9 ms·

Systematic exclusion of black people from social programs, like the GI Bill and Social Security, and redlining, which prevented black Americans from building up

by zasz 6y ago

Systematic exclusion of black people from social programs, like the GI Bill and Social Security, and redlining, which prevented black Americans from building up wealth through homeownership the way white Americans were. "The Color of Law" is a good book on redlining. To expand on the bit about Social Security, farmworkers were excluded, since farmworkers tend to be not white. It was a nice sneaky way to be racist without coming out and doing so explicitly.

twybriny 6y ago
One of the things that confuses me quite a bit is the focus on laws that expired or have been abrogated 50-60-70-150 years ago and make it as if everything wrong with contemporary American society is caused directly by such laws and nothing else. * GI Bill: adopted in 1944, expired in 1956. * Social Security: adopted in 1935, unclear what the impacts were at the time. Unclear what the impacts are today. * Redlining: created in 1934, illegal since 1977. As an immigrant that landed in US post 2000 with $1000 to my name and a tenuous F1 situation, all this sounds like ancient history. Much more stringent appear, in no particular order and not pretending to be exhaustive: * the whole F1/H1B situation, which depresses the domestic labor market in technical jobs, especially software, but also research at large * global competition, especially with China * the over financialization of the economy * the profits accumulating at the very top since the 2008 Great Recession * the explosion of real estate market in big cities, way above what we pretend the inflation rate is * manufacturing decline * offshoring of entire industries to East Asia * right now, the covid19 lockdowns which are destroying the service economy, which was supposed to be the future of jobs * the decimation of small business America due to same covid19 lockdowns. * specifically for the black community, the lack of academic achievement * the rise of the gig economy and Amazon warehouse jobs * the opioid, homelessness and suicide crisis * the obesity crisis, and the related food deserts Again, not a young black guy or gal. But if I'd were, there'd be 10 high priority items on my worry list before I'd get to the Civil Rights Era. As a nation we seem to have abandoned the middle and working class of all colors. The public discourse is obsessed with Instagram influencers and race histories half a century old if not older, sometimes much older.
- bsanr2 6y ago
  >As an immigrant that landed in US post 2000 with $1000 to my name and a tenuous F1 situation, all this sounds like ancient history. Well, it's not. In living memory: >The wealth of black Americans was halved by the 2008 financial crisis, in part because of predatory lending practices which specifically targeted them by race and misrepresented their creditworthiness https://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/investigative/2015/01/24/the-american-dream-shatters-in-prince-georges-county/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/investigative/2015/01/24/t... >A million black farming families essentially had their wealth-producing land stolen from them: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/09/this-land-was-our-land/594742/ https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/09/this-la... https://www.revealnews.org/episodes/losing-ground/ https://www.revealnews.org/episodes/losing-ground/ >Multiple black activists pushing for more advantageous policy have been imprisoned and assassinated, with allegedly some incidents as recent as the last few years. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Martin_Luther_King_Jr https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Martin_Luth.... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Hampton https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Hampton https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOVE#1985_bombing https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOVE#1985_bombing https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/puzzling-number-men-tied-ferguson-protests-have-died-n984261 https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/puzzling-number-men-tie... >Black students have become subject to levels of segregation - and associated disparities in educational quality - at levels rivalling those of pre-Brown v Board America https://www.propublica.org/article/segregation-now-full-text https://www.propublica.org/article/segregation-now-full-text https://projects.propublica.org/miseducation https://projects.propublica.org/miseducation >Because many black workers were exempt from the initial impementation of Social Security and the GI Bill, their children (Silent Gen and Baby Boomers, currently in the process of passing on their inheritances) and grandchildren (Gen X and Millennials) are suffering the consequences in lost wealth-building opportunities >Countless black Americans have suffered from poor healthcare based on apathy and stereotypes https://features.propublica.org/diabetes-amputations/black-american-amputation-epidemic/ https://features.propublica.org/diabetes-amputations/black-a... https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/20/black-americans-death-rate-covid-19-coronavirus https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/20/black-american... https://www.heart.org/en/news/2019/02/20/why-are-black-women-at-such-high-risk-of-dying-from-pregnancy-complications https://www.heart.org/en/news/2019/02/20/why-are-black-women... >Black Americans have watched a completely different and profoundly more compassionate response to the white people affected by the opioid epidemic than they experienced in the crack/cocaine epidemic https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/08/crack-heroin-and-race/401015/ https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/08/crack-h... https://thewitnessbcc.com/crack-epidemic-opioid-crisis-race-america/ https://thewitnessbcc.com/crack-epidemic-opioid-crisis-race-... >Marijuana, long a a drug whose sale and use was the pretext for the overpolicing of black communities, and which provided off-the-record income for many marginalized from the mainstream economy, was legalized in several states, under schemes that made sure that the overwhelming majority of those who profited were white. https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2019/02/22/marijuana-legalization-exposes-cannabis-industry-racial-injustice-incarceration-minorities-column/2836449002/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2019/02/22/marijuana-... https://qz.com/1194143/even-after-legalization-black-americans-are-arrested-much-more-often-for-marijuana-offenses/ https://qz.com/1194143/even-after-legalization-black-america... https://psmag.com/economics/the-green-rush-is-too-white-hood-incubator-race-weed https://psmag.com/economics/the-green-rush-is-too-white-hood... >Historical atrocities were buried until after those afflicted were unable to see justice in their lifetimes https://tulsa.okstate.edu/news/shedding-light-local-history-teaching-about-tulsa-race-massacre https://tulsa.okstate.edu/news/shedding-light-local-history-... And, of course, bare-naked discrimination exists across aspects of American life, including employment, compensation, educational opportunity, freedom of movement, criminal justice, real estate, and on and on and on. When these and many more injustices were not directly impactful, they served as poignant examples of the extreme apathy, if not antipathy, American society has had for black Americans. On top of it all, black Americans still live under the specter of police departments nationwide, which have been allegedly infiltrated by white supremacist organizations, and which assuredly indoctrinate officers with racist training and policy, and root out anti-racist individuals. I'll leave you with https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/05/29/no-college-isnt-the-answer-reparations-are/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/05/29/... a response to Ta-Nehisi Coates' seminal work, The Case For Reparations (https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/06/the-case-for-reparations/361631/ https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/06/the-cas...), which reopened the intellectual debate on racial justice with a focus on the subject above: racial injustice affecting living black Americans, however rooted it may be in the events of 50-60-70-150 years ago.
3nob9sh3nsOwn 6y ago
Adolph Reed has written on the Social Security exclusions that you're referencing, and the issue is not so clear cut: [1]. The initial iteration of Social Security excluded many types of temporary and informal labor. Although black workers were disproportionately impacted by these exclusions, the large majority (about 75%) of people who were excluded were white. One possible reason why these exclusions were in place is that getting accurate payroll figures for informal jobs is difficult. In any case, these exclusions were lifted between 1950 and 1955. Keep in mind that Social Security was not the only New Deal program, and things like the Public Works Administration disproportionately benefited African Americans. The New Deal was extremely popular among African Americans, and is one of the major reasons why most African Americans switched over to voting for the Democratic Party. That's what makes the recent narrative that the New Deal was racist (and to blame for today's disparities) so strange. 1. https://newrepublic.com/article/155704/new-deal-wasnt-intrinsically-racist https://newrepublic.com/article/155704/new-deal-wasnt-intrin...

by zasz 6y ago

twybriny 6y ago

One of the things that confuses me quite a bit is the focus on laws that expired or have been abrogated 50-60-70-150 years ago and make it as if everything wrong with contemporary American society is caused directly by such laws and nothing else. * GI Bill: adopted in 1944, expired in 1956. * Social Security: adopted in 1935, unclear what the impacts were at the time. Unclear what the impacts are today. * Redlining: created in 1934, illegal since 1977. As an immigrant that landed in US post 2000 with $1000 to my name and a tenuous F1 situation, all this sounds like ancient history. Much more stringent appear, in no particular order and not pretending to be exhaustive: * the whole F1/H1B situation, which depresses the domestic labor market in technical jobs, especially software, but also research at large * global competition, especially with China * the over financialization of the economy * the profits accumulating at the very top since the 2008 Great Recession * the explosion of real estate market in big cities, way above what we pretend the inflation rate is * manufacturing decline * offshoring of entire industries to East Asia * right now, the covid19 lockdowns which are destroying the service economy, which was supposed to be the future of jobs * the decimation of small business America due to same covid19 lockdowns. * specifically for the black community, the lack of academic achievement * the rise of the gig economy and Amazon warehouse jobs * the opioid, homelessness and suicide crisis * the obesity crisis, and the related food deserts Again, not a young black guy or gal. But if I'd were, there'd be 10 high priority items on my worry list before I'd get to the Civil Rights Era. As a nation we seem to have abandoned the middle and working class of all colors. The public discourse is obsessed with Instagram influencers and race histories half a century old if not older, sometimes much older.

bsanr2 6y ago
>As an immigrant that landed in US post 2000 with $1000 to my name and a tenuous F1 situation, all this sounds like ancient history. Well, it's not. In living memory: >The wealth of black Americans was halved by the 2008 financial crisis, in part because of predatory lending practices which specifically targeted them by race and misrepresented their creditworthiness https://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/investigative/2015/01/24/the-american-dream-shatters-in-prince-georges-county/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/investigative/2015/01/24/t... >A million black farming families essentially had their wealth-producing land stolen from them: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/09/this-land-was-our-land/594742/ https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/09/this-la... https://www.revealnews.org/episodes/losing-ground/ https://www.revealnews.org/episodes/losing-ground/ >Multiple black activists pushing for more advantageous policy have been imprisoned and assassinated, with allegedly some incidents as recent as the last few years. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Martin_Luther_King_Jr https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Martin_Luth.... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Hampton https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Hampton https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOVE#1985_bombing https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOVE#1985_bombing https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/puzzling-number-men-tied-ferguson-protests-have-died-n984261 https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/puzzling-number-men-tie... >Black students have become subject to levels of segregation - and associated disparities in educational quality - at levels rivalling those of pre-Brown v Board America https://www.propublica.org/article/segregation-now-full-text https://www.propublica.org/article/segregation-now-full-text https://projects.propublica.org/miseducation https://projects.propublica.org/miseducation >Because many black workers were exempt from the initial impementation of Social Security and the GI Bill, their children (Silent Gen and Baby Boomers, currently in the process of passing on their inheritances) and grandchildren (Gen X and Millennials) are suffering the consequences in lost wealth-building opportunities >Countless black Americans have suffered from poor healthcare based on apathy and stereotypes https://features.propublica.org/diabetes-amputations/black-american-amputation-epidemic/ https://features.propublica.org/diabetes-amputations/black-a... https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/20/black-americans-death-rate-covid-19-coronavirus https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/20/black-american... https://www.heart.org/en/news/2019/02/20/why-are-black-women-at-such-high-risk-of-dying-from-pregnancy-complications https://www.heart.org/en/news/2019/02/20/why-are-black-women... >Black Americans have watched a completely different and profoundly more compassionate response to the white people affected by the opioid epidemic than they experienced in the crack/cocaine epidemic https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/08/crack-heroin-and-race/401015/ https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/08/crack-h... https://thewitnessbcc.com/crack-epidemic-opioid-crisis-race-america/ https://thewitnessbcc.com/crack-epidemic-opioid-crisis-race-... >Marijuana, long a a drug whose sale and use was the pretext for the overpolicing of black communities, and which provided off-the-record income for many marginalized from the mainstream economy, was legalized in several states, under schemes that made sure that the overwhelming majority of those who profited were white. https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2019/02/22/marijuana-legalization-exposes-cannabis-industry-racial-injustice-incarceration-minorities-column/2836449002/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2019/02/22/marijuana-... https://qz.com/1194143/even-after-legalization-black-americans-are-arrested-much-more-often-for-marijuana-offenses/ https://qz.com/1194143/even-after-legalization-black-america... https://psmag.com/economics/the-green-rush-is-too-white-hood-incubator-race-weed https://psmag.com/economics/the-green-rush-is-too-white-hood... >Historical atrocities were buried until after those afflicted were unable to see justice in their lifetimes https://tulsa.okstate.edu/news/shedding-light-local-history-teaching-about-tulsa-race-massacre https://tulsa.okstate.edu/news/shedding-light-local-history-... And, of course, bare-naked discrimination exists across aspects of American life, including employment, compensation, educational opportunity, freedom of movement, criminal justice, real estate, and on and on and on. When these and many more injustices were not directly impactful, they served as poignant examples of the extreme apathy, if not antipathy, American society has had for black Americans. On top of it all, black Americans still live under the specter of police departments nationwide, which have been allegedly infiltrated by white supremacist organizations, and which assuredly indoctrinate officers with racist training and policy, and root out anti-racist individuals. I'll leave you with https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/05/29/no-college-isnt-the-answer-reparations-are/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/05/29/... a response to Ta-Nehisi Coates' seminal work, The Case For Reparations (https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/06/the-case-for-reparations/361631/ https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/06/the-cas...), which reopened the intellectual debate on racial justice with a focus on the subject above: racial injustice affecting living black Americans, however rooted it may be in the events of 50-60-70-150 years ago.

3nob9sh3nsOwn 6y ago

Adolph Reed has written on the Social Security exclusions that you're referencing, and the issue is not so clear cut: [1]. The initial iteration of Social Security excluded many types of temporary and informal labor. Although black workers were disproportionately impacted by these exclusions, the large majority (about 75%) of people who were excluded were white. One possible reason why these exclusions were in place is that getting accurate payroll figures for informal jobs is difficult. In any case, these exclusions were lifted between 1950 and 1955. Keep in mind that Social Security was not the only New Deal program, and things like the Public Works Administration disproportionately benefited African Americans. The New Deal was extremely popular among African Americans, and is one of the major reasons why most African Americans switched over to voting for the Democratic Party. That's what makes the recent narrative that the New Deal was racist (and to blame for today's disparities) so strange. 1. https://newrepublic.com/article/155704/new-deal-wasnt-intrinsically-racist https://newrepublic.com/article/155704/new-deal-wasnt-intrin...