Adverse Thoughts

Let’s talk. Recently, whether for ill or good race relations discussions are more active of late. For this author the discussions are well overdue and needs confronting. Sound bites and clichés are not going to address the issue at hand. Nor will clever slogans, name calling, or any other myriad of assumptions about the Other. In fact, treating each other like the Other, like some foreign unknown entity will not resolve our issues or concerns of a diverse public that wishes to discuss race relations.

Often race discussions results in the marginalization of a person’s identity and ethnicity –and yes—often will result in further biases being hastily drawn into cartoonish figures. Emotional and irrational angst only seed fear and cede power to those (such as white supremist and nationalists) who wish to generate hate and divisiveness.

Thus, this author wishes to state the following—a diverse public makes this country stronger.  A diverse public makes our community stronger. A diverse public makes our humanity stronger.

With all the above stated, contentious race relations drive the twenty-four-hour-news cycle yet American political polarization thwarts any meaningful discussions. Punditry ducks and dodges thought provoking discussions only to incite the respective bases. For instance, in a report by Public Radio International (PRI) titled, White Americans are the biggest terror threat in the United States, demonstrated the click-bait titles that often drive the Internet yet when listened to via podcast, or on the radio, the calmness and rationality of the discussion resides in civility. The PRI broadcast discussed a study by a non-partisan, non-profit think tank, called New America, revealed that despite the current perception terrorism was not primarily by the Other—dark, foreboding, non-white—but by mostly American right-wing extremists.  

On the other hand, Black Lives Matter, currently viewed as a  left-wing extremist group, often finds that institutional racism by police authorities results in higher rate of shooting deaths of brown and black Americans. As an example, the recent shooting death of Stephon Clark by Sacramento Police evidence that the institutional ideology of racism, along with pop-culture  mysticism, killed him because of a cell phone in his hand (video) and deemed as a threat.

 The media underwhelming coverage, regarding the death of Stephon Clark, at the least demonstrated the institution themselves are self-sustaining in their biases; and, also illustrated, the revelations of white privilege, as viewed by some, with the Parkland students of Stoneman Marjory Douglass impact on political power. The intensity of the student movement showed the capacity for change but also indices of institutional conformity. In that, the victimization, social media savvy of the students, the gun control movement, and political opportunism of politicians in Florida showed that race and timing does matter.

And, in fact, change can only occur in the alignment with the sovereignty of privilege, populism, and identities. Identities that can only be sympathized by the majority and minority alike within its own group dynamic. The main stream media, conservative media, and the far-right and left media conflated issues writ-large in terms of the Parkland students’ Valentine’s Day massacre with free speech, race, gun control, gun rights, and sexual orientation.

Generally, the issues at hand regarding race relations are ecocentric to the communities, while the uproar with  Stephon Clark underwhelmed, the Austin Bomber dominated to a certain degree that the main stream media and the conservative media outlets aligned enough to refer to the bomber’s act as “discontented” and not an act of terrorism until the narrative from the Other, minorities groups, challenged that perspective.

Terror by the majority considered non-eventful and unapologetic are necessary in order control the Other and those not like the proverbial “us.”

 By way of example, lynching throughout the early and mid-20^th century in the United States prevailed as a form of terror toward black Americans, primarily in the South, and indicated to a white majority as a way to control the Other—again those not like them. This dark history entwined with the gloomy chapter of American slavery foundationally inculcated the sentiment of black Americans belief that the American justice system for them imparts not only injustice institutionally but also in terms of the American ethos.

This American ethos soon rooted after the American Civil War instilled a false narrative (and stereotypes) of black Americans, especially black American males, to set a juxtaposition to the “heroic nationalism” of white Americans. The faulty storyline began with the highly successful film of its time Birth of a Nation and a later film known as Reefer Madness shown to discourage drug use, but later tied in to racial injustice for black Americans.

For American blacks police authorities built in biases skewed not just how officers approached the black community and black males but the dispensing of justice. Meanwhile, the American justice for white Americans, though at times can inequitable to lower socioeconomic groups, shined as the jewel of American Exceptionalism.

The American Exceptionalism that the Founding Father’s relied on for meritocracy, equality, and opportunity—and 3/5^th of a person to be counted on until the 13^th, 14^th , and 15^th amendments—and the passage of Civil Rights Acts of 1964, 1965, and 1968. Yet, most white Americans believed that America justice imparted rationally gave equal access to all.

No such justice could be found in one of the most heinous acts of American history and lost in the shadows, for the most part, of the deep south of Rosewood, Florida happened in 1923.

 On a rumor that a black man had assaulted a white woman in a nearby town a white mob searched for a black assailant.  What the white town residents did not know, at that time, the woman had been assaulted by her lover, while her husband had been at work. They did not need to know. The mythos of aggressive black males had started to take root after the film Birth of a Nation recent and misogyny laws regarding interracial relationships (source).

Eventually, the white mob lynched a Rosewood black resident. The Rosewood town residents tried to defend themselves after the lynching, but several hundred white men in nearby towns razed buildings of Rosewood—and survivors of the community hid until they could be evacuated. Florida State officials of the time knew what had happened and did nothing. In 1994, Reparations of $150,000 to the last nine surviving residents of Rosewood (totaling $2 million) and in 2010 established a scholarship for Rosewood descendants in the community’s name (source).  The myth of equal justice for black Americans, at the least, within American systems lacked certitude.

The uncertainty of justice for the black community hardened in the passages of past and recent criminal justice laws that penalized black and brown Americans at a higher rate than whites. Specifically, during the height of the drug war to fight crack cocaine the penalty for possessing a couple of cocaine rocks was higher than powder cocaine (source).

 Additionally, black Americans attitudes toward recent reversals of voting rights by southern states, such as North Carolina and Texas, revealed that the continued marginalization to the levers of power by southern whites did not wain efforts to control those they consider the Other.

 The consideration of the Other in terms of marginalization in terms of race, of white America ethos, and defined diversity begins and ends with resolution of the Civil War and it being relitigated. The relitigation of the Civil War through the removal of “heroic” or “confederate patriots” statues from public spaces with white-nationalism sentiment underscored that race and anti-Semitism prejudices lie shallow. Tradition and heritage wrapped in cultural perspectives and biases relegated the discourse to political correctness. The “heroic or confederate patriot” represents our history and our traditions away from the oppressors of the North as viewed the through the eyes of the Southern resident.

The vestiges of the Confederacy instilled remaining ideological values into the black and white southern communities through the enculturated eyes of the  Jim Crow Laws, the  Civil Rights Movement, and the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Robert Kennedy, and Malcolm X and beyond. These tenets communicated that knowing one’s place spoken or unspoken remained. The enculturation of southern attitudes wafted over America in one form or another, whether viewed through freedom of speech, political correctness, tradition and heritage, or viewed from the white nationalism and supremacy perspectives.

The fact that the underlying remnants of slavery and lack of reparations from the early resolutions of the Civil War continued (and continues) to impact race relations and attitudes of black and white communities writ-large.  Most white Americans wonder why black Americans simply cannot get over the fact slavery no longer exists in America; and, wonder why black communities seem stuck in the past after America’s number one sin—the near genocide of Native Americans. Essentially, 153 years has passed since the last shot of the Civil War impacted the citizens of United States with death of President Abraham Lincoln, but that final death and wound to the American psyche has not fully healed.

In the period between Antebellum, Civil War, Reconstruction, Jim Crow, and the passages of the Civil Rights Acts race relations in this country morphed into myths, stereotypes, and acrimony. A bitterness daunted by unresolved feelings in that present day civil rights from the #metoo movement, LGBTQ rights, DACA, and undocumented citizenry—race relations stills define the very essence of the American community. Examples of implicit and explicit race relations difficulty illuminated daily in the press, popular media, and social media with Starbucks being the latest instance, demonstrated the deficient state of race relations perceptions.

The difficulty of discussing race in the United States undergirds the polarization of the current state of politics and policies. The death of Barbra Bush, the matriarch of the Bush family, may signal the beginning of the end of true civility and class. This author may not have always been a fan of the presidents both father and son, but the graciousness of Barbra Bush made the politics of the time palatable. And, from this author’s perspective the nationalism and white supremacy nativists has driven a wedge to the evolvement of American society and empowerment.

 More to the point, civility and genuine discourse are needed to soften the hurt feelings of the past. The continued development of race relations perceptions improvement will take time and will not be resolved overnight. Congressional bills regarding equity, such as justice reforms and the like, are becoming part of public debate; however, policing and corporate policies need to be reviewed on a continual basis to assuage the feelings of a diverse public. Essentially, America’s civil nature needs a mirror, better than the press, to self-examine race writ-large.

 In a book by Christopher Hedges, War is the Force that Gives Us Meaning, discusses in his final chapter of Eros and Thanatos (war and death) the stories of war correspondents, war participants, and the resolution of forgiveness. He relayed the sentiment of romanticizing war and death through the forgetful narcotic of propaganda.  The memory of war with the horror, infrastructure damage, and the psychic harm to individuals and society are a washed in the expectations of victory. But, the main thesis of the concluding chapter comes in varying paragraphs points about out the falsehoods of societal hopes—Chris Hedges states the following:

“We are all tempted to honor false covenants of race, nationalism, class, and gender. They sometimes compete for our loyalty. War, of course, is often—maybe always—a false covenant. Sham, covenants are based on exclusion rather than universality. All covenants that lack an adequate sense of humility and an acknowledgement of the sinfulness of our own cause are false covenants. The prophets warned us about them.”

Take note of the two italicized words “exclusion” and “universality” and their opposition in meaning provides an answer of why racism, nationalism, and white supremacy are false covenants. Chris Hedges continues with his citations of testimonials of various authors, he quotes Viktor Frankl from his book, Man’s Search for Meaning,

“A thought transfixed me: for the first time in my life I saw the truth as it is set into song by so many poets, proclaimed as the final wisdom by so many thinkers. The truth—that love is the ultimate and highest goals to which man can aspire. Then I grasped the meaning of greatest secret that human society and human thought and belief to impart: the salvation of man is through love and in love.”

In Chris Hedges final paragraph, he provides a possible answer to the resolution of race relations or any conflict for that matter. He says

To survive as a human being is possibly only through love. And, when Thanatos is ascendant, the instinct must be to reach to those we love, to see them all in divinity, pity, and pathos of the human. And to recognize love in the lives of others—even those with whom we are in conflict—love that is like our own. It does not mean we will avoid war or death. It does not mean that we as distinct will survive. But live, in its mystery, has its own power. It alone gives us meaning that endures. It alone allows us to embrace and cherish life. Love has power both to resist in our nature what we know we must resist, and to affirm what we know we must affirm. And love, as the poets remind us, is eternal.

Setting aside main theme of war and death, Chris Hedges main points throughout his book is this: forgiveness and love are essential to any resolution of conflict—race relations included. The machinations that are necessary to get to love and forgiveness requires all parties to be willing to sacrifice humility just enough to be civil. So let us begin with this:

A diverse public makes this country stronger.  A diverse public makes our community stronger. A diverse public makes our humanity stronger. And, in the end a diverse public evolves humanity restoring the eternal flame of the beacon.