Where's the empathy for black poverty and pain?

[lovedforaday]

In the 1890s, sociologist W.E.B. Du Bois noticed something disturbing about how Americans viewed the plight of blacks in Philadelphia who had suffered through unsanitary living conditions, high rates of consumption and back-breaking labor

Comments

[soleiltropiques]

Very interesting piece, OP. And so very, very true.

[kyouichi]

White privilege is a helluva drug

[blackjedii]

The other thing wrt Cantor that is oft forgotten about is that Cantor's challenger was out meeting one-on-one with people and pulling all sorts of stunts to get his name out there.

Eric Cantor was having steak dinners with his rich donors and coasting along to the primary with the assumption that he didn't have to do jack squat.

Also Cantor's district is ridiculously, disgustingly gerrymandered to be the perfect Republican poor-white purity test. :/ They cut bits of Richmond and spread it eastwards so you don't even have to worry about Democratic numbers.

[maynardsong]

This is why I stopped feeling the Bern last year.

[moonshaz]

For whites, poverty is a "failure of the system," with a narrative that says, "You've done all you can, you've worked hard and here you are with no safety net," said McIlwain. Blacks and other people of color are viewed as "getting what they deserve for being lazy, for being criminals, for not picking themselves up by their bootstraps."

This, right here, is a perfect description of the mindset of way too many whites in this country. And I'm damned if I know what to do about it, except keep trying to educate people and hope that least somebodylistens. *weary sigh* Sometimes I hate white people, and I'm embarrassed to be one on a daily basis, often several times in one day.