Martin Luther King Day: Where we are today, and where we're going
8 Comments Published by LeftyHenry on Thursday at 11:17 PM.
In honor of Martin Luther King weekend, and Pottawatomie Creek's call for leftist bloggers of all political strata to post about white supremecy and discrimination this upcoming weekend, I want to talk about the situation we're in today regarding discrimination, nationalism, and rascism in general. Martin Luther King had a dream, but has his dream been fulfilled decades later? The answer, in my opinion, is no. Rascism is alive and well, and will continue in a system that was built on the blood, sweat, and forced labor extracted from it.
So how is Rascism Alive in America?
Immigration
Nationalism and patriotism has, for some reason, always been something honorable, and as of the past year, so has immigrant bashing in the name patriotism. The vigilante 'minutemen' group, which is predominantly white and which has captured headlines with its patroling of the borders in nothing new. In fact, they are merely a KKK front group which is following in the footsteps of the "Klan border patrol".
Police Brutality
When was the last time you heard about the shooting of an unarmed white person? In the past years New Yorkers have witnessed the killings of Anthony Baez, Amoudou Diallo, and most recently Sean Bell who was murdered in cold blood hours before he was going to get married and start a new life. The worst part about this is that these are only the most publiscized murders. The October 22nd Coalition has started the Stolen Lives project in which they track, and have so far tracked, over 2000 people murdered by cops, and yes, you guessed it; you'll be hard pressed to find a white guy on that list.
School Segregation
According to a Harvard Study, re-segregation of schools is a growing trend. White students are attending higher quality schools, while Blacks are attending the shitty ones. To add insult to injury, Ohmaha schools are now racially segregated by law
Poverty
Blacks continue to be forced to live in the worst of the worst inner-city neighborhoods in greater numbers than whites. 33% of black children are in poverty while only 13% of white children live in poverty. This is just another reflection of the failure of the education system as well as the poverty trap that capitalism has created for minorities.
What Steps Can be taken to fulfill Martin Luther Kings dream?
In reality, undere this perverted and obscene system, rascism will live on. Even today decades after institutionalized rascism was ended, we see that black people and white people in general live in two completely different worlds. Strict Affirmative Action quotas for minorities (and woman) is a must to truly create a society where there is no racial, or sex discrimination, and eventually, make the idea of race disapear from our heads. Unfortunately, that will most likely never happen in a world where conservative, religious, traditional, and so called "family values" are treasured in the way they are.
Under Socialism...
People are encouraged to challenge all and every capitalist class norm. For example, in Maoist China, woman were told to rise up against institutionalized male superiority, arranged marriage, and fuedal practices like foot binding, while in Marxist-Leninist Soviet Union, raids and slaughters of Jewish villages were suddenly halted as well as abortion legalized. Socialism would create a radically different world where people would live as equals.
In Conclusion, sadly, MLK's dream has not been fulfilled. Blacks and Whites do not live together in harmony, in fact, they usually live one above the other (guess which one?) economically. That said much progress has been made thanks to the work and struggle of Civil Rights leaders like Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. They will always be remember by millions as heroes fighting for freedom in an oppressive system. Happy MLK weekend everybody, and make sure to spend it remembering MLK's accomplishments for all people!
Good Post
Good to see response to General Call
Hope we can build on this idea
Haisanlu
Really good post.
Happy MLK's birthday.
I'm leaving the house, to protest locally against the Iraq war.
Regards.
thanks, I posted that quite late and it was meant to be a draft, but I added on two paragraphs just now.
Whats up Comrade. Great post. I especially appreciate the stuff on Immigration. Because of the Immigration struggle the Xicano rights movement has really picked up steam. I just posted a article on Immigration from the point of view of a First Nations brother. I am also posting something on MLK tommorow. Check it out and I'll catch you later. Peace.
Whats up Comrade. Great post. I especially appreciate the stuff on Immigration. Because of the Immigration struggle the Xicano rights movement has really picked up steam. I just posted a article on Immigration from the point of view of a First Nations brother. I am also posting something on MLK tommorow. Check it out and I'll catch you later. Peace.
I agree with Red Bolivarian's praise--it's important to make sure immigration is right in the mix when we're talking about white supremacy.
The death of King and Malcolm X, were like military operations, beheading the civil rights movement.
interesting dimensions covered, cheerios comrade