So I think there's an ideological disconnect here.
We believe we're the land of opportunity; that if you just work hard, anyone can make it. We tell our kids this in school which builds them up for a massive mind-shift when they realize that is just isn't true for everyone.
Yes, for a large segment of the population, the dream is alive and well. You work hard, you'll get far.
However, the facts prove that if you have anything stacked against you, anything at all, really, you probably won't make it as far as you want to.
The dream does not exist for many folks in the US.
If you're disabled,
have children at a young age,
have an incarcerated parent,
are in foster care,
are born into a poor family who cannot support you,
are black,
are brown,
are an immigrant,
are trans,
are a woman,
and heaven forbid you're MORE than one of these, the odds are stacked against you.
YES, some people make it past these odds. But these people are the anomalies. They are not the archetype.
And so we tell ourselves that if we just let things be, if we just let business grow the way it's meant to grow, if we just give people the choices that they deserve, then society will improve. As businesses can thrive, people will then thrive. And this can totally be true for many people who do not fit into any of the aforementioned categories.
However, no matter what you believe about the goodness of mankind, business will always first make money.
And once in a while a big business exec turns into a philanthropist and we all praise them for their goodness, but just as Oprah is an anomaly for black people, Bill Gates is an anomaly for big business owners.
If we give businesses the right to do whatever the hell they want to do, they will hurt the poor and the oppressed. Archetypically, they will do what they need to do to make money and what they need to do is hurt the poor and the oppressed.
We have this dream that laissez faire means everyone wins. But historically that's false.
Look at how many lives were lost in the fight for workers rights. And SO many people lambasted those fighting for workers rights because removing child labor laws would be bad for business. OF COURSE it would be bad for business. But if it's the RIGHT thing to do, if it's the JUST thing to do, who cares if it's bad for business.
Our laws hold us to a higher standard. Just look at how much progress we've made regarding disability laws. And YES, disability laws have HURT business. We have to build ramps, what? We have to make everything accessible? What?
And yet, we pass these laws because it is the right thing to do.
Our minimum wage laws tell the world that we do not care about the poor and we justify this indifference with the American dream ethos - that if you just work hard enough, you'll climb the ladder.
But that last ten rungs of the ladder are missing for the oppressed people of this country. And unless you learn how to fly, or unless we rebuild those rungs, we're ignoring the needs of the oppressed and justifying it with the old pick-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps mentality.
We believe we're the land of opportunity; that if you just work hard, anyone can make it. We tell our kids this in school which builds them up for a massive mind-shift when they realize that is just isn't true for everyone.
Yes, for a large segment of the population, the dream is alive and well. You work hard, you'll get far.
However, the facts prove that if you have anything stacked against you, anything at all, really, you probably won't make it as far as you want to.
The dream does not exist for many folks in the US.
If you're disabled,
have children at a young age,
have an incarcerated parent,
are in foster care,
are born into a poor family who cannot support you,
are black,
are brown,
are an immigrant,
are trans,
are a woman,
and heaven forbid you're MORE than one of these, the odds are stacked against you.
YES, some people make it past these odds. But these people are the anomalies. They are not the archetype.
And so we tell ourselves that if we just let things be, if we just let business grow the way it's meant to grow, if we just give people the choices that they deserve, then society will improve. As businesses can thrive, people will then thrive. And this can totally be true for many people who do not fit into any of the aforementioned categories.
However, no matter what you believe about the goodness of mankind, business will always first make money.
And once in a while a big business exec turns into a philanthropist and we all praise them for their goodness, but just as Oprah is an anomaly for black people, Bill Gates is an anomaly for big business owners.
If we give businesses the right to do whatever the hell they want to do, they will hurt the poor and the oppressed. Archetypically, they will do what they need to do to make money and what they need to do is hurt the poor and the oppressed.
We have this dream that laissez faire means everyone wins. But historically that's false.
Look at how many lives were lost in the fight for workers rights. And SO many people lambasted those fighting for workers rights because removing child labor laws would be bad for business. OF COURSE it would be bad for business. But if it's the RIGHT thing to do, if it's the JUST thing to do, who cares if it's bad for business.
Our laws hold us to a higher standard. Just look at how much progress we've made regarding disability laws. And YES, disability laws have HURT business. We have to build ramps, what? We have to make everything accessible? What?
And yet, we pass these laws because it is the right thing to do.
Our minimum wage laws tell the world that we do not care about the poor and we justify this indifference with the American dream ethos - that if you just work hard enough, you'll climb the ladder.
But that last ten rungs of the ladder are missing for the oppressed people of this country. And unless you learn how to fly, or unless we rebuild those rungs, we're ignoring the needs of the oppressed and justifying it with the old pick-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps mentality.
And school choice does not help the poor.
I taught in DC, the district that has some of the countries best and worst schools and implements choice throughout. Poor kids will not travel miles via public transportation to get to a better school. They'll go to their neighborhood school. My school is in NE DC, one of the blackest parts of the country (yes, DC is insanely segregated) and no matter how hard you push families to put their names in the lottery, to apply to these better schools, they didn't have the time. They were working multiple jobs, often taking care of multiple families. School choice does not work for the archeypical poor family. If you want to fix our problems in education, pump the money into the poor public schools. Improve teacher training. Don't allow programs like TFA convince you that good teachers have no training. Get rid of 90% of the mandated testing (standardized tests are important, but should not occupy the majority of a poor kid's school year), Stop requiring teachers to follow curriculum that does not connect whatsoever to their kids.
Lastly I will say this in response to a recent comment. And this is me being an interrupter, calling out my fellow white folks to open their eyes to the suffering they're ignoring.
I taught in DC, the district that has some of the countries best and worst schools and implements choice throughout. Poor kids will not travel miles via public transportation to get to a better school. They'll go to their neighborhood school. My school is in NE DC, one of the blackest parts of the country (yes, DC is insanely segregated) and no matter how hard you push families to put their names in the lottery, to apply to these better schools, they didn't have the time. They were working multiple jobs, often taking care of multiple families. School choice does not work for the archeypical poor family. If you want to fix our problems in education, pump the money into the poor public schools. Improve teacher training. Don't allow programs like TFA convince you that good teachers have no training. Get rid of 90% of the mandated testing (standardized tests are important, but should not occupy the majority of a poor kid's school year), Stop requiring teachers to follow curriculum that does not connect whatsoever to their kids.
Lastly I will say this in response to a recent comment. And this is me being an interrupter, calling out my fellow white folks to open their eyes to the suffering they're ignoring.
This is what the commenter wrote:
"The answer is that wealth disparity in the non-white communities is not due to low wages. It’s a function of people not working at all. According to the bureau of labor statistics 51% of all black Americans are employed vs. 58% of Americans describing themselves as white. That means you have something like 2.9 million African Americans that should be working but do not. In my opinion this is scandalous and should offend the sensibilities of anyone who cares deeply about the financial wellbeing of the non-white community."
"The answer is that wealth disparity in the non-white communities is not due to low wages. It’s a function of people not working at all. According to the bureau of labor statistics 51% of all black Americans are employed vs. 58% of Americans describing themselves as white. That means you have something like 2.9 million African Americans that should be working but do not. In my opinion this is scandalous and should offend the sensibilities of anyone who cares deeply about the financial wellbeing of the non-white community."
They're not working.
They're not working because they're unemployed.
They're unemployed for a BILLION different individual reasons.
Please don't assume that they're unemployed because they' don't want to work.
Please don't do that.
Please.
Because assuming that a black person is unemployed because they don't want to work is racism.
It's deep deep racism that says that this entire group of persons is lazy and continues to affirm that same racism that justified everything from separate bathrooms to slavery.
They're not working because they're unemployed.
They're unemployed for a BILLION different individual reasons.
Please don't assume that they're unemployed because they' don't want to work.
Please don't do that.
Please.
Because assuming that a black person is unemployed because they don't want to work is racism.
It's deep deep racism that says that this entire group of persons is lazy and continues to affirm that same racism that justified everything from separate bathrooms to slavery.
Please read more books about life as a black person and never assume you fully understand and therefore have the right to judge anyone's motives ever.
Ever.
Please.
Ever.
Please.
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