The obscenities of this country are not girls like you. It is the poverty which is obscene, and the criminal irresponsibility of the leaders who make this poverty a deadening reality. The obscenities in this country are the places of the rich, the new hotels made at the expense of the people, the hospitals where the poor die when they get sick because they don't have the money either for medicines or services. It is only in this light that the real definition of obscenity should be made.
Interpretation
The quote critiques the moral failures of society, highlighting poverty and the irresponsibility of leaders as true obscenities.
In this powerful quote, F. Sionil Jose articulates a strong denunciation of societal flaws, arguing that the real obscenity lies not in the actions or appearances of individuals, but in the systemic poverty and the moral failure of those in power who perpetuate it. He emphasizes that such injustices are the true shame of a nation, and that the luxurious lifestyles of the affluent stand in stark contrast to the suffering of the poor, thus redefining what is truly obscene in society.
In practice
In a speech addressing social inequality, one might quote this to illustrate the true sources of societal shame.
Facebook captures examples of inequality and makes them available for endless replay. Twitter links the voiceless to newsmakers. Instagram immortalizes the faces and consequences of discrimination. Isolated cruelties are yoked into a powerful narrative of marginalization that spurs a common cause.
Many offenders are tracked for prison at early ages, labeled as criminals in their teen years, and then shuttled from their decrepit, underfunded inner city schools to brand-new, high-tech prisons.
Part of what our problem as blacks in America is that we don't claim that. Partly, you see, because of the linguistic environment in which we live.
In a sense the quest for the emancipation of black people in the U.S. has always been a quest for economic liberation which means to a certain extent that the rise of black middle class would be inevitable.
I believe this system of mass incarceration would have Dr. King turning in his grave. There's no doubt in my mind that Dr. King would be doing everything in his power to build a movement to end mass incarceration in the United States; a movement for education, not incarceration.
What I think is different today is the lack of political connection between the black middle class and the increasing numbers of black people who are more impoverished than ever before.
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