The slogans, “people of color” and “white privilege” ignore the facts …

racism is real, bigotry is real but “white” privilege is a false and racist idea.

All too often these words are used to justify actions based on race that disadvantage poor people and especially disadvantage groups, regardless of skin color, who have been historically abused and misused by our country.

“People of color” encompasses immigrant groups, like those shown in the chart, that have actually achieved greatly in the US or who have only been here a short time.

It is absurd, for example, that Indian immigrants like Seattle’s Kshama Sawant and Pramila Jayapal seek to lead minority groups based on skin color. Both came from upper class  and upper is the basis for privilege.

The racist idea is even obvious for immigrants from the Caribbean.  The last time I saw data, “black” immigrants from the Caribbean .. Cuba, Guiana, Bahamas, Bermuda, and even the Dominican Republic were show great success here .. often their children score as well as Koreans or Indians.  How many Americans realize that Eric Holder and Colin Powell are of Caribbean origin?

Meanwhile non POC minorities with real historic needs are seen as rednecks, people whose skin color protects them from getting our help.   One only has to read about the historic abuse of Appalachian Americans by the coal and steel mining companies and then  look at the status of people in those regions today to realize that our national debts extend beyond skin color.   There are areas of the US where “white” people have now lived for two or more generations with no income other than welfare. 

Poor coal miners are part of our debt too.

The POC meme leads to  absurdities like Seattle’s ninth Congressional District which was created by liberals as a majority minority district. While it is true that District 9 has a large a number of poor people and immigrants, the effect of this good deed has been to mix Seattle’s very successful African American community in a melting port of Hmong, Somali, Costa Rican, Peruvian, Pakistani, Arabs, Indians and Ethiopians.  To add insult to the deed, the resegregation of schools means African Americans  now are faced with schools where their kids are an ethnic minority of a different kind.

The result is that an  African American leader, Jesse Wineberry running for Congress in the ninth, has an uphill battle despite the huge popularity of their predecessors Norm Rice and Ron Sims who became leaders for the broad, and very “white,” Seattle Community.

The framing of the issue of race is wrong.  There has been historic racism against the descendants of the slaves and the indigenous peoples we call “tribes.”  Although less marked by efforts like slavery or extermination, Mexican Americans  have also suffered at the hands of policies based on race.

The answer is to me obvious. Instead of focusing on “white privilege” we .. ALL AMERICANS .. should focus on our shared national debt to Black Americans, Native American, Americans of Mexican ancestry, and workers abused by our effort to rapidly industrialize the US.

These groups of Americans are all part of US.  They are not immigrants and, to the best of my knowledge, there is no evidence of a systematic discrimination based in skin color against immigrants.

What these people … African Americas, Native American, Mexican Americans, people from Coal Country  share is inheritance of harm done to their families by our country and to them as children born in the USA.  They occupy the lowest ‘rung’ of socioeconomic status in our country) poverty/lack of privilege.

We have a debt and it should be repaid.