» American Racism on the Increase?

I suspect that the NAACP has it right when it suggests that the Tea Party movement is racist — as least so far as its presentations to the world are concerned. How many thousands of those ugly racist posters fronting Tea Party events have been circulated to our public, mainly informed by what they see on TV?

Lest we forget Brown v. the Board of Education which formally ended separate racial education:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_v._Board_of_Education

was unpopular with a considerable majority of Americans at the time.

And recent events are sadly enhancing segregated education once again by such facts as the isolation of poor minorities by geography. Most children of prosperous and middle income Americans learn their English at home from their parents. Minorities in ghettoized areas — particularly large cities such as NYC — need special education to bring them up to par. But it is precisely such education that is being slashed by hard pressed budgets. Such kids are unlikely to catch up without this educational assistance. We have a small minority area in NYC where the police stops are astronomical and reflect racist attitudes and also demoralize these communities:

http://www.aclu.org/racial-justice_prisoners-rights_drug-law-reform_immigrants-rights/nyclu-says-new-nypd-stop-and-frisk

As this also reports, privacy is also becoming something long gone, despite William O. Douglas’s efforts to base in on a variety of constitution provisions:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Griswold_v._Connecticut

I recall in my childhood reports of job ads indicating that Jews, Italians, Irish and Poles need not apply. African American women worked as household help. African American men were relegated to shinning shoes except by one decent firm where I worked one summer in Hartford, Connecticut — Suisman and Blumenthal — which not only gave jobs to such men but also assisted some in attending college — something unheard of in the northern U.S. They were at that time the major scrap metal company in the NE U.S.

http://www.macraesbluebook.com/search/company.cfm?company=331567

I was just interrupted, speaking of privacy, by one of the typical and almost daily survey callers who wanted to know about my job and health situations — will call another day, she says.

Back to my subject heading — with the stresses of making a living and job situation, it looks to me as though our white majority is targeting minorities — Latino and African in particular — who are easier to blame than our general economic disaster generated by the Bush/Cheney moves — wars, lack of restrictions on banks and other profit obsessed corporations, etc. Sadly enough many may be conned to bring back the Republicans who have made these messes in the first place. Scared people are prey to false easy answers — particularly when they are being drummed into their heads by the big money guys who control most of our TV and radio chains.

It is easy to promote sloganeered, simplistic lies, and Obama is at a disadvantage telling things as they really are — more complex than simplistic slogans. Cut taxes? Not of the super rich who can afford to pay their share rather than hiding it away in Swiss banks.

We shall see how much our public has been conned in a few months time.
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“A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope.” (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
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Ed Kent [blind copies]

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