Quote by James Baldwin

This was true 60 years ago when Mr. Baldwin said it and it continues to be true today.

I am a therapist who has spent many years working with people who are poor, who have to rely on Medicaid for insurance and who often were on disability of some kind.

Being disabled in this country is like having a full-time job – dealing with pharmacies, going to doctors, going to the various County agencies for updates and appointments, spending hours on the phone dealing with insurance, having to take public transportation everywhere in most cities that don’t have great public systems of transport.

Then there are all these payday loan and short-term loan places that prey on desperate people and charge incredibly high interest rates. Or the lottery systems that prey on the hopes of people wanting a better life by spending a few (or a lot) of their hard-earned dollars on a ticket.

James Baldwin (1924-1987) was a Black queer American novelist, playwright and activist.  His 1955 book of essays Notes of a Native Son explored the intersection of race, class and sexuality in Western society.