Thank you for your response, Alin.

I agree with you wholeheartedly with the role that corruption, power, and slavery play in all this. In fact, I am convinced that systemic racism has served one primary purpose in American history: that is to divide working class people to keep them from uniting and uprising against the ruling class. We are all victimized by the system to varying degrees, but as long as we are divided or have marginal privileges based on race, ideology, etc. we will keep pointing the finger at each other rather than challenge the oligarchy to promote fairness and opportunity for all.

I used to agree with you that education was the cure, and I even taught elementary school for a few years. But I am actually now convinced that the root of the problem is our corrupt justice system. As a Black person, it doesn’t matter how educated you are when police have the authority to arrest or kill you unjustly without consequence. So many of my students’ families were broken due to their parents being incarcerated for non-violent crimes. Education is incredibly important, but I now believe justice system reform is even more urgent.

I appreciate you taking the time to contribute to this conversation!