The Walled Republic of Aristocracy?

Physical and non-physical (political, emotional, spiritual, religious, legal, etc.) walls, barriers, borders, boundaries, and restrictions of any kind have always been welcome in the United States of America – just ask Native Americans, such as the sovereign Republic of the Lakotah, and they’ll gladly tell you of physical and non-physical “walls” of imprisonment they continue to endure.  Walls work, both physically and programmatically.  

Here take a look:

1. Throughout history, walls have been used to keep people in or to keep people out. Most importantly, the U.S. continues to support countries that also use walls, barriers, and restrictions to intentionally regulate and discriminate against their citizens and/or illegal immigrants.

PHYSICAL WALLS

GREAT WALL OF CHINA	BERLIN WALL	ISRAEL WEST BANK WALL

PROGRAMMATIC WALLS

GET WITH THE PROGRAM	GET WITH THE PROGRAM	GET WITH THE PROGRAM
	GET WITH THE PROGRAM
Clearly, even in 2016, you can't keep a good "separate but equal" idea down!

2.  The “Glass Ceiling,” is a wall, a barrier that has always existed in the United States, and it’s very effective at preventing people of color and women from access to positions of executive management, or control, or ownership of U.S. companies. Plus, let's not forget that local, state and the federal government has and continues to use “walls” to prevent people of color from voting and running for elected office.

3. As validated by the EEOC, the Justice Department, and countless public and private sector research studies such as the June 2014 issue of “The Atlantic” magazine, in the United States 250 years of slavery, 90 years of Jim Crow, 60 years of separate but equal, 40 years of state-sanctioned redlining have always functioned as and remain as effective walls or barrier to prevent, to deny equal opportunity to Black people.  

Instead of appreciating President Trump for his honesty and for offering a "usual and customary" solution to illegal immigration, some people are really upset about President Trump’s commitment to build a wall, as if building a wall is alien (pun intended; get it?) to the “free spirit” of the American Dream.  Wake up, this country was built on and remains built on walls, barriers, and restrictions.

WHO	WHEN	WHAT (FACTS)	OUTCOME / STATUS
BLACK PEOPLE	Slavery, Racism, and Oppression - 1620 to Present: 250 years of slavery, 90 years of Jim Crow (lynching, racism, discrimination, incarceration, etc.), 60 years of separate but equal, 35 years of state-sanctioned red-lining. – Total so far: 395 Years and counting. Source: “The Atlantic” Magazine, June 2014   NOTE: HITLER GOT THE IDEA FOR JEWISH PRISON CAMPS AND THE HOLOCAUST FROM THE GENOCIDE OF BLACK PEOPLE THROUGH THE EUGENICS MOVEMENT AND IMPRISONMENT OF NATIVE AMERICANS ON RESERVATIONS.	ENSLAVED BLACKS AND ROBBED THEM OF THEIR CULTURE AND CONFINED THEM TO PLANTATIONS AND THEN TO GHETTOES TO THIS VERY DAY More Black men are incarcerated than are in college; which represents no change since before, during or upon ending state-sanctioned slavery.     Most Black Middle Class Kids Are Downwardly Mobile - 7 out of 10 Black Americans born into the middle quintile fall into one of the two quintiles below as adults; even Black Americans who make it to the middle class are likely to see their kids fall down the ladder. Source: Brookings Institution     The rate has consistently been twice as high OR HIGHER than the white unemployment rate for 50 years! Source: Marc V. Levine University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Center for Economic Development, January 2012	Many U.S. school systems remain highly segregated (walled) by race and economic status: Black students make up 16 percent of the public school population, but the average Black student attends a school that’s 50 percent Black. As reported by Jonathan Rothwell, the average Black student also attends a school at the 37th percentile for test score results whereas the average white student attends a school in the 60th percentile. Nebraska is ranked 49th of 50 states for the lowest Black male graduation rate. Source: Brookings Institution
WHO	WHEN	WHAT (FACTS)	OUTCOME / STATUS
NATIVE AMERICANS	1492 to Present – It’s difficult to determine exactly how many Natives lived in North America before Columbus, estimates range from a low of 2.1 million (Ubelaker 1976) to 7 million people (Russell Thornton) to a high of 18 million (Dobyns 1983). Source: Wikipedia	SLAUGHTED AND ENACTED GENOCIDE UPON NATIVE AMERICANS AND CONFINED THEM TO RESERVATIONS TO THIS VERY DAY Each of the 326 Indian reservations in the U.S. are associated with a particular Nation. The U.S. has only recognized 567 tribes (there are more) and not all tribes have a reservation - some tribes have more than one reservation, some share reservations. s.	On 8 September 2000, the head of the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) formally apologized for the agency's participation in the "ethnic cleansing" of Western tribes. Now, 523 later, Native population in the U.S. as of 2010 is only 2.9 million. Source: Wikipedia
WHO	WHEN	WHAT (FACTS)	OUTCOME / STATUS
LATINOS	1776 to Present - After the Mexican-American War (1846–1848), the U.S. annexed much of the current Southwestern region from Mexico, and Mexicans who remained were subject to discrimination. During the Great Depression (1929 and 1939) over 1,000,000 Mexicans were deported, including U.S. citizens. Between 1954 and 1962 “Operation Wetback” deported	ROBBED LATINOS (I.E., NATIVE AMERICANS) OF THEIR CULTURE AND THEN CONFINED THEM TO BARRIOS TO THIS VERY DAY At least 597 Mexicans were lynched between 1848 and 1928 (conservative estimate dues to lack of records for many reported lynchings). Mexicans were lynched at a rate of 27.4 per 100,000 of population between 1880 and 1930, second only to the lynchings of Black people during that period of 37.1 per 100,000 population. Between 1848 to 1879, Mexicans were lynched at an unprecedented rate of 473 per 100,000 of population. Source: Wikipedia.com	Voters of Fremont, Nebraska (pop. 25,000) passed an ordinance (06/23/2010) to prevent illegal immigrants from renting property or getting a job in the community. The measure requires businesses to verify citizenship of all workers, and renters to obtain a license from the local police department. Source: theweek.com 7/8/14
WHO	WHEN	WHAT (FACTS)	OUTCOME / STATUS
ASIANS	February 19, 1942 to April 1946 – 4 Years	ROBBED ASIANS OF THEIR CULTURE AND CONFINED THEM TO CONCENTRATION CAMPS AND THEN CAST THEM AS "ACCEPTABLE" MINORITIES. Click the graph above to enlarge. Between 110,000 and 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry were forcibly relocated and incarcerated during World War II. Sixty-two percent of the internees were United States citizens. President Roosevelt ordered the Incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II, shortly after Imperial Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor.	In 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act, which apologized for the internment on behalf of the U.S. government paid $20,000 to each individual camp survivor. The legislation admitted that government actions were based on "race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership." The U.S. government eventually disbursed more than $1.6 billion in reparations to 82,219 Japanese Americans who had been interned and their heirs. George Hosato Takei (born April 20, 1937) is an American actor, director, author, and activist. Takei is most widely known for his role as Hikaru Sulu, helmsman of the USS Enterprise in the television series Star Trek. He also portrayed the character in six Star Trek feature films and in an episode of Star Trek: Voyager. In 1942, the Takei family was forced to live in the converted horse stables of Santa Anita Park before being sent to the Rohwer War Relocation Center for internment in Rohwer, Arkansas. The family was later transferred to the Tule Lake War Relocation Center in California. He and his family returned to Los Angeles at the end of World War II. Source: Wikipedia
WHO	WHEN	WHAT (FACTS)	OUTCOME / STATUS
MUSLIMS	Monday, December 7, 2015 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump called for barring all Muslims WHO ARE NOT U.S. citizens from entering the U.S. until “our country's representatives can figure out what is going on," a campaign press release said. Source: CNN.com	HISTORY REPEATS - Trump previously called for surveillance against mosques and establishing a database for all Muslims living in the U.S. Plus, in the wake of a deadly mass shooting in San Bernardino, California by ISIS sympathizers, presidential candidates Ted Cruz and Jeb Bush said they’d prohibit Muslim refugees, but allow Christians; and Marco Rubio would close all places where Muslims meet. Source: Democratic National Committee 12/08/15	Based on past practices, the (inevitable) planned and forced relocation and incarceration of Muslims.

Again, it’s the well-documented history and on-going practice of White people in the U.S. to openly or clandestinely, legally or illegally, intentionally or unintentionally to discriminate against Black people and other people of color.  Most importantly, the overall plight of Black people has NEVER improved to a point of economic, social, or educational parity with White people under any President of the U.S., including President Obama.  So, why expect anything different from President Donald Trump?  The “business as usual” practice of White privilege only means “more excuses and more promises” and the mediocrity of the status quo.

Of course, not all White people are racist or have a predilection to kill, incarcerate, or steal land from people of color; neverthless, it's the history and on-going practice for the clear majority of so-called "innocent" White people to do nothing but bury their heads in the sand whenever the blatant realities of their peers, and past and current acts of racism are thrust into open discussion. People of color did NOT conceive, engineer, and execute the above acts of "inhumanity" (separatism, oppression, etc.) against themselves, because people of color were not and have never held the power, control, or "privilege" to do so. Clearly, only White people held and continue to hold exclusive "privilege" to unilaterally "build walls" to determine the fate of people of color. Some people believe "White Privilege" does not exist, and that most Black people, Native Americans, Latinos, and Asians have as much opportunity, in the past or now, to be as successful as most White people. Okay, if you believe this, here's a very simple . . .

QUESTION 1: Given that race-based genocide, oppression, and discrimination against all people of color began prior to the inception of the United States of America on July 4, 1776 and continued uninterrupted thereafter, on what specific year and date did White people relinquish their ill-gotten wealth, power, and control to enable people of color with "fair and just" access to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? When? (That's right, it never happend!)

"No nation can enslave a race of people for hundreds of years, set them free begraggled and penniless, pit them, without assistance in a hostile environment, against privileged victimizers, and then reasonably expect the gap between the heirs of the two groups to narrow. Lines, begun parallel and left alone, can never touch." "The Debt: What America Owes to Blacks" by Randall Robinson

Plus, you do realize, don't you, that the overwhelming majority of White people do NOT want to live near or be governed by people of color? You know that, don't you?

Separate and Not Equal Works for the Majority of White People.

Home ownership for the majority of Black people is a joke. Even after holding constant all variables, including credit history, White men were denied credit 26% of the time compared with 68% of Black men and 52% of Black women. Source: The Wall Street Journal, November 23, 1999 by Josha Harris Prager and Paulette Thomas; Professor Ken Cavalluzzo, Ph.D, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

As documented in "The Story of the Contract Buyers League," [https://youtu.be/YxPX_uJ36bg] discrimination against Black people and other minorities is not just history but it remains the practice of White people to openly discriminate against Black people and other minorities in home ownership. As documented in, “The Persistence of Segregation in the Metropolis: New Findings from the 2010 Census” prepared for Project US2010 (Brown University and Florida State University):

The average White person in metropolitan American lives in a neighborhood that is 75% white (or more). Despite a substantial shift of minorities from cities to suburbs, minorities have often not gained access to largely white neighborhoods. For example a typical Black person lives in a neighborhood that is only 35% white (not much different from 1940) and as much as 45% black. Diversity is experienced very differently in the daily lives of Whites, Blacks, Hispanics, and Asians.

In 367 metropolitan areas across the U.S., the typical White person lives in a neighborhood that is 75% White, 8% Black, 11% Hispanic, and 5% Asian. This represents a notable change since 1980, when the average Whites’ neighborhood was 88% white, but it is very different from the makeup of the metropolis as a whole.

The experience of minorities is very different. For example, the typical Black lives in a neighborhood that is 45% Black, 35% White, 15% Hispanic, and 4% Asian. The typical Hispanic lives in a neighborhood that is 46% Hispanic, 35% White, 11% Black and 7% Asian. The typical Asian lives in a neighborhood that is 22% Asian, 49% White, 9% Black, and 19% Hispanic.

QUESTION 2: CAN'T WE ALL LIVE TOGETHER?

RESPONSE: IF WHITE PEOPLE ARE INVOLVED, ABSOLUTELY NOT.

The message here, which is also validated in the book, "Searching for Whitopia: An Improbable Journey to the Heart of White America (2009, Rich Benjamin)" is very simple; unlike other "people" White people intentionally chose to live and restrict the establishment of businesses in neighborhoods with decidedly low minority representation, and the majority of White people will leave, typically called "White Flight," rather than interact with minorities. For the most part, White people are not as likely to "accept" minorities living in their neighborhoods; conversely, minorities are more likely to "accept" White people living in their neighborhoods. Clearly, the United States of America has always functioned as a "walled" republic of aristocracy, and that's not going to change with or without Donald Trump as POTUS.

Cracking the Codes: Joy DeGruy, "A Trip to the Grocery Store"

For proof, here's a map of (racist) Omaha, Nebraska As respresented in the graph above, just like St. Louis, Missouri, Omaha is one of the most racist cities in the United States. Black and Latinos live in neighborhoods with high minority representation, and relatively few White neighbors. Asians have much smaller populations in most metropolitan areas, and consequently, live in neighborhoods where they are dispropotionately represented. On the other hand, reflecting the continued rapid growth of Hispanic and Asian populations through immigration and increasing numbers born in the U.S., having learned first-hand from the separatist and racist tactics of their White peers and oppressors, these groups have also become on average more isolated.

Again, the United States of America has always functioned as a "walled" republic of aristocracy, and that's not going to change with or without Donald Trump as POTUS.

So build the damn wall and let's move on.

I welcome your feedback.

Trip Reynolds
trip.reynolds@yahoo.com

Reynolds' Rap January 21, 2019 © 2017-2019 Tripoetry. All Rights Reserved. First Amendment to the United States Constitution - Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.