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”
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
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.
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”
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”
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.].
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”
White fear and black lives
Their knee has been on our necks for over 400 years and we are still here and breathing.
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”
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?”
4realpeople 