Laura K asks: how long will we tolerate the influence if the small group of rich white men who seeming makes all these decisions on wide swats of societal issues?
For as long as the elites have the traditional buffers of the working whites and access to the resources to dangle the carrot of social improvements via economic success to all others willing to reinforce their views.
We all know that doing the same thing repeatedly expecting different results is insanity personified. So I’m not sure what’s more insane, us expecting those in power to change for the better or those in power resisting the urge to circle the wagons once their influence is threatened.
You’ve got to give the founding fathers of the US credit. They really played the long game here. Nevermind how the historical idea that minorities don’t count – blacks were labeled as 3/5s human originally in the Constitution. This document is written in a longstanding yet vague way that even now as society on the surface level has changed, when people refer to it for guidance, they still are using modern interpretations of colonial signposts.
When things are subject to interpretation, nothing really changes. Unfortunately, the current US president is hell bent on making unhealthy ideals chic again by using timeless colonial tactics dressed up in nouveau nationalism.
A critical historical examination of the US chattel slavery experience denotes a curious fact. Population wise, the US) similar to Canada, Australia) showed an uncommon trait of being a former British colony with a physical majority of those in charge. But a closer examination that physical majority showed that most of those people weren’t as economically well off. The elites still need the working people who look like them, and have social access based on said looks, in order to maintain the status quo.
Such ideas still persist today. How else can a rich man walk into a working class neighborhood deep in the grip of economic hardship and be thunderously cheered? For those that hopeless, the optics of the rich man who looks like them looking after them means a lot after years of perceived abandonment by the elites is immense.
So why not update the document? Update the system to reflect the current moment in time? They won’t, as it would be acknowledgement of how biased the system is and the reality of the need to redistribute power for true progress.
Some say: “stop talking about chattel slavery, that’s hundreds of years ago”. Well, it lasted for a few hundred years and it will take likely double the time to purge all the ingrained elements in modern society – even if we agreed on fully addressing the issue starting today. Sadly, we’re not even near there yet.
The argument that minorities, especially blacks, have always made is this: we still have to survive, no matter how stacked the deck is against us. In fact, it’s a viewpoint shared by all minorities. It is always interesting how those in power tend to react when their way of life is “threatened”. Expecting any other reaction is a great way not to address this historical insanity.
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