A House Divided: Introducing the Oppression Series

If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could then better judge what to do, and how to do it.

We are now far into the fifth year, since a policy was initiated, with the avowed object, and confident promise, of putting an end to slavery agitation.

Under the operation of that policy, that agitation has not only, not ceased, but has constantly augmented.

In my opinion, it will not cease, until a crisis shall have been reached, and passed.

“A house divided against itself cannot stand.” -Abraham Lincoln Springfield, Illinois

June 16, 1858; Republican State Convention. 

In the heart and mind of any artistic empathetic soul is a great disdain for oppression in its ever-evolving various forms. I am one of those souls. Oppression is a topic my mind and body have grappled with for a long time. From my birth until I was seven years old, I grew up in Niamey, Niger, one of the world’s poorest country in terms of GDP with an estimated GDP per capita of $358.96 according to the World Bank in 2015. I grew up with an acute awareness of the massive economic stratification that country bore. There was community, hope, art, and amazing people; but there was also massive poverty. My mom, who worked for USAID at the time, and our family were forced to leave because of a US withdrawal of US resources in opposition to a coup-d’etat, military takeover of the government. My first experience with oppression. Without going into any further allegories, I understood early on that the demon of tyranny should have no place on earth. This week, I will be presenting my essays on oppression.

The morphing forms of mass oppression  in the shapes of the invasive mammoth mass surveillance apparatus, the corporate domination of our republic, and the diabolical lie of race- have been tearing the metaphorical house of the United States of America apart. Hence, A House Divided.

According to the ACLU web page on privacy and surveiliance, “numerous government agencies—including the National Security Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Homeland Security, and state and local law enforcement agencies” disregard the privacy of citizens, justified by broad and “vague” legal language, often under the guise of national security. This apparatus was built by the notorious J. Edgar Hoover as FBI director in 1924 and persists today.

The modern rise of economic stratification in America, marked in 2011 by the Occupy Movement, is a result of a failed economic experiment of both trickle down economics and neoliberalism. Neoliberalism, according to Noam Chomsky, created the third world country, reminding us that there was “nothing Liberal about it”. Margarette Thatcher and Ronald Reagan set the Western world on the dangerous road of trickle down economics; high privatization, tax cuts for the wealthy, and weakening unions. Trade unions give great strength to employees and wage, “income differences started widening rapidly from the mid 80’s onwards. The weaker trade unions are, the more inequality there is. It’s a very striking relationship”, (Richard Wilkinson, Emeritus Professor, University of Nottingham, 2015).  In America, the top 1% of our wealthiest owns more than the rest of the population.

Racial inequality and inequity, often called America’s original sin, began with slavery, mutated itself into the present mass incarceration complex, which jails a higher percentage of our black citizen’s than “South Africa did at the heart of Apartheid”. Which, Michelle Alexander eloquently wrote in her book, The New Jim Crow. She tells us that these numbers aren’t a result of unfortunate situations and lack of “educational opportunities” but deliberate acts to remove black bodies from communities as a continuation of the slavery legacy.

I originally said that I would release my first essays on December 3rd, 2016, December 5th, 2016, and December 7th, 2016. I have extended the time in between releases to insure a quality product within my schedule. I released my first essay on mass survaillance today on December 4, 2016. My next essay on our current corporatocracy will be available on December 10, 2016. My final installment of The Oppression Series will be on race. That will be released December 17, 2016. I hope you all read them and enjoy them. If I can create a dialogue or provoke some thinking, then I will be happy and will have done my job.

Notes

–http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.CD?locations=NE&year_high_desc=false

–https://www.aclu.org/issues/national-security/privacy-and-surveillance

–https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1dv2xkPsz0

–http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/19/world/wealth-inequality/

–The Divide documentary directed by Katharine Round

–The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, by Michelle Alexander