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4realpeople
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4realpeople

Common sense commentary in a senseless world

Author: 4realpeople

I am an African-American woman who has lived my life on the cusp of all of the most significant social, domestic and foreign policy movements of the past half-century. I was born in the middle of the baby boom. I am a personal witness to the March on Washington, the Black Power movement, the rise of feminism and then the first Earth Day. The war in Vietnam and Watergate unfolded before my very eyes. I watched Republicans demonize Jimmy Carter for attempting to bring compassion to government's treatment of the poor and the environment and having the audacity to speak out loud of the coming ideological war facing the nation. I watched as Ronald Regan eased the country into that war and what would become the ever-expanding, insidious and inhumane age of ultra-conservatism, fascism in the name of the Lord and the evolution of ever-present, state-sanctioned racism. My Master's thesis was an analysis of the deal with the Devil that Bill Clinton made as he "changed welfare as we know it" into a punitive, regressive inescapable trap that reinforced and re-institutionalized systemic support for the cycle of generational poverty for people of color. I watched as leadership at the federal state, and local levels colluded in the deconstruction of the domestic policy infrastructure of our government and shredded the safety net of job training, childcare, education, transportation, cash assistance for the poor in an unprecedented rending of the social contract of America with its people. "I am woman hear me roar." Willie Horton and Michael Brown. "I Am a Man" to "Black Lives Matter." These have been the hallmarks of my journey from a tiny town in rural Missouri where Jim Crow ruled to this place where today I work on behalf of urban and rural poverty-stricken and communities of color from the heart of one of the most powerful institutions in the world. I am still living public policy, but now, as we are on the cusp of the end of America as we have known it, I am speaking out loud; sharing my struggle to make sense of the world of increasing senselessness

Deja vu for Democrats

Deja vu. “Here we go again. For the second time in 12 years a newly elected Democratic president is inheriting an economy in deep distress. And while… Read more “Deja vu for Democrats”

January 15, 2021January 15, 2021 by 4realpeople

The dangerous consequences of gerrymandering and inbreeding

It is interesting and ironic how forty years of dogged gerrymandering by Republicans to create primary-challenge resistant congressional districts has backfired.

January 8, 2021 by 4realpeople

An American coup d’etat

Imagine the scene at the U.S. Capitol building today if these so-called “protesters” were black, brown, or Muslim. There would be blood in the streets and mass… Read more “An American coup d’etat”

January 6, 2021 by 4realpeople

Do not forget how we got here

As the President’s illness is comprehensively covered and updated in frenzied, up-to-the-minute posts, I continue to wonder about the fate of all of those brown people–adults and… Read more “Do not forget how we got here”

October 4, 2020 by 4realpeople

A simple pathway to diversity and inclusion

http://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/14/business/economy/corporate-diversity-pay-compensation.html

July 14, 2020 by 4realpeople

The big deal about Juneteenth: the history of black people, police and the justice system

Blacks very lucrative, which is why hundreds of White men were hired by these states as police officers. Their primary responsibility was to search out and arrest Blacks who were in violation of Black Codes [Virginia also had Black Codes that made certain conduct criminal only for Black people.].

June 20, 2020 by 4realpeople

Battle for Fairness: Progressive Prosecutors Under Fire

Once elected, criminal justice reformers face nasty attacks. By Rashad Robinson http://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/11/opinion/george-floyd-prosecutors.html “District attorneys elected to carry out progressive policies over the last five years have been met… Read more “Battle for Fairness: Progressive Prosecutors Under Fire”

June 15, 2020June 15, 2020 by 4realpeople

White fear and black lives

Their knee has been on our necks for over 400 years and we are still here and breathing.

May 31, 2020 by 4realpeople

The Economics of COVID-19 and racial disparity

If income inequality is getting worse, then the economy cannot be getting better because more people are worse off. Of course, this only matters if one is… Read more “The Economics of COVID-19 and racial disparity”

May 31, 2020 by 4realpeople

Will I live to see the moral arch arc bend toward justice?

I was born smack in the middle of America’s “Baby Boom.” I lived my formative years under Jim Crow in rural Missouri. My life spans the arc… Read more “Will I live to see the moral arch arc bend toward justice?”

May 31, 2020 by 4realpeople

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