Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Racial and ethnic exploitation of economic insecurity

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Racial and ethnic exploitation of economic insecurity

by Glenn Greenwald from Salon.

The author catches a major columnist from mainstream media (Washington Post) citing some glaring factual errors, and then launches into his thesis, and bemoaning the fact, that the Democratic party is allowing the Republicans and the right-wing to use racial issues to hide the sins of those who destroyed the economy.

I can't believe that this astute political observer doesn't realize that both parties represent the same ruling interests. In order to save his journalistic career, he doesn't dare make that connection in print.

Virtually every Fox News/right-wing-talk-radio controversy relies on scaring economically anxious white Americans into ignoring the prime cause of their economic insecurity -- plundering by Wall Street bankers, abetted by the government they own -- and focusing instead on some manufactured menace from powerless racial and ethnic minorities....