Truth & Boycotts, Divestment & Sanctions (BDS) Can Overcome Huge Inequities Suffered By African Americans Under American Apartheid
By Dr Gideon Polya
29 September, 2014
Countercurrents.org
1. African Americans living in poverty is at a record high.
The number of African Americans living under the poverty line ( $11,139 for an individual in 2010) rose to 10.7 million i.e. 27.4 percent of African Americans were living in poverty in 2011 [1] .
2. African Americans are disproportionately impoverished, poorly paid and lacking in health insurance.
(i) 27.2% of African Americans live in poverty versus 9.6% of Whites not Hispanic, 10.5% of Asians, 12.3% of Whites, 23.5% of Hispanics of any race (2013).
(ii) $34,598 median income for African Americans versus $56,270 for Whites not Hispanic, $67,065 for Asians, $55, 257 for Whites, $40,963 for Hispanics of any race (2013).
(iii) 15.9% of African Americans lack health insurance versus 9.8% of Whites not Hispanic, 14.5.% of Asians, 12.8% of Whites, 24.3% of Hispanics any race (2013) [2].
3. African American wealth is about 5 times lower than that of Whites.
(i) $75,040 average home value for Black Americans versus $217,150 for Whites (2013).
(ii). $154,285 average household assets for Black Americans versus $783,224 for Whites (2013) [3].
4. The Black-White discrepancy has been locked in for 50 years.
(i) 2 times higher unemployment rate for African Americans than for Whites since 1963 (in the range from 1.8 times higher to 2.7 times higher) [4].
(ii) 11.6% average unemployment rate for African Americans (1963-2012) ( 5.1% for Whites, 6.7% American average during recessions) .
(iii) $55,000 - $32,000 = $23,000 White-Black household income gap (2010) versus $49,000 - $28,000 = $21,000 (1972).
( iv) 6-fold White/Black wealth disparity in the period 1983-2010.
(v) 42%/11% Black/White “below poverty line” (1966) to 23%/7% (2000) and to 28%/10% (2011).
(vi) 45% of African Americans children living in areas of concentrated poverty (poverty rate 30% or greater) versus 12% for White, 21% for Asian and Pacific Islander, 35% for Hispanic and 39% for American Indian children.
(vii) 74.1% / 38.1% of African Americans children in Segregated (50-100% non-white)/ Intensely segregated (90-100% non-white) schools in 2009/2010 versus 76.6% / 64.3% in 1968/1969.
(viii) 31% /55% for adult African Americans married/ adult Whites married (2011) versus 61%/74% (1960).
(ix) 52.1% of African American children in single parent homes in 2012 versus 24.9% (all children), 12.0% (Asian), 17.3% (White, non-Hispanic), 19.9% ( White), and 27.5% (Hispanic).
(x) 11% of African American children were uninsured in 2011 versus 7% (White children), 9% (Asian), 16% Hispanic), and 17% (American Indian).
(xi) 26% of African American adults were uninsured in 2011 versus 15% (White adult ), 21% (Asian), 41% Hispanic), and 32% (American Indian).
(xii) 43,470 per million incarceration rate in 2010 for African American men versus 6,780 for White men and 17,750 for Hispanic men (13,130 per million incarceration rate in 1960 for African American men versus 2,620 for White men and 6,010 for Hispanic men. ) .
(xiii) 2,600 per million incarceration rate in 2010 for African American women versus 910 for White women and 1,330 for Hispanic women (760 per million incarceration rate in 1960 for African American women versus 110 for White women) .
(xiv) The population of the US in 2012 was 308.7 million, this comprising 223.6 million Whites (72.4%), 38.9 million African Americans (12.6%), 14.7 million Asians (4.8%), 50.5 million Hispanics (16.4%) and 0.7 million American Indians (0.2%) [5]. Assuming a 50:50 sex ratio and the 2012 population data one can estimate that in 2012 the US had about 1,792,000 African American prisoners (4.6% of African American population), 1,719,000 White prisoners (0.8% of White population) , and 964,000 Hispanic prisoners (1.9% of Hispanic population) for a total of 4,475,000 prisoners or 1.4% of the population.
5. Millions of African Americans are excluded from voting.
(i) 5-6 million Americans have been disenfranchised because of felony convictions and more than a million of these disenfranchised Americans are black. Felony convictions restrict 13 percent of the country's black male population from voting. Other restrictions may prevent African Americans from voting [6].
(ii) Dr Michelle Alexander ( author of “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness” [7], former director of the Racial Justice Project of the ACLU in Northern California, former law clerk to Justice Harry Blackman on the U.S. Supreme Court, and who currently holds a joint appointment with the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity and the Moritz College of Law at Ohio State University ): “If you take into account prisoners, a large majority of African American men in some urban areas have been labeled felons for life. (In the Chicago area, the figure is nearly 80 percent.) These men are part of a growing undercaste—not class, caste—permanently relegated by law to a second-class status. They can be denied the right to vote, automatically excluded from juries, and legally discriminated against in employment, housing, access to education, and public benefits, much as their grandparents and great-grandparents were during the Jim Crow era.” [8].
6. African Americans and Hispanic Americans have about half their “fair share” of representatives in Congress and 5-6 times less Congressional representation than Jewish Americans.
(i) The ethnic mix of the United States (2010 data) is as follows: Whites (72.4%), non-Hispanic White (63.7%), Hispanic (16.4%,) , White Hispanic (8.7%) , African American (12.6%) , Asian American (4.6%), Native American (0.9%)
In 2012, the American Jewish population was estimated at between 5.5-8 million, depending on the definition of the term. This constitutes between 1.7% to 2.6% of the total US population [9]. Of the 113th Congress (100 Senators and 435 Representatives) there are 12 Jewish Americans in the Senate (12.0%; 11 Democrats, 1 Independent) and 22 in the House of Representatives (5.1%; 1 Republican, 21 Democrats) or 6.4% overall [10, 11].
(ii) During the 113th Congress (2013–present), the Congressional Black Caucus has 1 Senator, 41 voting Representatives i.e. 7.9% of total [12]. Thus African Americans have about half their “fair share” of representatives in Congress and roughly the same representation in Congress as Jewish Americans while having a 5-fold greater population.
(iii) There are 12 Hispanic Republican members of Congress [13] and 27 Democrat members of Congress [14]. or 39 x 100/535 = 7.3% of the total. Thus Hispanic Americans have about half their “fair share” of representatives in Congress and roughly the same representation in Congress as Jews while having an over 6-fold greater population.
7. African Americans are 8 times more likely to murder and 6 times more likely to be murdered than Whites.
8. African American males are disproportionately involved in violent crime.
US journalist Victor Thorn: “Nearly 50% of all black males and 38% of white men will be arrested by the age of 23... A 2012 study by the Department of Justice's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention revealed that in 2010 black youths committed six times more murders, three times more rapes, 10 times more robberies and three times more assaults than did their white counterparts… Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the “Uniform Crime Reports.” They determined, “In the year 2008, black youths, who make up 16% of the youth population, accounted for 52% of juvenile violent crime arrests, including 58% for homicide and 67% for robbery”” [17].
9. African American Congress representatives and leaders betray African Americans, anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela, human rights and Palestinians, and back genocidally racist Apartheid Israel 's Palestinian Genocide.
(i) Anti-Apartheid hero and Nobel Laureate Nelson Mandela famously stated “The UN took a strong stand against apartheid; and over the years, an international consensus was built, which helped to bring an end to this iniquitous system. Our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians”[18]. However African American Congress representatives have betrayed anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela, human rights and Palestinians, and back the genocidal crimes of nuclear terrorist, genocidally racist, racist Zionist-run, racist America-backed Apartheid Israel.
Bruce A. Dixon (managing director of the Black Agenda Report) (2014): “ Israel's vicious apartheid regime celebrated Barack Obama's 2009 inauguration with the massacre of 1400 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, and the destruction of a great part of the enclave's infrastructure, down to chicken farms and water systems. The new Congress called it righteous self-defense, with 390 yeas, 5 nays and 22 “present”. The CBC was 2 of those nays, Gwen Moore (WI) and Maxine Waters (CA), and 7 of the “presents”, Edwards (MD), Ellison (MN), Johnson (GA), Lee (TX), Payne (NJ), Kilpatrick (MI), and Watson (CA). This month, as the civilian death toll in the latest Israeli criminal orgy of collective punishment mounted toward 1,000 [latest: 2,200] , the US House passed a nearly identical resolution, calling this massacre legitimate “self-defense” as well. This time the House vote, including that of the Congressional Black Caucus was unanimous. Not a single member of the CBC, despite their much heralded brand of standing for civil rights and against apartheid here and around the world, bothered to publicly question the racist ethnocracy that is the Israeli state” [19].
Neo-Nazi Apartheid Israel's latest Gaza Massacre in the Gaza Concentration Camp has so far has been associated with 2,200 Palestinians killed, 10,000 wounded, and 450,000 displaced with 1.8 million Gazans ( 0.9 million of them children) variously traumatized by Apartheid Israel (or more exactly, Nazi Israel if one accepts that Nazi is as Nazi does) - and all this horror in response to the murder of 3 Israeli settler teenagers killed by persons unknown (later found to be Hamas supporters), and zero (0) Israelis killed by Gaza rockets in the year before the latest Israeli invasion. Indeed 28 Israelis have been killed by Gaza rockets since the start of the Intifada in 2000 or 2 per year as compared to a total of about 130 Israelis murdered by fellow Israelis each year [20, 21]. The US-backed racist Zionists have killed 2 million Indigenous Palestinians since 1936 through violence (0.1 million) or through violently-imposed deprivation (1.9 million), and have generated 7 million Palestinian refugees. Of 12 million Palestinians (half of them children), 6 million are forbidden to even step foot in their own country, 4.3 million are highly abusively imprisoned in the Gaza Concentration Camp (1.8 million) or in West Bank mini-Bantustan ghettoes (2.5 million), and only 0.85 million (7%) , the adults of 1.7 million Palestinian Israelis, can vote for the Government ruling all of the former Mandated Palestine, albeit as Third Class citizens [22]. In Chicago that is ruled by the Zionist son of a former Zionist Irgun terrorist, only about 20% of African Americans are allowed to vote, albeit as Third Class citizens of a race-based, Neocon American and Zionist Imperialist (NAZI)-run America.
(ii) African American leaders swallow the “lying Bush official version of 9-11” and ignore compelling evidence and testimony from numerous science, engineering architecture, aviation, military and intelligence experts that the US Government was itself responsible for the 9-11 atrocity and quite likely did it with Israeli complicity [23]. African American leaders variously back the Zionist-promoted US War on Muslims in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia and elsewhere (Egypt, Syria, Libya, Mali, Palestine) that has been associated with 12 million Muslim deaths from violence or war-imposed deprivation, the breakdown including 4.6 million Iraqis (1990-2011), 5.5 million Afghans (2001-2014), 2.2 million Somalis (1992-2014), 0.1 million Libyans (2011-2012), and 0.1 million Palestinians (since 1990) [22, 24-26]. About 4.6 million Iraqis have been killed by US-UK state terrorism since 1990, this including 1.7 million Iraqis killed by violence and 2.9 million Iraqis passively murdered through war-imposed deprivation [25]. About 5.5 million Afghans have been killed by US-UK state terrorism since 2001, this including 1.3 million Afghans killed by violence and 4.2 million Afghans passively murdered through war-imposed deprivation [26]. African American President Obama has now launched a renewed Iraq War and a new Syria War without UN sanction, runs illegal, war criminal Australia-targetted drone strikes from Africa to South Asia , and threatens to launch more such wars without UN sanction as the mood takes him.
(iii) African American leaders ignore the horrendous death toll of an estimated 1.54 million Americans dying preventably each year [27] and of 20 million preventable American deaths since 9-11 linked to the fiscal perversions of the long-term accrual costs of (a) $6 trillion for killing 10 million Muslims abroad in the US War on Terror rather than keeping Americans alive at home, and of (b) $40 trillion for supporting Apartheid Israel, the breakdown being (1) $3 trillion in aid (1948-2003), (2) $4-6 trillion (Zionist-promoted Iraq and Afghan Wars), (3) $0.7 trillion (Value of a Statistical Life- or VSL-based cost of 88,000 US veteran suicides since September 2001) and (4) about $30 trillion (a conservative one quarter of the VOSL-based cost of 15.6 million preventable American deaths since September 2001). This is an under-estimate because it does not consider the millions of preventable American deaths before 9-11 linked to Zionist subversion and perversion of America [28]. With respect to the 1.54 million Americans who die preventably each year, the breakdown and annual P values ( “empirical annual probability of death”) are as follows (note gun, homicide and suicide overlaps): (1) 443,000 Americans die from smoking-related causes annually (P = 443,000 /319,000,000 = 1.39 in 1,000 = 1 in 719) with roughly 1 in 5 of all deaths and 49,000 or about 10% dying from passive smoking (P = 1 in 6,494); (2) 440,000 Americans die from adverse events in hospitals each year (P = 1 in 725); (3) 300,000 Americans die from obesity-related causes annually (P = 1 in 1,063) ; (4) 75,000 American alcohol-related deaths annually (P= 1 in 4,253); (5) 70,000 Americans die annually from air pollution (e.g. from coal burning, vehicle exhaust, carbon burning in general) (P= 1 in 4,557); (6) 45,000 US deaths annually from lack of medical insurance (P= 1 in 7,089); (7) 38,000 US drug-related deaths annually (P= 1 in 8,395) , this including 21,000 US opiate drug-related deaths annually from US restoration and protection of the Taliban-destroyed Afghan opium industry (P= 1 in 15,190) ; (8) 33,000Americans killed by motor vehicles each year (P= 1 in 9,667); (9) 31,000 gun-related US deaths annually (P= 1 in 10,290); (10) 30,000 Americans suicide annually (P= 1 in 10,633) with 7,000 being US veterans; (11) 21,000 avoidable under-5 year old US infant deaths annually and (12) 15,000 Americans are violently murdered annually (P= 1 in 21,267), but as this list shows, about 1.5 million Americans are passively murdered each year by One Percenter-subverted politician inaction and fiscal perversion (P= 1 in 207 ). In contrast, the “empirical annual probability of an American being killed by a terrorist in America ” is 1 in 100 million [27].
(iv) African American leaders ignore the horrendous African American death rate from violence of 200 killed per million of population per year in both a domestic and international context. Thus the actual number of Israelis killed by Gaza rockets and mortars since the start of the Second Intifada is about twenty eight (28), this corresponding to an “annual homicide rate” in units of “persons killed per million of population per year” of 0.5 (Israelis killed by Gaza missiles) as compared to 0.25 (Western civilians assertedly killed by Muslim-origin non-state terrorists), 0.5 (rapist Western husbands murdered by raped wives), 1.0 (violent Western husbands murdered by battered wives), 15 (Israelis murdered by Israelis), 48 (Americans murdered by Americans), 66 (Americans dying from opiates linked to US Alliance restoration of the Taliban-destroyed Afghan opium industry), 94 (Americans from suicide), 97 (American gun deaths), 103 (Americans from road accidents), 119 (Americans from drugs), 141 (Americans from lack of health insurance), 153 (Americans from passive smoking), 164 (Palestinians killed violently by Israelis), 200 (African Americans murdered), 235 (Americans from alcohol), 473 (citizens murdered in Detroit, Michigan, USA ), 219 (Americans from air pollution), 902 (annual Palestinian non-violent deaths through war criminal, Geneva Convention-violating, Israeli-imposed deprivation), 940 (Americans from obesity), 1,379 (Americans from adverse hospital events), 1,389 (Americans from smoking), 2,600 (mainly non-European World excess deaths i.e. avoidable deaths, these being overwhelmingly from deprivation), 4,000 (Occupied Iraq excess deaths), 4,827 (Americans from preventable causes), and 15,000 (Occupied Afghanistan excess deaths) [29].
Conclusions
African Americans have it tough through historical discrimination, consequent huge wealth disparity, and continuing inequity in an “unofficial” American apartheid system in which reality belies the public rhetoric that “all men are created equal”.
Rational risk management that is crucial for societal well-being successively involves (a) accurate data, (b) scientific analysis and (c) informed systemic change to minimize risk. Since the US Government's “false-flag” 9-11 atrocity (3,000 killed), the US has committed $6 trillion to killing 10 million Muslims abroad in the Zionist -promoted US War on Terror rather than trying to stop 1.5 million annual American preventable deaths and 20 million American preventable deaths since 9-11. The “empirical annual probability of an American being killed by a terrorist in America ” is 1 in 100 million , this being 500,000 times lower than the “annual empirical probability of an American dying from preventable causes” of about 1 in 200.
The truth will set you free. Jake in “The Heart is a Lonely Hunter” by American novelist Carson McCullers succinctly put the reality of American democracy that now has become a lobbyocracy and corporatocracy : “But the main thing he sees is that the whole system of the world is built on a lie” . In his argument with his African American doctor friend, Jake argues for the key progressive strategy of informing everyone to advance civil rights. Indeed the brilliant success of science has been in its methodology of the critical testing of potentially falsifiable hypotheses and consequent progressive elimination of incorrect assertions. The truth will out. It is possible to get through the Mainstream Media Wall of Silence.
Peace is the only way but silence kills and silence is complicity. African Americans, Hispanic Americans and indeed all decent Americans must (a) inform everyone they can about the regressive social realities and gross economic inequities of One Percenter-run lobbyocracy and corporatocracy America, and (b) urge and apply effective action e.g. Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against all those greedy, neoliberal corporatists opposing the social humanist ideal of maximizing human happiness and opportunity.
References.
[1]. Trymaine Lee, “Number of Americans living in poverty hits 52 year high, 27.4 percent of blacks under the poverty line”, Huffington Post, 13 September 2011: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/13/number-of-americans-livin_n_960345.html .
[2]. U.S. Census Bureau, “Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States : 2013”, 16 September 2014: http://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2014/cb14-169.html .
[3]. Drew Desilver, “Black incomes are up, but wealth isn't”, Pew Research Center , 30 August 2013: http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/08/30/black-incomes-are-up-but-wealth-isnt/ .
[4]. Brad Plumer, “These ten charts show the black-white economic gap hasn't budged in 50 years”, The Washington Post, 29 August 2013: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/08/28/these-seven-charts-show-the-black-white-economic-gap-hasnt-budged-in-50-years/ .
[5] “Demographics of the United States ”, Wikipedia; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_United_States#Race_and_ethnicity .
[6]. Saki Knafo, “Voting rights of Black Americans trampled by “New Jim Crow”, civil rights advocates say”, Huffington Post Black Voices, 21 September2014: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/25/black-america-2013_n_3647789.html .
[7]. Michelle Alexander, “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness”, The New Press, 2010.
[8]. Michelle Alexander, “The war on drugs and the New Jim Crow”, Race, Poverty, Environment, Vol. 17, No. 1 | Spring 2010: http://reimaginerpe.org/20years/alexander .
[9]. “American Jews”, Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Jews .
[10]. “Jewish Members of Congress”, Jewish Virtual Library: http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/US-Israel/jewcong113.html .
[11]. “113th United States Congress”, Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/113th_United_States_Congress .
[12]. Congressional Black Caucus”, Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congressional_Black_Caucus#Senate_members .
[13]. “Congressional Hispanic Conference”, Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congressional_Hispanic_Conference .
[14]. “Congressional Hispanic Caucus”, Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congressional_Hispanic_Caucus .
[15]. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Assault or homicide”: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/homicide.htm .
[16]. “Race and crime in the United States ”, Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_and_crime_in_the_United_States#Homicide .
[17]. Victor Thorn, “Crime stats alarm black leaders”, American Free Press:, 26 January 2014: http://americanfreepress.net/?p=14864 .
[18]. Gideon Polya, “ Honor anti-Apartheid hero Nelson Mandela's words: “Our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians” , Countercurrents , 8 December,2013: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya081213.htm .
[19]. Bruce A. Dixon , “US Congressional Black Caucus endorses Israeli Apartheid and current war crimes in Gaza ”, Global Research, 30 July 2014: http://www.globalresearch.ca/us-congressional-black-caucus-endorses-israeli-apartheid-and-current-war-crimes-in-gaza/5394754 .
[20]. Gideon Polya, “Mike Carlton, Top Australian Columnist, Forced From Job For Criticizing Apartheid Israeli Gaza Massacre”, Countercurrents , 8 August, 2014: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya080814.htm .
[21]. “2014 Israel-Gaza conflict”, Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Israel%E2%80%93Gaza_conflict .
[22]. “Palestinian Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/palestiniangenocide/ .
[23]. “Experts: US did 9-11”: https://sites.google.com/site/expertsusdid911/ .
[24]. “Muslim Holocaust Muslim Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/muslimholocaustmuslimgenocide/ .
[25]. ”Iraqi Holocaust Iraqi Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/iraqiholocaustiraqigenocide/ .
[26]. “Afghan Holocaust Afghan Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/afghanholocaustafghangenocide/ .
[27]. Gideon Polya, “One Percenter greed & war means over 1.5 million Americans die preventably each year”, Countercurrents, 19 September, 2014: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya190914.htm .
[28]. Gideon Polya, “American Holocaust, millions of untimely American deaths and $40 trillion cost of Israel to Americans”, Countercurrents , 27 August, 2013: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya270813.htm .
[29]. Gideon Polya, “Australian State Terrorism - Zero Australian terrorism deaths, 1 million preventable Australian deaths & 10 million Muslims killed by US Alliance since 9-11”, Countercurrents, 23 September, 2014: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya230914.htm .
Dr Gideon Polya has been teaching science students at a major Australian university for 4 decades. He published some 130 works in a 5 decade scientific career, most recently a huge pharmacological reference text "Biochemical Targets of Plant Bioactive Compounds" (CRC Press/Taylor & Francis, New York & London , 2003). He has published “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950” (G.M. Polya, Melbourne, 2007: http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com/ ); see also his contributions “Australian complicity in Iraq mass mortality” in “Lies, Deep Fries & Statistics” (edited by Robyn Williams, ABC Books, Sydney, 2007: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/science/ockham/stories/s1445960.htm ) and “Ongoing Palestinian Genocide” in “The Plight of the Palestinians (edited by William Cook, Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2010: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/4047-the-plight-of-the-palestinians.html ). He has published a revised and updated 2008 version of his 1998 book “Jane Austen and the Black Hole of British History” (see: http://janeaustenand.blogspot.com/ ) as biofuel-, globalization- and climate-driven global food price increases threaten a greater famine catastrophe than the man-made famine in British-ruled India that killed 6-7 million Indians in the “forgotten” World War 2 Bengal Famine (see recent BBC broadcast involving Dr Polya, Economics Nobel Laureate Professor Amartya Sen and others: http://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/history/social-economic-history/listen-the-bengal-famine ). When words fail one can say it in pictures - for images of Gideon Polya's huge paintings for the Planet, Peace, Mother and Child see: http://sites.google.com/site/artforpeaceplanetmotherchild/ and http://www.flickr.com/photos/gideonpolya/ .
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