Thursday sunrise dawns with a clear sky. These are paradisiacal days. A friend’s dahlias are in full bloom, several are on display here at Starbucks.  We shouldn’t be deceived though, everything is not well here in paradise.

The New York Times published a report showing that upward mobility, the income of working class whites has regressed over the past two generations, while that of Black Americans has improved. The impulse of many white conservatives has been to blame any individual of color for their struggle, for that “feeling” of being left behind. It is easy to see how the Trump-Republican party has leveraged this sentiment, linking to the race sensibility, to incipient racism, a suspicion, even a disdain toward anyone with a non-Caucasian appearance, a “foreign” manner of life.  Racism fanned into an inferno.

It is natural, very difficult to avoid being dragged away by feelings, the state of the body, and the snap-interpretation that convention incessantly suggests “in one’s ear.”

This statement in the Times cuts to the truth of the reality, the evaporation of upward mobility for working class whites.

Of course, the evidence does not justify racial resentment… A growing, healthy economy creates more queues to prosperity; it’s not zero-sum, as the analogy suggests. In fact, the Harvard study found that white mobility had diminished least in the places where Black mobility had improved most.

There is no growing, healthy economy.

Regulations, rules of participation favor the fortunate, to a disadvantage, even to the-preying-upon the less fortunate. All considerations to enhance the humanity of our fellow citizens are irrelevant to economic decision making. This stark truth of our condition does not “please, elevate or inspire.”

Should we not:

 “take pleasure in saying no,
  in dissecting,
  and in a certain level-headed cruelty
  that knows how to guide a knife
  with assurance and subtlety, even when the heart is bleeding?”

For the entire New York Times story on Falling Behind CLICK HERE.

When your heart bleeds, nevertheless and with resolve, one must make use of the knife…