if i were a poor black kid

A friend of mine posted this Forbes article by Gene Marks on Facebook yesterday, and I couldn't help but read it:

If I Were A Poor Black Kid

What it sounds like he's trying to say is, "I know things are harder for poor, black youths in this country, but there are tools out there that can help you succeed. If I were in your place, knowing what I know, here's what I'd do." What I'm actually hearing, however, is, "If you're poor and black, you have to work a million times harder than any white kid from the suburbs, and that's just the way it is. Deal with it."

I think the sentiment is genuinely sympathetic; but the presentation is terribly condescending, and essentially glosses over the roles things like class and race play in keeping minorities from succeeding in our society, not to mention ultimately placing the blame on 'poor black kids' for not succeeding instead of questioning a system that makes it so disproportionality difficult in the first place.

In other words, I think we need to be challenging this historically classist, racist, and sexist socio-economic paradigm instead of simply accepting it as a fact of life—a sentiment that's seemingly echoed by, surprisingly enough, fellow Forbes contributor Charles Green:

You conclude by saying, “…the opportunity is still there in this country for those that are smart enough to go for it.”

So, if poor black kids seem to be disproportionately not going for it, your conclusion would be, what–they’re just dumb? Come on, spell out what you’re trying to suggest here!

Viktor Frankl emerged from Nazi death camps stronger for the experience. That doesn’t justify prison camps.

The fact that a few people can escape overwhelming social forces doesn’t prove much of anything. The much more important question is, if millions of people are doing worse than millions of others, what the heck is going on? And to suggest the answer lies in IQ is simply disgusting.

Social mobility is measurable, and is measured. And social mobility in this country is declining. We are less socially mobile than almost every country in Europe now except for Britain and Italy. The land of opportunity–defined as the chance to do better than your parents–is now demonstrably better in a lot of what Americans like to call “socialist” countries.

We need to stop listening to ignorance like this and get a grip.

led by the child who simply knew

Just read this extremely touching article about Nicole, a transgender teen:

Led by the child who simply knew

I know this story may be difficult for some people to read, especially for many social and religious conservatives; but I think it's important to understand some of the struggles transgender individuals have to go through, and that they need our support rather than our scorn.

It's heartening to see such a relatively positive story; but many transgender children (as well as adults) aren't as lucky as Nicole, and many suffer lives of intense abuse, bullying, discrimination, and ostracization, often leading to suicide or ending in murder.

It makes me incredibly sad that we live in a world where intolerant and insecure people harass and hurt others simply because of their gender or sexuality or anything else for that matter. In my opinion, we'll never truly be a 'civilized society' until we stop hating and hurting others simply for being who they are.

support occupy the ports

I understand why some people are critical of the port shutdowns. For one, it ends up financially hurting front-line workers like longshoremen and truck drivers. That said, the plight of the working class is generally ignored unless something big happens, and drastic actions such as port shutdowns and strikes seem to be the only way to get people's attention.

Nobody seems to take notice or care, especially the 1%, until the flow of commodities and capital stop, or at least is impeded. One of the few nonviolent tactics the working class has at its disposal is to withhold its labour and/or impede the flow of noncritical goods and services. Yes, it hurts the working class more in the short-term; but it also makes enough noise to really get people's attention and make them realize that the 99% is serious about addressing pressing socio-economic issues.

Furthermore, purely electoral solutions are limited. The logic of the present system itself seems to produce toxic accumulations of debt, wealth, and power (especially in the sense that money equals social power). That's why it seems to me that, even when people who profess to have the best interests of the 99% in mind gain political office, the system often forces their hand and they end up being like every other politician, catering to the needs of the 1%, or else the system just runs them over (metaphorically speaking, of course).

So, in the end, I support these kinds of tactics, and I hope to see them spread to more than just ports. The working class needs to unite in this fight. That way, maybe we'll actually see some real solutions to these problems instead of business as usual in Washington and Wall Street, which, for all intents and purposes, are practically one and the same.

my body, my rules: a case for rape and domestic violence survivors becoming workplace organizers

This emotionally raw yet well-written article/essay has been making the rounds pretty quickly on the interwebs, and I can see why:

My body, my rules: a case for rape and domestic violence survivors becoming workplace organizers

It presents an interesting (and horrifying) perspective on the unequal social relations created by a system where one class of people is forced to sell their labour in order to survive while another thrives by exploiting that labour; as well as powerful a reminder that the right to organize is one of the few tools workers have to shift the (in my opinion, unfair) balance of power in their favour.

The main lesson I take from it, however, is that we shouldn't let the proverbial (or even literal) 'pizza party' make us forget where our strength lies, or pacify our struggle for workplace democracy.

rats free each other from traps, then share chocolate

Just read this extremely interesting article from New Scientist:

Rats free each other from traps, then share chocolate

More evidence that rats (and potentially other animals, particularly mammals) exhibit levels of compassion, empathy, and generosity previously thought to be unique to primates; as well as further corroboration of Peter Kropotkin's theory that cooperation and mutual aid are factors of evolution at least as important as competition, if not more so.

the media's blackout of the national defense authorization act is shameful

I couldn't agree more with this article that Section 1031 of the National Defense Authorization Act for 2012 needs to be covered, and widely:

The Media's Blackout Of The National Defense Authorization Act Is Shameful

Unfortunately, most media outlets haven’t covered it (and probably won't), at least not in any great detail. Part of the problem, I suspect, is that the vast majority of what we call the 'mainstream media' is really a conglomeration of roughly six main corporations. What gets reported by these major multimedia outlets is arguably limited in many cases to what's in the interest of the owners, controllers, and shareholders of these companies, which themselves are part of the ruling class.

This Orwellian piece of legislation, on the other hand, with its ambiguous language about covered persons including "any person who has committed a belligerent act," would make it easier for the government to put down and indefinitely detain 'nuisances' like Occupy protesters who the state and others of the ruling class deem as 'terrorists'; and the state is already in the habit of labelling peaceful protesters as terrorists (e.g., Max Obuszewski).

I think this piece of legislation is both scary and troubling; but the lack of media coverage is scarier and more troubling because it puts us, the working class, even more in the dark as to what's really going on in this country. More importantly, it highlights the need for average, working-class individuals to continually educate themselves and turn towards alternative sources of media.

secret fed loans gave banks $13 billion undisclosed to congress

According to a recent Bloomberg article, the Federal Reserve allegedly gave out approximately $7.77 trillion in secret loans and guarantees to banks throughout the financial crisis of 2007 to 2009.

What I found even more interesting, however, is the article also notes that, among other things, "Total assets held by the six biggest U.S. banks increased 39 percent to $9.5 trillion on Sept. 30, 2011, from $6.8 trillion on the same day in 2006, according to Fed data." Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown is quoting as saying: "When a few banks have advantages, the little guys get squeezed... That, to me, is not what capitalism should be." Except that's precisely how capitalism is, and always has been.

The capitalist mode of production, which forms the economic base of our society, is, in effect, the process of commodifying, privatizing, and monetizing goods, service, ideas, etc.; and which, by its very nature, promotes the concentration of wealth and power, primarily into the hands of the owners/controllers of capital. It's working exactly as it's supposed to work, and the Fed is merely one of the institutionalized tools capital uses to displace inherent contradictions within the system in an effort to limit and/or stave off crises.

If this article doesn't piss you off and start to make you question whether we can do better, it probably should.