I write about the bad actions of racists because they’re responsible for a world of destruction.
A Medium writer asked me why I focus on the badness and not the solutions?
The simple answer is we have the solutions but rich white racists are addicted to status and power and don’t want change.
The Solutions
We need legislation and policies to enshrine Black physical safety and to address fairness in work, the justice system, housing, and so on. Reparations are mandatory to redress the severe current and generational, wealth disparities between Black people and whites.
Yes, it will take a lot of money, but let’s not pretend; the money is available. You can disagree, but the fact is, reparative money rightfully belongs to Black people.
Restoring Indigenous rights is a must, as is addressing housing inequity and poverty. Despite the constant drumbeat that these initiatives cannot be done, they are in fact, doable and organizations have put forward solutions for years.
Why isn’t anything done?
Rich people don’t want these changes.
Why the rich want to keep the status quo — Status anxiety
To solve for racial equity, to end wealth inequity means we’re ending social and economic stratification.
Of course, the prospect of equity terrifies the rich. They’re used to receiving favour and deference because of their wealth and power. They fear equality because they believe it would diminish their status.
Status is how we see ourselves compared to others in the same group.
We’re all afraid of losing our status, of being considered less than others in our social circle. This fear has a name, status anxiety. It’s why so many are intent on climbing the ladder socially and economically. We feel the higher we climb, the more protected we’ll be if something bad happens.
We buy the lie that climbing just a little higher will increase our self-esteem. It’s like chasing a high, you need more and more to feel like you did the first time.
If how we feel about ourselves depends on being seen as special, unique, better than others, you can see how easily our need for status can warp and become toxic.
If you’re desperate to always be seen as better, what would you do to keep your status?
Status addiction
Trump wants to keep the status he had as president. From a coup to fascism, he’ll tell any lie, take any action to get that status high.
Trump’s need is an addiction, shared among the other rich and powerful. The difference between Trump and other rich, powerful folk is that he wears his desperate need to be adored openly.
Trump’s outrageousness allows others of his kind to say, “I’m not like that guy.”
But they are.
Just say no
So, yes, we have solutions aplenty. We also have a class of people who don’t want change because that might take away their “specialness.”
Their addiction to status is what is stopping us from having a just society.
The dictionary defines addiction as a “compulsive physiological need for and use of a habit-forming substance.”
Seven point nine (7.9) billion people live on this planet. “The world’s richest one percent have more than two times as much wealth as 6.9 billion people.” They have wealth that can’t be spent in multiple lifetimes and they still want more. They are stone-cold addicts.
Hardcore addicts don’t usually stop without help. Their drug of choice might be killing them, but they’ll carry on using.
The rich can’t stop themselves. Our elected leaders are their enablers. Unless something changes, they’ll go on feeding their habit at our expense.
Addicts steal to satisfy their addiction.
So, do the world’s wealthiest.
They’re stealing our lives, our potential, our future, our children’s future and they’re destroying our homes and our planet. These are signs their addiction is out of control.
Representative Alexandria Ocasio Cortez makes it clear, to become a billionaire you have to be comfortable with “preying on vulnerable and less privileged people.”
If it’s not clear, wallowing in death and misery isn’t the mark of a well-adjusted person.
When the poor are ill-behaved the consequences can be dire, death, incarceration, homelessness.
The wealthy who steal by the billions, whose corporations and industries destroy lives; enabled by politicians, the judiciary, the police, the media, these mal-adjusted addicts face no consequences.
For these Masters of the Universe, nothing matters more than their next fix.
This is why anti-racism writers write about “the bad stuff”
Anti-racism writers write about the “bad stuff” because we all need to see that the rich, the judiciary, politicians, and business leaders are willing to commit evil to keep their power and status.
If you doubt this, remember that slavery was a choice the rich made in order to enhance their status through owning human beings.
This might sound as if I’m saying get rid of the rich. I’m not. However, I am saying we need to remove their drug. Their addiction is killing us.
Next: The Tower of Babel
The previous stories in this series:
Try as I might, I couldn’t get Part One to come up prettily like the ones below.
My Parents Didn’t Teach Me Racism
So, I can’t be racist — Part IIkayvalley.medium.com
My Parents Didn’t Teach Me Racism
So, I can’t be racist —Why I’m arguing with this writer, Part IIIkayvalley.medium.com