Yup! And not just black lives. The lives of indigenous Americans, too.

It was Marcus Aurelius (121-180 AD) who had the insight and decency to acknowledge that “Poverty is the mother of crime.”

However, ‘money’ as such is no response. Nor is ‘education’ as we know it. We have to change ‘the system’.

Interestingly, it’s indigenous people who have the deep knowledge about how the system must be changed: we’ve got to stop treating their patrimony, their land, as a commodity. They have much to teach the world of ‘investors’.

Surely, it’s too late to do that?

It isn’t too late. It could be fixed overnight by taking on board something the indigenous people of Australia have been saying for years, or as ‘Midnight Oil’ sing in ‘Beds are Burning’: We must ‘Pay the Rent‘.

The rent is owed equally to all as a right—not a gift—to each and every one of us. It would afford a universal basic income.

Otherwise, the remedying of black and indigenous lives, and the lives of all the dispossessed and impoverished, is going to be a very, very – l – o – n – g – haul!