[Peace-discuss] [sf-core] Fwd: yesterday's article on massive racial inequality in wealth

Fri May 21 11:20:11 CDT 2010

On Fri, May 21, 2010 at 10:36:06AM -0500, C. G. ESTABROOK wrote:
> US society is much less racist - and much more unequal - than it was 40 
> years ago.
>
> In 1970 the election of a black president was unthinkable, but in that year 
> the distribution of wealth (Gini index) was at its least unequal in the 
> 20th century. Today it's back to where it was in the late 1920s, and the 
> concentration of wealth in fewer and fewer hands is not only continuing but 
> accelerating.
>
> "...anti-racism today performs at least one of the same functions that 
> racism used to — it gives us a vision of our society as organized 
> racially instead of economically — while adding another function — it 
> insists that racism is the great enemy to be overcome. But all the 
> anti-racism in the world won't take any money away from the rich and won't 
> give any of it to the poor." [Walter Benn Michaels]

Walter Benn Michaels blithlely dismisses racism, saying for example
that police treat poor white people as badly as black people.

There are a fair number of low-income white children in this town,
but I don't remember any of them being killed by police.

We'd be better off seeing race discrimination as a
sustaining aspect of class difference.

>
> On 5/21/10 9:47 AM, Ricky Baldwin wrote:
>>
>>
>> Very interesting article. Good points. It's always good for Americans to
>> see this kind of discussion and realize we don't do too well when it
>> comes to this kind of basic economic "fairness," no matter how much the
>> blowhards talk about the "land of opportunity." Our system just doesn't
>> serve most people too well - but then, we know that. It's just good to
>> have the numbers.
>>
>> On the numbers, I have to take issue with the "typical" white/black
>> family stats, though - and not just to be picky with words. I think it
>> gives a false impression.
>>
>> The article doesn't say, but if what's meant is "average" (mean) then it
>> isn't "typical" at all in an economy with vast inequalities like the
>> kind described in the article. We can, and do (as the article points
>> out), have a small number of extremely wealthy people and a huge number
>> of people essentially left out of that massive accumulation. What that
>> amounts to is the "average" (mean) is skewed upwards - making it look
>> like more people are better off than we are.
>>
>> "Typical" here could also be median, a.k.a. the middle number if you
>> arrange all the wealth from highest to lowest, but I doubt it. It seems
>> too high given the inequality the article describes. Even if so, I'd
>> argue that if the range of wealth is very wide, then the median isn't
>> very "typical" either.
>>
>> Maybe I'm missing something. I'm not 100% awake yet.
>>
>> Ricky
>>
>> "Speak your mind even if your voice shakes." - Maggie Kuhn
>>
>> --- On *Thu, 5/20/10, Belden Fields /<a-fields at uiuc.edu>/* wrote:
>>
>>
>>     From: Belden Fields <a-fields at uiuc.edu>
>>     Subject: [sf-core] Fwd: yesterday's article on massive racial
>>     inequality in wealth
>>     To: discuss at communitycourtwatch.org
>>     Cc: "SFcore" <sf-core at yahoogroups.com>
>>     Date: Thursday, May 20, 2010, 4:09 PM
>>
>>
>>
>>     Begin forwarded message:
>>
>>>     *From: *Lou Kushnick <loukushnick at mac.com
>>>     </mc/compose?to=loukushnick at mac.com>>
>>>     *Date: *May 20, 2010 2:01:25 AM CDT
>>>     *To: *Arthur Paris <AEParis at maxwell.syr.edu
>>>     </mc/compose?to=AEParis at maxwell.syr.edu>>, Melanie Bush
>>>     <melanie.e.l.bush at gmail.com
>>>     </mc/compose?to=melanie.e.l.bush at gmail.com>>, "Bowser, Ben"
>>>     <Benjamin.bowser at csueastbay.edu
>>>     </mc/compose?to=Benjamin.bowser at csueastbay.edu>>, Belden Fields
>>>     <a-fields at uiuc.edu </mc/compose?to=a-fields at uiuc.edu>>, Marta Cruz
>>>     Janzen <cruzjanz at fau.edu </mc/compose?to=cruzjanz at fau.edu>>, Gail
>>>     Dines <gdines at wheelock.edu </mc/compose?to=gdines at wheelock.edu>>,
>>>     Valerie Bristor <bristor at fau.! edu
>>>     </mc/compose?to=bristor at fau.edu>>, Bonnie Muirhead
>>>     <bmuirhead at ccc.edu </mc/compose?to=bmuirhead at ccc.edu>>
>>>     *Subject: **yesterday's article on massive racial inequality in
>>>     wealth*
>>>
>>
>>
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