Pursuing Justice

I don't know about you folks, but I truly enjoyed and concurred with what Davarian said today: The political enfranchisement of minority group ( and therefore political power) does not necessarily mean that they have equal socio-economic power. Even when enfranchised, these minority groups did/do not constiute a large enough portion of the polity to have their needs met in our democratic system. In a capitalistic society, under any form of government, wealth consitutes power, not political rights. If we are to try to change American society for the better, Americans need to realize that the social, political, and economic problems we endure are because of our economic system. I am oversimplifying to a degree, but problems like crime, prostitution, drugs etc, are due in large part to the socio-economic situation of those perpatrating these crimes. It is not because of some sort of individual or cultural deficiency as the mainstream media might have us believe.

Davarian had stated that our civil rights movement, and the current understanding of it, lacks the ability to differentiate between political rights/power and socio-economic power. Since the socio-economic situation of those minority groups that are enfranchised was/is not addressed, it is no wonder why those very same minority groups today are still at a social, political, and economic disadvantage. How can we (America) expect these groups to "pull themselves up by their bootstraps" when we give them political rights, when they have no boots to begin with?

For further reading on capitalism and the socio-economic subjugation of both foreign and domestic "colonies", as Davarian put it, please look up Noam Chomsky's "Profit over People: Neoliberalism and Global Order." Chomsky does a fine job of identifying capitalism/neoliberalism as the major destructive force confronting our world today. By the way, capitalism itself is not the horrible beast you may think I think it is. It is the use of capitalism as a justification for the social, political, and economic domination of minority groups and "third-world" countries that is the problem. Many Americans, especially those in government, use a neoliberal "free-market" (hah!) ideology to justify global domination. If wealthy capitalists would use only a fraction fo their profits to solve socio-political woes, the world may not be in the position it currently is in.

Though Davarian's argument is too sophisticated for most high school students to follow (especially the students I had this past year...), we might pose the question to students of how, now that we have legal racial equality, can we follow with socio-economic equality?  It would be interesting to see what they came up with, since I have no real answer myself.  The challenge is how to address the minority's disadvantages and effect change - should it be government-sponsored through social programs, or have those gone as far as they can?  How else can we work towards true equality (or pursue justice, to use the lingo here)?  As people already within "the circle," can we "insiders" do much of anything, or does the impetus for change have to come from the excluded themselves?