An Injustice. Follow the Money.
The American Experiment is alive, and not well. At least not well if you’re a black man.
We are the greatest country in the world, in my not-so-humble opinion. I believed in grade school, junior high and high school – and I believe to this day – that I’m blessed to live in the United States. Opportunities abound. Fairness may not always be the case, but it can usually be assumed. Unless there’s a lot of money at stake.
Though anyone can, indeed, become President, we are not post-racial. This TED talk does a great job of illustrating injustice.
In 1972, we had 300,000 people incarcerated in the US. Today that number is 2,300,000.
The United States has 5% of the population; we have 25% of the world’s prison population.
Description from TED.com:
In an engaging and personal talk — with cameo appearances from his grandmother and Rosa Parks — human rights lawyer Bryan Stevenson shares some hard truths about America’s justice system, starting with a massive imbalance along racial lines: a third of the country’s black male population has been incarcerated at some point in their lives. These issues, which are wrapped up in America’s unexamined history, are rarely talked about with this level of candor, insight and persuasiveness.
I started a new category with this post: Follow the Money. Rather than a generic ‘Politics’ category, Social and Follow the Money sum up a lot of observation on government. I prefer talk about the issues include answers and helpful ideas, not just attacks on ideological opponents. That, too, is an injustice.
Regards,
Keith