Reply #37: I lived in the Republic of Panama for two years ... [View All]

[ElectroPrincess]

I was informed that in the recent past it was the "lighter skinned" Hispanics who held power. I was aghast at the thought of "shades of discrimination."

My in laws who live in New Orleans told me that before The Civil Rights Movement of the 60s there was called a "paper bag" test. If your skin color was darker than a brown paper bag, you were considered black. Conversely, if your skin was lighter than a brown paper bag, you could be allowed to "pass" for white.

It's sad but not shocking. Unfortunately it's the self-distructive part of humanity that wishes to separate "us" from "them" be it race, sexual orientation, religion etc.

I hope, my fellow progressives that the ONLY color or discriminator that truly matters to those of us intelligent and enlightened is GREEN. That is, those who genuinely control this country through corporate wealth and power LOVE TO DIVIDE us "little people" who make less than $300,000 / year.

How do they do the above? Through wedge issues that underly our "worst side of humanity" (racism, sexism, religious fundamentalist discrimination, etc.), the ruling class SEPARATES us.

We must somehow, working and middle classes of all races MUST learn to work together.

Our true enemy is the folks who outsource our jobs to cheap overseas labor markets. And the union busters who underpay even their workers in third world countries.

That has NOTHING to do with African Americans or even the influx of illegal aliens.