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Politics

إعادة بناء أميركا للمرة الثالثة

Mar 30, 2021 Jeffrey D. Sachs

نيويورك ــ أميركا أمة واحدة تحتوي ثقافتين. جلبت الثقافة الأولى العبودية، والإبادة الجماعية للأميركيين الأصليين، وقوانين "جيم كرو" التي فرضت سيادة ذوي البشرة البيضاء، وبلطجة وكذب وقسوة الرئيس السابق دونالد ترمب، والتي بلغت ذروتها في تمرد السادس من يناير/كانون الثاني الذي شهده مبنى الكونجرس الأميركي في كابيتول هِـل. وجلبت الثقافة الثانية تحرير العبيد، وحركة الحقوق المدنية، والرئيس باراك أوباما، والآن انتخاب جو بايدن. كانت ثقافة تفوق ذوي البشرة البيضاء ــ التي تعتنقها قِـلة متزايدة الانكماش من الأميركيين ــ تؤسس قوتها دائما على العنف وقمع الناخبين. لهذا السبب، تُـعَـد المعركة الحالية حول حقوق التصويت معركة من أجل مستقبل أميركا.

الآن، تدور رُحى المعركة بين الثقافتين في مختلف أنحاء البلاد وفي واشنطن العاصمة. دَفَـعَ فوز بايدن المتعصبين لتفوق ذوي البشرة البيضاء إلى مضاعفة جهودهم في قمع الناخبين. الواقع أن الحزب الجمهوري يعلم أنه لا يستطيع الإمساك بزمام السلطة الوطنية في تصويت عادل. وعلى هذا فإن المجالس التشريعية في الولايات التي يسيطر عليها الجمهوريون تسعى الآن إلى فرض قيود جديدة على مشاركة الناخبين في التصويت والتي تستهدف المواطنين من غير ذوي البشرة البيضاء. في واشنطن، من ناحية أخرى، تدفع الثقافة الشاملة في الكونجرس ببعض من أهم إصلاحات حقوق التصويت منذ ستينيات القرن العشرين، والتي تهدف إلى ضمان تمكين كل الأميركيين من الوصول إلى صناديق الاقتراع.

استخدم أنصار التفوق الأبيض أداة قمع الناخبين لفترة طويلة في أميركا. وقد روى وليام إدوارد بورجارت دو بويز القصة بشكل نابض بالحياة في كتابه بعنوان "إعادة البناء الأسود"، الذي نُـشر في عام 1935. يَـصِـف دو بويز بعبارات موجعة وشاملة كيف حارب الأميركيون من أصل أفريقي ببطولة من أجل حريتهم في الحرب الأهلية الأميركية (1861-1865)، وكيف ناضلوا ــ من خلال التعليم والعمل الجاد ــ من أجل التحرر الكامل كمواطنين في سنوات إعادة البناء (1865-1877). لكن هذا التحرر قـوطِـع بقسوة بسبب عنف الجنوبيين من ذوي البشرة البيضاء وإرهابهم، فضلا عن عدم المبالاة أو العنصرية من جانب العديد من ذوي البشرة البيضاء الشماليين. كان قمع أصوات الأميركيين من أصل أفريقي في جوهر نظام جيم كرو بعد إعادة البناء، في انتهاك صارخ للدستور.

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Jeffrey D. Sachs

Writing for PS since 1995
354 Commentaries

Jeffrey D. Sachs, University Professor at Columbia University, is Director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University and President of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network. He has served as adviser to three UN Secretaries-General, and currently serves as an SDG Advocate under Secretary-General António Guterres. His books include The End of Poverty, Common Wealth, The Age of Sustainable Development, Building the New American Economy, A New Foreign Policy: Beyond American Exceptionalism, and, most recently, The Ages of Globalization.

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Peter Schaeffer May 12, 2021

"Hysteria about "white supremacy" is the McCarthyism of our time (with no help from Joe Stalin). From "reds under the bed" we have gone to "white supremacists under the bed". Guess what? It ain't real. The richest ethnic groups in America are non-white. "White supremacy" is a useful myth however. One of the characteristics of our time is that hysteria is frequently inversely related to the facts. In China under Mao, "capitalist roaders" were supposedly everywhere and subverting everything. At that time, the number of actual "captialist roaders" (outside of jails and death camps) was around zero. China has vast number of very real "capitalist roaders" these days, but no hysteria. Hitler was hysterical about the supposedly omnipotent "Jews". The power of penniless refugees is not apparent to me. Hitler new better. Not to be outdone, Stalin had his "doctors plot" (also involving Jews) and his famous show trials. Khrushchev admitted that it was all a fraud. Now we have "white supremacy" and "racists under the bed". The very magnitude of the mania shows how false it is. The dominants ideology of our time is "diversity" (really racial quotas). For ever real Klan sympathizer, America has 100 (or 1000) "diversity" fanatics determined to find the "reds under the bed" (make that "racists under the bed"). Racism is very powerful in America, PC racism that is. Just the facts. Let's try college admissions. Quote "How much harder is it for an Asian-American applicant? Mr. Zhao and the complaint cite 2009 research by Princeton sociologist Thomas Espenshade that found an Asian-American student must earn an SAT score 140 points higher than a white student, 270 points higher than a Hispanic and 450 points higher than an African-American, all else being equal. So if a white applicant scored 2160 on the SAT, lower than last year's Harvard average, an Asian-American would need to hit 2300, well into the 99% percentile, to have an equal chance at getting in." So racism is actually quite real in the U.S. Anti-Asian racism is pervasive and profound. If "white racism" and "white supremacy" were even trivially real, whites would be the richest group. The truth is otherwise and the numbers aren't even close. Average family income for Indian Americans ($107,390), Jews ($97,500), Taiwanese ($85,566), all Asians ($74,245) is greater than Whites ($59,698). As can you see, non-white ethnic groups are at the top and Jews earn (far) more than non-Jewish whites. "White supremacy" is a useful myth however. Don't give it up."
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j. von Hettlingen Apr 2, 2021

Jeffrey D. Sachs lashes out at Republicans’ voter suppression in states they control, by offering guidance to their state legislatures across the US to draft laws, that keep non-whites from voting. They deploy grassroots activists to key battlegrounds and raise millions of dollars to block efforts by Democrats in Congress, who seek to pass a far-reaching bill - “For the People Act - that would bring sweeping change to the ways in which elections are conducted and funded.
In 2020 the voter turnout was at an all-time high, propelling Democrats back to power. Frustrated, Republicans in state legislatures are trying to bring back the Jim Crow era, when Black men were denied the right to vote, and so too were women, Native Americans and immigrants from Ireland, China, as well as European and Scandinavian countries. Revisiting this history is useful, because it reminds Americans of the urgency of expanding and protecting voting rights today.
In the past five months, Republican lawmakers have proposed at least 250 laws in 43 states that would restrict early voting, ending no-excuse mail-in voting and prohibiting voting on Sundays with such constraints as stricter ID requirements, limited hours or narrower eligibility to vote absentee. Biden has “rightly” called the new law by Georgia’s Republican-controlled legislature to restrict voting in the state a clear case of “Jim Crow in the twenty-first century.”
Republicans insist that the provisions are necessary to shore up public confidence in the integrity of elections after unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud by Trump, who convinced his supporters that the results were rigged against him. The author says the US “now finds itself in its Third Reconstruction. The first was needed to end slavery; the second to end American apartheid; and the third to end voter suppression and mass incarceration.” What will a successful Third Reconstruction look like?
According to the author, “voter suppression is a long-standing instrument of white supremacy in America.” Yet with the end of the Cviil War came opportunities for Black southerners. The First Reconstruction of 1867 laid out the process for readmitting Southern states into the Union. The Fourteenth Amendment (1868) provided former slaves with national citizenship, and the Fifteenth Amendment (1870) granted black men the right to vote.
The Civil Rights Movement and the Second Reconstruction between 1945 and 1968 helped correct the civil and human rights abuses that had lingered for a century. Coupled with gradual but progressive actions by Presidents Truman and Johnson, federal courts, and Congress, the movement eventually provided more political rights for African Americans and began to redress longstanding economic and social inequities within the society.
Perhaps George Floyd’s death could provide a guideline for the Third Reconstruction. This plan should begin with sweeping criminal-justice and voting reforms that could transform the US “from the world’s leading carceral state into a truly multiracial democracy.” This would require direct investments in Black communities to guarantee stable housing, universal health care, and high-quality education, necessities for achieving a more inclusive economy and greater income equality.
Since the Civil War, white supremacy in America – nowadays embraced by a shrinking minority – has always based its power on violence and voter suppression. According to the author, racism in the US “is dying.” Although the House of Representatives “has just passed and sent to the Senate the most significant voting rights and political reform legislation since the Voting Rights Act,” it remains to be seen whether it will survive the GOP filibuster in Senate.
The bill will require “to win 60 votes rather than a simple majority of 51. This is the same tactic the segregationists used to thwart civil-rights bills until the 1960s, and tried unsuccessfully to use in the 1960s.” The author is bullish about the Republicans’ failure to block it.
For the Democrats, much is at stake. Due to changing demographics white supremacy is no longer sustainable and needs to be buried “once and for all.” Republicans can no longer rely on a minority to maintain its grip on power, by suppressing the votes of non-whites.
Once again the author may be naïve to believe that the Senate “will most likely change the rules to prevent the filibuster of this crucial legislation in order to ensure that fair voting for all Americans is finally secured – more than 230 years after the adoption of the US Constitution.” Joe Manchin, a Democratic Senator has opposed to removing filibuster, potentially allowing Republicans to use this tactic to block any Democrats’ legislation.
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Chris Leslie Mar 31, 2021

It’s obvious Dr Sachs did not read Georgia bill. It’s not racist. I find that people who mouth the words “voter suppression “ and are against voter ID don’t want signatures checked, want votes turned in after election on and on -they don’t want any election integrity. No mention in Dr. Sachs article about voter ID . Voter ID is favored by 72% of Americans. I think voting should be done in person and with ID. I think results should be tabulated same day of election. This would go a long way to keep elections from being questioned in the future.

He leaves out in his history lesson that democrats drove Jim Crow, the KKK, and were against civil rights. The democrat party is still promoting racist policies. The Republican Party is the party of Lincoln, passed civil rights , and want equality. I’m Republican and don’t know anybody that identifies as “white supremacist”. It is a narrative the media and ivory tower inhabitants like Dr Sachs falsely and wrongly promote. It’s 2021 not 1960. Dr Sachs needs to leave his liberal echo chamber every now and then and leave his false generalities about white people and the south behind.
- P. Kamath Apr 1, 2021
  
  Chris Leslie: Jeffrey Sachs is referring to current “... Republican controlled state legislatures...” as the ones who are enacting Jim Crowe laws and not blanket-labelling republicans as racists! True, there are no more baton wielding police, water canons, police dogs that can tear flesh from the bodies of black protesters there. Today’s Republican Gov. of Georgia is a civilized man far-removed from late Democrat-Governors Lester Maddox and George Wallace of Alabama. The current laws are well tested , smooth and made vey effective, don’t you think? Why should then millions cry afoul?
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P. Kamath Mar 31, 2021

Bills to curb voting rights , written in broad day light in the 21st century when the world is watching! Wow, that is what is called - conviction and courage , Defiance before death of a dying breed! Thank you, Jeffrey Sachs for jogging everyone’s memory.
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