I leave to others working out a better vocabulary for the discussion.
I haven't read anything by Wise in over a decade or two, but what I gather is that he is concerned with "changing minds and hearts". That's a shuck.
Carrol
> -----Original Message-----
> From: lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org [mailto:lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org]
> On Behalf Of Marv Gandall
> Sent: Tuesday, July 09, 2013 2:17 PM
> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] White supremacy (Was Tim Wise.)
>
>
> On 2013-07-09, at 11:13 AM, Doug Henwood wrote:
> >
> > On Jul 9, 2013, at 10:43 AM, Marv Gandall <marvgand2 at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >> A 2010 study reported income inequality up fourfold since the Reagan
> years.
> >
> > That's not mathematically possible. Measured how?
>
> I don't know. I tried to link to the Brandeis study, but the link appears
to be
> broken. Maybe you or someone else will have better luck.
>
> Here's a reference to the study:
>
> http://policyforresults.blogspot.ca/2010/06/racial-wealth-gap-increases-
> fourfold-in.html
> Wednesday, June 16, 2010
>
> The Racial Wealth Gap Increases Fourfold in One Generation
>
> In a recent research and policy brief, the Institute on Assets and Social
Policy
> (IASP) at Brandeis University discusses its finding that the racial wealth
gap
> has increased fourfold over the past generation, from $20,000 to $95,000.
>
> IASP's data highlight a significant growth in assets among white families
> between 1983 and 2007, with the greatest wealth accrued to highest income
> whites. During this time period, however, high-income African American
> families' wealth grew only 25% as much as middle-income white families'.
>
> The disparity in income growth was accompanied by a disproportionate
> increase in the negative wealth, or debt burden, of African American
families.
> In each year of the study, at least 25% of African American families had
no
> assets.
>
> The expanding racial wealth gap indicates that public policies to support
> family asset-building and economic mobility are not fully addressing the
> problem. The data show that job achievement alone cannot predict family
> wealth holdings; universal policies do not necessarily translate to
universal
> wealth-building outcomes. To close the racial wealth gap, IASP argues,
asset-
> building policies must be revisited and targeted to families of color
whose
> economic security has remained more tenuous than their peers in the
> workforce.
>
>
> > There is now a nontrivial black professional/managerial class. Such a
thing
> barely existed just a generation ago.
>
> Sure. I noted that the culture is now more tolerant and opportunities have
> opened up for educated blacks. But that's no indication that, as you put
it,
> "this notion of white supremacy is way way out of date - which, of course,
> doesn't stop people from robotically reciting it as if nothing has changed
> since 1957."
>
> You don't agree that white supremacy is an ongoing structural feature of
US
> capitalism? You really think the concept lost its validity after the
passage of
> the Civil Rights Act by the Johnson administration in 1964?
>
> Here's a contemporary example of how it's being expressed in Detroit, CB's
> home town. The wealthy white suburbanites would rather the city gut black
> working class pensions and other benefits rather than sell off parts of
its art
> collection in the Detroit Institute of Art. The city should do neither,
but you
> get the point.
>
> Should Detroit sell its art?
> Motown steps on Degas
> The suburbs and the city disagree
> The Economist
> Jul 6th 2013
>
> ONE of the masterpieces in the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) is James
> Whistler's "Nocturne in Black and Gold". Ominous dark shadows are
> punctuated with the light of fireworks falling to Earth. It is an "urban,
> ephemeral, indescribable spectacle", says the blurb. It is "a pot of paint
> [flung] in the public's face", harrumphed John Ruskin, a Victorian critic.
It
> could also be a metaphor for the rise and fall of Motown, not least since
it is
> one of many works the bankrupt city may sell to pay off its debts.
>
>
> Detroit has one of the finest art collections in America, including works
by
> Van Gogh, Degas, Matisse and Bruegel the Elder. Murals by Diego Rivera,
> commissioned in the 1930s, show muscular workers cranking out cars in a
> Ford factory.
>
> Many of those factory jobs have now left. (Some have gone to Rivera's
native
> Mexico.) Detroit's population has collapsed. With a shrunken tax base, the
> city cannot service its debts of more than $17 billion, or $25,000 for
every
> resident.
>
> Desperate times call for harsh measures. Kevyn Orr, the city's emergency
> manager, who was appointed this year with almost dictatorial powers to
turn
> the city's finances around, has ordered an inventory of the treasures in
the
> DIA. These were valued at $1 billion in 2004; they may be worth more now.
If
> Detroit formally declares bankruptcy, they may be sold. That would be
> controversial.
>
> Many affluent suburbanites hate the idea. The suburbs that encircle
Detroit
> are politically separate: suburbanites neither pay city taxes nor send
their
> kids to crumbling city schools. But they do like to visit the art museum
from
> time to time. Only last year, they voted to pay a special tax to subsidise
it.
>
> Even more appalling, for many suburbanites, is the prospect that the
> proceeds would bail out what they see as a corrupt and incompetent city
> government. In March a former mayor, Kwame Kilpatrick, was convicted on
> two dozen charges, including racketeering and bribery. The city council is
in
> chaos: its president has gone missing, amid allegations of an
inappropriate
> relationship with a high-school boy. A third of the council seats are
empty.
> "You start to get numb. This week it was the DIA, last week something
else,"
> says Paul Tyll, an engineer who lives in the suburbs and voted for the DIA
tax.
>
> Race aggravates matters. The city is 83% black. Adjacent Oakland County is
> 77% white, and more than twice as rich. Suburbanites are glad that the
> governor of Michigan has appointed an emergency manager to sort out the
> city. In a poll, 78% of voters of Oakland County approved, against only
41% in
> Detroit itself.
>
> The DIA is unusual in that it is directly owned by the city. Art museums
> elsewhere are typically owned by non-profit foundations. So whereas other
> struggling rust-belt cities with great art collections, such as Toledo and
> Cleveland, probably could not sell them to repay their creditors, Detroit
> probably can.
>
> Scandalised out-of-towners are eager to prevent this. Michigan's attorney-
> general says that the artwork is held in trust and therefore cannot be
sold.
> State legislators are proposing a law that would block a debt-driven
sell-off.
> Even if Mr Orr has the law on his side, creditors and art-buyers may be
wary
> of getting tied up in court. Art-lovers hope that the red tape that helped
> wreck Detroit's economy might save its art collection.
>
> Paintings or pensions?
>
> Were the city to sell its paintings, it would lose some of its allure for
residents
> and tourists alike. Annemarie Erickson, the DIA's chief operating officer,
> argues that art can "empower all of us". But many residents will grasp at
> anything that means their pensions might be paid, or the streetlights
might
> start working again. "I earned that pension," says Robert Jones, a retired
> police officer who now helps run a car park outside the Detroit Tigers'
> baseball stadium. "Paintings?" asks Carl, a ticket-scalper outside the
same
> stadium: "What do I need with paintings?"
>
>
>
>
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