Equity and Justice - Is it Primarily Class? - Part I
Equity + Justice + Intersectionality –
Is it Primarily Class? – Part I
A. Intersectionality
– Kimberle Crenshaw’s gift is helpful,
B. The Patriarchy – is very important to
me
C. I have problems with views such as:
Those of us who look to intersectionality for a
comprehension of the causes of the social inequalities that grow more intense
every day, here in the US and around the world, would do much better to seek
analysis and remedy in an antiracist, antisexist, and internationalist
revolutionary Marxism: a Marxism that envisions the communist transformation of
society in the not too distant future
https://multiracialunity.org/2018/09/26/intersectionality-a-marxist-critique/
--
Residents here have included (and perhaps still include):
1. Settler
Colonialists,
2. Immigrants,
and
3. Slaves/Natives
(lacking basic rights).
Settler Colonialists started
arriving in 1492. They brought
Christianity, private land ownership and more to civilize the others, using
their guns and other parts of their power to win.
Immigrants are/were
different. They joined The United
States to become USians (or if you prefer Americans). Becoming is very different from civilizing.
Black Africans were forcibly taken from Africa and
enslaved in our country. Others who
resided here before 1492 also lacked basic rights here.
Indentured servants from England began collaborating
with slaves (and some Native People). Race
is an artificial construct.
Race developed along
with whiteness during the second half of the 17th Century. It developed out of wealthy, white, male
landowners’ perceived threats to their power.
Whiteness
was significant. Divide and Conquer has
been an effective strategy. It involves
those in power playing off many who could be allies against each other.
The British divided India’s People into The Hindus against
The Moslems. They built a separation which became India vs. Pakistan. Their leaders are mortal enemies to this
day.
Whiteness has
continued dividing us to the present.
The Civil War “helped” end U.S. slavery. It didn’t end racism. Civil Rights legislation in the 1960’s –
forbade discrimination. It didn’t substantively
deal with the systemic nature of racism.
--
The 3
million people who make up the wealthiest 1% of Americans are collectively
worth more than the 291 million that make up the bottom 90%.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-bottom-half-of-america-has-half-the-wealth-it-did-30-years-ago/
One might reasonably
conclude from the data directly above that a Modernized Marxism (my
choice of words) – Is the Answer.
I will try to address
this issue beginning in Part II of this writing.
--
A most obvious relevant example involves looking at
the birthing of Children. The findings
below are (unfortunately) far from unique!
Similar studies show similar findings. Areas such as residential housing purchases,
educating young people, as well as policing/ incarceration provide similar,
often directly comparable, results.
In 2021 the maternal death rates for Black Women were
2.6 similar rates for white Women.
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hestat/maternal-mortality/2021/maternal-mortality-rates-2021.pdf
The study, published last month
by the National Bureau of Economic Research, includes nearly all the infants
born to first-time mothers from 2007 to 2016 in California, the state with the
most annual births. …
The researchers found that maternal mortality rates were
just as high among the highest-income Black women as among low-income white
women. Infant mortality rates between the two groups were also similar. …
The babies born to the richest Black women (the top tenth
of earners) tended to have more risk factors, including being born premature or
underweight, than those born to the richest white mothers — and more than those
born to the poorest white mothers. It’s evidence that the harm to Black mothers
and their babies, regardless of socioeconomic status, begins before childbirth.
“As a Black infant, you’re starting off with worse health,
even those born into these wealthy families,” said Sarah Miller, a health
economist at the University of Michigan. She was an author of the study with
Professor Rossin-Slater and Petra Persson of Stanford, Kate Kennedy-Moulton of
Columbia, Laura Wherry of N.Y.U. and Gloria Aldana of the Census Bureau…
Even before the new paper, research found that Black women with the most resources, as measured by education and class mobility, did not benefit during childbirth the way white women did. The new study demonstrates that disparities are not explained by income, age, marital status or country of birth.
Rather, by showing that even rich Black mothers and babies
have a disproportionately higher risk of death, the data suggests broader
forces at play in the lives of Black mothers, Professor Rossin-Slater said.
“It’s not race, it’s racism,” said Tiffany L. Green, an
economist focused on public health and obstetrics at the University of
Wisconsin-Madison. “The data are quite clear that this isn’t about biology.
This is about the environments where we live, where we work, where we play,
where we sleep.”
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/02/12/upshot/child-maternal-mortality-rich-poor.html
While I had a pretty easy
pregnancy, my daughter was born by emergency C-section after her heart rate
dropped dramatically during contractions. … (note: what follows relates to herself)
It began with a pulmonary embolism, which is a condition
in which one or more arteries in the lungs becomes blocked by a blood clot.
Because of my medical history with this problem, I live in fear of this
situation. So, when I fell short of breath, I didn’t wait a second to alert the
nurses.
This sparked a slew of health complications that I am
lucky to have survived. First my C-section wound popped open due to the intense
coughing I endured as a result of the embolism. I returned to surgery, where
the doctors found a large hematoma, a swelling of clotted blood, in my abdomen.
And then I returned to the operating room for a procedure that prevents clots
from traveling to my lungs. When I finally made it home to my family, I had to
spend the first six weeks of motherhood in bed.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/20/opinions/protect-mother-pregnancy-williams-opinion/index.html
Serena Williams has an estimated net worth of $250 million.
https://parade.com/1400745/hannah-southwick/serena-willliams-net-worth/
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