American Dirt: We Need to Re-Brand the Middle Class: Attempting to Bridge the Gaps

This series, Attempting to Bridge the Gaps, is all about bringing together poor white, minority, and the LGBTQ communities together in understanding and acceptance of each other. I cannot do that by myself. So for now, I want to create a place where we can talk to each other over topics that matter to us, so we can find out what the AMERICAN PEOPLE want, rather than a me, me, ME attitude, of which we are all guilty. Comments welcome, but refrain from hatred or assumption of hatred. Let’s talk.

Today’s Problems Start with Money

The secret is out. An unhealthy total of all America’s wealth belongs to the top one percent. That doesn’t leave a lot of change floating around to be used by the 150 million people not playing the billionaire game. Where does that money go? Not back into the mainstream economy. Lobbying alone accounts for nearly $24 million in spending, attempting to sway our lawmakers to making things easier for the top one percent of earners.

You’ve seen these numbers. This is not news. I don’t think we realize though, just how big a boat we’re in. See, these numbers aren’t just affecting minorities, or poor whites, or the LGBTQ. These numbers affect all of us who aren’t making at least $138,000 per year. The median income is $55,775. How many of us are making anywhere near that? If we all came together and zeroed in on income inequality for all, could we make a difference? I think so, but…

Lines are Drawn Between Us, Purposefully

The media constantly refers to us by invisible lines: black, white, LGBTQ, poor, racist, Muslim, Latino, Mexican, gay, straight, liberal, conservative, Democrat, Republican…I can’t even name all the labels used here. Constantly, we are inundated with these titles. In some cases, it’s a point of pride to use labels, but is that a pride we should hold onto?

Here’s an example a liberal friend of mine recently gave me: you hear on the news that a cop brutalized an African American man. That’s bad, right? But actual racist whites aren’t going to give two shits. Let’s rewrite that: A cop brutalized an American man today. Wait a minute, a cop brutalized one of our own? An AMERICAN? That’s horrible! And you can turn that around, saying a white man was brutalized and actual racists from the minorities won’t care. What if we took out the labels? What if we were all just Americans in the media? Doing so may not make a difference in the short run, but over time, I believe we would stop seeing the “other” as being something separate from ourselves. Why? We’re already the same, especially economically, overall.

Coming Together will Let Us Change the Rules

So here’s all I’m saying. If we can stop pretending we’re all different from each other (yes, whites too), and come together under a banner of better economic equality, we could make each “separate” group far better economically, which would lead us to be able to pursue the even more hefty goals of fighting innate, systemic racism, and acceptance of the LGBTQ, Muslims, and all those other pesky labels. But, we can only do this if we come together as one: as Americans.

Do you think less economic disparity would help make America more accepting? Write your thoughts, invite friends or otherwise to discuss below. Thank you for reading American Dirt.

James Neal is the author of several fantasy stories, feel free to check them out:

Of Blood and Blade: $3.99 (Amazon.com)