Recently I have argued to my friends and family that right now more than any time in America's history, apathy is at its highest. There are still wars going on in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya even though we as a collective society have identified that these wars are a detriment to our future growth. Corporations are making record profits in a time when unemployment is at 9%. Our journalism institutions are outraged at Wikileaks even though these same institutions are being slowly disassembled by the powers Wikileaks are providing checks against. In theory, the middle and lower classes should be outraged at the exploitative nature of our government and corporations, yet there is not much being done to organize and seriously react. The London Riots were something of a push back, but anarchy only leads to the upper classes feeling reinforced in their views that their privileged ways are more humane. Astonishingly, the people who are organizing in America are the people who qualify as the dominant class in Kirk and Okazawa-Rey's graph. So, what is the problem in America today? Are we implicitly letting the wealthy get away with exploitation? Or are we so socialized to social injustice in America that our apathy is a product of the institutions that make up our society? I hope it is the latter.

In Harro's "Cycle of Socialization," the most important part other than understanding how our institutions and culture socialize us to conform to the dominant culture is the idea that there is a "direction for change" or a "movement towards liberation." In order to start a path toward this liberation, Harro believes that we need "something [to make] us begin to think, to challenge, to question the system." Unfortunately in America, the catalyst to get us to start thinking like that is a neglected and unequal public school system. As the situation stands, the most underfunded school districts are in the most poverty-stricken and oppressed areas. It is no wonder students drop or go on to join gangs because with poorly accommodated school systems and very little opportunity for jobs, kids are alienated and see that education provides them with no future. As a country, we need to value education over profits and see that neither the teachers nor the kids are the problem because poor public schooling is a symptom of a larger institutional problem.

If the public education system has failed minorities as a catalyst for organizing, then an outside influence needs to step up, but who can we/they rally around as inspirational figures if there are a lack of them in our society? It seems that our generation has no Malcolm X's, Martin Luther King Jr.

's, Cesar Chavez's, Muhattama Ghandi's, Harvey Milk's, Gloria Steinem's, James Baldwin's, Spike Lee's, or Chuck D.'s to carry on a tradition of social justice within oppressed and minority groups (Sure, we have President Obama, but how much actual social justice has he provided/inspired during his Presidency? Not all of that is his fault though). This is in part because our education system is so bad and undervalued, but it is also because of the vilification of these types of more "radical" or outspoken people in the media. The vilification not only comes from individuals like Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity, but it also comes from the larger problem of for-profit media. In today's society, a Spike Lee film or a Public Enemy album does not sell because people do not want to see the harsh reality around them. The majority of the market only wants to watch or listen or read about inconsequential things. Because of this, people who have messages like David Simon (the Wire, Generation Kill, Treme) or Spike Lee or Chuck D. are pushed to the fringes and are not as widely viewed or heard as they should be. 

If we do not have inspirational leaders who provide that catalyst towards a "movement of liberation" coming from education, politics, or art where do we find them? To be honest, I have no clue and would love to hear other peoples' takes on this (although that may be a cop out, I am admittedly cynical myself and feel we are so entrenched in this individualist/capitalist society we will have trouble finding solutions).