Richard Trumka: Whose America Is That?

[marmar]

Nothing about the content of the Pledge to America is surprising--it's the same Bush-era economic agenda that got us into the mess we're in today: deregulate business, starve government services, starve the middle class and starve the working class so corporate special interests and the wealthy can feed on the spoils.

But the presentation leaves me stunned.

It's 48 pages of fancy, historic-looking display type and photographs. Lots of photographs. In fact, it shows off photos of 384 white people by our count. One Asian American. A musician who might be Asian. One young man in military camo who may be Latino. And if you look very, very closely, five African Americans. A total of eight people of color.

What America are they pledging to?

It doesn't look like the America I know.

The Census Bureau says people of color made up 34 percent of the population last year. In the eyes of those who made the Pledge to America, people of color are barely 2 percent.

I haven't seen such a false image of who America really is since 1950s-era television, back when Lucy and the Beaver seemed to live on a planet with no people of color whatsoever. .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/must-read/whose-america

[valerief]

1. Back then there was Ricky Ricardo and Amos and Andy on teevee. That was it, I think. nt