Life and Times of Alex Esguerra — Democracy in Black
Racism, Identify, Giving Feedback and Take Action
Posted by noreply@blogger.com (Alex Esguerra) on
I totally agree with Ibram Kendi's book when he states that the only way to undo racism is consistently identify it. Those who are in constant denial or are ignorant about racism of course will continuously resist, deny or counter the word as aggressiveness or resistance, Thus every single person has the power to resist racism regardless of color of the skin.
Let's start with some basic current examples like the PPP - Paycheck Protection Program, a loan program created to help small and micro businesses as a result of the still problematic Covid-19 pandemic. Like the thousands of small and micro businesses who applied since it was announced in March-April, the question lies why is still there funds unused. The program expiration of June 30 was just extended as of this writing. It is a program design to small businesses having 100 employees or less. Based on the data out, the majority of black and people of color small businesses that have applied and still at a limbo are those having 10 employees or less or even 1-3 employees. As we have seen at first when the program started, the major big businesses where even recipients some of whom were asked to return the money.
I'm not gonna explore much of who and why the recipients are. But what I've found out is that when the program started where the first bank res ponders where the big banks like Bank of America, Wells Fargo, etc.., So the big banks who are typically designed to deal with the same big businesses who were somehow first recipients had been task to be administer these loans thereby to be the initial or even final evaluators whether the individuals or businesses applying are worthy of this PPP loan, And wallah, when this author talked about institutional and organizational policies here is one good example. The training set up of the people evaluating these loans in these banks are created to big businesses. Well of course they can claim they have focus on small businesses. The reality is that there so called small businesses maybe 100 or even 50 employees but these are businesses making millions of revenues. The majority of the borrowers trying to apply are those that earn from $2000 to $35,000 a month, those businesses that are in dire need of constant cash flow and working capital.
So cutting the story short after months of going and back forth on threads of emails with attachments. Attachments that can't be open as they are digitally automatically encrypted for some reason on the bank recipients, faxing documents that banks claims they have so many back logs. actual mails that never get to the right person and calls that are never return it'a useless endeavor and so much wasted time and effort on those that really needed the funds, Added to these are the constant emails etc.., asking for the same documents either already submitted and not making sense especially for sole proprietors that do not have have payroll tax records but independent contractors and services.
I've been in a micro cottage small business in most of my adult life and what is new to this scene as I tell myself. Even the richest and most powerful country in the world, this is the reality and yet when the discussion of racism opens we try to deeply contradict what the bounds of this topic. On a side note, a lot of the recipients in the last month coming from the those 1-10 employee minority impacted businesses got their loan from the micro lending efforts of small banks some of them even unheard.
Looking at this picture, we know that these institutions employ are a lot of people of color. The repeated question would be although some of them know the true realities that exist of the real small businesses, do they have the power to change the rules or sometimes can they even voice their opinion without fear that they can be identified as a threat? This is what the topic of racism talks on the white privilege having the power to change things. The real change will happen when we start empowering the minority and people of color to be able to sit and hold major positions on these institutions. The caveat here lies is ensuring that the chosen people of color are actually the real idealistic ones and not those still behind the shadows of the white privilege culture. I say these as it is true that there are indeed some people of color on those high positions but they are a tiny fraction they won't even say anything so they can protect their job, position or financial security.
A good example of this lies on the highest echelons of government. When politicians run for office, you will hear much of the idealism of change. Then defeat comes, yet they are identified especially if they are a person of color with such idealism, Some take what position that may come their way for their own reasons. What surprises me is that when they are working for an administration, the idealism mellows down. Then the breaking points come into picture when they are face with the realities on making their voice heard or taking a position. For the courageous that left, I salute them but for some they that pride and take a position with an administration to show loyalty and solidarity. The fastest way of fixing this is through an election. With 4 months on the way to a presidential election, a new administration starting with the right mixture having a big contingent of people of color with the ideological perspective to eradicating racism is a big factor. Although a Woman Vice-President candidate is a step, not until a big majority of an administration from the top up down who have a big contingent of minority people of color, healing cannot start to happen.
The major private sector institutions who are somewhat in denial on racism and following the ideals of white power can change. But they won't drastically as they go side by side with politics. Until they see the government's initiatives they wont; make such significant major changes, They can make all their public relation announcements of changing names, changing their advertising policies but not until they deeply study their organizational policies and structures and really employ and promote the real minorities don't expect the eradicate the problem of racism.
This issue on racism has been going on decades, the hard part of the battle is we deal with it in bits and pieces. We have to use the best time right now to make the best out of it by talking about it and gaining the most we can in continuing the battle of racism.
Antidemocractic tactics of deceit, lies and confusion for media domination
Posted by noreply@blogger.com (Alex Esguerra) on
Famous authoritarian rulers historically can be remembered as the greatest manipulator of the media, the air waves on tv, newspaper print and now in this century, "the social media" It's surprising to note that common laymen like all of us have to go to so much verification and scrutiny to create a username, handle, page or even an ad on the this platforms if they think it has some kind of relation to politics or political views and opinions. Yet those, in the highest places of power are the exceptions to all of us that they can say or advertise anything they want. Of course this is a debate-table statement however this is based on my own personal views and experience.
I highlighted, "Antidemocracy in America" as a reference point. This book written in 2019 made a statement on how there could be a unsettling turn toward authoritarian rule. It warn from the social impact of tweets, the breaking news stories using political drama as a strategy. The /fake news/ statements has gotten so much dominance on psychological reverse mentality aiding with the daily shows for everyone to watch.
George Packer of the Atlantic wrote in April 2020, "But a simple intuition had propelled Trump throughout his life: Human beings are weak. They have their illusions, appetites, vanities, fears. They can be cowed, corrupted, or crushed. A government is composed of human beings. This was the flaw in the brilliant design of the Framers, and Trump learned how to exploit it. The wreckage began to pile up. He needed only a few years to warp his administration into a tool for his own benefit. If he’s given a few more years, the damage to American democracy will be irreversible.
In page 136 of this book "How We Got Here" it talks on the roots of our current criminal justice system in the 1960's. The debates and need for legislation already started then. Sad to say during the Nixon presidency the US Federal government withdrew resources from the cities where these debates started. It expanded support for law enforcement and design a more punitive criminal justice system. Hence, in the on-going street protest a big part of the battle cry is start the change way down from the local governments.
The calls for overall of the criminal justice system was fortified by the Black Lives Matter movement and books like The New Jim Crow. On the book's page 140, it writes, "President Trump's repeated calls for "law and order" represent a clear turn backward to the rhetoric used by Richard Nixon in 1968". The last few days we know what law and order means "Domination"
Certain TV networks that promoted Trump and is still is; the primary voters who elevated him; the party and politicians who eventually surrendered and glorified him, the so-called intellectuals who argued for him, and the donors who, however grudgingly, wrote checks to him—all of them knew, by the time they made their decisions, that Trump lied all the time, about everything. They knew that Trump was ignorant, and coarse, and boastful, and cruel.
After all it is a show and the higher the ratings are means, the road to re-election. There are so many ways we can act and fight for the cause of equality. One big part is to continue correcting the propaganda,
Under the Color of Law, the onset de jure segregation, from civil rights to Covid-19
Posted by noreply@blogger.com (Alex Esguerra) on
The Color of Law one of my bestseller favorites book is back in the lime light since it was published in 2017. Written by bestselling author, Richard Rothstein this book One of Publishers Weekly's 10 Best Books of 2017
Longlisted for the National Book Award. This “powerful and disturbing history” exposes how American governments deliberately imposed racial segregation on metropolitan areas nationwide (New York Times Book Review).
In United States law, the term color of law denotes the "mere semblance of legal right", the "pretense or appearance of" right; hence, an action done under color of law adjusts the law to the circumstance, yet said apparently legal action contravenes the law. Wikipedia
Back when this book published Richard Rothstein, a leading authority on housing policy, explodes the myth that America’s cities came to be racially divided through de facto segregation―that is, through individual prejudices, income differences, or the actions of private institutions like banks and real estate agencies. Rather, The Color of Law incontrovertibly makes clear that it was de jure segregation―the laws and policy decisions passed by local, state, and federal governments―that actually promoted the discriminatory patterns that continue to this day.
2017 also saw some of the continuance of massive shootings and White Supremacist propaganda's everywhere. As to how this movement got more motivated is another topic for discussion. On the other side of this was the great wall or immigration's racial divide.
The last 3 months in hiatus of the Corona virus Covid-19 pandemic, what was common was the health disparities on getting the deadly virus with the African Americans, Latino's minorities who are low income, sufferers of immune compromised due to health issues, and no health insurance. In addition, most of the essential low paid jobs exposed daily to this virus which does not have cure as of today are done by these minority groups. Not to forget this Wuhan virus was initially called "Chinese Virus" which motivated the racial tension towards Chinese and Asian Americans. Wearing a mask when you cannot social distance to prevent contamination of the no cure virus is even mock.
in Minneapolis, Minnesota, a forty-six-year-old black man named George Floyd died in a way that highlighted the implications that calls such as the one Amy Cooper placed can have; George Floyd is who Christian Cooper might have been. (The police made no arrests and filed no summons in Central Park. Amy Cooper has apologized for her actions; she was also fired from her job.) Police responding to a call from a shopkeeper, about someone trying to pass a potentially counterfeit bill, arrested Floyd. Surveillance video shows a compliant man being led away in handcuffs. But cellphone video later shows a white police officer kneeling on Floyd’s neck for seven minutes, despite protests from onlookers that his life is in jeopardy.
In 2015, police responding to calls of a dispute between a man and a woman in north Minneapolis fatally shot a twenty-four-year-old African-American man named Jamar Clark. Police and paramedics on the scene claimed that Clark had resisted arrest and had attempted to grab an officer’s gun; bystanders claimed that he was handcuffed and on the ground when the shot was fired. Clark’s death was followed by more than two weeks of demonstrations outside the Fourth Police Precinct in Minneapolis, led by Black Lives Matter; an attempt to disrupt holiday shopping at the Mall of America, in protest; and cascading contempt from black residents that, two years later, factored into Mayor Betsy Hodges losing her reëlection bid. In light of that history, Frey has been unequivocal about police culpability in Floyd’s death. “Being black in America should not be a death sentence,” he said on Tuesday.
One of the reviews of this book, "“Rothstein’s work should make everyone, all across the political spectrum, reconsider what it is we allow those in power to do in the name of 'social harmony' and 'progress' with more skepticism…The Color of Law shows what happens when Americans lose their natural rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, or in the case of African-Americans, when there are those still waiting to receive them in full.”
- Carl Paulus, American Conservative"
These last few years in America reminds me of the past histories in third world developing countries with poverty, corruption, authoritarian rule and economic divide of the rich and poor. Can't imagine it's almost the 22nd century, that America the greatest, wealthiest most powerful country, has the most deaths in this virus now passing 100,000, there's no general testing policies, no vaccines, 40 million unemployed
We have not had time to grief for the loss souls in Covid-19 and now we have George Floyd. It truly hurts to think about these disparities. The best most important thing to remember is in-spite of all these events we have to remain calm, we have to think about the future and get this democracy back.
Democracy in Black, A Look into Eddie S. Glaude's Jr.'s Book
Posted by Alexander Esguerra on
Democracy in Black was a book I happened to read early this year just in time for the inauguration of 45th US President.
A book recommended for all ages for the Los Angeles Times, bestselling author Eddie S. Glaude Jr. continues the discussion on the promise of equality in America. He capitalized on history, memoir's, call to action as well the still existing gap on the issue. One would think that perhaps the election of Former President Barack Obama has ended or answered the subdivide. Unfortunately as the author wrote racial habits are a particular kind of social habit which I truly agree. I remember on my first tour of Europe backpacking starting from the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, France and the UK. When your young and travelling, the best gift about it is that experience of the different cultures, languages, lifestyles and way of life. Hence, in the process I sort of develop how I would later perceive someone from the countries I had been. I remember staying in a bread and breakfast inn in Tuscany which was owned and managed by a well educated affluent French Ethiopian couple. Then my recollection of a scene in Charing Cross on street gang fighting right next to the hotel I was staying. In all those times looking at Caucasian Europeans to live normal lives with not much high and low memories during my trip.
Today living in US metropolitan diverse cities, you get to experience the different paths and cultures when your a tourist to a particular city. There are the permanent communities like Chinatown for example as well as you would hear that a particular community resides in a certain demographic location. For example, the Latinos are concentrated this part of the city, the Chinese are on this part and so. It's not to state the racial subdivide it's just how were accustomed that people with racial origins have their own identified communities where a lot of the original cultures etc.., are concentrated.
President Obama when elected was very promising to the African Americans as well the people of colors hope for equality. However, as President as much as he tried to open the discussions on equality he was only able to do as much as after all he represented all the cultures as President.
This was the disconnect as people thought of him as the black progressive antidote but with the position of leader of the free world there was just too much risk if he indeed focus on pursuing inequalities faced by people of color.
Post Martin Luther King, the civil rights and now post Obama, the race inequality might have gain traction on getting the problem More discussed but the problem still persist. It is a discussion not just for the American Africans but also for any minority and people of color as after all we all live in this great country, we all work, and we all contribute to economy and society.
Kudos to Democracy in BlackAlex Esguerra
https://www.usedbookworld.com