I'm not going to hammer the point here: people have lots of stuff to do on the Fourth of July other than read a blog.
However, a fact of Miami political life has always puzzled me: how easily the Cuban American power structure co-opted African Americans here, leading incumbents black county commissioners to vote against the interests of their own constituents in the inner city.
The best example of this phenomenon was in 2004-2005, when County Commissioner Barbara Jordan whose districts stretches into impoverished areas north of the city spearheaded the drive to put suburban sprawl in Miami-Dade wetlands to benefit Lennar, on whose behalf her sister lobbied, and Florida City where her brother was mayor.
The point is: it goes beyond family. "It" being the despondency, despair, and inertia of black voters whose powerlessness and hopelessness seems to manifest in approval whenever one of their leaders dips their own straw into the nearest available pool of money. Such is the case with suburban sprawl, whose costs are always born by the existing tax base in order to fuel some developer's dream of platted subdivisions in farmland or open space.
It is in the spirit of deeper understanding that I recommend a remarkable book by a Wall Street Journal investigative reporter, Douglas Blackmon, "Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II".
Its style is simple and direct. Its material is shocking. Read this book.
Type the rest of the post here
2 comments:
Although the facts are disguised a little the blog tells it all. It is MONEY that controls all politicians to vote the way they do. Even against the interests of their own voters.
This would NEVER have happened with the good ole' boy power structure, eh Gimleteye?
Post a Comment