Steve,

Not the first to point this out but America, and Canada, has a very firmly entrenched Caste System.

At the top are the Brahmins (priests and teachers) who are millionaire evangelicals and 'influencers'...think Benny Hinn and Joel Osteen and Kenneth Copeland or 'The Kardashians' or lamentably MSM.

And these Brahmins have enshrined, to continue their children's privilege, Private Schools and Private Universities: many in the name of God.

Next are the Kshatriyas (rulers and warriors) think of what Donald Trump tried to be, think of the Generals in the Pentagon, who manage some $742 billion per year.

And of course think of the highly militarized police forces who are in the 'warriors' caste and see and often enact themselves as such.

On the world stage at the extreme end of the spectrum, think of Kshatriyas Vladimir Putin or Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdoğan or North Korea's Kim Jong Un.

Then there are the Vaishyas (landowners, merchants) like billionaires Jeff Bozos, Elon Musk or Bill Gates, the latter of whom is buying huge swaths of US agrarian land.

Below them are the Sudras (servants), the vast bulk of us, all on a continuum of 'wages' and therefore limited access to an increasingly small share of the incredible wealth that each of our countries generates.

"In 2021, 19.5 percent of Black people living in the United States were living below the poverty line. This is compared to 8.2 percent of White people, and 8.1 percent of Asian people." (https://www.statista.com/statistics/200476/us-poverty-rate-by-ethnic-group/

Lastly, there are the harijans or Dalits, the ignominiously once named 'untouchables', often measured by the 'paper bag' darkness of their skin, kept in poverty, worthy of only the lowest jobs, unworthy of higher levels of education, kept in their slum-dog ghettos and 'in their places' by a brutal police force, often fed its dictates by the first four castes.

But as you have written in the past, this is changing.

Indeed some of of the richest Black Brahmins in the US are Creflo Dollar, or Bishop Eddie Long or Bishop TD Jakes: most of whom are earning 200 times the average income of their flocks.

BLM cannot afford to mention the resiliency and success of the 'lower castes' in fighting such an inhumane system, the cost for which was often paid for by life itself: for generations past the counting.

Nor can BLM call out those Blacks who profit from the injustice, including ironically themselves.

And yet, until the caste system is called out for what it is, until the rich Black 'ministers' follow suit and start sharing their incredible wealth with the less fortunate, and until BLM starts tackling this mind-numbing caste system, one which divides us all, there will continue to be brutal actions carried out in the name of further inculcating its tenets.

Thanks for another brilliant piece.