ECONORACISM:The Next Great Divide examines the current social strife, unrest, and dissatisfaction occurring throughout the world as the physical manifestation of an economic class struggle masquerading as racial discrimination. The divide between rich and poor has grown visibly and statistically throughout the world, and this divide displays itself through genocide, isolation, and disparity in all elements of the human social structure: education, health and health care, housing and employment. Examining cases based upon Canadians and the indigenous people of Canada, author Ruth E. Todd also explores the African continent considering both the struggle in Darfur and the problems in Rwanda. Her study extends to Mexico and the Chiapas region examines the effects of Hurricane Katrina on the Gulf Coast states of the United States. Each area in this study is unique racially, culturally, geographically, and socially but they all share and demonstrate economic racism within the geographic borders of the United States, Sudan, Canada, Mexico, and Rwanda. Todd demonstrates the links between the economic structure and the economic divide between classes-a pattern of discrimination born of economic inequality.
ECONORACISM
THE NEXT GREAT DIVIDEBy RUTH E. TODDiUniverse, Inc.
Copyright © 2011 Dr. Ruth E. Todd
All right reserved.ISBN: 978-1-4620-3113-9Contents
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION.................................................1Econoracism............................................................1CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW............................................25CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY..................................................30CHAPTER 4 DATA ANALYSIS................................................37The Historical Background..............................................37Health and Health care.................................................73Housing................................................................84Education..............................................................94Employment.............................................................106The Continuing Rise of the Have-Nots...................................120The Next Steps or "Brother, can you spare a dime?".....................139GLOSSARY...............................................................173REFERENCES.............................................................177
Chapter One
INTRODUCTION
Econoracism
Econoracism is not a well-known term but it will be. Economics is the driving force behind every activity that humankind performs daily. Economics determine where we live, where we work, whom we elect to govern, how we eat, and how healthy we are. When any academic study is undertaken, the economic position of people or a country are always present and this information is always important in understanding events and why the events occurred. This creates problems as economics causes discrimination to occur within cultures and societies. The ability to discriminate is rampant in societies around the globe. Christians discriminate against Jews. Hindus discriminate against Muslims. Whites discriminate against Blacks and Blacks discriminate against Hispanics. The list continues on to the thin discriminating against the fat and the fast discriminating against the slow. All these are scenarios of visible discrimination but the real discrimination occurs at a different level of the human experience. The real discrimination occurs at the financial level. Racism is rampant because the wealthy have an economic advantage over the poor. The poor are not just disadvantaged in the economic sense but in all areas of their lives: housing, education, employment, and health care. Being disadvantaged means barriers exist that must be overcome, but that feat might not be possible. This then becomes the real racism and Econoracism is the next great divide.
Economic discrimination is rampant worldwide and while there is much discussion about poverty, the poor are growing in numbers and real wealth and power are increasingly more concentrated in a handful of people. Being poor is an economic and societal problem that has widespread cultural and social problems attached to it. The implications of this economic discrimination are visible but seldom do the dots connect on a global map.
Poor people do not have ready access to health care, affordable and decent housing, employment that provides a living wage, police protection, or quality education. Many living in poverty have no access to clean water, stable food sources, or proper sanitation facilities. This lack of access to what most consider basic necessities then ensures that the cycle of poverty continues as without these necessities there is no way to leave the ranks of the poor. The widening gulf between rich and poor has also created points of discrimination that are more obvious than ever before. Wealth is increasingly more concentrated in the hands of fewer people. "The poorest 40 percent of the world's population (approximately 2,800,000,000 people) accounts for 5 percent of global income. The richest 20 percent accounts for three-quarters of world income" (Global Issues, 2009).
Racism is, in general, considered a form of discrimination based on race, and race is usually associated with color. There is an unlimited number of ways that discrimination can manifest itself based on someone's education, clothing, color, hair color, age, religion, weight, and social class, to name a few. In racism, discrimination seems to be based on the belief that one race is superior to another. Wealthy people can certainly discriminate against poor people by feeling superior. Doctors, hospitals, restaurants, and a variety of businesses can also discriminate based on the person's perceived ability to pay, and the quality of the service received is proportional to that perception. As racism is expressible individually and consciously, or socially and unconsciously, or individually and unconsciously, or socially and unconsciously, it creates an environment of separation. This separation is the Great Divide caused by Econoracism.
Racism is expressed through explicit thoughts, feelings, or acts, or through institutions that promote inequality between races and laws passed—from the number of police in a patrol area to the number of teachers in a school. It is observable in the opportunities or lack of opportunities that people have that would allow them to improve their status in society. The element that is missing is the awareness of people that a deeper form of racism exists, Econoracism. This is the systematic and invasive discrimination practiced all over the world. This is economic racism, as practiced by the rich and suffered by the poor.
People assume that racism is just that, a strong bias for or against one race of people or another. This view has always attributed racism to one's color; however, if one expands the understanding of racism, it would be obvious that this is poverty-linked discrimination and not just because of color. The reason that this goes undetected is that generally people of color are poor. Sociologists Noel Cazenave and Darlene Alvarez Maddern define racism as "... a highly organized system of `race'-based group privilege that operates at every level of society and is held together by a sophisticated ideology of color/'race' supremacy. Racist systems include, but cannot be reduced to, racial bigotry" (Cazenave and Maddern, 1999: 42).
This picture of poverty as a form of racism manifested itself to the world many times over the years but never more clearly than when Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast of the United States in 2005. The pictures of trapped and abandoned poor people and elderly were overwhelming. Colin Powell, former Secretary of State and a black man, was asked whether he believed that the reason behind what was happening in New Orleans was because people were black. He answered that, "he did not think that race was a factor in the slow response but that many of those unable to leave New Orleans in time were trapped by poverty which disproportionately affects blacks" (ABC News Online, 2005). His meaning seemed clear. The color of the people was not the reason for their being trapped and abandoned in New Orleans but their poverty was the cause. Many had no access to transportation to leave town and many had a reluctance to leave because while they had almost nothing, the little they did have was in the city. It was no surprise to poor people that they were trapped and ignored and those who were not poor would not know the difference or understand as nothing had changed for them.
Real Wages
On November 3, 2009, the United Nations...
