Trump’s America –Episode # 173 – Reparations Now

By Arthur Piccolo

News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Fri. June 5, 2020: Before I begin this week’s episode …

Today June 4th, is the anniversary of the massacre at Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China in 1989. June 4th is their July 4th, except Chinese freedom fighters were horribly crushed by the Chinese Communist Party regime.

And this BRUTAL regime now headed by the War Criminal & Murderer Xi Jinping is now in the process of crushing Hong Kong. He and his so-called party are public enemy #1 globally. Anyone who supports or sympathizes with those brutal THUGS here in America needs to have their heads examined. I hope and pray none of them are my readers. If any are, they should get lost!

Now to this week’s episode of Trump’s America …

I like many of us have been slow to come to the issue of reparations … for  400 years of abuse of African Americans, beginning with the original sin of hundreds of years of American Slavery continuing throughout American history by other means – right now including the devastation of Covid-19 to African Americans more than the rest of us and just now the MURDER of George Floyd in cold blood in front of the entire nation.

I still oppose and I think we should all oppose what will never ever happen anyway – large individual checks to each African American. That kind of reparation will accomplish little or nothing and is unworkable while providing an excuse for much more Racism in America when others who are not Black but also poor and oppressed do not get the same benefit.

Here is, what reparations means to me and I support and so should you.

FINALLY, investing huge sums of money and other resources carefully usefully imaginatively spent to raise the living standards and the education of those living in African American neighborhoods and communities all over the United States and concentrated in major cities, but not only, that are below the economic and educational standards of White communities nearby.

INEQUALITY in America is at the heart of not only Racism, but almost every other issue preventing the United States to truly be the nation most of us want today and for the future.  We are clearly seeing once again what happens when INEQUALITY reigns, thugs hijack protests and DESTROY our communities.

The rich and powerful OWN America and our political system more and more with each passing year. We cannot live in a nation where the SUPER Rich just keep getting richer and richer and more powerful simply by getting up each day with the tax systems and so many other laws …..

all written in their favor and leave the rest of us worse off and African Americans most of all the largest specific group of victims which leaves Americans of every color and race looking toward more and more bleakness.

It should be impossible to believe that even the Covid-19 legislation contained BILLIONS $$$ in benefits for Rich Americans both as individuals and the companies they control as they flew off in their private jets (likewise subsidized by our tax system) off to luxury vacation homes to make sure they are far away from Covid-19 where they eat steak and drink expensive wines.

So it’s an easy choice for the rest of us or should be either the Rich pay their FAIR share FINALLY for a nation we all created that allows them to get so, so RICH and the big most successful companies controlled by the RICH and which are incredibly PROFITABLE also pay their FAIR share FINALLY.

But why isn’t it an easy choice for the rest of us?

Because we all, and African Americans most of all, are POWERLESS. Here is our big advantage going forward if we only realize it – we are as smart or smarter and more creative than the Rich & Powerful. Their big advantage is their wealth and power and how so very, very LUCKY they are.

Take any Rich American and any Poor American. Anyone in each group and stand them next to each other. What most separates their fate in life LUCK only LUCK. LUCK of birth most of all. Also, LUCK of a good education. LUCK of access to very good jobs. LUCK, LUCK AND MORE LUCK.

And what does that leave for most Americans? Nothing but BAD LUCK.

The legitimate meaning of Capitalism has been hijacked by the few.

So, let’s get back to reparations for disadvantaged African America communities and all those who live in them. To have a fair discussion it must be admitted for the record a decent and somewhat growing  percentage – I do not have an exact number – but there is real African American success in America today. The problem is that it is still so limited.

As a useful aside, why has not even one African American walked on the Moon. Answer. The is no good reason. Why were there two White Men in the new American spaceship that was launched Saturday because it did not matter to those making the decision the Ruch & the Powerful that having an African American and/or a woman in that capsule is important for its symbolism.

Basically, every decision that “governs” America is based on INEQUALITY and most African Americans have been at the bottom of that pile for 400 years with no sign that most Black Americans will ever be allowed up.

This is why REPARATIONS is the only answer. Again, the kind of reparations that make sense that will work, not big checks to individuals but very, very much larger checks from our government to the hundreds of Black communities large and small all over America which are disadvantaged.

Disadvantages in every way and all based on their financial repression. Absolutely including police brutality in which it is a white police force with very little Black representation an even less African American leadership that results in a team of ALL white police officers MURDERING George Floyd.

I could pick and choose from endless sources for my media partner this week to illustrate the vast problem not that we all don’t know it but to hammer home the need for REPARATIONS I will turn to the Financial Times Thursday ..

African American economic gap remains despite US expansion

Protests in the US over police violence against African Americans are underpinned by a systemic failure to address income and wealth disparities.

ENCORE!!

African American economic gap remains despite US expansion

“Protests in the US over police violence against African Americans are underpinned by a systemic failure to address income and wealth disparities.”

The article opens with …. “Net worth of the typical Black family is TEN times LESS than a White family “TEN TIMES WHITE AMERICA!!

Allow The Financial Times to continue …

“The mass protests that have gripped America in the wake of George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis last week have been centered on outrage at police brutality and racial injustice targeting black communities.”

“But they have also been underpinned by frustration that African Americans still suffer from a large economic gap compared with the rest of the country when it comes to wealth, income and wages, even after the longest US expansion on record and despite record-high pre-pandemic stock markets.”

“What we have experienced since the last recession is that those disparities were not minimized, we did not see systematic improvement in people’s economic wellbeing, and we are seeing some of the ramifications of this now,” said Amanda Cage, chief executive of the National Fund for Workforce Solutions, who has spent years working to help distressed neighborhoods in Chicago’s South Side.”

NOW are you ready for this from the article …

“Many economists describe the past 10 years as the US recovered from the Great Recession as a missed opportunity, however. African American households are still disproportionately reliant on low-wage labor, under-represented in business and equity ownership, and unable to share in many of the gains happening elsewhere. That is on top of endemic concerns about lack of access to quality healthcare, housing and education.”

THERE IS MORE and it just gets worse …

“In 2018, the median household income for a black family was $US41,361 ($59,900), having grown 3.4 per cent over the previous decade, according to the latest US Census Bureau data. This compared with a median income of $US70,642 for non-Hispanic white families in 2018, which had grown 8.8 per cent since the 2008 crisis.”

IT GETS WORSE …

“According to a report published in February by the Brookings Institution, a Washington-based think-tank, the net worth of a typical black family in 2016 was $US17,150, while the equivalent figure for a white family was 10 times greater at $US171,000 — leading its authors to conclude that American society “does not afford equality of opportunity to all its citizens.”

ENCORE ….

“The net worth of a typical black family in 2016 was $US17,150, while the equivalent figure for a white family was 10 times greater at $US171,000.”

TEN TIMES MORE worth for White families but …

LET’S BE VERY CLEAR … this is not about taking from the 90% of White Americans who are NOT rich but the TEN % with all the power & WEALTH who OWN America and whose CONTROL results in such abuse.

Allow me to conclude this week’s media partners contribution with this …

“There are structural inequalities that are responsible for a lot of disparities we see today, and any solution that doesn’t address those is not going to be successful,” said Prof Francis.”

AMEN to that again and again and again …

“There are structural inequalities that are responsible for a lot of disparities we see today, and any solution that doesn’t address those is not going to be successful,” said Prof Francis.”

STRUCTURAL INEQUALITIES yes that impact most of us NOT the rich and powerful and that negatively impact African Americans most of all.

WHY? There must be community-based REPARATIONS for UNDER privileged and UNDER developed African American communities large and small ALL across America finally beginning right now.

“OUR” (sic) government under President Barack Obama by the way, in 2008 gave away TRILLIONS to the banking and financial industry to rescue them after screwing all of us and the American economy because said Obama it was “good for all of us.” Now with Covid-19 “OUR” government is giving TRILLIONS to rescue airlines, cruise companies, etc.

HOW ABOUT THIS? … We meaning the government, give these African American communities for starters, ONE TRILLION $$ in reparations to build and rebuild these communities and all who live in them with BETTER schools, BETTER police, BETTER housing, BETTER jobs, BETTER everything they have been deprived of for all of America’s history.

And just as important that this TRILLION $$$ be allocated well and imaginatively and by a commission with MAJORITY of African Americans.

NOW here is the good news for ALL of us …

Doing so will create a far better nation for ALL of us, even GUESS WHO? Yes, the rich and the powerful who will be TAXED fairly to pay for it!

So, REPARATIONS YES, the right kind of reparations!

(This series dedicated in honor of the late Liu Xiaobo & Jamal Khashoggi)

EDITOR’S NOTE: About The Writer: Arthur Piccolo is a professional writer and commentator and often writes about Latin America for New Americas.