2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: Sanders: A Man with A Hammer, Who Sees Nails Everywhere [View all]kennetha
(3,666 posts)I happen to think it's a lot of different factors. The ravages of global capitalism one major factor among them. But an independent and persistent factor that is America's deep, pervasive, and inalienable racism. It's been with us since the beginning of the Republic and has persisted in many different forms. The structures of exclusion and isolation and fear are not simply the doing of the elites. They are in large measure the doing of the people at large. That makes them damned hard to address.
When the elites --i.e the courts -- tried to enforce integration in our schools, whites en masse, basically rose up and said "hell, no." and today 60 years after Brown v Board of education, our schools are as segregated as they ever were.
Moreover, the billionaire class has almost not say in the management of local schools.