| The Rich Get Richer While The Poor Get Poorer | | | | prison population. Black men are 6 percent of the |
| (Anonymous) | | | | population but are more than 40 percent of those on |
| In the next 30-plus years something drastic will take | | | | death row. |
| place: The minority population in America will switch | | | | Despite significant changes in the legal context and |
| sides with America's white population. How will Black | | | | sociological climate, neighborhood racial segregation |
| America handle this turn of power? How will America's | | | | remains pervasive within America today. In a number |
| white population deal with this change? | | | | of recent studies, strong evidence has been offered |
| Most of us have thought about it at one time or | | | | linking this segregation to the social and economic |
| another. Will the African-American and Latino | | | | problems of blacks. Black versus white disparities in |
| populations (now about 25-28%) be as unjustifiable in | | | | unemployment, wage rates, labor market knowledge, |
| their treatments of Whites, as the white population has | | | | test scores, unmarried motherhood, and high school |
| been for hundreds of years with the Black population? | | | | graduation can all at least partly be attributed to |
| It's a war waiting to happen, as proved by past | | | | housing segregation. It can be summed up in the |
| experiences in civil rights, in the rights of all humans, the | | | | following statistic: The medium net worth of today's |
| right that "all men are created equal." | | | | black household is $6000. The net worth of a white |
| If statistics are to believed, close to a million Iraqi | | | | household is $88,000 - fourteen times the wealth. Is |
| civilians (men, women, and children) have been killed in | | | | there any question as to why America's youth of color |
| the last four years, while America's prejudicial attitude | | | | have no dreams? Feel abandoned by today's |
| of "be like us, or else" threatens hundreds of | | | | lawmakers and leaders? See no future? |
| thousands more innocents everyday. Many believe the | | | | Former Black slave and abolitionist Frederick Douglass |
| number killed is much higher. It's sad we will never | | | | wrote in the late 19th century, "The hostility between |
| know how many lives America has affected. Imagine | | | | the whites and Blacks of the South are easily |
| how the Black person, or Latino, felt and still feels | | | | explained . . . both are plundered by the same |
| when he/she, in this modern-day of "anything's | | | | plunderers . . . and it (hostility) was incited on both sides |
| acceptable," is still treated as less a person because | | | | by the poor whites and the Blacks by putting enmity |
| of their race. The word 'equality' is a relative word, and | | | | between them. They divided both to conquer each. " It |
| it is as much a pretense as it has always been in | | | | is the same today, and it is leading us into another civil |
| American society. We must always ask ourselves; | | | | war, this one racial/class motivated. |
| Are we a nation of civility? Does everyone have equal | | | | Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) warned in a presidential |
| civil rights? It's a question that is unfortunately too easy | | | | debate on June 5, 2007, that the Bush administration |
| to answer based on past and present history. | | | | has done nothing to defuse a "quiet riot" among blacks |
| George Bush in his first term as President never visited | | | | that threatens to erupt just as riots in Los Angeles did |
| the NAACP, the first president in modern times to | | | | 15 years ago after the Rodney King incident. Back |
| avoid participating in a dialogue on Black/White | | | | then 55 people died and 2000 were injured in several |
| relations, creating an even larger racial divide than | | | | days of riots in the city's black neighborhoods. He said |
| before he took office. The Washington Times | | | | that with black people from New Orleans and the Gulf |
| reported that before the 2004 presidential election, only | | | | Coast still displaced 20 months after Hurricane Katrina, |
| about 20,000 American residents visited the Canadian | | | | frustration and resentments are building explosively as |
| immigration website. The day after Bush was declared | | | | they did before the 1992 riots. "These 'quiet riots' that |
| president again, more than 115,000 visited the website. | | | | take place every day are born from the same place |
| Author Greg Palast noted that in 2000, George W. | | | | as the fires and the destruction and the police decked |
| Bush won less than 10 percent of the black vote. To | | | | out in riot gear and the deaths," Obama said. "They |
| make matters worse, as the 2000 election debacle | | | | happen when a sense of disconnect settles in and |
| unfolded in Florida, it became clear that the election | | | | hope dissipates. Despair takes hold and young people |
| shenanigans, which included wiping 57,000 names, | | | | all across this country look at the way the world is and |
| mostly Blacks, from the list of eligible voters, were not | | | | believe that things are never going to get any better." |
| unintentional errors, but instead involved orchestrated | | | | Americans - White, Black, and Latino are scared today. |
| and systematic efforts at disenfranchising | | | | What is to become of America's people of color? Will |
| African-American and immigrant voters. | | | | this daily 'quiet riot' turn into a 'loud riot' and thrust our |
| The following statistics may shed some light on | | | | country into this impending civil war? With they take up |
| America's racism:o According to the Census Bureau, in | | | | arms and fight those who for so many years |
| 2001, 30 percent of both Black and Latino children lived | | | | oppressed them into their subservient lifestyle? |
| in poverty.o Unemployment in 2003 for young black | | | | Nothing has changed in the last 150 years. It is still rich |
| men aged 16-19 topped out at more than 30 percent, | | | | versus poor, love versus hate, right versus wrong, help |
| double that of young white men in the same age | | | | versus hinder, good versus bad. |
| category.o Blacks make up 13 percent of the | | | | We must stop the 'versus' and be our brother's keeper |
| population, but represent 50 percent of the nation's | | | | if we are to survive. |