Monday

So, here I am in bed reading. On line, Yale has sent out an abstract of a “research paper” about how black and Latino people are not doing as well educationally and economically as white people would like to think. White people think black people are catching up with white people fast. But, says the study, blacks are still very far behind in wealth and in income. This, says the “study” is because of the “salience” of racism.

Then there’s a piece in today’s New York Times about how despite affirmative action, there are still not a lot of blacks and Latinos in prestige universities. This also has to be the fault of racism.

Now, there is data that shows black incomes moving towards white incomes, but that only includes blacks who are working, which throws off the data. The “salience” of racism apparently keeps many black people out of the labor force.

This is getting comical. Or maybe it’s getting serious. In all of these stories about black and Latino people having problems with jobs, wealth, law enforcement, incarceration, it’s always someone else’s fault. It’s never the black or brown people’s fault.

Now, you would think that in a world where black and brown people are given every possible preference, the “salience” of racism might not be such a big factor as it is. You would think that if all the other ethnic groups can quickly move into middle class status, blacks and Latinos should be able to as well. So… why can’t they? I don’t know. It’s a total mystery. The one reason we can rule out immediately is that it’s their fault. After that, any other explanation is possible. We’ll keep trying racism. That’s getting worse all of the time. Just ask anyone on the networks.

Next, last night I watched a terrifying documentary about a juvenile detention facility in Indiana. The inmates were mostly 17 to 19 and had committed assaults, robberies, sex crimes, arson. They almost all were white. They almost never had a father. Their mothers were a total mess of drug addiction and alcoholism. And when the sentences of these young people were up, they often could not be let out because no one would take them. Their families were terrified of them. Their neighbors were scared of them. I was really scared of them as I watched them. There are 2 MILLION people in prisons and jails in the USA. What’s going to happen to them? What’s going to happen to us?

Meanwhile, I also watched Hillary R. Clinton give a talk at the Warner Theater in D.C. about her book. It was as terrifying as the stories about the kids in juvenile lockup in Indiana. She’s in a mental hospital of her own making. She truly believes — or so she says — that America is being taken over by the Klan, neo-Nazis, and white supremacists. She’s convinced that’s why she lost. The Brownshirts were against her in the guise of the Trump campaign. She really believes this. She must be terribly unwell. Look, she’s a wealthy woman. Why doesn’t she take some time to rest and ponder her life instead of locking herself up in a maximum security prison of her own paranoia. Truly, it’s time for Mrs. Clinton to set herself free.

Gosh, Mrs. Clinton, you won the popular vote by three million Californians. You have legions of women and men who would die for you. You’ve had a life of fantastic achievement. No one will ever ask what it was. Give yourself a break. Benghazi was a long time ago. No one will remember those emails and your thousands of instances of obstruction of justice. As the Beatles said, “Let it be. Let it be. Mother Mary comes to me, speaking words of wisdom, let it be.”

And down the hall, the world’s most wonderful person, my beloved wifey, is still ill. How can anyone this wonderful be this ill? This woman is a goddess and she’s still ill. This world is a jungle. There’s no fairness. It’s a jungle and nature is red in tooth and claw.