FREE ESSAY ON GLOBALIZATION

GLOBALIZATION

For many years black people in the United States have struggled for their rights and their
piece of
the American dream. Now that the world is moving toward a new global era the African
American person, worker and human has been left out of this turn in the century and, the
system
is letting them hang their selves. Globalization has made it so that anyone with the
right
equipment and knowledge can chat or do business anywhere in the world with just a few
clicks
of a couple of buttons. Globalization is making the gap between the races bigger every
day, and
it seems that no body is slowing down to lend a helping hand. Globalization has placed a
new
standard on the way we live today. Because now that we have reached the technological
revolution, you must have a computer or ready access to one to be considered up to date
with the
world. There was a time when it was unheard of not to have more than one television in
your
home. Or if you didn't have cable you must have been poor. Is being poor a new kind of
crime, a
crime that says if you can't log on you are suppose to be were you are, at the bottom.
In
"ghettos" across America I bet you can count on your fingers and toes how many people
have a
computer in their house, and I am not talking about a play-station or dream-cast. Is
globalization
the new apartheid in the United States? Is this away for our land of the free to keep the
hold on
the poor and lower middle class minorities? Are black people free in the coming of
globalization? 
In Clarence Lusane's book: Race In The Global Era, he talks of automation and its effect
on black workers. Lusane shows us that not all blacks are effected by globalization. For
instance
Michael Jordan and other ball players that have these big shoe deals. Now these sports
super
stars have their faces and name all over the product but have no say so in how, where, or
who
will make the product. The funny thing about it is that some commercial ads are to catch
the eye
of inner city black youth. I remember when I wanted that new Michael Jordan shoe, but my
mother could not afford it. Now the commercials are geared for the black youths but the
unemployment rate of blacks is two times higher than white's, working the same job.
Lusane has
quotes from Rifkin notes, Sidney Wilhems, and Holly Sklar that powerfully show the effect
on
black Americans in globalization. "The story of automation's effect on African Americans
is
one of the least known yet most salient episodes in the social history of the twentieth
century."
The Rifkin notes "Wilhems predicted that African Americans were being made obsolete as
workers by new technologies." "While some workers have jobs with no future, others have
futures with no jobs." Holly
Sklar Automation has played a major role in the decline of industrial jobs for blacks.
Rifkin
calls automation a salient episode; it seems that automation is like a disease or even a
plague for
some black workers. Wilhelm also uses words like uselessness, and displaced Negro, to
describe what is happening to the African American worker, no future is said by Sklar.
These are
strong words being used here to describe the effect on the majority of a minority. Now
Company's can us machines to do job in factories and all other industrial work that was
done by
blacks. So if they have no jobs and they are becoming useless and displaced than where
and what
are the blacks to do, where is their future? Lusane writes about a study done in Ontario
over an
eight-year period of time that showed that the black imprisonment grew 204 percent, and
the
white was 23 percent. Plus the whites that committed the same drug crimes were released
at
twice the rate of blacks. For the middle and lower class blacks is this the new placement
and
their future, jail? Since the 1970's the manufacturing employment in the U.S. has lost
about
1.4million jobs, from 1978-1990. Some of the hardest places hit were Detroit, Chicago,
Pittsburgh, and my hometown St. Louis. These are all places that have a high crime rate
in the
city and of course predominantly all black. I can remember when GM closed down in St.
Louis;
it was the largest plant in the city. The plant was more than three city blocks long and
wide. 
Thousands of people lost their jobs and soon after the crime rate jumped up. This was in
the
mid-1980s. The reason I remember is because my grandparents house was broken two time in
less than one year. That wasn't the only factory that shut down either. My grandfather
and both
of my uncles worked in a packinghouse factory. Lusane also talks about how new investors
seem to start new manufactures out in the suburban areas where predominantly only white
people
live. To add to it this is foreign and domestic investors that are doing this. "It's not
that
they have less education, experience, or seniority. The difference has nothing to do with
job
performance...Blacks are fired more often because of their skin color...Rank didn't help.
Black
senior managers went out the door as often as black clerks." The Mercury News Now
everything they tell you in school has nothing to do with nothing if you are black? All
the hard
work that a black person might do to move up in a company can all be taken away because
of
their skin color, and from this article quote is says nothing of class. It's just being
black. The
same study showed that only one out of every one hundred appeal was over-turned. So
black
workers are in a no win situation. Lusane goes further about how the National American
Free
Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is taking more jobs out of the hands of black workers and placed
these jobs over seas. Black women are also losing a sexiest and raciest battle in
globalization. 
They are paid 56 percent less than a black male doing the same job. Lusane also writes
about
how in the black community of Washington D.C. were blacks are 64 percent of the
population. 
But they own less than10 percent of the business. It is sad that a black high school
graduate is
more likely to be unemployed than a white high school drop out. "Some analysts have
argued
that African Americans and the working population in general should prepare for the 21st
century
by reeducation themselves in the areas of high technology and computer science." Who are
these
analysts, and where are they to get the reeducating from? Because most black high school
students don't have a good education in the first place. Young blacks need to understand
who
people like Dr. Martin Luther King and Malcolm X died. Even before their time know why
black slaves were beaten if they caught reading or writing. I don't think the inner city
black
youth under stand what and why it was against the law to educate a black slave. With out
education of your past you cant under stand your present and cant see your future.
Frothier in this
passage it puts numbers to what jobs will created or more available in the 21st century.
The top
ten include cashiers, janitors, retail salespersons, waiters and waitresses, registered
nurses,
general managers and top executives, security guards, nurses aides, orderlies, and
attendants. 
Most of these jobs are low paying. Just a full time job to keep paying some bills, the
majority of
these jobs will keep those workers under the poverty line. To understand the
classification of the
black race we need to know how they are put in to classes. In Exploitation and Exclusion
Thomas D. Boston has broke down the way the black race is classified. "Historically,
racial
subjugation has created a unique class stratification among; blacks; one whose internal
composition differs both quantitatively and qualitatively from that of whites. This
inferior status
is constantly regenerated by economic dynamics and the legal, cultural, the growing
marginalization of the working class and the creation of a so-called 'black underclass'
are the
result of declining manufacturing employment and growing international competition, which
hit
blacks hardest because institutional and employment discrimination have concentrated
them
disproportionately in the most vulnerable occupations." To brake this quote down I have
to put it
in my own words. Over time racial control or enslavement has created a special class
formation
or deposition among blacks. Their internal make-up is different in amount and quality of
whites. 
There are reminded of their lower status legally, culturally and by being confined to a
lower outer
limit of social standings of the working class, the black underclass. This was used to
explain to
you in a different way the globalization effects blacks. Thomas starts on the 3 things we
must
look at in the race and class analyses. First we must look at the boundaries of the class
and what
factors are placing these groups into their class. Also we have to find the similarities
to other
classes. Then look at their interaction and see what the impact is on the interaction.
Then find
the problems that are from the class interaction. 2nd we must see what relationship the
classes
and their collective identity have. 3rd we have to analyze the interaction among the race
class
and their ranking. Plus determine the effect of economic and social arrangement on the
existing
classes. In putting blacks in a class many problems can come about in the analyzing
process. 
One problem is putting the black capitalist class with the black middle class. "It is
important to analyze the historical conditions responsible for maintaining its feeble
existence
because the black capitalist's weak state could well be a major aspect of modern racial
inequality.
The black capitalist is the victim of a long history of illegal property expropriation,
financial
discrimination and, for many decades, a legalized system of racial segregation." The
inequality
doesn't stop at the front door of ghettos. It does reach the property owners and
investors, which
are black. What is the black underclass? Is it a class segment, a class or a useful term
at all? 
Who do we consider to be a black underclass? Would it be all the poor useless displaced
in the
inner city? Because if this is so than how can you take a single parent mother and a drug
dealer
that live on the same block? While she rides the bus to get to work or the grocery store
the drug
dealer is driving a brand new Lexus truck just to ride the streets. So what is class?
Pryor
defines class as: "the designation of a group into which persons are placed by either
objective
criteria, subjective criteria, self-identification, or mixed criteria. Depending upon the
theory of
social stratification that is proposed, 'class' can be defined in terms of 'objective'
criteria (for
example income, wealth, position), 'subjective' criteria (solidarity in terms of social
or economic
interests; or self-identification with some group) or mixed criteria (for example,
evaluation by
others in society in terms of esteem or some other scale of value). Depending upon the
theory of
social structure that is proposed, 'class' can be defined in terms of a group that is
struggling
together to change the structure; or statistically in terms of the position or power of
the group
concerning the operations of the societal causation that is proposed, 'class' can embrace
a
difference defined terms of a single criterion or of some combination of set of
criteria." Class
deals with political economy relations external and internal in the black society. The
criteria of
self-identification and wealth, income social structure, and their roles in the economy,
and the
class ranking of the group or what political party one group might stand behind. We can
see in
this definition how the black race is singled out. Anything that deals with income,
wealth and
positioning blacks know that they set at the bottom of all these categories. Then if we
look at
what the middle and lower classes have evolved in it would poverty, crime, drug abuse,
illegitament children, and a continuing failure in education. Blacks seem to one of the
only
groups who can't get it together. Because immigrants from Asia and India seem to do
exceptionally well in academics and economically. It seems that white America has open
arms
of hostility for these other groups and the underclass black is left to fin for them
selves. In the
definition of class boundaries are never brought up. But in "America" there is not
suppose to be
boundaries. Anyone can move up and down the ladder of success. Although, different
classes
have over lapping characteristics for example consumer goods, political views, religion,
and
goals and dreams, plus there is variety with in a class. The book uses the example of a
core
surrounded by fringes, which are attached to a core. In this definition I ask can the
fringes leave
this and attach to another core? Than can a fringe becomes a core? Better yet can a
black
homeless man or woman start a new computer monopoly and buy out Microsoft one day? I
think
that this is a bit to far fetch for anyone to do. But growing up you were told that you
can be
anything that you want to be, should your parents have said but only if you are not
black? Now
that we know how to class black people, we can move forward and show deeper into the
prescription for the falling poor black race. For my third prospective I use the text
from Race and
Class U.S. the Black poor and the politics of expendability. This book was published in
1996
and the words are hitting home more than ever. Barbara Ramsby the writer of this chapter,
says
that there was two major US political parties that combined for a "campaign of terror
against
poor and working class people, especially poor Black and brown people." For more than
two
generations the welfare state as we know it is being eradicated. Unemployment and
underemployment rate has shot right off the charts. The aid from the government is being
cut so
rapidly and on such a large scale that more poor and middle class working people will be
out on
the streets. "Thirty per cent of the manufacturing jobs eliminated by downsizing in 1990
and
1991 were held by blacks. This economic trend, which has persisted for more than a decade
with
little abatement, means that there now exists a class of permanently unemployed men and
women
are essentially surplus labuorers in an increasingly 'streamlined' economy. These are the
men
and women whom social scientists condescendingly refer to as the 'Black underclass'. 
There have been bills past that are to effect the poor blacks the most the Welfare Bill
and
the Crime Bill. The welfare bill places a new degree of terrorism on single black
mothers. You
can only receive welfare for five years in your entire lifetime. Mothers are penalized if
they have
another child while on welfare. Colleges and Universities are closing their doors to
exclude the
poor. Funding has been cut for job training to the poor, in a shrinking job market
already. 
Analysts estimate that 2.6 million people, including 1.1 million children will be under
the
poverty line by the year 2000, just 39 more days away. The Crime Bill has a three strikes
rule for
provision for violent offender's treats a high-level drug offense like a foul ball and
this puts you
away for life. The new death penalty can be applied to large-scale drug importers,
sellers,
manufacturers or cultivators even if no one is killed. This is basically for young black
dope
dealers. The system makes it seem as if poverty is the fault of the person and not
poverty itself. 
The attempt to reduce births out of wedlock and to get people off welfare puts a higher
standard
of moral on the poor than the people and persons whom enforce and made this system. While
the
rich stay rich and set back and call the lower classes lazy, the poor work even harder to
keep food
on their tables. "In the past, when new technologies have replaced workers in a given
sector, new sectors have always emerged to absorb the displaced laborers. Today all three
of the
traditional sectors of the economy agriculture, manufacturing, and service are
experiencing
technological displacement. The only new sector emerging is the knowledge sector. Made up
of
a small elite of entrepreneurs, scientists, technicians, computer programmers, educators
and
consultants." The black underclass and displaced Negro are the words that come to mind
when I
read this. This is permanent unemployment for blacks. Even jobs in fast food and other
service
sector jobs are becoming harder to come by. The Reagan administration in the 1980's began
to
make unions a thing of the past. This was another place were black could get a good
paying job
with benefits. While money for reform programs are being cut the prison budget have grown
at
unbelievable rates. In Michigan led cuts for services for the poor it has a $200 million
dollar
building project. In Missouri $94 million spent and just $50 million in Maryland on new
prison
projects. This is supposed to be the answer for the prison being over crowded. Its like
the
Doritos commercial you keep eating we will make more. You blacks keep going to jail we
will
build more. In all three books we can see that there is a serious problem in the way the
system
is set up, aspecially for working class black people. There was a time when the systems
depended of the poor and lower middle class to do all the things that the upper class
didn't want
to do. The poor and lower class also depended on the system so that the unfortunate could
have
something to fall back on. With the wide spread of the web and other technologies the
black
worker has be come useless and increasingly more or under the poverty line. For this gap
to at
the least slow down and let some catch up a lot of reforms need to take place. First in
the way
blacks think, they must learn and know this system doesn't owe them anything. Also they
must
stop being so dependent on the government system. For this to happen there has to be a
change
in the education of young inner city black youth, school reform is greatly needed. More
teachers
with the right training and education need to teach these kids. The schools should have
the right
to paddle kids for doing wrong in or around the schools, and do it in front of his or her
pears. 
Parents should be called if a student misses class or homework, so the parent has more
inter
action and knowledge of what is going on with their child. This should go on until the
student is
in college or some sort of technical training. Education should not stop just with the
black youth;
the black men and women also need the schooling and training. We must set examples for
the
children, so we must educate the mothers and fathers and the neighbors of these children.
Next
issue would the lack of fathers in the household. We are in need of a better system to
find died
beat dads. All of the little holes and gaps that they can escape threw need to be closed.
Fathers
should have to spend time with their child. Next the prison system is losing and
forgetting about
a large number of black males and females. The system that is in place now is not
working, it
just helps make the gap between the races larger. We don't need more prison or better
prisons
we need more reform and better reform. Make it mandatory for en-mates to spend time in
the
library, and to take up some kind of trade or skill on the inside. Make en-mates work out
in a
field or some other hard labor job, even if it is just digging a 6 foot hole everyday and
filling back
up. Let prisoners do some of the jobs that are being sent over seas like the making of
clothes and
shoes. This way the working class is not paying as much for the prisoners to live in a 6
by 6. 
This also gives them less time to do drugs or to kill educating that is reform. Make jail
the last
place you want go. Make it so bad that when a person does get out that he or she thinks
before
they do anything and say I am not going back and I mean that. Next our government system
needs to look at. Funding for programs that give inner city youth more places to go for
free
instead of the street corners. More places that parents can take their children that
don't cost an
arm and a leg. More events that a geared toward getting the attention of young black
people. 
More block parties, neighborhood gardens, and have local DJ and rap contests. The
pro-athletes
need to get out in streets of the ghettos. At public schools let there be give always for
grades and
attendance tickets to football, basketball and baseball games. At the halftime show let
these kids
be announced and get on the court or field. Make them fill like they have really done
some thing
special. Then at the end of the school year the pick two students in different categories
to get to
set in one of the box sets or set on the bench. These are just a few things to help the
growing
problem in the United States.