No ifs, ands or buts...

“For every dollar of wealth owned by a single white man, a single white woman owns 54 cents, and a single Black or Latina woman owns 1 cent.” – The Color of Wealth – United for a Fair Economy

Now I keep up with issues of runaway inequality, but even I was amazed by this level of extreme inequality! Conservatives have long argued that inequality results from the fact that some people work harder and smarter than others and deserve more. By that logic, white men work 100 times harder and smarter than women of color. If anyone believes that they must live in another universe.

If we look the reality, it would appear that exactly the opposite is true. If you live in the US (or anywhere else on earth) you can easily observe that women of color work harder to earn their subsistence wages than do white men – much, much harder. Not to mention the fact of the unpaid domestic labor of women, particularly women of color.

The actual cause of this obscene inequality has nothing to do with hard work. It is in fact the consequence of systemic racism and sexism. It is a product of “a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object … to reduce them under absolute Despotism…”

That despotism has benefited white men in a myriad of ways, particularly those who own and control the heights of our economy. If we are to challenge that ownership and control, we, and I’m speaking to white males myself included, must support the struggles of women and people of color as our first order of business. No ifs, ands or buts.