Ever wonder why poverty and mass incarceration do not matter in the U.S.?
Poverty disproportionately impacts women and children (see p. 15):
[click image to enlarge]
Mass incarceration disproportionately impacts African American males. While white males outnumber AA males about 5 to 1 in society, AA males outnumber white makes about 6 to 1 in prison:
—–
Government and business in the U.S. remains dominated either by privileged white males or the norms associated with privileged white males.
Our leaders have no empathy.
Our leaders have wealth, privilege, child care, health care, food security, and job security—and they all believe they have earned it all. They also believe those who haven’t are lazy—also deserving their poverty.
Our leaders cannot and will not acknowledge their privilege.
Leadership without empathy is tyranny.
If poverty and mass incarceration were white male problems, we’d be working to end both.
dr. p.l. (paul) thomas 
“Born on third base, he thinks he hit a triple” (Attributed to Jim Hightower, talking about GW Bush.)
It’s actually worse than you describe, their empathy is so deep in the negative range that those who live in the blindness of “let them eat cake” entitlement view the 99% “masses” as commodities to be exploited for further gain. They see turning any institution or nation into their personal company store as a divine right. I’m more than tired of paying them rent for what is already mine just because they’ve used their wealth to rig the system as their personal casinos.
Agreed, but what can we do about it…
Thank you for put it so bluntly. How do we compel those with privilege to reflect on their privilege? Much easier said than done, of course. I’m someone who has perhaps a childlike belief in the power of stories. Thus, one way I think we change the negative perception is by sharing the voices of those so affected by our unjust justice system. Those being dehumanized by the criminal justice system need their humanity pushed into the faces of those doing the dehumanizing. We can do this through advocacy, educating, and research. I realize this is a small, perhaps naive, act.
Michelle Alexander wrote an amazing book, The New Jim Crow. She discusses the importance of educating those on the outside – of making the struggles and injustices of those on the inside (and their families) transparent. She also reminds us that nothing short of a revolution will turn this system on its head. First, we need to recruit soldiers for that revolution through education and passionate calls for action.
And the idea of “meritocracy” in the US? AH! Oh, I have to stop now. This is obviously a topic I think about a lot (and deal with everyday at my job), and I thank you for bringing it to light in this forum.
Alexander’s book is linked in this piece.
Yay! Sorry I don’t click on every link. 🙂