Marcellus Andrews: Race and Social Security: Cynical Politics

Black people die sooner than whites because we are poorer than whites. Every thinking adult in this country knows why black people are poorer than whites, and why white conservatives have played such an important role in keeping black people in poverty. Millions of black children go to lousy schools, receive mediocre schooling, and are unable to compete for high-paying jobs or buy decent housing, health care or much else when they grow up. When black people turn to government for help, they are abused by conservatives for seeking a handout rather than pulling ourselves up by the bootstraps. The vast majority of black adults hate Republicans because the GOP has turned the denigration of black people into a fine political art, winning election after election by promising white Americans that they are tough enough to keep black hands out of the public till. What would cause Republicans to pretend that they care about people whom they have castigated for fun and political profit since the days of Ronald Reagan? There is a subtle and awful political game conservatives are playing. The Republicans are crystal clear about their intention to smash the last bits of the liberals’ program for equality to smithereens. There is no way that conservatives will use government to promote real equal opportunity in any area of American life, so black people had better get used to the fact that our lives as second-class workers in the American economy is a more or less permanent condition so long as the right is in power. [more]

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