Using the American Flag as a Blanket to Stay Warm

This picture of a father using the American flag as a blanket to shield his son points to the contradictions and complexities of the United States when it comes to dealing with race and class together. Images such as this broadcast across the nation in the wake of Hurricane Katrina illustrate the economic stratification and racial inequality that still exists in a country that refuses to come to terms with its history of slavery and economic disparity between the rich and the poor.

Watch Spike Lee’s four hour documentary about Hurricane Katrina, When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts, which highlights this disparity, as well as the system wide failure of the government on all levels, and gives a voice to the survivors and victims of the storm.






The latest census data show a widening income gap in the United States as poor and middle class people take a bigger hit in this recession. The economic gap between the richest and poorest Americans is widening once again. The wealthiest 10 percent of Americans who make more than $138,000 per year earned 11.4 times the income earned by those living at or below the poverty line in 2008, which is roughly
$12,000.

Household income dropped at sharper percentage levels for those people who are part of the middle and lower income classes, eliminating a decade's worth of gain since 1997 and poverty levels jumped to an 11 year high at 13.2 percent.

Use of food stamps has increased by 13 percent to nearly 9.8 million households. These increases were most evident in households with 2 or more workers, which highlights the impact of this recession on working families as well as the unemployed.

President Obama is considering new regulations to rein in executive earnings at companies in which we, the taxpayers, have paid tremendous amounts of money in order to keep workers employed and the companies afloat. The president is also talking about the need to tax the wealthy to pay for health care overhaul and other measures, since the wealthy have disproportionately benefited from tax cuts during the Bush administration.