Why America May Not Be Considered A "First World Country" Much Longer | Zero Hedge

Why America May Not Be Considered A "First World Country" Much Longer

Submitted by Chris Perrin via TheAntiMedia.org,

Before George Manuel published The Fourth World: An Indian Reality, the idea that any real differences existed among population groups in fully developed countries was still taboo. At the time, Indigenous rights were still something of a political non-issue, a blemish on a relatively clean looking statistical sheet that First World countries paid lip service to all too infrequently. Since then, an increasing amount of scholarship seeks to understand the differences between Fourth World populations living inside First World countries.

The Fourth World, basically, are populations living within a state who have little or no representation by that state. These populations, from the standpoint of the First World, are generally impoverished and would not fit the criteria for a “First World” country.They are, essentially and literally, the oppressed. It is what we see as the Third World when we are looking at Africa and South America, hidden within the First World just outside our doors. Unfortunately, the Fourth World is growing.

As Anthony J. Hall points out in his book The American Empire and the Fourth World, Indigenous populations are not the only peoples who are finding themselves marginalized within the North American Fourth World (p. 283). The ongoing Flint Water Crisis is just the most recent example of the state-sponsored expansion of the Fourth World, particularly as it looks so similar to something that might happen in the Third World.

For African-Americans and Hispanic Americans, the Fourth World is an old reality with a new name. Since the economic collapse of 2008, Black and Hispanic populations have been increasingly marginalized, and the way the government once spoke about Indigenous populations must now be applied to other racial and ethnic groups. Where Indigenous peoples are confined to racially segregated Reservations, Black Americans are finding themselves increasingly limited to urban ghettos where First World opportunities are equally non-existent. Moreover, as Flint and the #BlackLivesMatter movement indicate, African-Americans and Hispanics are less and less represented by the state, clearly placing them within the boundaries of the Fourth World — boundaries that are quickly moving beyond the typical racial norm.

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