1. Violence is not the answer
First off, violence is usually never the answer. As someone said yesterday at the #BuffaloForFerguson vigil, there are examples all over the world (e.g. the Israeli-Palestinian conflict) as proof that violence does not work. Not only that, we have thousands of years of history (including the Bible) that demonstrates the same thing. If you needed any more reason than that, it should be your own freedom. The law is unforgiving, especially for People of Color, and if you break it, you are going to find yourself in prison somewhere serving some outrageous sentence, behind bars, with less control over your own body than you have now.
2. Dehumanizing others is also not the answer
Not only is violence not the answer, but neither is dehumanizing the police or any other person. If we do that, we’re no better than them. Just as not all black people are criminals, drug addicts, or any other stereo type, not all police are bad. One police officer in Buffalo lost her job for standing against a fellow officer. It’s important to remember that the issue here is more subtle than one of white supremacists vs. black people.
So, with that established, let’s look to what is a productive response.
3. Get organized
One of the biggest obstacles to making a true change is to get organized. The one percent, in addition to having lots of money, have been highly organized. They have strategically placed men and women in places of power who support their agenda. From that structure, they are able to get tax breaks and other benefits that the average person doesn’t get.
While you may not have the same kind of money, it is still possible to effectively mobilize. You cannot be complacent. Join a block club, create an organization, support each other, campaign, help support representatives that you know and are willing to support your interests, right letters to existing local and national representatives, peacefully protest, make sure the media is reporting on what you want to know about, and work together.
While this may be somewhat of a tall order in a world with fading inter-personal contact and a culture of fear, it is possible and necessary. You’ll notice that the rest of my suggestions depend heavily on this part being in working order.
4. Get educated
Know what your rights are. What you may intuitively think are your rights and what your actual rights are under the law can be two very different things. The ACLU and similar organizations have information that can give you a head start. Law review articles are thorough and give you a good background on the relevant law (you can try using Google Scholar for this). To go to the source of the law try Legal Information Institute for this or your local law library. Lawyers in the community, you can do your part to help. Get involved in an organization that offers legal advice to those who can’t afford it, and, if one doesn’t exist, create one yourselves.
5. Be a mindful consumer
One of the best ways to protest, is to boycott businesses that support the same structure that continues to oppress black people. If you live in a predominantly black, urban neighborhood, you probably have certain stores in your area that continually exploit the black community (e.g. rent-to-own stores, etc.). So, if that business is not helping your cause, don’t go there. This includes fast food restaurants that do more harm than good.
However, this is not the only thing you need to pay attention to. Be a mindful consumer of media. Don’t accept garbage news. Don’t accept music and movies that perpetuate harmful stereo types of black people. If necessary, get rid of your cable (it makes it easier to control the content coming in to your house). It may sound militant, but there are ways to entertain yourself that aren’t detrimental to the black community.
6. Create your own opportunities
Relatedly, if you’re finding it hard to find employment or business opportunities in your neighborhood, create them. This is especially important if your or someone you know is dealing with a prior conviction.
If you are fortunate to have money, then fund the people and businesses in your area that traditional banks won’t lend to.
On the consumer side of this, instead of supporting businesses that are harmful to your neighborhood, support locally owned businesses in your area.
7. Educate your children
With many inner-city schools failing, impossible economic conditions, and host of other issues, it’s hard to ensure that our children are receiving a proper education and that they’re being treated with respect from day one. We can organize to change the system (see item # 3), but while we are waiting for the system to change, we can use self-help measures. Home schooling is an option. The conservative right has been using this is as a tool for many years, and it has worked.
If you can’t do this yourself, try to find someone in your community who is willing to do this (again, see # 3).
If this is not an option, show up to school board meetings, talk to other parents, talk to the principal. In short, do whatever you can, no matter how small a step it may seem. '
8. Help debunk stereo types
Things like “Dear White People” and College Humor are working toward this goal, but you can do your part. Don’t fall into the trap of “acting black or white.” White people do not have a copyright on correct grammar, white collar professions, or country music. So be yourself and do what you have to do. Not happy with our first black President? Then become the next black President.
9. Be patient
It’s hard to encourage people to be patient at this stage of the game. After hundreds of years of oppression, this seems unimaginable, but we also have to realize that this type of lack of respect for black lives has been present since the very inception of this country (e.g. the Constitution only recognized slaves as 3/5 of a man). This state of mind was not helped by our government’s lack of enforcement of our civil rights (the first civil rights act was not passed until close to 100 years after slavery was outlawed and even then it was hardly what was needed).
In short, this is going to take time, but the good news is that we’ve been at this for a while now and each day that we stay strong and take positive steps forward is one more day toward progress.
10. Work your faith
With the news of Mike Brown’s murder, the many others before him, and the assault on peaceful protesters, I was feeling overwhelmed and discouraged, but I want to thank my Mom for reminding me that it is not by my might that this situation will be resolved (Isaiah 4:6). So, work your faith. Pray for peace. Pray for your enemies. Pray for the courage and strength to take what steps you can against the odds. And don’t just work your faith for yourself, encourage others in your community (again, see # 3). In my own life, this has been the most important step.
If you don’t believe in God, then tap into whatever resource you have to give you courage and strength during this battle.
Now I've never had a desk job so I don't know.... But I'm guessing just a guess that the European Model is better... I say this because .. People who have a good and fun (but not to much time away from work kind of fun) environment are more productive .... If you go into work dreading it makes it hard to work... Being pissed off though can push one in a physical job to do more...... I don't want to say to much but my Job went from decent with some anger causing things but dealable to miserable and a made like 4 errors that I never make I caught them.... I do like that in Europe they give you more time to take and you do.. I might be a bit Biased cause where I work we have so much work and if one guy slacks off it puts the work on other people... Same thing with some days off.... Think here in the states they give you time but use and it is looked down on.... Yes in past I got in trouble for using to much sick time (mental health day have to lie if you have kids that are sick you have to lie... Call in with my kid is sick taking to doctor even with note not paid ) ... Sorry for rant on your post ............
Upon rereading what I wrote last night, I think I may have come across stronger or harsher than I intended. Sorry about that.
When I was talking about the marginalization (perhaps not the best word) of working women in feminist doctrine, I was thinking of the so-called "third wave" feminists of the 1990s who said that the feminism was too white and upper middle-class. They wanted feminism to be more inclusive of social class and race.
Every worker is different some people care about what they do some don't , some people work very hard, some people not so much, some people spend more time figuring out how they will do the work then doing, some people can do the work at home thing .... I not saying that people are paid for their value (wish they where) ... In fact I think where I work my value should give me a higher rate of pay then I'm at (but no one knows what any else get paid but that is a different story) .... Now I'm not saying that all women in a family are the ones who do all that stuff... If they are a nurse they can't leave so dad has to do all that.... (I've worked with men who picked up the kids and where the ones who did that) .... But the nurse thing is an example of why women make less money then men... yes there are some women doctors of course and there are some male nurses... I don't have stats but from what I've seen growing up doctors are higher in the pay scale then nurses so that throws of the gender equality thing.... I'm also not saying women should be paid less... I like the idea of equal work equal pay... But it isn't fair if on monday the guys come in hung over from watching football and don't do anything they shouldn't be paid the same as the person who works all day..... I'm not saying that women shouldn't be paid for maternity leave and I like that their job is protected.... But the fact is that unless it is a job they can do from home, someone else has to do that work and be trained in it or be brought in.... Thankfully I'm not a boss or Manager but that does take away from their value....
I think that your argument depends on how you define value. I would say that more time at work doesn't necessarily make you more valuable. For instance, a person with a family may be better at using their time efficiently than someone who doesn't. The same goes for quality of work. The woman who has to take off because her kid is sick may be better qualified to do the job than her male counterpart. Also, I don't believe in this model where people must be chained to their desks to produce. I haven't done the research myself, but I've heard that European countries have work models where people work less, but they employ more people to get the work done. So, your spreading the cost of production across more people and people are not overworked.
I'm going to take some shit for this at that is ok ....
1. Never read Dickens
2. Women do make less then men but there is a difference between how much they make and how much they make for doing the same job... look at athletes more people watch mens sports so there is more money ....
3. But see what no one wants to admit is if you have a women and a man in the same job... The women has less worth.... When or if she gets pregnant she get paid for maternity leave for not working... When the kids get sick she is the one that goes home and again gets paid for not being there... When their is a school thing again she is the one that leaves ... In terms of making money they have less value... This is not only true of women this is true of people with families over single people... When my "Baby" is sick got to stay home in bed with her or when horny it is a sick day again I'm paid for this... but single people don't call in sick cause they don't have a reason to unless really sick.... This is also true of say in some jobs people with out families cause they will work holidays.... Every employee has a different value in the work force.... in some places it works the other way... Women bring men into some places like bars so they have more value ......
First, I'm not sure how someone can argue that feminism marginalized lower class women, when they were already marginalized. Second, I'm not clear where in all my comments that you got the impression that I don't value all the women that have gone before me or that I don't appreciate single working class women, because I do. But none of this changes our realities. Third, I recognize that I have more choices than women did before, but that doesn't mean that today's inequalities and double standards are acceptable.
Just for the record, radical critics of 20th Century feminism say 20th Century feminists are the ones that say that working class women didn't matter. Don't lay that shit on me. I grew up in a single parent working class home. My mom was one of the women that feminism marginized because of her class. She didn't have a choice. In the 1960s, it was work or die. It didn't matter if she had a child. I suggest that when you think about how much your life sucks, you should think about all the women that were born before you. Without these brave women, you wouldn't have the choices that you do today.
I am lucky that I have led a charmed life (though not everyone might see it as such). I reap the benefits of institutional racism and sexism because of my race and gender.
Since I have a voice, I use it to defend and protect those who don't have a voice. I use my voice to advocate for the people that our society says doesn't matter.
People of good will all fight the good fight. I am fortunate that I can focus on fighting for the rights of others.
Uncut, I get that they were supposed the Mr. and Mrs. were supposed to be figures of fun (and they were), which is why I like Dickens, but I do think there was a critique of women who choose to put their attention elsewhere. As far as things today are concerned, we certainly aren't where we were in 1852, but it is very real that women are still held to different standards than men, they don't earn as much, and they still are expected to handle work and home life issues much more so than men. I know this from personal experience, and I don't think I just happen to be trapped within some dying breed of Americans that still doesn't get it. I think these are still very real situations that women are dealing with every day. I acknowledge that women in lower classes did work, but, as you said, they didn't matter and their homes were expected to be a wreck and their kids unkempt. I'm more focused on what society sees as acceptable for those that it does recognize.
I concur with YesThatCasey. In Victorian times, women worked in factories and textile mills and even coal mines. But they were not middle class or upper class women so they didn't matter. In the working class, women have pretty always worked since the industrial age. The idea of feminism and women working was a middle and upper class phenomenon. Working class women had no choice. In a very real sense, it was work or die. On the other hand, middle and upper class women did have a choice, they could stay at home and be supported by their spouse or choose to get employment outside the home.
"...this line of thinking is still prevalent today."
I'd question this claim. There is a dwindling segment of western cultures that still maintains this belief, but overall I'd say this is very much a dying breed. They attract a great deal of attention, but this attraction is precisely because of how ridiculous this mindset is given our current understandings.
That said, your post, and uncut's response, really make me think I need to go back and read some Dicken's.
I've not read Bleak House in over 20 years, but, if my memory serves me correctly, and I think it does - both Mr. and Mrs Jellyby were supposed to be figures of fun (if not ridicule) to Dickens' readers. I think it is very important to remember whilst reading Dickens that he wrote with a deep sense of irony.
Dickens uses irony verbally, dramatically, and situationally. And sometimes, he does all three in the same paragraph.
Dickens wrote Bleak House during the reign of Queen Victoria. This helped shape the perception of women in Dickens' readers. The idea that a strong, capable, intelligent woman might exist was not a foreign one to them. Their country was led by one.