As I said in my initial post and in my description for this blog, my ramblings while mostly related to being a Black woman in Maine, will sometimes just be random ramblings. Today is one of those days, I was just reading a piece online about how more Americans are less concerned about conservation and the environment now that gas prices are through the roof.
See, I have been saying for the longest that class is a greater divider than race on some levels and with the rise in gas prices, the increase at the grocery store and the sudden shortage of credit the line between the haves and the have-nots is growing wider regardless of race.
All of a sudden Sally and Joe “middle-class” Cuacasian are getting squeezed as hard at Ruthie and Floyd Black (who always struggled since the lenders were never as generous to the Blacks), turns out many of us in the late nineties and early part of this decade bought into the mentality that we could all have it all and that meant Coach bags, SUV’s, 3000 sq. ft houses with granite counter tops and the whole enchilada. When money was tight, well we just pulled out some equity and voila we could just keep consuming.. was no thang to shop at Whole Foods aka Whole Paycheck and get the organic from Chile veggies and the free range chicken that only cost a mere $20. Hell, when times were good, of course we cared about the environment, we donated to the green causes, bought the Sigg or Klean Kanteen water bottle, the whole nine just like good middle class folks who care do.
But now, well when it costs over $300 a week to get from point A to point B while driving that Expedition or what really should be called Humongous Ass Ride Most of Us don’t Really Need, some of us are realizing that we really don’t care about the environment, shit we really don’t care about anyone but ourselves. Reality is for most Americans if the price of gas and everything affected by the high price of gas does not go down soon, many of us are starting to see that the line that seperates us from the hourly wage worker who knows he lives paycheck to paycheck versus some of us who liked the illusion that we were above that sort of thing is really just that an illusion and figment of our imaginations.
Turns out that the high price of gas is about more than stretching our pocketbooks its about redefining the belief that we could all be middle class if we tried, no we are all serfs getting fucked by the man. (and no, I doubt gas prices are ever going down, so perhaps we should all start looking for bikes to ride now)