Posted on 04/15/2014 9:30:32 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Even if racism were wiped out tomorrow, we'd still need to address pervasive racial wealth inequality. Here's why.
Although the Civil Rights Act, the landmark legislation which just reached its 50th anniversary, made great strides in desegregating the economy, economic discrimination is still widespread, and anti-discrimination legislation alone can never rectify the economic damage inflicted upon blacks by slavery and our Jim Crow apartheid regime. The Civil Rights Act was a mild reform, all things considered, but one conservatives fought with vigor and one many conservatives are still bitter about to this day.
When the Civil Rights Act passed in 1964, the primary purpose was to root out discrimination in public accommodations (like hotels and movie theaters) and in employment. The former purpose–eliminating public accommodations discrimination–has received renewed attention from conservatives lately who find it to be an infringement on the rights of racist business owners to be racist. GOP favorite Rand Paul expressed this view in 2010 and Cato’s Ilya Shapiro expressed it just a few months ago on MSNBC.
These aren’t new concerns, of course. One white Nashville resident interviewed at the time of passage said the same thing about the Civil Rights Act: “I also think that it is in violation to my civil rights if someone can say you must serve me.” Nonetheless, it is telling that the embarrassment attached to claiming it is the racists who are the real victims in all of this has sufficiently subsided within the mainstream conservative movement that even GOP leaders are willing to reinvigorate the claim. I suppose that’s par for the course for a movement that’s also pushed the evisceration of the Voting Rights Act and pursued an intentional campaign of voter suppression that disproportionately targets blacks and other people of color....
(Excerpt) Read more at salon.com ...
It was DEMOCRATS who fought against the Civil Rights Act, not Republicans.
Baloney.
But we need to bring back jobs to America.
We have been sending American jobs to (everywhere else) for over a full generation.
Bring them back. Now.
I’m confused.I always thought it was southern Democrats who fought against civil rights laws.
>> Because wealth is the kind of thing that is passed down generations and the kind of thing that grows and grows, this initial racist starting point has opened up a yawning racial wealth gap that simply cannot be closed without intentional policy aimed at doing so.<<
B.S.
I grew up poor — every dime of my wealth was accumulated by me — through hard work and thriftiness (things liberals will not abide).
If they are targeting generational wealth, then I damn well better one of the candidates for receiving.
“Comments?”
No.
On second read, I ask the same question of the author: How much of YOUR personal wealth have you spread?
Unless and until you give away 50% of your disposable income and give up all luxuries, you are not allowed to lecture ANYONE about “wealth redistribution.”
Is that not what the ACA is doing to the American medical profession?
Pop quiz - Who said this? “I’ll have those niggers voting Democratic for the next 200 years.”
I see Matt Bruenig’s CommieCore history is shining through.
I’ll be sending in my latest redistribution payments later today. The federal portion will be repurposed and paid out to others in the form of Earned Income Tax Credits. The state portion will be used to charge up EBT cards and pay for subsidized housing.
My cell phone bill will be along later, and part of it includes a redistribution payment that allows the acquisition of Obamaphones for layabouts.
My health insurance bill is on its way, and my bloated premium and sky-high deductible has built in redistribution payments that pay for my neighbor’s health insurance.
The Salon author can go probe himself with something sharp.
LBJ!
LBJ
Lyndon Johnson
Thanks for remembering. Kind of puts the lie to the story, doesn’t it?
If I said what I really thought my entire post would be bleeped out of existence.
Anyone who advocates redistribution should have their income redistributed, as well as all their other property, savings, IRAs, 401Ks, safe deposit box contents, homes, cottages, vehicles, watercraft, etc. And the rest of us will see that it is enforced, because after all, we are the 99%.
Thanks 2ndDivisionVet.
Southern Republicans opposed it too, what few there were. Without Northern Republicans voting with Northern Democrats the bill wouldn't have passed.
He is right. If fact just about everything those evil racist segregationists warned about has come to pass.
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