COASTAL POST
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October, 2005
The Terrorism of Race and Poverty
by Frank Scott
The world s most over developed military power is its most under
developed nation in matters of real human security. Almost maniacally
prepared for terrorist attack by material forces , it was unprepared for
the terrorist attack by an immaterial Intelligent Designer . But along
with the horrors of a natural disaster on America s Gulf Coast, we
witnessed the unnatural disaster of our nation s disregard for some of
its people.
Millions of Americans live in denial about racism , believing that
social programs solved that problem . But the reality of unedited
television news told a different story. Tens of thousands of black New
Orleans residents could not afford to evacuate and were left in
circumstances that would be pitiful in a poor nation, but are
disgraceful in the richest country in the world. They were the forgotten
and excluded, untouched by selective programs, identity group catch
phrases or other system saving word games. Unlike the minority
professional class, they can t even afford the cosmetic title
African-American ; horrible scenes of deprivation offered visible
evidence of their blackness, in a racist society that has only changed
in the minds of the uninformed, who should now know better.
While thousands of Americans acted in compassionate solidarity ,
government offered pious platitudes to cover its anti-social disregard
for those left out of its upscale marketing agenda.
Poverty is the global curse of capital , but while suffering foreign
masses are commonly seen in disaster tv coverage, the horrid reality of
poor, displaced black Americans offered an educational experience for
millions of viewers. That is, those who have not suffered permanent
brain damage from watching Fox TV, or reading the thinly disguised race
mongering that passes for punditry in much of our print media.
Lurid stories of violent looting, many fictional, often led to survivors
of a horrible experience being treated as though they were all
criminals. But some media employees reported what actually happened. In
historic moments of honesty, they communicated something that did not
deny what people were seeing , but that made it even more vivid,
compelling, and shocking.
Given the hellish reality thus exposed in the richest society the world
has ever known, we should be grateful there is no judgmental and
righteous Intelligent Designer of biblical lore. If there were, we might
all be destroyed in a massive holocaust, earthquake and flood, as
punishment for our delusions, however innocent we ve been in their
acquisition . Until now. After this, deniers should be seen for what
they are : innocent, helpless morons, or cold, calculating enemies of
all who are not members of their own race or class.
Some Americans live in worse conditions than people in third world
countries, and while class is the major crime of inequality, race
compounds its felony. The top 20% of American families control 85% of
the nation s net worth , but that glaring inequality gap becomes an even
wider chasm when race is considered. The average net worth of a white
family is fourteen times greater than the average for blacks . And while
our Infant mortality rate is no better than Malaysia s, worse is the
fact that in America, black babies die before reaching age one at twice
the rate of whites.
It is shameful that we cannot bring human life into the world with more
security than can nations with only a microscopic measure of our wealth.
Especially when we have such alleged reverence for life that some would
force their way into a woman s womb to protect an unconscious fetus,
while they destroy post fetal life in their unconscious state of
zealous, patriarchal righteousness .
Individuals will suffer scape-goating for a social malfunction of
colossal dimensions in New Orleans. That some officials have no
understanding of the reality lived by millions of Americans is obvious.
But while blatant ignorance has clearly been displayed , a system, and
not its bureaucratic functionaries, is the problem.
The racism and poverty that made large sectors of New Orleans
exclusively black communities, with substandard housing, shoddy schools
and an environment of often crime provoking desperation , is a factor of
the political economy, not a personality. It existed long before Bush
appointed any crony capitalist pinhead to a responsible position .
The poverty and racism that reduce millions of Americans to lives of
painful alienation is the natural outcome of an economic system, and
cannot be blamed on any one person or party. The present gang of
governing corporadoes may be the worst in our history, but nothing they
do is out of character with the system they, and all their predecessors,
have worked to maintain and protect. And this tragedy exposed that
system s ugly underbelly to all but committed racists or the morally
comatose.
The cleanup and rebuilding will cost a hundred billion for New Orleans
alone, but that represents about a year s take from the recently cut
estate tax. End the criminal Iraq war fiasco, and we can easily redirect
another hundred billion. But far more than money is at stake. We will
ultimately have to confront a system which by its very nature exploits
and oppresses many, in order to bring comfort and security to a few.
That has always been the problem, but maybe never so forcefully revealed
as in this natural disaster. We need to understand the unnatural
disaster of our system s disregard for humanity that makes it a threat
to not only the poor and the black, but everyone else. It endlessly
attacks our social and natural environment, especially our most helpless
people, and our very sanity. It is a form of political economic
terrorism that must end, if a peaceful, humane America is ever to begin.
Copyright (c) 2005 by Frank Scott. All rights reserved.
This text may be used and shared in accordance with the
fair-use provisions of U.S. copyright law, and it may be
archived and redistributed in electronic form, provided that
the author is notified and no fee is charged for access.
Archiving, redistribution, or republication of this text on
other terms, in any medium, requires the consent of the author
frank scott
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225 laurel place, san rafael ca. 94901
(415)457 2415 cell (415)847 4105
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