Running Down the Clock: Staying Vigilant Through Times of Cavernous Greed, Idiocy and Racism
People should not have to suffer! What is it going to take for these politicians to get a final Bill out of the Senate? Why has it taken the Senate two months to pass a Bill?
The Covid-19 relief Bill was passed out of the House a long time ago and it’s been sitting on “Moscow” Mitch “Bull” McConnell’s desk. I think it’s cruel that they would let folks get to the brink of disaster— where they are facing evictions and running out of money.
I am reminded of “pull yourself up by your boot straps!” Indifference of this magnitude is the latest contemporary strategy of Systemic Racism.
Systemic racism, often dismissed and invisible, is a white border of exclusion and segregation used to hoard money, power and privileges. The white borders of systemic racism are structural, social, and political. The state and legal system are the forces that enable the power of systemic racism. The deeply grooved patterns are held together through the structure of whiteness and are expressed in policies, practices, strategies, and standard ways of operating.
Systemic racism is rooted in greed — a gain at the expense of an “Other.”
White folks often dismiss systemic racism because they have not fuly vetted whiteness, racism and their impact. As a result, white leaders by default, through the exercise of power, unconsciously and predictably breed an institutional and systemic climate of racism that leaves Blacks and folks of color excluded and negatively impacted.
The Senate is nearing default mode because they’ve squandered the time they had to come up with a greedless solution to prevent Americans from suffering. They could have been working. As such, we are witnessing, in real-time, systemic racism all wrapped up and handed to us during a global pandemic.
Pull yourself up by your bootstraps!
This is what Steve Minuchin means when he says, “$600 is too much on top of the state-unemployment some are getting.” Minuchin is worried that Americans who receive the funds will be getting more money than they were getting working on their job.
Isn’t it interesting how millionaires believe that $600 dollars a week was too much? And this doesn’t account for the differences in the costs of living around the country.
So the Senate struggles to come up with a plan for Americans because they don’t want to give you “too much” money because they’re afraid folks will get lazy and won’t want to go back to work.
OMG … This is so f*cking familiar. I can see the tentacles reaching back into history. The history that men like Tom Cotton believe shouldn’t be funded and taught in schools.
Remember … I am a systems thinker. I look for historical connections to help give a context to what appear to be anomalies and isolated events. The events of today are not isolated and we shouldn’t think about them this way.
Enslaved people were called lazy, degenerates, inhuman, inferior, punished and killed. One of the worst conditions that enslaved people had to live under was the constant threat of being sold. Think about the children in cages at the border.
The diets of enslaved people were inadequate or barely adequate to meet the demands of their heavy workload. The heat and humidity created health problems for everyone. Illnesses were generally not treated adequately, and slaves were often forced to work even when sick!
Are you with me? See any connections?
It’s heartbreaking to know that in the year 2020, in these “united” States of America (I de-capitalized the “u” because we’re not united), that we are living in a place where mass death is an everyday affair. The nation is wracked by illness and disease; there is an economic train wreck; and our social bonds have been blown apart by hate and brutality and selfishness. What I call the Klan disguised as “federal agents” is coming to our streets, imploding to racism, poverty, disease, and death.
And the United States Senate (capitalized because they are united) is quibbling over giving folks (who want to work, but cannot) $600 dollars. A f*cking cavern of idiocy, indifference and systemic racism.
Sure there are folks out there who may be trying to beat the system. But why?
The reality is folks are not going back to work because their jobs are not open, because their jobs are not safe — not because they don’t want to work.
The idea that the millionaires and billionaires in the Senate believe they have to cut folks’ money to get them to go back to work is like saying — their backs are aching for the lash.
Some of my white friends and colleagues often post things like: I wonder how they sleep at night?
I understand that racism and racial dogwhistles are an essential part of American politics. It’s the underbelly of American politics — it’s anyone who can deploy white supremacy and racism.
Trump behaves in a cruel way — he’s a caricature and as such we need to ask ourselves a different question: What is Trump’s mandate? Why did we put him in the White House?
Because Donald Trump sits at the sweet spot between greed and systemic racism!
The power that comes with Systemic Racism is not inherently abusive. Whites with institutional power and racial consciousness can become morally responsible by using their power for good, if they are willing to be condemned by those who resent their attempts at justice and greater equity.
I realize this sounds like a high risk. Consider that this is precisely the daily experience of many Blacks and poor whites inside and outside of white institutions.
Systemic and institutional racism have a wide variety of faces. Still the underlying concepts are always the same. Blacks are considered property. The status as “property” is enforced by violence — actual or threatened.
So what about the future of our economics?
Senator “Bull” “Moscow” Mitch McConnell has timed this strategy to linger into the first week in August. So the possibility that they will come to a reckoning is very scant.
The fact remains that this pandemic has been stressful for everyone and this Administration has not figured out a national strategy. All they keep saying is, “We just need to get everyone back to work,” as though the pandemic is going to ‘magically disappear.’
Historically enslaved people were required to work even though they were sick and diseased. It’s awful to think of pushing folks back to work where others have tested positive for COVID-19.
This Administration still doesn’t get that, if we can’t deal with the health issue, we cannot deal with the economic issue. The two issues are completely tied together.
If you have the stomach to read some of the comments vomited out on Facebook and other social media outlets, it’s apparent that a lot of Americans (at least 40%) resent the wealth and power of this Presidency and … on a deep level they identify and connect with the white supremacist ideology. Here’s what scares me about these folks — they have a deep conviction in the vision that someday they will join that privileged rank of white America.
Systemic racism gives Trump supporters a group of people to feel superior to and — a sense of power. They may be white and poor but for them — that’s a whole lot better than being Black.
Rumi once said, “The wound is the place where the light enters you.” Being with, and sitting through, the pain is the only thing that ultimately liberates you from it.
As you read this today, be brave enough to sit with some discomfort. Let it seep in so you can grow, transform and find purpose and meaning about the necessity of pushing forward in the struggle for justice and equality — in the face of disillusionment and despair through these times of cavernous idiocy and dysfunction.
James Baldwin wants us to imagine ourselves without the need of an “Other” — a need for an “Enemy.”
A paradigm shift in America is required to ensure inclusion and belonging and that shift requires skill, willingness, and time for process.
What we decide to do after these times will shape another generation.
The choice is that momentous. I pray we don’t choose “safety” again.
