Purchasing Justice

THE WORDS "discrimination, "Segregation:, and "racism' do not adequately describe the ethnic, socio-economic, and racial parameters of american society, according to Isabelle Wilkerson, for mer reporter for the new York times, in her seminal new monograph "Caste". she argues that American society as a whole, and within the African-american community, is structured quite similarly to that in India, the notorious caste system, in which a person's position within society, from birth until death, is predetermined by a rigid traditional set of traditional values, handed down from generation to generation. White anglo-Saxon protestant wealthy aristocrats sit at the top of the social hierarchy, beneath which layers of white America, middle class, working class, and poor, all stand above African-Americans, who remain rigidly ensconced at the bottom, pigment precluding any possibility of rising, regardless of personal achievement or wealth. A black american, whether Lebron James or not, is still black, and of his caste, untouchable. The NBA, seventy five percent of whose players are are multi-millionaire untouchables, is establishing a three hundred million dollar fund to promote racial equality and justice in America, and to end systemic racism. Many of the players are wearing "black lives matte" T shirt in place of their names, and kneeling before the anthem, symbolically. how do they propose to accomplish a fundamental transformation of deeply entrenched american culture with money, by paying for it? By bribing racists to reconsider? Educational initiatives, presumably. Education must begin early and often, because the broader society  has proven most conservative, resistant to change.  Then too, reason tells us the hearts and minds of hundreds of millions of well indoctrinated people, an entire entrenched culture, cannot be bought and paid for.