When you look at the modernization of the colonized nations, we see the effects of technological advancement. We can see how gradually those technologies trickle down to the lowest of socioeconomic classes. I see how the European pioneers have created economies like no other, spanning the globe and even into orbit. I also see how filtered indigenous participation in Americas progress has been. Often participation is suppressed, stifled, limited, and in my view controlled. Even in saying this I feel a subconscious voice telling me,"don't play the victim role, the poor little Mexican, the poor little brown guy". I have been condition to overlook the disadvantage and the white advantage. I have been conditioned by subtle and moderated progress. A mentality that asks me to feel overly grateful for scraps from the privilege banquet table. But then I realize how God given talent and privilege only takes a person as far as the elite will allow.
I see how important it is to look a certain way, how important it is to know certain people, and how important it is to be in the right place. I think about how many generations of white Americans have a legacy of formal education in a system designed for them, indoctrination in formal business systems convenient for them, established networks of other culturally competent people using codes convenient for them, and a pedigree of enhancing privileged life as is convenient for them. What an advantage they have.
I think about how many white Americans deny their immigrant status and confuse me into generalizing them all as privileged. This makes it easy for me to forget that the Italian, Irish, German, and Jewish cultures, only to name a few, have fought the same class struggle that I feel my culture is fighting right now.
Its as if the fight for acceptance is won only to make the segregationist opponent stronger.Well I think this featured documentary by Kareem Abdul Jabbar is a great example of how the privileged white Americans have controlled and continue to control how inclusive the lower class/minority people can be. Be mindful of the mining, media, agro, and oil industries as they benefit most from keeping a lower often indigenous class.
On the Shoulders of Giants
( a documentary by Kareem Abdul Jabbar)
Be aware that most products are global and the luxury you see in your communities is often at a great expense to another community very far from yours (Guatemala, Cambodia, Philippines, Mexico, etc..).
