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1. Embed this notice
   mekka okereke :verified: (mekkaokereke@hachyderm.io)'s status on Monday, 13-Jan-2025 03:31:26 JST mekka okereke :verified:

   • James Gleick

   @gleick

   It's not complicated to understand at all.

   1) The people that received the lion's share of that economic benefit, are mega wealthy GOP people that hate Biden and will never vote for him. 🤷🏿♂️

   2) The people that would have voted for Biden at the highest rates (Black people) would not have voted for him at high enough numbers. Because they were sick of Biden doing things like transferring billions in Covid relief funds to the cops. Because racism. 🤷🏿♂️

   3) Most of the economic benefit that did accrue to the Black voters that he needed to win, were because of private sector DEI efforts. When those DEI efforts were attacked by bad faith lies spewed by open racists, Biden did nothing to stop them. The result is that DEI programs are now being cancelled left and right, Black people are being laid off disproportionately, and the few steps towards equity that Black folk managed, are being rolled back. Because racism.

   Stop asking for credit for the economy.

   • mark repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     🤖 Lazaro el dog (lazarodtormes@mastodon.social)'s status on Monday, 13-Jan-2025 04:30:37 JST 🤖 Lazaro el dog

     in reply to

     • James Gleick

     @mekkaokereke @gleick

     We need new metrics.

     The "economy" for the wealthy is not the same economy for the people whose money goes to rent, gas, and groceries, and then the money is over.

     mark repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     mekka okereke :verified: (mekkaokereke@hachyderm.io)'s status on Monday, 13-Jan-2025 04:30:37 JST mekka okereke :verified:

     in reply to

     • 🤖 Lazaro el dog
     • James Gleick

     @LazaroDTormes @gleick

     👴🏻"The economy is doing great! My portfolio value has doubled! The only problem is, there are people living in tents outside my house, because homelessness increased 12% last year, and 18% this year. Even seeing those people is killing the vibes man! I think that we should give the police another $1B a year to conduct more sweeps, and throw these homeless people's last possessions on earth in the trash! Their social security cards, medications, housing support applications, parent's ashes, suits and ties and laptops needed for job interviews, are all just trash to me. Here's hoping for another great economy in 2025!"

     If the S&P500 and DOW increase by the same amount in 2025 as they did in 2024, but homelessness jumps by another 20%, would we call that a good economy or a bad one? Current metrics say good.

     We're not talking about wages. We're not even talking about unemployment. We're talking about unsheltered homelessness, in the richest country on Earth. It's disgusting that anyone would try to pretend that this is a good economy. What are we even talking about here?

   • Embed this notice
     okanogen VerminEnemyFromWithin (okanogen@mastodon.social)'s status on Monday, 13-Jan-2025 09:11:39 JST okanogen VerminEnemyFromWithin

     in reply to

     • James Gleick

     @mekkaokereke @gleick
     We got it, you despise Biden. Anyway, here are the numbers: https://inequality.org/article/the-paradox-of-progress-for-black-americans/
     Shock horror, Biden didn't end centuries of #WhiteSupremacy in the two years he had a cooperative Congress.
     Everybody is all or nothing these days. Well, we ain't getting it all so we all get nothing.

   • Embed this notice
     mekka okereke :verified: (mekkaokereke@hachyderm.io)'s status on Monday, 13-Jan-2025 09:11:39 JST mekka okereke :verified:

     in reply to

     • okanogen VerminEnemyFromWithin
     • James Gleick

     @Okanogen @gleick

     I used to get really annoyed and disappointed in responses like this. But I don't anymore, because I know that they (mostly) don't come from a place of malice. They mostly come from a combination of 3 things: 🤷🏿♂️

     1) Not knowing, and not being curious. Not knowing how astronomically large a percent of the world's, not just the USA's, but the entire world's, prisoners, are Black and innocent and in US prisons and jails, specifically because of laws and procedures that Biden wrote and advocated. Not the GOP. Not Trump. Biden. Not knowing how much Covid relief aid Biden redirected to cops, while Black people were dying and needed that help. If Biden had only "failed to reduce" systemic racism, that would be one thing. But he actively made it worse. Both as a Senator, and as a President.

     2) Not experiencing. Fortunately, most people don't personally know an innocent person shot to death by cops. They haven't had to get an innocent friend out of Rikers or another hellish jail before someone stabs them or violates them. They've never been a good student who stays out of trouble, and yet who has had guns pulled on them by cops while on their way to prep school, then liberal arts college, then a fancy tech job, all in fancy neighbourhoods. They've never helped someone avoid a completely fabricated, potentially life ruining felony charge. So any disappointment in Biden's criminal justice policies, are purely academic for them. Their life and freedom are not in the balance.

     3) Not having empathy. These things haven't happened directly to these people, and they are not curious. They lack empathy for the people that have experienced these things. When people like this are in the car with me and experience it in real time? Then they change their tune! They're like "OMG! It's real! How are they allowed to do that?!" Then I show them the law or policy that Biden wrote, or explain why what just happened, happened. And then they get it. But this isn't really empathy, or even curiosity.

     Which is how we get callous statements like, "Oh you want everything?! You people are never happy!"

     If Biden treated you all like he treats Black people, you all would have flipped the table a long time ago.

   • Embed this notice
     okanogen VerminEnemyFromWithin (okanogen@mastodon.social)'s status on Monday, 13-Jan-2025 10:05:26 JST okanogen VerminEnemyFromWithin

     in reply to

     • James Gleick

     @mekkaokereke @gleick
     Hmmm. Very interesting.
     I am a brown person who has lived under bridges. Have you? I've been in jail, for more than a day. Have you? I've been profiled. My family had death threats when we moved into a sundown town in the early 70's. Have you? I was beaten for not being White. Have you?
     I was born in 1961. You know nothing about me, but go on. Do. Go on about this weird profile you have about people you know nothing about.

   • Embed this notice
     mekka okereke :verified: (mekkaokereke@hachyderm.io)'s status on Monday, 13-Jan-2025 10:05:26 JST mekka okereke :verified:

     in reply to

     • okanogen VerminEnemyFromWithin
     • James Gleick

     @Okanogen @gleick

     When people say "People of color," I ask "What color? Is it Black?" Because it's different.

     Beaten for not being white? No. I won my street fights with racists. Boston. Unless you count being roughed up by racist cops? Then yes, I've been beaten. I don't fight cops.

     I've never been homeless. I've never been to prison or jail. And I don't intend to.

     Death threats? Yes. Lots. None in 2025 so far, but the year is young. I'm a vocal Black dude online. And I lived in Texas. I've shared stories on here about rural Texas sundown towns before.

     I am in the squarest, nerdiest wealthiest, cohort of Black people in this country, and this is still my experience. In large part because of laws that Biden put in place. So a big part of my life's mission is ending the racism that I've experienced, and that killed and incarcerated my friends, and people that I don't know.

     If you are comfortable accepting less for yourself, then that's great! I'm happy for you.👍🏿

     But I don't accept racism from people that I vote for. And neither do a lot of Black men. And I don't pretend that the reason Black people didn't turn out for Biden is because we didn't understand how good he was for the economy.

   • Embed this notice
     mekka okereke :verified: (mekkaokereke@hachyderm.io)'s status on Monday, 13-Jan-2025 10:12:04 JST mekka okereke :verified:

     in reply to

     • okanogen VerminEnemyFromWithin
     • James Gleick

     @Okanogen @gleick

     Ah. We've reached the "Trump is Worse! I hope he lynches you!" part of the conversation.

     https://hachyderm.io/@mekkaokereke/112835135107276857

     And I reject the premise that the only two options were Trump or Biden. I voted for Harris.

     If she hadn't tacked to the GOP at the 11th hour, she could have won. Specifically, because she won back all of the Black Dem voters like me that were sick of Biden's racist policies.

     But I doubt this conversation is going to become more fruitful, so I'm disengaging.

     Be well.

   • Embed this notice
     okanogen VerminEnemyFromWithin (okanogen@mastodon.social)'s status on Monday, 13-Jan-2025 10:12:05 JST okanogen VerminEnemyFromWithin

     in reply to

     • James Gleick

     @mekkaokereke @gleick
     But hey, bravo. You won. Biden is out and will die in a few years and we can, I don't know, not have to worry about his awfulness ever again. We can move on to the straight forward version of the now openly corporate supported White Supremacy without any buffer. Much easier.

   • Embed this notice
     Joy Aliza Denebeim (denebeim@mastodon.social)'s status on Monday, 13-Jan-2025 15:24:22 JST Joy Aliza Denebeim

     in reply to

     • 🤖 Lazaro el dog
     • James Gleick

     @mekkaokereke @LazaroDTormes @gleick as I've always said, the economy is the flow of money, not how big the piles a few people have.

   • Embed this notice
     okanogen VerminEnemyFromWithin (okanogen@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 14-Jan-2025 00:43:08 JST okanogen VerminEnemyFromWithin

     in reply to

     • James Gleick

     @mekkaokereke @gleick
     State policies (nothing to do with Joe Biden) are responsible for the vast majority of incarcerations. The massive increase in incarceration rates started in 1970 with Nixon's "War on Drugs" and pushes in states primarily across rhe South as a backlash to Civil Rights successes of the late 60's. Even Clinton's crime bill had next to zero impact on that trend. Don't take my word for it: https://www.sentencingproject.org/reports/mass-incarceration-trends/

   • Embed this notice
     mekka okereke :verified: (mekkaokereke@hachyderm.io)'s status on Tuesday, 14-Jan-2025 00:43:08 JST mekka okereke :verified:

     in reply to

     • okanogen VerminEnemyFromWithin
     • James Gleick

     @Okanogen @gleick

     I'm blocking you, because you are exhausting. You have half knowledge, but think you have full knowledge.

     Biden himself bragged about how he managed to put pressure on state and local police and prosecutors to change sentencing guidelines in order to receive federal money. He literally wrote the sentencing guidelines that local and state DAs use. He changed how the RICO laws were used, and he changed key provisions of the asset forfeiture act, both of which existed before him.

     This is not even controversial. Biden would say the same thing. Criminal Justice reformers say the same thing. Police chiefs say the same thing. The only people that think that then Senator Biden didn't have influence over local sentencing guidelines and incarceration rates, is "dudes that like to argue with Black dudes about criminal justice reform online."

     But I'm not doing this. I'm not educating every single dude one by one over the Internet with their own personal thread. I'm just blocking and moving on with life.

     Be well!

     https://hachyderm.io/@mekkaokereke/113583193678727465

     https://hachyderm.io/@mekkaokereke/113582937858703150

     https://hachyderm.io/@mekkaokereke/113103478984057550