Racism in the U.S. is actually about economics

When the U.S. was the wealthiest it had ever been (or maybe will ever be) for the average person, the Civil Rights bill was passed by President Johnson, and that in itself was a really remarkable feat if you study about this in history.

But, what has happened ever since is people's real buying power (the average person's) has dropped and dropped and dropped. By the way this has nothing to do with how much money they are making, it has only to do with what each dollar can buy. For example, when I was a child I could buy 2 pieces of bubble gum (sometimes even up to five pieces) for only 1 penny. A pack of doublemint gum was 5 cents. A candy bar was 5 cents and then it changed to 10 cents.

But, what do these things cost now?

A candy bar no bigger than what I bought for 5cents or 10 Cents is now betwee 1 and 2 dollars and a piece of bubble gum is anywhere from 10cents a piece to 50cents a piece depending upon where you buy it.

The same with cars. I made about 1 dollar and 16 cents an hour from age 15 on if I wasn't working with my Dad who paid me likely $2.50  an hour if I worked as an electrician's helper summers. But, let's look at the minimum wage then which was 1 dollars 16 cents an hour. With this amount of money (and easy jobs to come by then) from age 15 on, I could easily afford to pay between 600 to 800 dollars cash by the time I was 16 and one month old to buy a car.

Now look at today. The VW Bug that I could buy new in 1965 for around 800 dollars likely would be between 20,000 and 30,000 dollars now. From 800 to 20,000 dollars. Now think about that for just a moment.

Then imagine a 15 year old today. How much can they earn. For example, I have a daughter who has volunteered doing all sorts of helpful things but still hasn't got a part time job and is 19 years old. Of course, I can afford to send her to college and do all these things because her grandfather set aside money for her starting when she was born.

But, imagine a 15 year old who was brought up poor. They might want to buy a car when they turn 16 or 17 just like I did. Can they?

Unlikely. Because first of all they can't find a job because the jobs I got at 15 or 16 are filled by adults over 30 years old because they are underemployed themselves and need to work 2 or 3 part time jobs just to survive. This is the reality.

So, everyone below a certain income is suffering incredibly. I might be suffering right now if I was 15 and I couldn't work for my Dad to save up money to buy myself a 1956 Ford Stationwagon to take my buddies and I surfing so we could hang our 10 foot 4 inch longboards out the back window on the way to the beach, (usually Malibu or Huntington Beach or other interesting places.)

So, often kids who can't get a job, can't buy a car, can't date the girl (or boy) they want and are unhappy and much more likely to get into trouble feeling disempowered in this way now than before in the 1960s.

So, racism is a problem because the first to get jobs are going to be the white kids who want them who are related to the business owners of all these businesses worldwide. And this appears to be racism when in reality it is just white folks taking care of their own in bad times.

But, what this creates is a lot of black kids with no money and unhappy and desperate. And desperation can create a whole lot of good or bad things and mostly both. And this is where racism becomes a problem again in the U.S. because the Blacks that are poor often have nowhere to turn and policemen (who often are racist conservative Republicans) because Police and military often think like this are often the first to shoot them and to ask questions later. This is the new racism here in the U.S. And this is a very hard one to get rid of because this is the way things really are.