Hey white middle class American! Don't act so shocked.

[whyverne]

The ruling class saw the Red Man with all this land, they said, “They're wasting this land. We must take it from them”. And they did. Nobody complained because they were Red.

When the monied class wanted to produce crops cheaply they said, “The Black man is wasting his time running around in Africa. We must use them as slaves.” And they did. Nobody complained because they were Black.

When the elite business men wanted cheap products they looked at the Yellow Man and said, “They waste all their time growing rice and such. We must use them as cheap labor.” And they did. Nobody complained because they were Yellow.

Then the rich and powerful looked around and saw the great, big, fat American middle class and said, “They have too much money. They waste it on frivolities. We must take that money from them.” And they are doing that.

But now everyone is complaining! “But we're white, you shouldn't exploit us”. And the truth comes out. It really wasn't about race, was it? It's always about the money.

[my2sense]

1. k & R

[WCGreen]

2. great stuff...

[malaise]

3. Excellent post

Welcome to DU :hi:

[Toots]

4. It is always about race

While to the Powers to be it may be about money, they almost always remain silent and let the masses do the talking and the fighting. To the masses it is about race, make no mistake about it..The masses will not see a single dime of all that money yet they are the ones on the front lines..

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

5. Tends to be the most convenient division to use but sometimes it's not available and others are used

Like, for example, religion. Or sex.

[democrat2thecore]

15. No - it is ALWAYS about class and SOMETIMES it's about race

I can't stand to see the black progressives on this board try to turn CLASS-based issues into race. Always. I've seen it several times just today. We stand and fall together as a CLASS.

[Kweli4Real]

23. And because YOU ...

are the final arbitrator of what is and what is not a race issue, Black progressives should just SFTU. Right?

[democrat2thecore]

27. No, I didn't say that. Let's come together. -nt

[Solomon]

48. The point you're missing is this:

It SHOULD be about class, but it isn't. It's always about race because the rich always fool the not rich whites into making it about race.

Got it?

[Raineyb]

104. You mean let's come together so long as it's on YOUR terms?

Don't you?

Since you can't stand how black progressives bring up race when you've declared something to be based on class.

[Threedifferentones]

115. lol

No, not right, you need to recognize racism was developed as part of a class scheme, and identify and work with other activists, instead of focusing just on racial excuses for social hierarchy.

[JI7]

24. no, it is about race many times, just look at Joe the Plumber types

who have issues with a black President.

[johnnyplankton]

26. Wait until the teabaggers figure it out.

Oh, that's right. They're morons, too!

[PurpleChez]

60. you mean "morans."

get a brain!!! ;)

[Hannah Bell]

28. if you look at history -- it's not.

[rhett o rick]

31. It's about power. Money is the way to power. Race is a way to divide and conquer.

But it's always about power.

[JackInGreen]

75. Agreed

though racial bigotry is established from an early age, it's always a matter of power, like any rape.

[mistertrickster]

6. It's always about the money. You got that right, my friend.

[Demeter]

7. Right Up there With the Parables in the Bible

Honest, simple, cannot be mistaken even by an idiot. A very good piece of writing.

[Mithreal]

11. +1

[leftstreet]

8. K&R

[Odin2005]

9. K&R

[Kitty Herder]

10. K&R!

[anonymous171]

12. THIS. IS. SO. TRUE. nt

[bertman]

13. But, but, I thought it was about freedom and democracy. Wha happeen??

Rec.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

14. I'm glad the Black, Yellow and Red people managed their money so as not to be affected!

Clearly the collapse of the economy has affected the white population disproportionately. If only us white folks had been as smart as everyone else.

[Name removed]

18. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Name removed]

63. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Name removed]

16. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Chulanowa]

17. Not nearly enough

Don't act like you're doing us any favors, please.

[Flatulo]

25. Life is a competition. White European settlers had superior weapons

and technology. Everywhere they settled, they overwhelemed the indigenous inhabitants.

There's no going back.

But I empathize with the bitterness.

[Chulanowa]

40. Weapons had nothing to do with it

Mostly it had to do with the fact that Europeans were fucking filthy bastards. Same is true in the Pacific and Australia, too. I know it's a nice little feel-good myth for folks descended from those people, that the world was won by superior technology... Makes you feel a little righteous, like even with the blood you're walking through, you can feel a little proud even so. Sorry man. You're living here 'cause your ancestors didn't know what the fuck soap was and that fucking animals was unsanitary.

No, there's no going back. Shit, I don't want to live in a tipi, tell you that. But it'll come around. Think about it this way. All those immigrants, those "hispanics" and "Latinos"? They're indians. At least the ones hopping the border. Most of the folks down in South America? Also Indians, to one degree or another. ¿Hablas español? 'Cause you're gonna need it :)

[Flatulo]

61. I feel neither guilty nor self-righteous about shit that happened hundreds of years ago.

Sorry, white guilt simply doesn't work on me. I exist. Get over yourself already.

My ancestors came here from Italy around 1900 and promptly got the living fuck beat out of them by people who were already here. They were relegated to working in unimaginable factory shitholes and working themselvs to death. Both my grandfathers died of horrible cancers at very young ages. So it goes. There is absolutely not one thing about life that is even remotely fair.

Y si, yo habla.

For all the good it will do. The 21 st century belongs to China. So start boning up on your Mandarin.

[Chulanowa]

93. Wasn't asking you to

I was simply pointing out the myth, and why that myth is perpetuated.

The myth - as presented in a school history textbook - is that Europeans conquered through superior wits and superior weapons. The books don't usually cast moral judgments on this, some even point out the crimes committed. But they all perpetuate the "superior European" because, right or wrong, the myth of the adventurous white capitalist with a gun is just more dashing and heroic than the reality of a serf who has the misfortune of carrying tuberculosis to the new world.

For an animated example, watch Disney's Pocahontas. Which a distressing number of people seem to think is based on fact. Oi.

Anyway. The reason for this myth's perpetuation actually has nothing to do with the era in question; it's just the way history textbooks work. They're not there to inform, there's there to indoctrinate. So a narrative story about inevitable and always-good progress carried by the dashing white adventurer is what gets sold (I do imagine that other nations use other races as their "dashing propaganda hero" sort, but being an American, this is what I see). Kids are taught a simplified, movie script version of history that is designed to make them feel good about their country.

Real history is quite a bit more complex, and often far less inspiring.

As for your Italian ancestors... Really? You're going to try that? Oh jeeze.

[Flatulo]

100. Anthropology, or the Art of Grabbing Ankle

Look, for at least 100,000 years humans have been routing and killing other humans over turf. I can't imagine a single square foot of land that blood hasn't been shed over. And if you think that human migration has ended because we can all just get along now, think again. There are a billion Chinese out there, and another billion Indians, and they all want to drive Buick Park Avenues, and when they can't fuel those babies up, they are going to go in search of resources, and may heaven help anyone who happens to be sitting on those resources.

So whatever your ancestry may be, and whatever injustices have been done to your people, get the fuck over it, because these days people are far more worried about where their next paycheck is coming rom or if their kids will ever be able to work to give much of a fuck one way or another.

And get ready to grab ankle yet again, because the beatings and fuckings ain't over. And at the end of the day, does it really matter whether it's a rich white guy or a rich Chinese guy who's giving it to you in the keester?

Peace, brother.

[MellowDem]

78. You are wrong...

The Native Americans were no different from any other peoples, Europeans included. It has always been in history that when a people gain an advantage, be it technological or otherwise, they have expanded and conquered other peoples. It doesn't make them "filthy fucking bastards". It is a rather natural part of humanity actually that has only recently been met with any sort of restraint. The Native Americans sure were not any better than anyone else. The Aztecs, Incas, Mayans, you can pretty much comapre them with how other empires acted all over the world and they were no different, they were not some utopian society. They were, as you put it, "filthy fucking bastards", expanding and conquering, enslaving, etc.

And you trying to label all Hispanics or Latinos as "Indian" is just stupid. They are a mix, and the fact that the vast majority all speak Europan languages shows that point pretty obviously. Nothings coming around, everything is becoming new. As it always has been. And you lumping all of the natives of this land as "Indians" is hilarious. Sure, to the first European settlers they may have seen it that way, but there are huge differences between tribes and cultures throughout the natives that lived here. It's a demeaning, ignorant attempt to try and create a bogus "Indian" identity based on some mythological ideal of native society.

[Flatulo]

86. Thanks for a common-sense post. nt

[Chulanowa]

89. Wow, are you ever misreading

I'm not making a moral judgment; I'm making a health assessment. I'm not calling them filthy because they conquered, I'm saying they conquered only because they were filthy. Without disease, European incursions into the Americas would have been very limited.

As far as morals go, I'll take Cortez over the Mexica anytime, thanks. I'm not so sure about Pizzaro, but the Inka had that whole "North Korea before there was a North Korea" vibe, so, maybe I'll go with that guy. Definitely a case of "lesser of two evils" in that one. Columbus can suck me, though, that dude was messed up.

So you're telling people of mixed ethnicities can't be Indians? What is that, like some sort of one-drop rule there? Most full bloods speak European languages too, you know. Not sure where you were trying to go with that. As for the rest of your pap? It's possible to be an Inuit, an Apache, an Oaxaca, or a Fuegan, and still be an Indian, and we identify as such. It's not based on a mythological ideal, it's based on a shared ethnicity and common experience.

[MellowDem]

91. Your post was a bit confusing then...

If you wanted to imply that it was the diseases Europeans carried then I doubt you would have used the word "filthy", since it wasn't really dirt or lack of hygene (for their time) that made Europeans have potent diseases, but rather the native's lack of exposure to brand new diseases. I do agree that disease played a role in the conquering by Europeans, a huge role indeed, as did technology. It would probably have taken a lot longer for Europeans to have conquered the New World without the disease factor, no doubt.

And I definitely think Indians can be from a mixed background if they identify as such. But the vast majority of hispanics and latinos don't identify that way, and have historically discriminated against "full bloods" in their countries. And many natives idenfity themselves by their tribe rather than by the term "Indian". The "mythological ideal" I referred to was the idea of the "noble savage" that I thought you were implying by demonzing Europeans.

[Chulanowa]

94. Where do you think diseases come from?

Okay look. Europe had a culture that was against bathing (since nudity was sinful, after all!). Out of the entire continent, only Rome and Paris had sewers, and neither of them worked very well. People lived with animals. Now. You take from this mess a bunch of sailors, put them on a cramped boat with more animals, spoiled food, bad water, and let them float around for three months or so. Ever been on a boat for a while? I used to do commercial fishing on Prince William Sound. You'd be amazed at how gnarly a boat with six men on board can get in just four days. Now, when they land, have them try to recreate their home town.

"Filthy" is a pretty accurate description. I'm not going to pretend that the microbial tsunami could have been stopped by flossing and the occasional scrub... but I think it would have helped.

Disease didn't "play a role;" it was the dominant factor. Pizzaro could not have conquered the Inka had it not been for smallpox. The Plymouth colony would never have been established if there hadn't been influenza. The "Westward expansion" could not have happened if it hadn't been for the germ-based holocaust that had swept across the continent. What your history book presents as scattered tribes were actually survivors and refugees of these disease outbreaks. All the warfare did was mop up what was already done.

Noble savage my brown ass. Friend, I think you were looking for something that wasn't there to start with.

[MellowDem]

96. Why do you assume about me?

I don't think I was looking for anything, your tone comes across clear enough. Even with our modern society, where we have soap, bathing, etc., most people will get chicken pox. The potency of the diseases being spread really had nothing to do with hygiene and everything to do with lack of immunity. Even if the sailors had come over squeaky clean and bathing, the plauge still would have happened to the natives. And the addition of "fucking" and "bastards" I'm sure wasn't meant to imply anything negative. :eyes:

"My" history book is actually up to date. How long or how hard it would have been for the Europeans to conquer the New World without disease is just a "what if" question and besides the point really. I don't think that anyone here was implying that Europeans walk around with pride that they beat down the natives with their superior technology, you were the one that brought up that tripe in your own mind. Superior technology definitely made it easier for Europeans to conquer what was left, and made it easy for them to defeat much larger native armies in other parts of the world where the native people had immunity to European diseases. In other words, it was a factor. And if you think about it, it is potentially the most important factor, even more than disease, because without the technology to sail across the open seas to the New World, those diseases would have never reached the natives anyways and the Europeans would never have conquered it.

[Chulanowa]

97. I simply like to cuss

Plus I'd been watching "Once were Warriors" before posting, so maybe my pottymouth got ahead of itself :D

I'm going to keep arguing. Yeah, better technology let Europeans beat India or china. But they didn't conquer either country. They extracted tribute, but never conquered. india is still populated by Indians, China is populated by Chinese, so on and so forth. And both of these situations - and almost all others you can cite - came about as a result of being able to exploit the resources of the New World. The weapons that the Europeans brought to the New World were, with one single exception, exactly on par with, or often even worse than what natives could field; that one exception was the horse, and it was readily adopted.

it was disease that made the rest possible. That you seem to be offended by this notion tells me that my assumptions are right.

[MellowDem]

99. Yes, I'm offended by the notion...

that Europeans didn't conquer the New World with their bruth strength. :eyes: How dare you insult my European ancestors! Except, my European ancestors came after the natives were conquered, and some of my ancestors were natives themselves. :rofl:

I'm pretty sure it is you who is offended by the notion that natives were conquered and seem to feel like you must come up with some excuse to explain it away. It's just history, don't take it personally. Every group of people has been conquered at some point if you go back far enough, and done the conquering themselves as well.

The weapons that the Europeans brought to the new world were superior, and to imply otherwise is just revisionism. Steel and firearms allowed much smaller European armies to defeat much larger native armies. And when I refer to conquering, I don't mean exterminating. That's why China still has the Chinese, India Indians, etc. Most of the natives in the New World were killed off by disease, and there are still natives, but the flood of European immigration there was much greater than to a place like China or India, which did have large populations and fairly organized civilaztions already there. The European's objective was not to exterminate the native populations. A lot of times, they viewed them as potential converts to Christianity and definitly as a "resource" of labor available in a land where there was no European population.

[Chulanowa]

103. I'm offended by shoddy history, yes

I think most people should be, and regard the complacency towards bad history to be one of the leading problems in societies around the world. Understanding what came before can help you out with what comes next.

And I'm supposing you're offended by me challenging what you "know" to be true, rather than over some slight towards your grandparents.

[MellowDem]

106. No, I enjoy discussing history actually...

and agree with you in regards to the importance of understanding it. We have very little disagreement over this, mostly just in the details, which is going to happen with something as speculative as history can be at times. :)

[raccoon]

66. They had germs the Red man had never been exposed to. nt

[asdjrocky]

83. Red man?

Really? Red man?

[Chulanowa]

90. You know, like tobacco mosaic and blue mold

[asdjrocky]

92. Yeah, wow.

I really didn't think terms that an entire people have claimed as offensive should be so easily used on DU.

Just surprises me I guess.

[Chulanowa]

95. it shouldn't, really

For all its progressive credentials, DU is still a forum on the internet. When you take a group with low representation and few advocates on the site such as indians or Muslims (or even Armenians, I've seen) DU rapidly degenerates into 4chan.

I see it simply as a symptom of the medium being used.

[Flatulo]

101. You didn't read the OP by any chance, did you? nt

[asdjrocky]

102. Yes I did.

Repeating something makes it right?

[Flatulo]

107. Have you directed your ire at the OP? nt

[asdjrocky]

108. I'll tell you what my Dad told me-

"Today you caught the shit, tomorrow you'll brother will get his."

That's the best I can do.

[Flatulo]

109. Fair enough. Your dad was a wise man. nt

[asdjrocky]

113. Yeah, and catching the shit was never fun.

Friends? :hi:

[Flatulo]

114. Absolutely. Peace, brother.

[asdjrocky]

121. And peace to you friend.

[KittyWampus]

120. Once again, why didn't 'red man' bother you in the opening post?

[KittyWampus]

118. No, like the opening post. Why didn't that bother you? Cause you liked it's sophomoric message?

[Chulanowa]

123. Actually, neither instance bothered me

However it was silly in the OP, but it was part of a cohesive rant where it was at least somewhat appropriate. I nthe followups, it was simply silly. And I laugh at silly shit.

sorry if that bothers you. Want some chew?

[KittyWampus]

117. did you read the opening post? It says "Red Man, Black Man, Yellow Man". And as a woman

I'll point we are still treated like chattel.

[JoeyT]

35. Not really.

White folks get a large chunk of that too, and what's left isn't exactly being spread around.
It just elevated a small chunk of our race to the upper class where they promptly forgot the rest existed.

It really is mostly about class.

[asdjrocky]

54. Are you kidding me?

A few casinos makes up for a genocide of an entire people?

That's a real sick and stupid statement.

[Flatulo]

62. Yeah, a much better idea would be to go back and un-kill all those

indigenous people and send the European invadeders back to .. wherever.

Oh wait, time goes the other way. Never mind.

[asdjrocky]

82. Do you believe that a few tribes having some casinos somehow makes up for it?

That's the way your original statement sounded.

[Flatulo]

85. No, my comment was tongue-in-cheek. I don't know what would make a good remedy.

[Name removed]

88. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Cetacea]

19. K&R

[defendandprotect]

20. Patriarchy and capitalism are strictly based on exploitation --

of nature, natural resources, animal-life -- and even other human beings according

to various myths of "inferiority" ...

Now it's our turn --

These are suicidal people and systems -- and they will take us all with them!

[Grand Taurean]

21. Rec'd #100 over here!

True. It's all about money.

[upi402]

22. social justice is an economic issue

I only hope they feel less comfortable in their private jets and yachts, than I do in my happy little house. I'll never see my dream for this country in my life, but did all I could to make it happen. That post reminds me of the movie 'Matewan' and James Earl Jones as Few-Clothes, "There ain't but two kinds of men in this world..."

[Ken Burch]

29. OR, as Buffy Sainte-Marie put it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tl08n8_b3Sw

[cliffordu]

30. Excellent.

Was it Raymond Chandler who said "If you want to find the murderer, just follow the money...." ??

[liberation]

32. Indeed. Those who still think is just about race, still keep on missing the point....

... it has always been about class. Period.

Race is a nice element of the divide and conquer approach which allows the top 5% to control the other 95%.

Because the day the poor white people realize they have more in common with the poor black people, than they do with the rich white people... the day every racial group realizes they have more commonalities across social groups than they do across racial and cultural groups.... when that day comes, the gig for the top 5% is up.

So yes, there has always been racism, but that it has always been institutionalized because it is an awesome approach to keep people divide too busy bickering against each other... when they should be bickering at the people at the top. A similar argument can be made about nationalities, cultures, and religion. All silly abstract notions, that have a single purpose: create artificial divides.

They way I see it, it is not an either or proposition. But racism is a tool in order to perpetuate the ultimate goal: maintain a very unfair and very pyramidal social structure.

[MissMarple]

39. And, now I thought that racism was an innate fear of "the other". Go figure.

[Chulanowa]

42. Funny how it took white people getting screwed by other white people to catch on

Seriously, I don't mean to dig on you, but have you ever noticed that nine times out of ten when someone's saying "it's not about race!" it's a white person? It boggles the mind how many white people honestly, truly don't believe racism exists. I don't know, maybe it's one of those "you have to be there" sort of things.

It sure as fuck is race. Let me give you an example: Michael Steele. He's not a poor guy. I don't know the exact details of his finances, but he's pretty far from poor. But you know what? He's still back of the bus isn't he? And I'm telling you right now, the reason he's back there isn't that he doesn't have enough money.

Now you're not completely wrong; a poor white guy has more in common with a poor black guy. Try convincing the poor white guy of this, though. So many damn white people will be completely offended by this suggestion. Even the ones who, on any other day, any other moment, are awesome, unprejudiced, great people. Suggest to them they have anything in common with someone who's just as poor but with a different skin tone, and they will go off, as often as not. And you will hear shit from them that you would never have imagined them saying.

It's the rare person who will stop, mid-rant, and go "Oh my god, so THAT'S what they mean by white privilege!" it happens sometimes, to be true. But for a lot of white people, it just seems the case that no matter how down and out they are, they still labor under the delusion that htye are elevated members of society.

You ask me, they're just slaves smacking their lips and waiting to go into the big house.

[RedRoses323]

58. Verdad......

[MellowDem]

81. I think you misread the post...

Saying "it's not about race" doesn't mean a person doesn't think racism doesn't exist.

And how is Michael Steele more at the back of the bus than a poor white guy with no health insurance? That's absolute horseshit. Michael Steele may be hated by certain portions of society, but he has more power than that poor white guy does, that's for sure.

And your assumptions about all poor white guys comes across as rather ignorant. How do you know this? Did you take a poll? Or is this just your personal experience being expanded to fit in with all "poor white guys"? Because it comes across as absolute bigoted bullshit.

It's rare that a person will stop and admit they totoally misinterpreted a post. Somehow pointing out the rather obvious, that for the powers that be it was never about race, something which was only relatively recenty invented for the very purpose of dividing and conquering, that someone will always interpet that to mean that "race doesn't exist". Don't you get it? The whole point of the OP's post was to point out to those whites who think it's all about race that they are getting hoodwinked, big time! Whites who always thought it was about race were ok to just sit by on the sidelines and get their deserved rewards.

And your "white privilege" rant is hilarious as you mix your bigoted feelings in.

[Raineyb]

105. +1

:applause:

[dchill]

33. K&R

[Catherine Vincent]

34. This post is the shit!

:thumbsup:

[voc]

125. +1

[Mosaic]

36. Classism is built in to our two party system

You can't really deny we have a party for the working class, 99% of us, and one to represent the real elite, the top 1%. When they call you the elite for being a liberal you know the opposite is true, liberals recognize the equality of us all, the elitists and their half witted drones who keep voting for them don't.

[anonymous171]

116. Both parties represent the elite.

[pundaint]

37. Nice start, needs a better finish

[MissMarple]

38. Well, it is about the money and the power...but your history is all out of wack.

Alternatively, your historical conclusions are highly inaccurate.

[Sherman A1]

41. Precisely

It is now and always has been about the money, with a few variations on a theme along the way, but it all boils down to the money.

[RandomThoughts]

43. I would love to have a few million dollars myself.

So I understand that desire, the question is what would you do to get it.

People can make money while still living honorably, or people can have money as there only motive.

Money should be a side effect when it fits into what you want to be, not what you strive for itself.

There are billions of people that do not live for money, they just are not seen as much, well, because they don't have money to spend to be seen. And there are many people with money that got there because they followed a dream without hurting other people. And some people even make money while helping people.

So in my view, I think money has very little to do with life.

[cali]

44. I'm not at all surprised that this kind of shallow shit "analysis"

gets hundreds of recs. sigh.

[SammyWinstonJack]

84. +1 nt

[LostInAnomie]

87. Indeed.

A lot of people around here are more than willing to swallow shit analysis as long as it involves "whitey getting his".

[joeunderdog]

110. -1

truth hurts

[Hannah Bell]

45. yes, & the new "multicultural" world order is shaping up nicely. With elites of every racial

& ethnic group ready to enforce economic discipline on their own.

[democracy1st]

46. K & R

[gleaner]

47. A good post ....

but not entirely accurate. Many white people disliked what was being done to the Native Americans. They tried to stop it, and it got them nowhere.

White people disliked slavery. They were the abolitionists. Many of them risked everything they had to help free slaves and to help runaway slaves find freedom via the underground railroad.

During the civil rights era, there were many white middle class people who went to the south and risked their lives to help.

Many while people did not agree with the treatment of Asians and tried to help them. They took many personal risks and did some good but not enough.

It is simplistic to lump all white middle class people into one big group and say they are all "alike," all uncaring and all unwilling to take a risk to help others. It's always been about the money and some of us have always known it. We have tried to make it about people, all different kinds of people, but since we were only the white middle class and not the well placed rich it was very hard to get anyone to hear it. It is worse now, but everyone has a part to play. How much of your life are you willing to give up for someone else? Anyone else? Is there something you would die for? What is it about for you?

I know what I would risk and what I would die for. My choice, my beliefs. I am a white Quaker woman who believes that everyone deserves a good life even if it costs me mine, and I have lived that since I was 15. I am 62 now and I have seen greed and suspicion destroy the unity that people need to share this earth and this country. It is time to stop pointing fingers and start living what we want others to be ourselves.

[DisgustedInMN]

49. Simplistic concepts tend ...

.. to be popular AND wrong. It's always been about class warfare, ALWAYS. Greedy people care fuckall about the "race" of who they exploit, that's just a "shiny object" distraction to let them pick your pockets.

[rucky]

51. It's hard to separate the two...

exploiters target the weak, and racism weakens certain groups - making it easier for them to be economically exploited. Racism is part of that "shiny object" they hold in front of the middle class, as well: It's the immigrants! It's the Chinese! It's the guest workers that are ruining our economy!

No. It's the companies that exploit these groups of workers. They're using inherent racism within the white middle class to weaken and divide us. Combine that with "It's the unions!" and you have a perfect race to the bottom for cheap labor. I've seen several DU-ers play into that hand, as well.

[DisgustedInMN]

68. I think we're ...

.. pretty much on the same page. It harkens back to basic human strength that has become a weakness in the societies of today, ie, a "us vs. them" mentality.

[eilen]

71. Yeah, they have their useful idiots who perpetuate and antagonize

the people between their so-called differences so as to pit us against each other to fight over the crumbs.

[madokie]

50. I hope you don't mind but I passed that on to my friend

[DailyGrind51]

52. The pity is that too many of the middle class permit the abuse out of fear.

[WVRICK13]

53. Hit The Nail On The Head

It is about money and who is weak enough to exploit. The current economy is creating more weak people so they can exploit even more of the population. If you have been unemployed for two years it is easy to get you to take a job at less pay than you earned before.

[onlyadream]

55. Yes and no about the race thing...

if the reds, yellows & blacks were all white, all this shit still would have happened. It's really based on being poor, weak and in need (to be exploited).

[blindpig]

56. k&r

[whyverne]

57. OP says thanks to all. First time I made the front page.

Above the fold, so to speak.
I appreciate the constructive criticism. Most of my writings become too in depth and complicated. I actually set out to KISS. So any criticism of being too simplistic is quite welcome. It's been said many times before that liberals have problems creating simple memes. The right does it so much better.

[wordpix]

59. how unfortunately true

[last1standing]

64. Divide and conquer. Literally, the oldest trick in the book.

If you can make people with different skin colors resent each other they'll be too fearful to come together against the real enemy, those who are actually stealing our labor.

You are making the problem worse, whyverne, not better. Why are you trying to ignite racial discord here instead of working to stop the elite few who actually did the things you mentioned?

[4_TN_TITANS]

65. Interesting perspective.

k&r

[Brewman_Jax]

67. Too true

Jim Crow, redlining, housing restrictions, racist HOA covenants, etc., weren't there because Latinos, Indians, Chinese, and black people thought they were a great idea.

[eilen]

73. Before that it was the Irish,

the Italians, the indentured, the sharecroppers or back in the old NY Dutch days, "the leaseholders". Prior to that it was all of Europe-- one national hating another, slavery was not limited to skin tone, to the victor went the spoils. Today slavery still exists and human trafficking exploits the weakest: women and children. The global economy has been swift to option that and I am not even talking about wage slaves in India, Singapore, Mexico, Vietnam and China.

We allow ourselves to be divided -- race, unionism, small business owners, religion, unemployed, the foreclosed upon, the young, the old, the gay, the poor, those with lots of children, those employed by the government, the ex-cons, factory workers, -- the whole "I have had to do without so you should also; why do they deserve more than me, they are working the system, they are lazy, they are using up our resources, etc. I think it is time to rise above these petty differences and consider that we are in this together.

The other day a lady told me she is against unions because it protects and rewards people d/t seniority, not merit. That she felt teachers should not have tenure ("a job for life") despite their job performance. To tell you the truth, I did not argue this with her, I felt very beaten down. I just told her that I respect that she has her opinion and that mine differed. However, I feel that union protections for older workers had merit and that perhaps, as she is in her 50's she might see the logic of it.

[Brewman_Jax]

80. Stay in the present

and in the US. They didn't have their civil rights removed; they could still own land, guns, etc., and now they're considered white.

[SlingBlade]

69. The White Mans Burden ...

In the name of destiny, In the name of God !

Too Bad, So Sad
Can't help but laugh at the spit drippers as they complain about all those "Colored Folks".

[Javaman]

70. Variation on, "first they came for the lawyers and I did nothing".

Nicely update, though. :)

[mntleo2]

72. Thank you for your observations whyverne

...as a low income white mother with children of color I have seen what you speak about. 40+ years ago, I grew up with the "history" taught to a white audience but early on began to see they were lies ~ or worse pure omission. Fortunately I had friends of color, elders from different cultures who taught me better as a young person, and I was privileged to hear their oral history through their own eyes. I tell you when you love someone because not only are they wise, they have far more class than any upper class person you've ever met, when they tell you of what they saw and what their elders told them, you listen!

I saw one person on this thread who is not feeling guilty about "what happened 100 years ago", but what they do not seem to understand is that the decimation, prejudice, and classism still continues.

Classism is the new paradigm for racism, using classism to hide the racism that comes with it. But unfortunately classism in order to be "fair" now includes whites ~ many who have fallen from the middle class to the lower class. Oooooo! Big surprise when suddenly they are treated as their brothers and sisters of color have lived for centuries! Baaaad!

I am not happy that more people are experiencing what my own fellow Americans have lived for so long. But I am hopeful that finally, many will see what it does and how it decimates whole communities merely because there is no respect for fellow human beings ... who happen to be as smart if not smarter, most who are far more moral because they face things no upper income person could imagine by enduring needless indignant situations with dignity, and who often see things far more wisely than the most educated. Most who have far more class than that white, upper class shallowness and short-sightedness that contributes blindly to the waste of humanity that silently kills hearts and minds. All because of upper class prejudice that makes them think they are somehow "better" because they can buy their way out of things in life that the poor could never achieve.

This hubris has led to so much heartbreak over the centuries. I keep wondering when we will ever learn to stop looking at race, disregard class, and see the person inside, who are special and could make our society so much better if we just listened ...

I love your post!

Cat In Seattle

[rhett o rick]

74. It's about power. Money is a tool for power. Hate is a tool for power. nt

[MissDeeds]

76. K&R

:kick:

[paparush]

77. Best Damn Post I've read on DU all day. K&R

[MellowDem]

79. This post dumbs it down too much...

It would be nice if all it took was for white middle class America to wake up and realize "it's not about race". The only problem is that 43% of all white voted for Obama, and for middle class whites, that vote is going to be even higher. So we already have (I'm guessing) 47% or so of white middle class America who are already with us. The suburbs went for Obama 50 to 48.

As for the rest, to blame it all on white perception of race is a bad prescription for the problem. A huge huge part of it, and I personally think the greatest part of it, is ideology. You can look at the exit polls from 2004 to 2008, and white's votes really didn't shift that much across the vast majority of the US, despite Obama being on the ticket. The real thing to educate about is the idea of "free market capitlalism" and "government bad". A lot of whites (I would say most) truly believe in the right's ideology and are not simply using it as a front for their racist intents. For that matter, so do about 1/3 of Asians and Hispanics. You have to admit that a lot of it is about ideology, not race, and believe it or not, the right's ideology resonates with people, and not just whites.

Solving a problem is never as simple as calling out a certain race and class of people and asking them to "wake up" based on a wrong perception of why they vote a certain way.

[county worker]

112. There is a whole list of DU bogeymen. The white male is near the top.

A white male driving a SUV is higher though. And if that SUV is a Hummer you have a real winner!

[hulka38]

122. Add car magnets and car flags and you have a humdinger.

Replace car flags with a confederate flag and you've hit the jackpot.

[branders seine]

98. but I'm fat, so nobody complained.

[county worker]

111. Read about the Credit Mobilier

There is really very little that's new under the sun.

[Kurska]

119. Because Black people, Red people and Yellow people haven't lost their homes in this depression

either right?

Only white middle class people lost their jobs, only white middle class people got foreclosed on and apparently they deserved it.

My family came here from Russia in 1900 to escape Progroms designed to exterminate them, I haven't taken any land from any Native Americans or had anything to do with enslaving Blacks. My family was enslaved Serfs until 1861 most likely. I don't see how losing my home (luckily I have not), would be any sort of moral payback for either of those things.

[lonestarnot]

124. Welp no shit!