In America today, there are millions of black children living in communities that have been ignored by the government, and preyed upon and abused by criminals of all collars. They are effectively shantytowns. How else to describe the communities in and around a system like the Chicago Public Schools? If government action/inaction has led us to a place where 80% of students are black, UE is over 20% for their parents, 1 in 3 of their fathers have criminal records, and the only avenue out is littered with potholes, how are we any different than the Apartheid government? Because a few of them successfully navigated a street lined with craters? Because our laws don't contain explicitly racist language? Nonsense. We condemn particular ethnic citizens to a mathematically assured fate before any of them are born. Where are the international divestment movements against us?
A day after Nelson Mandela's death, we should take note of the lessons learned by his enemies more than those of which his supporters will cherish forever. His enemies, and the enemies of racial progress in general, have convinced enough people that institutional racism doesn't exist unless someone says the n-word while writing up legislation. In other words, if it walks like a duck, talks like a duck, it must scream "I'm a fucking duck" before anyone can possibly consider it being a duck.
As an ode to Mandela and countless others, be on the look out for 21st Century racism, and call it out wherever you find it. It won't be wearing a hood, riding a horse, but it will be in favor of cutting food stamps, and giving public buildings to charter schools rent free.
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