A Bucket and a Tent

America has no caste system but America has castes. Like every other nation America has its rich and poor with everyone else sardined in tight rows in between. But America doesn’t have Untouchables, as some people in India are called. Yet in Mumbai and St. Louis there are people who live in tents and use a bucket for a bathroom. In India, birth determines caste. In America, color of skin determines caste. No matter how successful black or brown Americans may be, they remain black or brown even when they supervise pale folks they otherwise might never have to meet. What’s in their wallets matters not if pale folks can't see beyond skin that’s black or brown. Ask any American of color. Yet some people black and brown from castes in other nations drown on the way to America. They believe they’re free to earn a living here and some of them are doing that while native Americans, both dark and pale, survive on Medicaid and food stamps provided they’re poor enough to qualify for one or both. But even if they qualify, some find themselves in time with a bucket living in a tent. Donal Mahoney