Discussion
  • Read More
    MizJenkinsHamilton Nolan
    2/17/16 3:19pm

    What is comes down to is this:

    • People of color are projected to make up more than half of this country by 2060, with the majority of those being Blacks and Hispanics.
    • Currently, Blacks and Hispanics are economically disadvantaged by nearly every meaningful standard.
    • If we do not directly target that specific problem and increase the wealth and standard of living in minority households, the MAJORITY of Americans will be economically disadvantaged by the second half of this century.
    • No civilization in history has ever survived plutocracy.

    The solution starts by recognizing that broad, untargeted policies that primarily benefit White people are not going to help us avoid this.

    Step #2 is reforming public education.

    Reply
    <
    • Read More
      Mangia M.MizJenkins
      2/17/16 3:25pm

      1. Can you specify what broad, untargeted policies would primarily benefit white people?

      2. What do you mean by reforming public education? The education “reformers” that I’ve read about seem hell bent on defunding, privatizing, and closing schools in the our poorest communities (see, e.g., Chicago Public Schools, Philadelphia Public Schools).

      Reply
      <
    • Read More
      MizJenkinsMangia M.
      2/17/16 3:38pm

      1. Any policy that is not specifically targeted at increasing minority wealth.

      2. Providing better funding to public education, paying teachers more, busting up union protections for underperforming teachers, cleaning house at the administrative level as well.

      Reply
      <
  • Read More
    LordBurleighHamilton Nolan
    2/17/16 3:02pm

    Well, completely inverting the power structure of policing and incarceration might help. Just because I LOVE getting lambasted in the comments:

    —de-militarizing the police

    —abolishing the prison-industrial complex

    This would not necessarily do more, but I think it would probably help a lot.

    Reply
    <
    • Read More
      kamla deviLordBurleigh
      2/17/16 3:06pm

      The concept of “for-profit” prisons is morally repugnant. Any candidate that supports such nonsense clearly has no regard for human life and dignity.

      Reply
      <
    • Read More
      LordBurleighkamla devi
      2/17/16 3:07pm

      Indeed—I don’t see how folks don’t see that for-profit prisons are founded on an inherently unjust conflict of interest. This is also how I feel about for-profit education (whether it goes by the name or not).

      Reply
      <
  • Read More
    bassguitarheroHamilton Nolan
    2/17/16 3:07pm

    I’ve been black my whole life, and I’ve been desperately poor my whole life. I’ve worked at military bases, non-profits, universities, and every single place that I’ve worked has always been the same: “Your work is amazing, everybody loves you, but it’s time for you to go.”

    Closing the racial wealth gap would be great, but how the hell do you do something like that when nobody wants to hire qualified, hard-working black people? I have better education, more experience, and a better resume than most of my friends who are white, but when I walk in to an interview office, it’s the same thing - they smile, the smile shakes a little bit, they look away, and it’s already over. “We weren’t expecting a black candidate,” you can hear them thinking.

    I make less than half of what my friends do, and there’s just no way to move up the ladder unless someone opens a path for me, which just isn’t happening. And this is in San Francisco of all places.

    Reply
    <
    • Read More
      screenbittentwiceshybassguitarhero
      2/17/16 3:15pm

      Why haven’t you started your own company by now? If you’ve had this issue throughout your career why aren’t you only applying to black-owned businesses?
      Where I live and work integrated work environments are the norm. I’ve never been around a non-integrated environment.
      But start by starting your own company, winning your own customers, and keeping the profits for yourself.

      Reply
      <
    • Read More
      bassguitarheroscreenbittentwiceshy
      2/17/16 3:20pm

      You can’t run a company if you can’t eat, and I don’t have the money to just start a business and not work full-time to pay off bills and rent. There aren’t any black-owned businesses in San Francisco left.

      When I came here 16 years ago it was a different situation, but the gentrification in SF has ran out most of the people of color, especially business owners of color, leaving mostly organizations whose employees mostly interact with people of color on the street, which never bodes well for hiring people of color - at one of my last jobs, when I approached the door from outside (you had to buzz yourself in with a code), people inside the building would grab the door and yank it shut inf ront of me, telling each other, “Don’t let him in.” I ran the building! But they couldn’t see a difference between me and a homeless black guy on the streets, despite the fact that I wore nice clothes and showered daily.

      Currently I’m writing a browser-based game engine that I hope to release later this year. Maybe THAT will be the great equalizer. But I can tell you this - for everything I’ve thrown at the wall over the last few years, you can’t just be good to make it when you’re black, you have to be the BEST, and I’m probably just not be the best.

      EDIT: Also, as far as integrated companies: I graduated from college 11 years ago and last year was the FIRST time I had a black male coworker.

      Reply
      <
  • Read More
    The Alvin Greene DreamHamilton Nolan
    2/17/16 3:10pm

    Clinton says she has better proposals than Sanders on literally everything, and yet all she ever does is call on Sanders to elaborate on his proposals. She never gives her own. In fact, she spent the last debate basically echoing Sanders, with the caveat that she would “get it done,” while he wouldn’t. She’s a fucking hack, and everybody with a functioning brain can see it.

    This is why Hillary is going to lose Nevada, which is suddenly “80% white,” according to her campaign, now that things aren’t looking so rosy for her there anymore.

    Reply
    <
    • Read More
      caekislove-caekingitupThe Alvin Greene Dream
      2/17/16 3:15pm

      Hillary is the Democrat’s Donald Trump. All name recognition. No substance.

      Unless you want to talk job performance, in which we can discuss how she promoted regime change in Libya and Syria, as SoS, and delivering both of those countries to ISIS on a silver platter.

      Reply
      <
    • Read More
      Doofenschmirtz, Inc.The Alvin Greene Dream
      2/17/16 3:17pm

      My favorite thing so far is that even the NYT editors who endorsed her are now giving her advice and telling her to support $15/hr min wage.

      Reply
      <
  • Read More
    King-SchultzHamilton Nolan
    2/17/16 3:16pm
    I believe that Bernie Sanders’ proposals would ultimately do more to help racial inequality in America, by doing more to close the racial wealth gap, than Hillary Clinton’s policies would.

    Serious question: How would Sanders’ proposals do more when there’s literally no chance of them becoming reality? I love Sanders, but he’s selling a fantasy. Hillary’s proposals are at least somewhat realistic. Didn’t we already learn our lesson with Obama? Sanders is running to be Santa Claus. Hillary is running to be president.

    Reply
    <
    • Read More
      Doofenschmirtz, Inc.King-Schultz
      2/17/16 3:20pm

      Sure she’s realistic, and a great negotiator, too.

      “I took it because that’s what they offered” is a hallmark thing that tough, battle-hardened negotiators who get thing done say, no?

      Reply
      <
    • Read More
      Mangia M.King-Schultz
      2/17/16 3:28pm

      Hillary’s progressive proposals are less realistic than Sanders. I’m scared about her neocon proposals that will be passed in a Republican Congress.

      Reply
      <
  • Read More
    Cam/ronHamilton Nolan
    2/17/16 3:08pm

    I’m curious if there’s a country out there that has racial and economic equality, or at least has somewhat satisfactory conditions. Quite a few American socialists and progressives love to consider Scandinavia as a shining example of equality - despite that its countries have their share of class divisions, unemployment, ethnic strife, and anti-immigrant discrimination.

    Reply
    <
    • Read More
      ARP2Cam/ron
      2/17/16 3:11pm

      Scandinavia has a much smaller minority population, so it’s not the best real-life comparison, rather something to strive for (i.e. diversity AND all these good social programs).

      Reply
      <
    • Read More
      Cam/ronARP2
      2/17/16 3:12pm

      Sweden’s non-white immigration has been steadily rising, which is attracting some nasty backlashes from the far-right.

      Reply
      <
  • Read More
    Pepsi MoondogHamilton Nolan
    2/17/16 3:00pm

    Do you think that you can automatically solve racism just by solving economic inequality? The answer to that is obviously “no,”

    If we’re honest, racism most likely cannot be solved at all, only mitigated.

    Reply
    <
    • Read More
      ╰(　´◔　ω　◔ `)╯< Woke and BokePepsi Moondog
      2/17/16 3:21pm

      This is the only honest comment.

      We can mitigate racism and perhaps cure its side-effect, poverty, with single-payer universal health care and free community college education for all. There will never be one magical solution, not even reparations, that will cure racism in a country founded by slavers.

      Reply
      <
    • Read More
      jokepitchPepsi Moondog
      2/17/16 4:09pm

      Exactly. You can’t legislate people’s minds, you can only do your best to counteract their behavior and hope, with time, that the racists will age out and die off.

      Reply
      <
  • Read More
    ╰(　´◔　ω　◔ `)╯< Woke and BokeHamilton Nolan
    2/17/16 3:05pm

    Free, universal feudalism for everyone.

    Reply
    <
    • Read More
      Low Information Boater╰(　´◔　ω　◔ `)╯< Woke and Boke
      2/17/16 3:12pm

      Things will be better when the Duke of Nevada leads his serf army on a holy crusade to conquer and depose the Marquess of Orange County.

      Reply
      <
    • Read More
      ╰(　´◔　ω　◔ `)╯< Woke and BokeLow Information Boater
      2/17/16 3:15pm

      But the Viceroy of San FranPortland has been playing both sides against each other in order to weaken them both!

      Reply
      <
  • Read More
    Dan SeitzHamilton Nolan
    2/17/16 3:38pm

    The main issue is that I’ve yet to see any candidate propose any policies that genuinely address that link. Bernie’s just spouting reverse Reaganomics; raise the taxes and collect the money and it will magically trickle down to the rest of us. We should absolutely tax those with higher incomes at a higher rate, implement capital gains taxes, and so on. But that’s going to do jack shit to solve racial inequality unless you’ve got policies specifically crafted to do so. More money to social programs is great, but that A) presumes “non-white equals poor” (which progressives do a lot and which is a profoundly shitty and condescending thing to do) and B) the government of a nation that’s majority white with white leaders will design programs that genuinely assist non-white people. Plans to address poverty by decriminalizing it and making it cheaper to be poor would help alleviate incredible misery in America, but, again, poor does not equal non-white.

    The biggest problem is and always will be cultural. A PPP phone poll found 10% of South Carolina GOP voters were willing to go on record as believers in white supremacy. The government can’t make people not be assholes, it can only staunch the damage. Telling off the assholes is ultimately up to us.

    Reply
    <
    • Read More
      Hawkeye-15Dan Seitz
      2/17/16 4:09pm

      It’s shitty to equate non-white with poor, but the median income for a non-hispanic white household in 2014 was $60,256, while hispanics earned just $42,491 and blacks $35,398. 12.7% of non-hispanic whites were in poverty compared to 23.6% of hispanics and 26.2% of blacks.

      https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Ce…

      And the median net worth in 2013 dollars for a white household was $141,900, while hispanic households were worth just $13,700 and black households $11,000.

      http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014…

      Reply
      <
    • Read More
      Dan SeitzHawkeye-15
      2/17/16 5:04pm

      It is 100% correct that there are substantial populations of non-white people in poverty. And I’m certainly not stating policies that would assist the poor wouldn’t help non-white people who happen to be poor. What I’m trying to get across here is that the poverty is one symptom of a deep cultural wound America inflicted on itself gushing both figurative and literal blood, and that focusing solely on the economic aspect of it is like slapping a Band-Aid on one corner of that wound and insisting the rest is fine. It used to be the law in America that a non-white person was worth 60% of a white one, and while that law is gone, that belief endures in Stand Your Ground laws and chokeholds, in forcing people off welfare to look good for “the voters,” in crumbling infrastructure, in complaining about the lack of a White History Month. By all means, we should address the bleeding, but let’s not pretend we don’t have to stitch closed the wound.

      Reply
      <
  • Read More
    PoopcycleHamilton Nolan
    2/17/16 3:23pm

    How about we focus on having less offspring.

    Starting a family when you cannot afford to is extremely detrimental to both the development of the child and the success of the parent. It sets forth a cycle that can last generations.

    I feel this is an extremely important issue that doesn't get nearly enough traction, or discussion.

    Reply
    <
    • Read More
      shelwoodPoopcycle
      2/17/16 3:28pm

      So you are saying we need to aggressively remove all impediments to female reproductive health that the GOP has been putting in for years, get rid of the Hyde and Helms amendments, public funding for all birth control and abortion services? Amen, but seems more like a women’s/family issue than a race issue, but then I’m not a virulent racist, as you clearly are.

      Reply
      <
    • Read More
      Poopcycleshelwood
      2/17/16 3:44pm

      Yes, everyone should have 100% access to any and all forms of contraception.

      It’s a women’s/family issue that effects ALL races and thus impacts these various races economically for generations.

      Fucking call me a racist, whatever. Im done pretending that anyone, regardless of race, should be having multiple children before they are financially, socially, mentally ready to.

      Reply
      <