Kareem Abdul-Jabbar @kaj33 Aug. 17, 2014
Ferguson is
not just about systemic racism — it's about class warfare and how America's
poor are held back, says Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Will the
recent rioting in Ferguson, Missouri, be a tipping point in the struggle
against racial injustice, or will it be a minor footnote in some future grad
student’s thesis on Civil Unrest in the Early Twenty-First Century?
You probably
have heard of the Kent State shootings: on May 4, 1970, the Ohio National Guard
opened fire on student protesters at Kent State University. During those 13
seconds of gunfire, four students were killed and nine were wounded, one of
whom was permanently paralyzed. The shock and outcry resulted in a nationwide
strike of 4 million students that closed more than 450 campuses. Five days
after the shooting, 100,000 protestors gathered in Washington, D.C. And the
nation’s youth was energetically mobilized to end the Vietnam War, racism,
sexism, and mindless faith in the political establishment.
You probably
haven’t heard of the Jackson State shootings.
On May 14th,
10 days after Kent State ignited the nation, at the predominantly black Jackson
State University in Mississippi, police killed two black students (one a high
school senior, the other the father of an 18-month-old baby) with shotguns and
wounded twelve others.
There was no
national outcry. The nation was not mobilized to do anything. That heartless
leviathan we call History swallowed that event whole, erasing it from the
national memory.
And, unless
we want the Ferguson atrocity to also be swallowed and become nothing more than
an intestinal irritant to history, we have to address the situation not just as
another act of systemic racism, but as what else it is: class warfare.
By focusing
on just the racial aspect, the discussion becomes about whether Michael Brown’s
death—or that of the other three unarmed black men who were killed by police in
the U.S. within that month—is about discrimination or about police
justification. Then we’ll argue about whether there isn’t just as much
black-against-white racism in the U.S. as there is white-against-black. (Yes,
there is. But, in general, white-against-black economically impacts the future
of the black community. Black-against-white has almost no measurable social
impact.)
Then we’ll
start debating whether or not the police in America are themselves an
endangered minority who are also discriminated against based on their
color—blue. (Yes, they are. There are many factors to consider before
condemning police, including political pressures, inadequate training, and
arcane policies.) Then we’ll question whether blacks are more often shot
because they more often commit crimes. (In fact, studies show that blacks are
targeted more often in some cities, like New York City. It’s difficult to get a
bigger national picture because studies are woefully inadequate. The Department
of Justice study shows that in the U.S. between 2003 and 2009, among
arrest-related deaths there’s very little difference among blacks, whites, or
Latinos. However, the study doesn’t tell us how many were unarmed.)
This
fist-shaking of everyone’s racial agenda distracts America from the larger
issue that the targets of police overreaction are based less on skin color and
more on an even worse Ebola-level affliction: being poor. Of course, to many in
America, being a person of color is synonymous with being poor, and being poor
is synonymous with being a criminal. Ironically, this misperception is true
even among the poor.
And that’s
how the status quo wants it.
The U.S.
Census Report finds that 50 million Americans are poor. Fifty million voters is
a powerful block if they ever organized in an effort to pursue their common
economic goals. So, it’s crucial that those in the wealthiest One Percent keep
the poor fractured by distracting them with emotional issues like immigration,
abortion and gun control so they never stop to wonder how they got so screwed
over for so long.
One way to
keep these 50 million fractured is through disinformation. PunditFact’s recent
scorecard on network news concluded that at Fox and Fox News Channel, 60
percent of claims are false. At NBC and MSNBC, 46 percent of claims were deemed
false. That’s the “news,” folks! During the Ferguson riots, Fox News ran a
black and white photo of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., with the bold caption:
“Forgetting MLK’s Message/Protestors in Missouri Turn to Violence.” Did they
run such a caption when either Presidents Bush invaded Iraq: “Forgetting Jesus
Christ’s Message/U.S. Forgets to Turn Cheek and Kills Thousands”?
How can
viewers make reasonable choices in a democracy if their sources of information
are corrupted? They can’t, which is exactly how the One Percent controls the
fate of the Ninety-Nine Percent.
Worse,
certain politicians and entrepreneurs conspire to keep the poor just as they
are. On his HBO comedic news show Last Week Tonight, John Oliver ran an expose
of the payday loan business and those who so callously exploit the desperation
of the poor. How does an industry that extorts up to 1,900 percent interest on
loans get away with it? In Texas, State Rep. Gary Elkins blocked a regulatory
bill, despite the fact that he owns a chain of payday loan stores. And the
politician who kept badgering Elkins about his conflict of interest, Rep. Vicki
Truitt, became a lobbyist for ACE Cash Express just 17 days after leaving
office. In essence, Oliver showed how the poor are lured into such a loan, only
to be unable to pay it back and having to secure yet another loan. The cycle
shall be unbroken.
Dystopian
books and movies like Snowpiercer, The Giver, Divergent, Hunger Games, and
Elysium have been the rage for the past few years. Not just because they
express teen frustration at authority figures. That would explain some of the
popularity among younger audiences, but not among twentysomethings and even
older adults. The real reason we flock to see Donald Sutherland’s porcelain
portrayal in Hunger Games of a cold, ruthless president of the U.S. dedicated
to preserving the rich while grinding his heel into the necks of the poor is
that it rings true in a society in which the One Percent gets richer while our
middle class is collapsing.
That’s not
hyperbole; statistics prove this to be true. According to a 2012 Pew Research
Center report, just half of U.S. households are middle-income, a drop of 11
percent since the 1970s; median middle-class income has dropped by 5 percent in
the last ten years, total wealth is down 28 percent. Fewer people (just 23
percent) think they will have enough money to retire. Most damning of all:
fewer Americans than ever believe in the American Dream mantra that hard work
will get them ahead.
Rather than
uniting to face the real foe—do-nothing politicians, legislators, and others in
power—we fall into the trap of turning against each other, expending our energy
battling our allies instead of our enemies. This isn’t just inclusive of race
and political parties, it’s also about gender. In her book Unspeakable Things:
Sex, Lies and Revolution, Laurie Penny suggests that the decreased career
opportunities for young men in society makes them feel less valuable to
females; as a result they deflect their rage from those who caused the problem
to those who also suffer the consequences: females.
Yes, I’m
aware that it is unfair to paint the wealthiest with such broad strokes. There
are a number of super-rich people who are also super-supportive of their
community. Humbled by their own success, they reach out to help others. But
that’s not the case with the multitude of millionaires and billionaires who
lobby to reduce Food Stamps, give no relief to the burden of student debt on
our young, and kill extensions of unemployment benefits.
With each of
these shootings/chokehold deaths/stand-your-ground atrocities, police and the
judicial system are seen as enforcers of an unjust status quo. Our anger rises,
and riots demanding justice ensue. The news channels interview everyone and
pundits assign blame.
Then what?
I’m not
saying the protests in Ferguson aren’t justified—they are. In fact, we need
more protests across the country. Where’s our Kent State? What will it take to
mobilize 4 million students in peaceful protest? Because that’s what it will
take to evoke actual change. The middle class has to join the poor and whites
have to join African-Americans in mass demonstrations, in ousting corrupt
politicians, in boycotting exploitative businesses, in passing legislation that
promotes economic equality and opportunity, and in punishing those who gamble
with our financial future.
Otherwise, all
we’re going to get is what we got out of Ferguson: a bunch of politicians and
celebrities expressing sympathy and outrage. If we don’t have a specific
agenda—a list of exactly what we want to change and how—we will be gathering
over and over again beside the dead bodies of our murdered children, parents,
and neighbors.
I hope John
Steinbeck is proven right when he wrote in Grapes of Wrath, “Repression works
only to strengthen and knit the oppressed.” But I’m more inclined to echo
Marvin Gaye’s “Inner City Blues,” written the year after the Kent State/Jackson
State shootings:
Inflation
no chance
To
increase finance
Bills pile
up sky high
Send that
boy off to die
Make me
wanna holler
The way
they do my life
Make me
wanna holler
The way
they do my life
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