The Sage Observer

Our Underclass

          Saturday, August 9, 2014, a young black teenager, Michael Brown, 18, was tragically killed by an officer of the law in Ferguson, Missouri—shot dead while unarmed. I am not going to discuss this tragedy here. I am only using it as what I believe is an example of an ever increasing problem throughout our country and in hope that it will serve as a beginning toward a solution to that problem, an ever increasing underclass and our people’s discrimination against them.

          Surely, there is no informed citizen in our country who is not aware of the ever increasing inequality in income, wealth, and equal opportunity among our people. Surely, there is no informed citizen in our country who is not aware that the rich are getting richer and the poor poorer. Surely, there is no informed citizen in our country who is not aware that, as jobs are being outsourced to slave labor in various countries abroad, their jobs in this country are, for the most part, coming out of our middleclass (Don’t anyone say that isn’t true. A rose is a rose by any other name. Slave labor abroad is supplanting our middleclass jobs here. If those overseas jobs were to be returned, along with the people performing them there, back to this country at the wages they are being paid there, relative to our wage levels here, they are, in my view, effectively, slave labor); and, those so displaced, are forced into our ever increasing underclass—all part of the “trickle down” theory.  Our rich get richer and our ghettos get bigger.

          But I digress. There is an even bigger and more ominous problem. We must, to the best of our ability and the fullest extent possible, eliminate our underclass. We must enable them to return to the middleclass and beyond in accordance with their abilities. Equal opportunity for all must be available to all. The ultimate security of our country, our nation, depends upon it. In as much as the majority of our underclass is black, I want to discuss their plight first. To that end, let us begin at the beginning with some simple facts.

          In the beginning of our great nation, the black people here then were slaves, brought here on slave ships from abroad and auctioned as property in the slave markets to the highest bidder. To make a long story short, our nation fought a long and bloody civil war to eliminate slavery and make all men free. Once freed, they were loosened on their own, with little or no support, into the countryside to fend for themselves. Of course there were exceptions; but, for the most part, they were denied education and means of survival—they remained defacto slaves. They were never accepted as a free people within our society. Yes, their condition slowly improved over the years that followed, but they never really improved until the Civil Rights Act of 1965. Unfortunately, that didn’t’ wholly solve the problem either, as hatred and discrimination against them continues to this day. They continue to be denied equal opportunity, education, and recognition. These are the basic facts and the root(s) of the problem. These people have serious problems, social, economic, and otherwise. Consequently, our nation has a problem, our problem—every last one of us, bar none.

          These serious and severe problems have consequences which no serious thinking person can, in my mind, deny. Undereducated people cannot be expected to think or reason rationally. People reared in severe poverty, deprivation, broken homes, and crime ridden communities will not, and should not be so expected, have the values and motivation of those more fortunate among us. Jesus tells us that, as we think, so we are. Our environment has everything to do with how we think. Again, those people came here on slave ships. Ever since, we have been their environment. We have a problem, and we created it. Now we must solve it. For the past 238 years since our revolt against Great Britain, the majority of our people have been white. Now, that is about to change. We are about to be their environment. If we don’t change and end our hatred, we are going to reap what we have sown.

          Now, I want to approach this subject from another angle. Discrimination and hatred runs both ways. Also, it goes above and beyond the color of one’s skin. A person’s behaviour, personal appearance, and speech transcend all. Some characteristics are just not socially acceptable no matter what color one is, especially in one’s search for employment. As I have said, we all have an immense stake in solving this very critical problem. We must work together. We must supplant hate with love and respect for one another. We must make every effort to educate and improve the lot of the underclass if not eliminate it completely, i.e. enable them to rise to the middleclass.

Ronald Miller

Email me at mtss86@comcast.net