To: Permaculture ibiblio <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: [permaculture] (Political) Instant-Mix Imperial Democracy, (Buy One, Get One Free), by Arundhati Roy
Date: Mon, 23 Jul 2007 16:10:17 -0400
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who's actually fighting the war?
Once again, America's poor. The soldiers who are baking in Iraq's desert
sun are not the children of the rich. Only one of all the
representatives in the House of Representatives and the Senate has a
child fighting in Iraq. America's "volunteer" army in fact depends on a
poverty draft of poor whites, Blacks, Latinos, and Asians looking for a
way to earn a living and get an education. Federal statistics show that
African Americans make up 21 percent of the total armed forces and 29
percent of the U.S. army. They count for only 12 percent of the general
population. It's ironic, isn't it - the disproportionately high
representation of African Americans in the army and prison? Perhaps we
should take a positive view, and look at this as affirmative action at
its most effective. Nearly 4 million Americans (2 percent of the
population) have lost the right to vote because of felony convictions.
Of that number, 1.4 million are African Americans, which means that *13
percent* *of all voting-age Black people* *have been disenfranchised*.
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