Systemic racial inequality is real. In looking locally, the City of Santa Fe issued a survey to which mostly anglos who live in the affluent side of town responded. Now, while some have decried the demographics of the responses, they are indicative of the level of engagement between white people and people of color. What’s more, income level is also reflected in these responses – in Santa Fe (as is the case elsewhere), the richer a person is, the more likely he or she is to engage in the political process. Because of their resources, rich people understand the relationship between political power and economic power. That is, rich people will participate to protect and extend their resources. Also, the richer a person is, the more likely that person will be white.

The beauty of our political system, however, is that anyone 18 or over can participate. One thing I learned, very young, was that there is a path towards systemic participation that is really accessible to anyone. I learned this lesson form my dad and he learned it Vietnam. My dad recognized that officers were always educated, while enlisted men weren’t. Intelligence wasn’t the factor: Many smart men died as privates and there were many dumb officers. But what separated officers from enlisted men was their level of education. Race didn’t matter much, although there were more white officers than non-white officers, but again, that’s indicative of a system that white people understand.

What my dad pushed into my developing brain was that in order to overcome social circumstances, I had to do two (2) things: 1) Get and education in order to develop marketable skills; and, 2) Vote, but understand why I vote. Those two (2) simple ideas have carried me throughout my life and I am quite certain that there are as interrelated as a tree is with its roots. The more someone can his or her skills, the more economic power he or she will have. With that economic comes a vested interest into the system that guides and controls those resources through legislation.

Santa Feans on the Southwest side of town, especially if they are people of color, have far less economic power than their wealthy counterparts on the Northeast side of town and so their interest in the process isn’t as vested. Cityhall’s actions have little impact on their lives and so apathy is a natural byproduct of that lack of impact. Racial inequality is, unfortunately, built into the system. The good news, however, is that there is a path that can change that inequality, but it takes outreach about the relationship between education, marketable skills, and the electoral process. But if we continue to ignore that rich, white people are more likely to participate in the political process, then we continue to allow systemic racial inequality.