Try hard enough to find a job: race and reality in the U.S.

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http://coanews.org/article/2008/what-dead-presidents-can-do

Excerpts:

Dead Presidents is the story of a black veteran who -- upon returning to The Bronx after volunteering for two tours in Vietnam -- robs an armored car with his fellow vets since he can't find a living wage job that'll allow him to support a family. The acting, the soundtrack -- everything about this motion picture is perfect, but after [a romantic interest] saw it for the first time with me, all [she] had to say was, "I don't think Anthony [the protagonist] tried hard enough to find a job."

Ain't that a bitch? "I don't think Anthony tried hard enough to find a job." What were the Hughes brothers supposed to do? Tack on a gratuitous, ten minute long sequence showing a series of doors being slammed in Anthony's face [..] ?

...

Only when every possible excuse has been eliminated can it be implied that black Americans are lazy and whiny (especially after 300 years of free labor, which made America the richest nation in Human history). As things stand, we the people ain't even close to that point.

...

[Quoting Michael Moore:] "You know, if we lived in a society that said our first goal was employment at a livable wage for everyone, if the person living next door to you -- if that person's making $40,000 a year, what's the chance they're going to come in and steal your TV or harm you on the street? Absolutely none."

I've been saying this for years and I'll say it again: We need a Greenpeace version of FDR's New Deal so those in the ghetto, barrio and the trailer parks can get paid to build windmills, install solar power panels and grow industrial hemp (which can make fuel, fabric, paper and plastic).

[...]

That's what enough dead presidents can do -- fund ethical job creation. Seventeen billion is spent every year on America's 10,000 nuclear weapons of mass destruction, which we better not ever use. Cut those spoiled-ass defense contractors off like a drunk in a bar at two a.m. and use that 17 billion to gainfully employ blacks in America. It's either that or The Apocalypse.