What "Left" Means to Me

Contrary to the characterizations I most often hear, I don’t care about diversity, I don’t care about inclusion or love or tolerance. I don't want government to orchestrate our economy, and I don’t want to live in a society where everyone is equal or everyone is treated the same.

For me, being on the left means I am interested in the ways institutions operate, wield power, and whether or not that power is being abused. There are two major themes in my world of progressive thinking and reading: 1) what evidence can we find that suggests the existence of systemic disenfranchisement, 2) what are the specific mechanisms of disenfranchisement and oppression that explain this evidence. Below I will give specific examples from each of these two themes.

Theme I - Evidence of Systemic Disenfranchisement:

  • In 2013, the net worth of the median black household in the United States was $11,000. The net worth of the median white household was $141,9001. This wealth gap between the races is greater than the wealth gap between the races in South Africa during apartheid. This suggests some major barriers to success that affect people based on the color of their skin.
  • Even after controlling for income and education level, whites live five years longer on average than blacks.
  • 1 in 3 black men will go to prison in his lifetime.
  • America is the most highly incarcerated country in the world - we have more people behind bars per-capita than Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, etc.
  • Child poverty in America is the second to worst in the whole developed world.

Theme II – Mechanisms of Power and Disenfranchisement:

  • Progressives are interested in understanding the role money plays in our political system and the way our laws are often determined by the donors, corporations and special interest groups that fund political campaigns.
  • Progressives are interested in understanding how our nation’s drug laws, policing, and legal system disproportionately criminalize and destroy black communities and how our laws permanently disenfranchise people who get caught up in our legal system. Netflix’s Documentary “13th” deals with this issue, and an excerpt from Michelle Alexander’s “The New Jim Crow” is pasted below.
  • Having a gay friend in helpful for better appreciating LGBT issues, but America is so profoundly segregated than the average white person doesn’t have more than one black friend out of a hundred.2
  • Progressives are interested in understanding the mechanisms that created the modern crime-ridden slum. Excerpts from “Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City” about the evolution of the modern “inner-city ghetto” below.
  • Progressives are interested in the ways it’s much more expensive to be poor than it is to be rich. For example: poor people pay more for public transportation because they can’t afford to buy a monthly pass. Poor people rely on old cars that are constantly breaking down and cost more to fix. Insurance is more expensive in poor than non-poor neighborhoods. Poor people pay in rent much more than their apartments or trailers are worth. Poor people eat less healthy, because healthy food is more expensive than unhealthy food. All food is more expensive in poor neighborhoods and poor people can’t afford to save money by buying in bulk. Poor people can’t afford to own a washing machine so they pay more over time at the laundromat. Poor people can’t afford to keep their money in a bank because of heavy low-balance and over-draft fees. Therefore, poor people have to cash their checks at places that take a cut. Poor people pay a higher percentage of their income in taxes than wealthy people. This list goes on.

Examples of Progressive-Style Thinking/Writing:

Trailer for Netflix's Documentary 13th:

From Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City:
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From Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow:

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1 http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/12/12/racial-wealth-gaps-great-recession/

2 http://www.prri.org/research/poll-race-religion-politics-americans-social-networks/

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