links for 2010-01-21

• The price of whiteness / What is diversity worth? And what is the cost of its absence?
  "What I learned on my journey is there are a lot of people who want the individual good, not the common good," he says. "A lot of very conservative people are not strictly racist, saying people of color should suffer. But they're perfectly comfortable with white inequality, even within their own family. They're comfortable with inequality, no matter who it is. They think, 'To the victor go the spoils.'"

  He adds, "A disproportionate share of our government's tax income comes from diverse, urbanized economically powerful states, including California, Illinois, New York, and New Jersey. Meanwhile many of the states that gobble the most money from Uncle Sam are rural, homogenous, culturally conservative strongholds, such as Montana and the Dakotas."

  
  
  (tags: politics policy economics race diversity community neighborhoods)
  
  

Comments

[Al_Pal]

Wow. Great quote; I can't recall if I'd seen it before. & OMG can we Californians get some of our money back?!
Heh. ;p

[Maria Niles]

Yep, I have to agree that the imbalance in terms of funding and political power is frustrating. I understand why small states are protected so they are not completely shut out of the process and the dysfunctional California process doesn't help. BUT - it serves no purpose and doesn't help the country to have Cali and other large states have such problems. Some sanity and balance in refunding taxes back to the states is necessary.

Thanks so much for your comment, Al Pal!