I guess it comes down to one's definition of “science?” No?

Well just last week a former Montclair man (black) was murdered by a police detective (white) in Branch Brook Park. The story was updated about every two hours and each update consisted of a new version of the facts. By story #6 they found a version that they could agree on. The man and his reputation were destroyed, but the detective remains in good standing. This man was victim #9 in Newark so far this year.

How do children or adults for that matter get motivated to change their lifestyle when they are so de-valued? There's a pervasive attitude of “that's all there is” . Why bother. I'm not for giveaways, but it's wrong to remove every chance that people have at getting out of a lifestyle that shouldn't even exist. The boys expect to spend some time in jail and the girls will have babies. Nobody seems to dispute that with them. It's their idea of 'growing up'.

I find it interesting that this stereotype is still associated with ghettos and racial minorities when the behavior has become mainstream. Some decades ago, if you drove a Cadillac and had no savings, you stood out if you lived in a poor neighborhood. But if you rented a house in a nice suburb and participated in the same behavior, no one batted an eye.

Now, as our middle class slides into underclass status, those pretty and clean suburban communities are becoming full of people who have no savings, yet lease the high status cars and make huge mortgage payments on homes they have very little equity in. Not much difference really, from the Cadillac in the ghetto, unless you consider the zip code and racial demographics.

waytoomanybottlesofrum makes an important point about egalitarianism.

Look at the current dynamic regarding the ever eroding fortunes of the average American – the bottom 50% of Americans have 1% of the wealth while the top 1% have 83% of the wealth, and it keeps getting worse every year at an accelerating rate.

That is because money truly equates to power, and the ability of one group to persevere over another has nothing to do with how much wealth either group has independent of the other.

Rather, all that is required is that one group have marginally more power than the other, for the former to be able to beat down and ultimately destroy the latter.

And this is precisely what has happened in the U.S., where corporate America organized an all-out war against the labor movement and middle class America and won.

Look at what happened in the time under Clinton when all Americans were being lifted up, but most dramatically the poor, and among them most notably poor minorities. This was a non-linear, or disproportionate effect, suggesting that poverty exerts an inordinate burden on those so afflicted.

If the poor were genetically disfigured then that dynamic would not have occurred. But we see this outcome again and again.

Another look at the same problem from a different angle is how corporate invaders turn healthy agrarian lifestyles of indiginous peoples upside down.

In the reference frame of developed countries these people are impoverished. Yet, when corporations tear apart their world and make them dependent upon corporate dollars for survival, their lives become a living hell in which they become enslaved by their masters and they lose all control over their lives. They also lose their sense of community and their sense of self worth.

We do the same to our poor. Rather than empowering them we disempower them. Rather than giving them hope we break down their control over their own lives.

That is because Capitalism is all about funneling money upwards by enslaving its workers. And that is precisely what they have done.

So this whole discussion about eugenics is misplaced and on its face absurd. We only have to look at the dynamics of the past 30 years to see what inequality does to a nation. Or take a broader look at how tragically the reach of corporate power into undeveloped countries has utterly destroyed their lives.

Does anyone believe for a second that 40 percent of black males deserve to be felons? Or is it because corporate America has made pot smoking a federal crime and has made crack smoking 100 times more illegal than cocaine, and has forced 95% of poor people arrested to take plea deals under threat of harsh prison sentences, all without adequate representation?

Talk of eugenics is the talk of those in power seeking to justify perceived gross inequities.

peace,
Paul