak education and single family households.
1
"names associated with low-income African-Americans"
Why low-income African-Americans have names different from names of other African-Americans?
15
Good question but they do. Remember, we are talking about first names.
1
@areader - Probably because affluent blacks realize the importance of presenting yourself in an acceptable manner, in order to get a good job and make lots of money. They are polite and nicely dressed, too.
Both blacks and whites who want to 'be myself' and 'do my own thing' are shown the door after the interview, while team players get the job.
4
@Jonathan,
I don't think so. I think it's just simply different cultures. All cultures have their own values, things people feel and think make their life better. Different books, different music, different clothes, different names.
1
"Can they support their loved ones to be healthy? They can probably afford better health care, but as just one example, studies show that even college-educated black women are more likely to suffer severe complications of pregnancy or childbirth than white women who never graduated from high school."
Is it because of racism?
12
@areader: yes
@Oliver Herfort: how?
Those who decry how the government once picked winners and losers on the basis of race and the damage that it caused society are only too happy for the government to start picking new winners and losers on the basis of race ... I mean, uh, getting white people to “share” their privilege.
There’s no painless way to do that. White people will have to be systematically disenfranchised — in the tax code, in education and in employment opportunities — to achieve the kind of capital redistribution and “moral” reckoning that the author envisions.
And if that’s your plan, you might as well prepare for the dissolution of the United States as any kind of cohesive political unit. What we’re seeing now would just be the tip of the iceberg.
Better to stick to the kinds of programs that raise all boats and help all people escape poverty.
31
@Nobody what cohesive political unit are you referring to that exists today? Also, nobody wants to disenfranchise wyte ppl... We just want the same opportunities that ya'll claim to exist for everyone. They don't and if you don't see that, come out of your bubble. You would be mad too if you built a country and had nothing to show for it ALL WHILE STILL BEING DENIED BASIC RIGHTS. Sickening.
7
@A black guy I'm familair with the tragic history of this country and I understand why people of color are angry. But what do you propose to do about it? Inflict the same thing on white people as was done to black people and Native Americans? Tax white people until they no longer hold more wealth than people of color? Impose strict quotas on how many white people can hold certain jobs or attend certain schools?
I'm all for tackling payday lenders and ending mass incarceration and investing in public education that's available to everyone but forcibly dispossessing people of property and liberty because they are deemed (based on the color of their skin) to "owe" something to other people is inflicting the very same evil you purport to stand against.
11
ethnic groups that greatly value education, frugality and saving for the future, and hard work have tended to move ahead historically.
57
Do you mean Jews, Chinese, Japanese, and (Indian) Indians?
1
@Joe Yoh I think you meant to say *individuals* who greatly value education, frugality and saving for the future, and who are able to put in hard work have tended to move ahead historically, no?
Your ethnic/racial generalization is intellectually lazy and inaccurate.
2
whenever I read one of these Reparations articles where the generic "persons of color" are defined as a category effected by racism and/slavery they invariably never address the facts that Asian Indian and African immigrants are "persons of color "and their median income and Wealth is greater than that of Caucasians and far greater then Appalachian Whites
This inconvenient fact is always deliberately ignored by those who ignore the mutiple and varied wealth gaps between demographic groups in order to push their reparations agenda.
The gap is based on the different Cultures and the failure to foster family structure and integrity far more than any other structural factors.
71
@pirranha: your claim of culture and family structure being reasons for the wealth gap is not based on facts but racist prejudice.
2
Slavery was an abomination that ended in the US in 1865. However, the idea of reparations for slavery is untenable; see questions below:
1. Most non-black Americans are descended from immigrants who arrived after 1865 and were not slave-holders, and thus do not owe reparations.
2. Many blacks are descended from Africans who came to the US after 1865 and therefore are not owed reparations.
3. Many blacks are of mixed race; will their payments be pro-rated on the percentage of black/slave ancestry? How will such ancestry be measured? DNA? Historic or genealogical records?
4. Should reparations be paid to blacks descended from African tribes that captured members of other tribes and sold them into slavery?
5. Do all taxpayers have to pay into a reparations fund, or only non-blacks?
6. Will rich blacks (e.g., the Obamas) receive reparations or will there be a cap on recipients' income?
7. Will illegal aliens receive or pay reparations?
8. Will payments to blacks be reduced by the amounts paid for welfare, affirmative action and other race-related benefits they and their ancestors have received since 1865?
9. Will reparations mean the end of affirmative action for blacks?
10. What about reparations for Native Americans, who lost so much land and so many lives to whites?
53
@Mon Ray; A very strong comment that shows how little most of us have actually thought about the issue. On this showing it's easy to see that reparations is an idea that's going nowhere.
12
@Mon Ray And what about blacks whose African ancestors sold other blacks into slavery? Don't they owe reparations just as much as the slave buyers?
14
@Mon Ray
To point 10, it is worth researching the Indian Claims Commissions which to a certain extent did issue reparations to American Indian tribes. This example effectively absolved the Federal government from any other legal claims that could be aimed at them from those tribes while also underpaying them significantly. In the end it was yet another raw deal for those tribes and I encourage folks to study that example before they even consider cutting or accepting such a check.
The Times does a generally superlative job covering the real world in its news sections. Too bad opinion columnists like this one prefer to live in unreal ivory towers and expound on the moral necessity for reparations. Fuggetaboutit. It won’t happen in any of our lifetimes. There will never be five Supreme Court justices who would sustain a reparations law against a claim that the law flagrantly violates the Fourteenth Amendment mandate of equal protection unless the Constitution were specifically amended to allow for reparations.
People who advocate for it should be on Trump’s payroll because every time a Democratic candidate seems to support the idea Trump gets more whites to support him. There are many constitutional ways to target federal funds to communities of African-Americans which deserve support and Elizabeth Warren has proposed several.
22
@Busterbronc. I thought we did that with the War on Poverty.
1
"There is no buying your way out of racism"
True, but neither can money buy culture or intelligence. Any discussion on racial gaps that do not take these critical factors into account will always be incomplete.
38
@Jason
Academic studies examining these questions have broadly found that the test-score gap explains the wage-gap (which implies similar for the wealth-gap).
7
In every case I can think of, Truth & Reconciliation committees were formed to address past atrocities while the victims and oppressors were still alive. For instance, black South Africans who bore the brunt of apartheid faced their white South Africans who participated in that oppression.
The closest example we have here is the congressional hearings and subsequent reparations and apology to Japanese-Americans. That was made possible by a campaign spearheaded by the children of those interned, and again the victims gave their personal stories during their hearings.
How is this supposed to work with slavery when both victims and oppressors are long dead? It's not like every African American today is "purely descended" from a slave and every white American is "purely descended" from a slave owner. I'm not sure if the Truth & Reconciliation model is applicable here.
I also question how much good the Truth & Reconciliation committee was even for South Africa. Yes it helped make the atrocities of apartheid transparent, but it's done nothing in addressing the extreme racial-economic inequity in that country (which is much worse than the U.S.) As noted in another column, a study of the recipients of reparation money found it made no difference in their economic status a year later. And unfortunately the ANC has proven to be as corrupt as the National Party was racist.
13
This is a subject worthy of exploration.
To be useful, we need definitions. Does "people of color" mean everyone who is not "white?" Are Caucasian Hispanics POC? Do POC include Asians? Does it segment "white" folk, or are do we all look alike?
If the median white wealth is 40x the median black wealth and the objective is to close that gap, how much money would that add up to? How would it be calculated? Does the cost of the civil war in casualties and cost constitute any percentage of reparations? How about the Civil Rights legislation in force for >50 yr?
Would there be any constraints on who gets reparations; direct descendants or everyone who can prove he or she is a POC?
Just how would the payment of these sums be used to close the wealth gap? If the reparations were paid out and the sums were not sufficient to close the gap, would that mean that additional reparations must be paid? Who would decide?
Other than white racism and oppression, are there any causes for the wealth gap that are the responsibility of the POC community?
If we're going to have a discussion, is it possible to couch it in terms other than white men and their civilizations are bad?
We desperately need a more regulated and redefined capitalist economic foundation to our liberal society. Simply linking such an outcome to the issue of reparations is a disservice to everyone involved.
23
@TDurk
I think "people of color" is so vague as to be a useless term. If we're talking about past injustices, we need to be specific. African Americans bore the brunt of slavery in this country, not "people of color." Japanese Americans were interned during WWII, not "people of color." And so on.
Otherwise we end up with statements like this: "We need more people of color at U.C. Berkeley." Um, okay...
9
We need to be more specific than African Americans. Any and every black person in America is called that but millions of Black people in America are immigrants.
Adosa. That refers to the American descendants of slaves in America (USA - not North America)
2
Noticeably absent from the comment section are the innumerable naysayers who zealously spring forward, appealing to race neutrality whenever issues like Affirmative Action or other race/ethnicity specific interventions aimed at combating inequality are discussed. Such folks make these appeals while being wholly uneducated about how pervasive American slavery has been in influencing the life choices of both African Americans and all racial minorities arbitrarily placed at the lower rungs of the social ladder. By minimizing the contemporary impact of American slavery and current racism (not seen most prominently among individuals, rather it's most evident within the structures of our laws and institutions, also manifesting significantly as negative attribution bias) they delay our country's true healing, which will involve internalizing our shared identities as Americans with shared goals despite varying levels of investment.
5
@dogma vat
Maybe you missed it. Obama eluded to it; we don't see ourselves as ___-American, rather only as American.
3
@MG
Perhaps NYC could take the lead in desegregating the public schools by moving a few attendance zone boundaries a couple of blocks. Oh, but then the children of Democrat voters would have to go to class with the residents of public housing.
The Democrats who were around in the 1960's are ever so proud of having desegregated the South with their marches. Interesting that Bernie didn't invite any black folks to come live in Vermont.
Hillary went to Alabama after law school and claims to have been frightened, but courageous anyway. [One has to wonder if her courage was akin to the courage while deplaning under fire.] As Senator "from" NY, she didn't try to get NYC to desegregate.
Yah gotta love it when Democrats come up with grandiose plans to right wrongs, but can't even clean up their own backyards.
8
The importance of rituals also applies to the single, solitary person who has found themselves without family or friends.
We do exist. We go out in the world and people do not know how alone we are. We may even banter with strangers, if we are having a day where we feel open and expansive. In order though, to truly exist in this space, we create rituals for ourselves. Rituals are absolutely not routines; our single lives are filled with those, because we’re the only ones we can rely on to get things done.
I’ve created many home rituals for myself. Mornings devoted to writing, lighting candles on Friday night for Shabbos, which includes reflective prayer. Birthdays alone, I give myself flowers and make a ritual out of arranging them.
The list goes on, and is far better than the endless lists full of drudgery. If I didn’t create and practice rituals, I would not be able to survive.
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@Person I am so sorry for the circumstances you describe. I hope life gets better for you.
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