This chapter discusses our present day, but also happens to draw on a lot of history that America is fraught with, from the backlash against desegregation to the origin of the modern GOP and Democratic parties. Hickson of Georgetown makes reference to the fact that Hillary Clinton trusts in the law too much- which is a scary thing to read. Shouldn’t the law be what most people obey above all, living in a secular society? And yet this chapter tells us of how the Republican party under Nixon got so much popularity precisely because the Democrats kept catering to black people. It is strange to read this from the perspective of being mixed race and hearing what those in my family and community have been saying for a while: the Democrats don’t really care about black people. They’re all talk and no action, and the only reason blacks keep coming back is because the other side is worse. Isn’t that what everyone kept saying about the 2016 election? This seems to be a common thread in American politics, that people are voting against people rather than for policies.
Democrats don’t really care about black people.
The fact remains that due to ethnic enclaves and the way cities have been zoned across the countries historically so that black people remained in the ghetto, that black people are often those on the bottom of income levels, living at or below the poverty line. While everything in the news was poking fun at the white Trump voters who accidentally voted against their own healthcare, those are not the people to feel sorry for. Black communities, and black children especially, have been suffering for a really long time.
Flint, Michigan has been left by the wayside by both media and the government since 2014. With the EPA facing severe budget cuts, many other communities who face serious health risks because of environmental concerns are now essentially being left to die. Whatever this chapter was about with a title like race relations, what really stood out was the fact that whether or not legislation is really what changes people’s minds about race, legislation has to be written in order for people’s lives to change. Racism is institutionalized in this country, in our education system, in our urban planning, in our welfare programs. Clinton had a point when she said that making white people admit to our history of racism isn’t enough- we actually have to start putting pen to paper and bringing people up to sit on our level.
And in the meantime, yeah it’d be great if people could understand what the Black Lives Matter movement is instead of bringing up all lives all the time when they are trying to keep out refugees of war.
