adam wrote:

There comes a time when people are supposed to get angry. The rights and interests of black people in the U.S. have been under assault for the longest time, and in the absence of an effective counterforce, that assault has only grown more brutal.

Have you looked at the public schools lately? Have you looked at the prisons? Have you looked at the legions of unemployed blacks roaming the neighborhoods of big cities across the country? These jobless African-Americans, so many of them men, are so marginal in the view of the wider society, so insignificant, so invisible, they aren’t even counted in the government’s official jobless statistics.

And now this new majority on the Supreme Court seems committed to a legal trajectory that would hurl blacks back to the bad old days of the Jim Crow era.
...
If black people could find a way to come together in sky-high turnouts on Election Day, if they showed up at polling booths in numbers close to the maximum possible turnout, if they could set the example for all other Americans about the importance of exercising the franchise, the politicians would not dare to ignore their concerns.

For black people, especially, the current composition of the Supreme Court should be the ultimate lesson in the importance of voting in a presidential election. No branch of the government has been more crucial than the judiciary in securing the rights and improving the lives of blacks over the past five or six decades.

Hard to make a difference at the polls when you're a felon.

adam wrote:

There comes a time when people are supposed to get angry. The rights and interests of black people in the U.S. have been under assault for the longest time, and in the absence of an effective counterforce, that assault has only grown more brutal.

Have you looked at the public schools lately? Have you looked at the prisons? Have you looked at the legions of unemployed blacks roaming the neighborhoods of big cities across the country? These jobless African-Americans, so many of them men, are so marginal in the view of the wider society, so insignificant, so invisible, they aren’t even counted in the government’s official jobless statistics.

Oh cry me a river. This has nothing to do with their race. Anyone not collecting unemployment insurance payments is not counted in the jobless rate calculation--it doesn't matter what color your skin is.

adam wrote:

And now this new majority on the Supreme Court seems committed to a legal trajectory that would hurl blacks back to the bad old days of the Jim Crow era.

Oh noes! Hyperbole run amok!

adam wrote:

If black people could find a way to come together in sky-high turnouts on Election Day, if they showed up at polling booths in numbers close to the maximum possible turnout, if they could set the example for all other Americans about the importance of exercising the franchise, the politicians would not dare to ignore their concerns.

Bullshit. Politicians have been ignoring everyone's concerns for a long time now. You can paint yourself green and write the word "money" on your forehead but they won't be confused... The only people they actually listen to is other politicians.

adam wrote:

For black people, especially, the current composition of the Supreme Court should be the ultimate lesson in the importance of voting in a presidential election. No branch of the government has been more crucial than the judiciary in securing the rights and improving the lives of blacks over the past five or six decades.

This is just a non-sequitir.

You know, perhaps rights advocates would be taken more seriously if their argumentation wasn't such crap.

I don't think it is race related - I think it is class related. It is the POOR that don't matter.

Our prison rate is crazy. So much is crazy.

However, it makes sense to me that more blacks get caught in the class war, as minorities have less power and money to fight with.

skullaria wrote

I don't think it is race related - I think it is class related. It is the POOR that don't matter.

Our prison rate is crazy. So much is crazy.

However, it makes sense to me that more blacks get caught in the class war, as minorities have less power and money to fight with.

i'm inclined to agree

Dagmar wrote:

Politicians have been ignoring everyone's concerns for a long time now. You can paint yourself green and write the word "money" on your forehead but they won't be confused... The only people they actually listen to is other politicians.

Dagmar speaks the truth! Allow me to reference a popular quote here at MemeStreams:

"It looks like politicians are poised to dominate the political discourse of the country for years to come," said analyst Maria Lawson of the Free Enterprise Institute.