The far left, and even some liberals, believe that Trump is a Russian agent who is serving Putin. I am not interested in either the far left or the far right as both engage in identity politics, which I think is very dangerous.
As far as Trump's base is concerned, conservatives were rejuvenated after losing two general elections so they came out and voted just as liberals were rejuvenated after losing two general elections to George W. Bush so they too came out and voted for Obama. What does this have to do with racism?
Also, Trump, having promised to repeal or alter many of Obama's policies throughout his campaign, is appeasing his constituency. I fail to see what this has to do with racism. This is politics 101.
As an educator, I agree. Unfortunately, schools in poor cities receive less funding because of low property taxes and hence less money is collected.
Even in schools in affluent neighborhoods, police have a presence and an "active shooter" drill that is practiced throughout the school year with and without students. During an in-service day, administrators simulated various scenarios, one of which included a retired police officer entering the building and shooting teachers with nerf guns in a school that is 90%+ white. Such is the time that we live in.
As I already mentioned a handful of pages back, I lived in several countries throughout my life and the fact is that America is the land of opportunity. There is no need to discuss the details again, but my family and I went from being on welfare 20 years ago to enjoying a middle-class life. You also worked hard in school, took advantage of opportunities, and managed to succeed. I would tell this story instead of the "everything about America is racist" one.
Allow me to be very clear - MSNBC/CNN and the Democratic Party
absolutely do not represent the far-left. They are centrist, which in America, really means center right, because over time, both the Democrats and Republicans have shifted to the right. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is an example of a far-left candidate and she, along with all the other lefties in independent media not only know that Trump is not a Putin puppet (he attacked Syria, which is a major Russian ally), but we saw the entire Russiagate ordeal as a massive waste of time and political capital. It is obvious that Trump and Putin didn't collaborate in order to give Trump the election in 2016; Trump definitely encouraged Russia to dig up dirt on his opponent, but the Russian government did so completely on its own. America has done far worse for other sovereign nations - we topple their elected leaders and install our own puppet dictators, so the meddling that Russia engaged in is child's play in comparison.
In affluent schools, the police presence is far more muted and there are no metal detectors to scan the students than in poor schools. This, of course mirrors what happens in America in general - the police are distributed far heavier in poor Black and Brown neighborhoods to make their arrest quotas and keep order at any cost.
About Obama and Trump, yes the win wheel often swings back-and-forth between the blue and red parties, but we've never seen a President whose sole aim was to erase the legacy of his predecessor as we've seen with Trump. See, when Bush took office in 2000, he didn't upend all of Clinton's policy achievements. When Obama took office, he kept Bush's tax cuts, kept his de-regulation policies, kept and expanded on Bush's education legacy of high-stakes testing to include teachers. He even upheld Bush's foreign policy legacy on bombing the Middle East, even though he pledged to bring our troops home.
Trump has done the exact opposite - as I stated, anything that Obama instituted (even something as vital as net-neutrality), Trump has gone out of his way to kill it. In doing so, he is indeed pandering to his base, but given his horrific racial history, it is clear that he is also doing this to gain some level of personal satisfaction. So, if in pandering to his base, Trump seeks to undo literally everything that the first Black President did while in office, doesn't that beg the question of how racist America is still?
It is quite telling that right-wing voters sought a candidate that is nearly the polar opposite of Obama; he's inarticulate, makes rash judgements and decisions, doesn't read or even speak in complete sentences unless he's using a tele-prompter, engages in cyber-bulling because he can't take any criticism without lashing back, has no deference toward his wife, and lusts after his own daughter. If a teacher did any of those things, they'd be fired on the spot - as they should - but these voters like him either in spite of or
because of those things.
I do not deny that America is the land of opportunity, but it does not provide the same opportunity for people of color that it does for people that are or can masquerade as White. That is demonstrable fact. There was a social experiment in which people created two identical resumes, with the only difference being that one had a White-sounding name and the other had a Black-sounding name. The White resume got 50% more calls back and far more interviews than the Black one did.
https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2015/mar/15/jalen-ross/black-name-resume-50-percent-less-likely-get-respo/
https://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/minorities-who-whiten-job-resumes-get-more-interviews
If that's not outright racism within the system of hiring, then what is it? This trend bleeds into just about every facet of American life. I will not deny you your personal experience of ascending the socio-economic ladder. But I will tell you that for people of color, Black and Brown people especially, the same exact chance that was granted to you is not extended to them. Your experience (as well as mine) is largely a bill of goods to them. The exception to that trend are those that are exceptional.
Many of their neighborhoods are poor and filled with toxic pollution, drugs and crime. Instead of having fresh fruit places, they are filled with corner stores that sell digital scales and druggie bags, as well as liquor stores that are open late into the night. There are often no manufacturing plants or anything other than low-paying retail work for people. Children born in these places more or less have to ice-skate uphill because everything in their environment - literally down to the very air they breathe - can and will become their demise.
In suburbs everywhere, including my current-day gated community, nothing like that exists. We can buy as much produce before 8:00 pm that we want, because Publix is our corner store. If there is drug use here, the homeowners here have to bring the drugs in from somewhere else, but when they do, they consume them in their homes and don't even attempt to sell them. A child born here has a very safe environment where their biggest threat is someone driving above 15 mph or provoking one of the Sandhill cranes into attacking them. They are safe, the air and streets are clean, their schools are well-funded with small classrooms with iPads for kindergarteners.
Across the nation, poor people are locked out of this America. And if any of those poor people happens to also not be a citizen, then they're even worse off. I'm not saying that every problem Black people face is pure racism; much of it is rooted in the horrible wealth distribution that is caused by the American variety of vulture capitalism.
But, vulture capitalism relies on systemic racism to maintain an underbelly of cheap or free labor for unbridled corporate profit on American shores. Beyond our shores, corporations outsource.
Netflix's "13th" makes this horrifyingly clear. It is an absolute must-watch for all Americans.
Just as a side note, I didn't know you were an educator! I've been teaching math and science for about 8 years now - it's a harrowing experience.
