I think attention to back oppression is legitimate. Blacks have, and continue to be, uniquely persecuted compared to other ethnic groups and I believe this fact is significant. In addition to poverty, blacks have been subject all sorts of other abuses, such as police harassment (something I've personally witnessed) and various laws that are in effect, and I'm quite sure in intent, racially prejudiced (even if polite society chooses not longer to call them what they are).* Indeed, I think we need to ask serious questions as to why this is the case.
"I will say, then, that I am not nor ever have been in favor of brining about in any way, the social and political equality of the white and black races. I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race" --Abraham Lincoln
*Incidentally, the Holy Constitution, prior to subsequent, post- Abolition, amendment, effectively ratifies slavery.
On Feb 8, 2008, at 7:23 PM, John Thornton wrote:
>>
>> Julio wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>> But the strongest reason in favor of Obama is, IMHO, that race
>> largely
>> intersects with class in the U.S. and in large swaths of the
>> world. Blacks in
>> the U.S. are the most oppressed sector of the U.S. working class.
>
>
>
> Are they?
> How do you define oppressed?
> The 2000 census shows the African American poverty rate was 23.6
> percent
> while the Native American poverty rate was 25.7 percent.
> The spread of lowest income counties helps highlight where poverty is
> most prevalent.
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lowest-
> income_counties_in_the_United_States
> Median personal income in 2006 according to the US Census Bureau
> and the
> Bureau of Indian Affairs was <$27,000 for African Americans, >$24,000
> for Hispanics, and >$25,000 for Native Americans in the coterminous
> US.
> I can show different figures for Mean Income and/or for Households
> so I
> don't think trying to figure out exactly who is on bottom is
> productive.
> I find it less than helpful to try to list one minority group as
> more or
> less oppressed than another.
> It leads nowhere and is a tool used divisively more than anything
> else.
>
> John Thornton
> ___________________________________
> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
>