I deeply feel the pain of others. When evil seemingly plagues the world, each episode impacts me deeply. So I write, to put things in context, to develop understanding.
The world-wide episodes of violence and destruction have become overwhelming. There is no meaning. The events of the world are exasperated by the events within our country. My home. There is no way to contextualize the centuries-old evil of race that continues to infect our nation.
The issue of race is complex and mired in the intricacies of human interaction. Race is a social construct designed to separate a people and justify the atrocities of enslavement. It has no other objective. The means of accomplishing this objective, is racism.
Wednesday night as I listened to the BBC, I heard the first reports of the murder of 9 people in South Carolina. I held my breath. An overwhelming piercing pain began in my chest. It reverberated throughout my body. Nine people, dead, using the same propaganda as that which was used in the antebellum to justify terrorism. As I listened, I thought of WEB DuBois 1905 quote, “Either the United States will destroy ignorance or ignorance will destroy the United States.” As a nation we stand upon the precipice prepared to leap like lemmings to our destruction based on the 17th century construct of race.
As I read the caption of this cartoon published in 1913, where the person identified as white is not responsible for the other because of race; yet, the person identified as black is responsible for the other because of race. I can’t help but see we hold the same centuries old beliefs mired in mistrust, fear, and pain. Where whiteness is individual and blackness equates to monolith.
If the definition of insanity is truly “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results,” as a nation we are the epitome of insane. We have attempted to solve the black-white dichotomy since Reconstruction using the same methods, achieving the same results. Nothing has changed.
Our nation was built on a lie of equality. We can’t ignore it. We can’t hide it. We can’t wish it away.
Our nation was built on the righteous blood of a multitude of people. We can’t ignore it. We can’t hide it. We can’t wish it away.
Our nation is flawed. We can’t ignore it. We can’t hide it. We can’t wish it away.
For centuries we have walked in the impenetrable murkiness of racism. We have attempted to close our eyes and ignore the gaping hole that mars the fabric by which this nation is knitted. I do not have that luxury. Each blow, each strike, each death hits my soul and seeks to destroy me. So, I fight. I write. I teach. I have a responsibility to my ancestors and to my children’s children to change our systems.
We stand upon the cliff looking into the abyss of our destruction. “Either the United States will destroy ignorance, or ignorance will destroy the United States.” The choice is ours.
