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Many Americans can see for their own eyes how people from low income areas speak, due to the overwhelming news coverage (finally) of police killings of unarmed blacks. When there are equally disturbing instances of murders within areas where low income whites and brown folks live, the public can get a view of how these folks speak. Unfortunately, that is perhaps the only occasion for middle income and high income Americans to see how their fellow citizens appear.
In many cases, when family and neighbors of the murdered speak, more than a majority of these people are uneducated and not well versed. Yes, some within these communities are the exception and not the rule. Yet, no one in either politics or the media will touch this subject.
Then we turn to the police officers, not necessarily the ones who did the killing. Most of them are not very well educated people. This writer does not have the statistics to back me up, but I can assure you that most police officers throughout America are not four year college grads. Many were lucky to just get out of high school. Many are ex military, as police departments, ever since our illegal invasions and occupations in the Middle East, heavily recruit from these ranks.
Higher education is the key and has always been so. If a person from a low income, high crime area graduates with a four year degree, do you think their ‘Take‘ on things would be similar to one who has barely, if ever, finished high school? Methinks not. Similarly, someone who has a good paying job is not liable to turn to crime or become lethargic. Obviously, when it comes to drugs it matters not what education or income level one is at.
Drug addiction flows through it all. What would happen is that, with higher education and higher pay, the ‘Inner communities’ would see less of that as opposed to nowadays. We have an Antebellum society in this country, where the slavery of old is replaced by ‘Jim Crow’ and ‘White Trash’ culture. The former ‘Slave Patrols’, in many instances, have been replaced by local police, where few if any of these folks have the educational standing needed for a better community. The slaves we know were not allowed to be educated. The slave patrols had low educated and low intelligent white men to do the bidding of the plantation masters. This is what the recent revelations as to police killings of the unarmed has shown us… Nothing has really changed.
The Super Rich have always made sure that the plantation system remains intact. There have always been Ghettos (”A part of the city, especially a slum area, occupied by a minority group or groups”) regardless of which city or town it may be. As the Germans did so brutally in Poland after they invaded it, the ghetto is purposely made to be run down, overcrowded and underserviced. Sadly, how the police function in these areas is very comparable, in some distant instances, to keep the inhabitants in! Yes, there are many well intentioned public servants and police leadership that wish to actually protect and serve those inside of this ‘Rich Man’s Plantation’. Yet, when push comes to shove the protocol becomes to ‘Keep the natives down as much as possible’. As stated before, this goes for poor whites and poor brown people as well.
What is the answer to this problem that has been with our nation since its founding? It would take a book of ideas and solutions to even peel away the crust of this scab. The short answer is to tax the Super Rich, drastically cut the obscene militarist spending and mindset and redistribute income more fairly. A Universal Basic Income for all of us (even at $ 1400 a month every month) is a start. By just those two cuts I suggested, money could be appropriated to build the infrastructure of ALL our low and middle income communities nationwide. Improved local roads, local housing etc is crucial. Police departments should have to only recruit four year college degreed candidates (with majors in either criminal justice, sociology or psychology to name a few). The current police should be mandated to work towards getting four year degrees within a certain time frame or…. OUT! A national program similar to the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) of the FDR years, whereupon millions of young men and women would work on environmental conservation efforts at good pay . Imagine also Public Banking and community owned and operated nonprofit mortgage banks only charging a tad above overhead. Food for thought folks.
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This article was originally published on Countercurrents.
Philip A Farruggio is a contributing editor for The Greanville Post. He is also frequently posted on Global Research, Nation of Change, Countercurrents.org, and Off Guardian sites. He is the son and grandson of Brooklyn NYC longshoremen and a graduate of Brooklyn College, class of 1974. Since the 2000 election debacle Philip has written over 400 columns on the Military Industrial Empire and other facets of life in an upside down America. He is also host of the ‘It’s the Empire… Stupid‘ radio show, co produced by Chuck Gregory. Philip can be reached at [email protected].
