Economic Violence

"Economic violence is the critical issue of our day. When plants close on workers without notice, and leave them without jobs or training for new jobs -- that's economic violence. When three to five million Americans are on the streets and homeless -- that's economic violence. When merger maniacs make windfall profits and top management is given excessive bonuses, golden parachutes to aid a soft landing, while workers are asked to take a wage cut, a benefit cut and a job loss, a crash landing -- that's economic violence. When our children are victimized with poor health care, poor education, poor housing, poor diets and more -- that's economic violence against our children."- Jesse Jackson, announcing his presidential campaign in 1987

Saw this quoted recently and thought it was a nice sentiment, worth saving, but perhaps more shocking is the paragraph that precedes in in his speech, seen below:

Jackson couldn't really think, in '87 no less, that legalized racial violence was over? Certainly, the subject was at least being addressed, but as this year's track record of police brutality and murder attest, talk of purely economic violence ignores what a large component skin color still is in much state-sanctioned acts of terror. Was this sloganeering or a genuine movement towards re-positioning classism as the next frontier?