History

The Permanent Under Class – Part I

History, Politics / By

became scarce.  Wages also suffered as unskilled and semi-skilled laborers were easily replaced and had little bargaining power.  Thus, while the new industrial economy transformed natural resources into finished products and created a vast, national wealth the likes of which had never been seen before, that money was distributed very inequitably.  Fortunes aggregated into the coffers of the few while the masses increasingly slogged through poverty. At the same time, however, there also appeared a new, urban middle class, a cadre of professional managers. 

The Permanent Under Class – Part I Read More »

Taking Back Plymouth Rock

History / By

outbreak of war and grew during America’s industrial golden age that followed.  The other was a disingenuous federal program of the 1950s-60s called Relocation.  The actual goal of federal policy makers had been to liquidate reservation populations by luring Indian people to distant cities with empty promises.  The actual result was the rise of Indian ghettos that had cropped up in cities across America. Inspired by the Civil Rights movement, the emerging Black Power movement, and a desire to re-connect with their Indian culture and heritage, early AIM efforts included openly monitoring the city police to prevent and report abuses against Indian people, fighting housing and job discrimination, and setting up Survival Schools: after school programs for Indian children where they could stay out of trouble, pick up tips on handling the city’s mean streets, and learn about Indian culture and history, topics that were still absent from most public school curricula.

Taking Back Plymouth Rock Read More »

Trick or Treat, Baby

Culture, History / By

Halloween Part II Halloween as well.  Another reason is that my neighborhood is generally considered “safe,” despite the random assortment of lowlifes and hoodlums that back in the `70s we would’ve referred to as “hustlers, pimps, and pushers.”  So part of it is just circumstantial.  But a lot of it is that most of the neighborhoods and suburbs where some of these kids are coming from, be they modest and urban or well-to-do and tree-lined, aren’t pulling it off; the black kids are the obvious munchkin migrants, but there are plenty of white kids visiting too.  In other words, my neighborhood is a magnet for these kids because it’s one of the few places around the area where trick or treating is still a viable and thriving activity.  How many times are you going to watch your kid pound on a door and get no response before you realize this place just ain’t happenin’?

Trick or Treat, Baby Read More »

Little Tax Collectors

Culture, History / By

Halloween Part I think.  But more and more, that’s only what Halloween was.  Why is what I just described a very real thing where I live, but not something that happens in a lot of other places?  Why are children flocking to my neighborhood to trick or treat instead of raiding their own neighbors for sweet treasures?  Why do many children trick or treat by car instead of walking from house to house?  And what does trick or treating (or the lack thereof) say about community (or the lack thereof)? I wouldn’t go so far as to call my Baltimore neighborhood a full-on community.  With a population approaching 20,000, most people here are strangers to each other.  And there is also an obvious lack of binding social institutions that connect people in meaningful ways.

Little Tax Collectors Read More »

Christine O’Donnell and Jimmy McMillan Walk Into A Bar

History, Politics / By

of her flying around town on a witch’s broomstick, or imagining her desperately trying to stave off the perils of masturbation. I mean the recently departed Robert Byrd’s saliva stained grandstanding aside, I really do want all of our senators to have a reasonable familiarity with the Constitution. I don’t think that’s raising the bar of expectation too high. And then there is the new folk hero, born of last night’s NY gubernatorial debate: Jimmy McMillan of The Rent Is Too Damn High Party. The major candidates in that race are the son of former Governor Mario Cuomo (will Americans ever stop voting for famous families, be they Roosevelts, Kennedys, Bushes or Clintons?) and O’Donnell’s fellow Tea Partier, Carl Paladino, who, and I’m not kidding here, left the stage early so he could take a wiz.

Christine O’Donnell and Jimmy McMillan Walk Into A Bar Read More »

The Public Professor

Scroll to Top