The Corruption of Politics
I found it interesting how politics were portrayed in Black No More because I feel that, the corrupt representation of politics is still relatively accurate today. The way that the Black No More Corporation was able to stay in business and not get shut down, as a result of paying off senators and other politicians, reflects how some companies today “donate” large sums of money to their favorite politicians in order to gets laws passed that favor their interests.
I also found it interesting that the government didn’t to anything except make it look as though it was serving purpose. When the Knights of Nordica called on the government to look into the actions of Black No More Corporation, the government decides to create a commission and appropriates large sums of money to the commission to cover expenses, and after weeks of procrastination eventually appoints members to the commission. The members then “took hundreds of positions, examined hundreds of witnesses, and drank large quantities of liquor.” Finally, once everyone had forgotten about the investigation, the commission came up with a huge report that only nine people read. Basically the government did absolutely nothing constructive. It just pushed papers, spent money, and wasted time. Additionally, this was during the Prohibition and yet the committee consumed large quantities of liquor, which shows that they have no respect for the laws that govern them. While this is an exaggeration, and our government does do plenty to provide benefits for its people; there are instances where the government wastes money, time, and its resources.
I also wanted to comment on how science succeed where the civil war failed. When Max first becomes white he claims that, “At last he felt like an American citizen.” This is how science succeeded where the civil war failed. The civil war sought to free slaves, and it failed because ending slavery did not lead to African Americans being completely “free;” however, Dr. Crookman’s treatment succeeded in this respect by giving African Americans the opportunity to escape the constraints of racism and empowered them to “go anywhere, associate with anybody, and be anything [they] wanted to be.”
I also found it interesting that the government didn’t to anything except make it look as though it was serving purpose. When the Knights of Nordica called on the government to look into the actions of Black No More Corporation, the government decides to create a commission and appropriates large sums of money to the commission to cover expenses, and after weeks of procrastination eventually appoints members to the commission. The members then “took hundreds of positions, examined hundreds of witnesses, and drank large quantities of liquor.” Finally, once everyone had forgotten about the investigation, the commission came up with a huge report that only nine people read. Basically the government did absolutely nothing constructive. It just pushed papers, spent money, and wasted time. Additionally, this was during the Prohibition and yet the committee consumed large quantities of liquor, which shows that they have no respect for the laws that govern them. While this is an exaggeration, and our government does do plenty to provide benefits for its people; there are instances where the government wastes money, time, and its resources.
I also wanted to comment on how science succeed where the civil war failed. When Max first becomes white he claims that, “At last he felt like an American citizen.” This is how science succeeded where the civil war failed. The civil war sought to free slaves, and it failed because ending slavery did not lead to African Americans being completely “free;” however, Dr. Crookman’s treatment succeeded in this respect by giving African Americans the opportunity to escape the constraints of racism and empowered them to “go anywhere, associate with anybody, and be anything [they] wanted to be.”
posted by Chris Rowland at 12:40 AM
1 Comments:
Yes, I totally agree about the corruption present in today's government. I feel that the New Orleans incident with Hurricane Katrina is a prime example. For instance, if the community was one of affluence and a different race demographic, the government probably would have taken quicker action. Another case of race explotation involves gerry mandering, as the black race largely tends to vote democratic, etc. So yes, the ideas of this book can be extrapolated to present day.
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