U.s Supremacy - Blog Posts
The Inconsistencies of Race and Class
NO. 1
Class is primarily an economic measure, of course, based on wealth and income. This is explained more in Karl Marx’s and Max Weber’s ‘The Communist Manifesto, where Marx touches on Capitalism, an economic and political system in which a country’s trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit rather than the state's need to expand throughout Markets. The three main groups in class society are 1) The Aristocracy, 2) the bourgeoisie, which owns most of society’s wealth and production. And 3) the proletariats, or the working-class people. These terms are even more present today than during the Industrial Revolution. The bourgeoisie thrives off alienation and false consciousness, which is the way of thinking that prevents a person from understanding the true nature of their social or economic status.
NO. 2
Patricia Hill-Collins writes in Toward a New Vision, ‘’Each group identifies the type of oppression with which it feels most comfortable as being fundamental and classifies all other types as lesser importance. Oppression is full of such contradictions. Errors in political judgment that we make concerning how we teach our courses, what we tell our children, and which organizations are worthy.’’ (Collins, 1993). Oppression of education and fundamental voting rights happened exclusively to minorities, especially black people. During the ’50s and the ’60s, Brown vs. The Board of Education was one of the most iconic moments in history when the U.S. Supreme Court finally ruled that the segregation of public schools between blacks and whites was unconstitutional.
NO. 3
Basically, proving that separate is not equal. The Voting Rights Act of 1965, and of course, the Civil Rights Movement that led up to it, was a landmark civil rights and U.S. labor law in the United States that outlaws discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin. Now, with the Civil Rights Movement passed, it makes it seem that all people have rights, but it’s not true. Minorities alike do not have the same rights, no matter the changed laws and how much we think we’ve changed. White privilege is the societal belief that benefits white people over non-white people. It makes it almost impossible for all minorities to overcome the system. White privilege is the belief that there’s nothing wrong with being a white nationalist and that the removal of our nation’s past physical examples of racism, ex. The erasure of Confederate statues, affirmative action, and other such policies is an attack on white heritage.
NO. 4
Whether they want to admit it or not, the overlap between race and class has a great impact on society, and it intersects in complex ways, and simply focusing on one aspect alone may not lead to comprehensive solutions. Affirmative action was used to bridge the gap between racial and class disparities, and now that it is being threatened and taken away, we must carefully consider the impact that it has had and continues to have on marginalized communities. Carol Anderson, the author of White Rage, talks about the definition of white rage, which is how their anger fuels hatred, and that hatred fuels violence which has caused the deaths of black people, men, and women alike, ever since the first boat brought the slaves. It touches on white privilege and the indifference white people feel for black people, sort of like colorblind racism, a ‘toilet assumption’, the naivety that all people are created equal, when that’s far from the case.
Norma McCorvey and the story of 'Roe vs. Wade'
It’s been a few weeks since Roe vs. Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court. It’s been the ideal goal for conservative lawmakers and groups. The case that got it overturned, Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization, focused on Mississippi’s appeal of a lower court ruling that struck the state’s law banning abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy as unconstitutional. In Mississippi’s appeal to the Supreme Court, the state’s district attorney asked the court not only to uphold its abortion ban but to overturn Roe vs. Wade. This marks the first time that the U.S has taken away a constitutional right entirely. The overturning got me wondering: Who was the woman who accomplished Roe vs. Wade in the first place?
Norma McCorvey, the woman ‘Jane Roe’ at the crucial center of abortion rights, had flaws, as everyone does. In 1969 she became pregnant a third time and simply wanted an abortion. According to the NY Times, ‘‘‘McCorvey, a young single woman in Dallas, gave no thought to the fight for reproductive rights. She was barely getting by as a waitress, had twice given birth to children placed for adoption, and simply wanted an abortion. She later lied about getting pregnant, saying she had been raped. When, more than a decade later, she came clean and wished to join the movement she had come to represent in earnest, its leaders denied her a meaningful part in their protests and rallies. ‘I think they’re embarrassed,” McCorvey told Texas Monthly in 1993, ‘They would like me to be college-educated, with poise and little white gloves.’’
Because of the fall of Roe, over 13 states in the United States have trigger laws that were put in place to go into effect, and it marks the first time in the country’s history that the Court has taken away a constitutional right, not to mention many abortion clinics across the country have closed down. But this isn’t the end: large companies like Disney, Meta, Apple Zillow, Buzzfeed, Amazon, Levi’s, etc., have offered compensation for their employees who seek abortion procedures. Dozens of elected prosecutors from over 29 states, territories, and Washington D.C, have released a statement, ‘‘We decline to use our office’s resources to criminalize reproductive health decisions and commit to exercise our well-settled discretion and refrain from prosecuting those who seek, provide, or support abortions….Criminalizing and prosecuting individuals who seek or provide abortion care makes a mockery of justice; prosecutions should not be a part of that.’’
This video occurred in March, and I think it’s important to hear from an actual doctor. When studying anthropology in school, I was taught to be unbiased and objective, which I tried to do in my past articles. But I cannot keep my objectivity, knowing many women across the states cannot get a safe abortion, especially as this doctor explains in the video, will continue to happen whether or not they are considered legal. Norma McCorvey may not have meant to start the fight for abortion rights when she decided to find lawyers, it is important to know that she started the fight, and it will continue to pave historically on!
The Taliban, Al-Qaeda, and the people affected
NO.1
20 years ago, the U.S took action and invaded Afghanistan after the events of 9/11. No Afghan person was involved in such events, and have been victims themselves to the Taliban and Al-Qaeda prior to 9/11; for 20 long years, innocent Afghan civilians have been suffering, displaced, and killed in a war the U.S incited. Now, as reports came in two weeks ago, President Biden has finally pulled the U.S troops out of the country, the Taliban, now stronger than ever, stormed the capitol of Kabul, declaring it under Taliban rule now.
NO. 2
How was the Taliban and Al-Queda created? Who formed them? By the U.S, during the Cold War Era! The C.I.A, at the time, entered the country to fight against Russia/communism. Once the Russians left that side of the country, so too did the U.S, leaving heavily armed militants with American weapons with nothing to fight against except civilians. ‘‘The CIA gave birth to Osama Bin Laden and breastfed his organization during the 1980′s. Former British Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook, told the House of Commons that Al Qaeda was unquestionably a product of Western intelligence agencies. Mr. Cook explained that Al Qaeda, which literally means an abbreviation of “the database” in Arabic, was originally the computer database of the thousands of Islamist extremists, who were trained by the CIA and funded by the Saudis, in order to defeat the Russians in Afghanistan. America’s relationship with Al Qaeda has always been a love-hate affair. Depending on whether a particular Al Qaeda terrorist group in a given region furthers American interests or not, the U.S. State Department either funds or aggressively targets that terrorist group. Even as American foreign policy makers claim to oppose Muslim extremism, they knowingly foment it as a weapon of foreign policy.’’
NO. 3
‘‘Pashtana Durrani, the founder and executive director of LEARN, a nonprofit focused on education and women's rights, said she had run out of tears for her country. "I have cried so much there are no more tears left in my eyes to mourn. We have been in mourning the fall of Afghanistan for now quite some time. So I'm not feeling very well. On the contrary, I'm feeling very hopeless," she said. Durrani said she'd received text messages from boys as well as girls, who despaired that years of study were "all for nothing." She said the Taliban kept talking about girls' education, but they hadn't defined what that meant. Islamic studies are assumed, but "what about gender education? What about professional education?" she asked. "If you think about it, it makes you hopeless because there's no answer for it."
NO. 4
In fact, in the 1990’s, the Taliban had a strong hold on the country, forcing women to into arranged marriages, banning them from school, and executing those who were not wearing their full-face veils, not to mention banning women from professional careers. The Taliban supported Al-Qaeda to plan terrorist attacks on Western nations. Now that the U.S has left, ‘‘some Taliban members want to address local grievances, others wants to return to the brief period prior to 9/11 when the Taliban controlled Afghanistan in the late 90’s, and the establishment of a caliphate.’’