Analogies for the plight of Black people in the U.S. today.

We have been cleaning out some old books and ran across a fascinating analogy for the condition of Black people in the U.S. today. Then I ran into another on Facebook.

Analogy: “A comparison between two things, typically for the purpose of explanation or clarification.” 

                                         - dictionary.com

1. The first one compared the situation to an on-going Monopoly game. Four people sit down for the game. Three of them are issued the usual $200 each and the $200 for the fourth person is divided evenly among the other three. If you know your history, you will get the analogy. They begin playing and the fourth person cannot buy anything. When he passes Go, he collects only $50 rather than the   customary $200. He can never catch up. After a while, other players come along to replace the original four. The three whose ancestors started off with more money begin to wonder why the fourth player is always so far behind. Is he lazy or just not as bright as the rest of us?  
2.  The other analogy was to the leaky faucet upstairs that is leaking into the downstairs apartment. The downstairs neighbor cannot fix the leak even though it is his apartment that is being flooded. The people “upstairs” must fix the leak. If the people downstairs tried to go repair it, they would be ostracized – thrown out of the upstairs apartment where they “don’t belong.”

Neither analogy is perfect and, like any analogy, if you try too hard to make every aspect of it match up, it will not work. But the point is there. I will have more to say about it over the next several days.

Thoughts?