A Cruel Irony, indeed

[Rebkeh]

From ProgressiveArmy.com

[WATCH] Black Poverty Is Different
Michael Graham - March 7, 2016

http://progressivearmy.com/2016/03/07/black-poverty-is-different/ (also with video)

Recently, Black poverty has become the “Bernie bludgeon” du jour and it is absolutely absurd. Ever since Senator Bernie Sanders was first interrupted by BlackLivesMatter activists, he has been catching pure hell. In contrast, Secretary Hillary Clinton has largely been getting a pass. In reality, Black poverty is in fact very unique in this country. Urban (or “ghetto”) poverty is most assuredly a Black experience. This type of poverty is distinctive in its level of concentration and isolation. To say otherwise dismisses the plight of poor people. Playing political games in service of the Clinton Campaign adds a level of cruel irony. (emphasis mine) The economy is where racial inequality manifests itself. Black poverty is the manifestation of American policy & practice.

I’m going to keep this one relatively short. Most of these points are elementary in nature for people who live in poverty or anyone paying attention to American life.

* Black people in America are twice as likely to be unemployed than White people.
* African Americans suffer from household food insecurity at nearly twice the rate of Whites.
* Median income in Black households is a little over half that of non-Hispanic Whites.
* Blacks are more than twice as likely to live in poverty.

All of this is just the tip of the iceberg. You can research the impacts of concentrated urban poverty on education, household violence, crime, police brutality and mass incarceration. These issues have been studied for decades. However, the laws of logic (and Google) do not apply to hack journalism and twitter punditry. Do your own research. Then ask the social media brain trust to provide you some hard data from an unbiased source. If they can’t or won’t, you may want to take a long look at that relationship.

An additional problem is that these people are undermining the White Privilege argument. The issue is finally being taken seriously along with Reparations (an economic solution). Then here come the “White folks is broke too” brigade. What is worse is that many of these same people have been telling Bernie to speak more about race. To be clear; White, Brown & other poverty is a very serious concern. Do not misunderstand my position. Black poverty is the issue here and I make no claim of being unbiased.

When Senator Sander says anything about the plight of Black people, the usual suspects step out from under the Clinton umbrella to write think pieces on how wrong he is. Without fail, they reveal themselves to be unserious about anything other that their twitter popularity or sucking up to power. The irony is that Bernie’s policies would go much further to help the urban poor. The naysayers are doing the Black community a disservice.

http://progressivearmy.com/2016/03/07/black-poverty-is-different/

[haikugal]

1. Thank you for this post!!

Kick and recommend!