06/07/2020
The United States acquired its land by stealing it from the native Americans, through tricks, subjugation, and outright slaughter; read "Black Elk Speaks" or research Wounded Knee Massacre, to get a taste of that era. We then grew our economy by the use of subjugated African Peoples to plow our fields and pick our cotton, read Uncle Toms Cabin to understand more. Then we used jim crow laws to undermine the liberties that black Americans had to that point achieved post-1865, read "Devil in the Orage Grove", it will blow your mind.
As the country became more racially mixed towards the middle of the 20th century the prison system and set of laws targeting minorities took the place of jim crow and slavery. In the ultimate coup d'etat the white majority spearheaded by the republican party subjugated entire minority generations to a "legal" prison system, robbing innumerable children of their fathers and locking in generational poverty along with the deleterious knock-on effects such as violence and drug use, which were then used to justify their law and order policies. More recently the prison system has been going private, again with mainly republican support along with laws being written to ensure the prisons stay full and profitable, with prisoners being referred to as "honey pots".
The struggle for equal rights for all people will go on long after these protests fade into our memories. The change which we strive might still take generations, yet one way to expedite that change is to VOTE and vote with knowledge and information. Vote in the midterms and vote in the general elections. VOTE
