How is America Still Racist?

It strikes me as a great contradiction that the country that is founded on equality and justice for all, falls so tragically short of meeting those ideals in 2020.  Aren’t we the country where all people are created equal?  Don’t we make that bold claim right in our Declaration where we told King George to stuff his wig somewhere….unpleasant?  Actually, if you read the text more closely you might notice that is says “all men are created equal.”  And in another document, the great Constitution, there are directives for the census to count the number of free persons, and 3/5 of every other person.  Which means that African slaves were only counted as 3/5 of a person, and had no rights whatsoever.   African slaves, and even some of the indigenous tribes were promised benefits including freedom if they fought in the Revolution…either for the colonists or the British…and that promise was broken.   And in 2020, nearly 250 years later, America is still breaking its promises.  

George Floyd was nothing terribly surprising.  It is tragic….it is maddening…..and it is sad…..but the most insidious thing is that, like school shootings, its almost so commonplace that it doesn’t surprise us anymore.  And like most other times, it seems that America is again going down the same responsive cycle, everyone gets mad, protests occur, things get destroyed, and it seems like this time things are going to change and then once it all calms down, we go right back to the same system that allowed it to happen, with little meaningful change.  And even when changes do occur, and progress is made, it isn’t meaningful enough to solve the real problem.  So why can’t America seem to solve its racism problem?  To explain that, we need to consider weeds and roots.  Yeah, here comes a magic garden analogy.  

This summer, my wife and I have been tackling what we have dubbed “the jungle.”…..the long-neglected weed infested ravine behind our house.  For the first couple years, we tried to deal with the problem by pecking away at it, tossing some weed killer down, and eventually waiting too long to get into it, before the weeds, vines, and other fauna paraphernalia had taken over to the degree that it was impossible and way too disheartening to get things done.  Plus the dead bird was just gross…seriously.  But this year was different.  The quarantine allowed us more time, and we started tackling the jungle big by bit before it got really out of control.  The most annoying part? The roots and vines that seemed to go on forever.  Years and years of neglect, going back to the previous owners, had allowed the problem to grow exponentially and the solution required a bit of a radical approach.  We had to completely take down everything at the roots.  It took digging.  It took patience.  It took some swearing (ok, maybe that part wasn’t necessary, but I’m me, so what can I say?).  And now, we’re finally getting down to the literal and figurative “root” of the problem.  Of course, the end result was that the whole jungle had to be completely torn up…and some of the weeds did manage to come back, requiring another round of weeding and pulling of vines and roots, but it looks dramatically different because we essentially had to destroy everything in order to fix the area for good. We had to get to the “root” of the problem (I wish I could say the puns were ending…but the root of that goes deep too).  

Like that jungle with its deep roots….the various isms and phobias: racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, etc, have been present in our society from its inception.  They have deep cultural roots.  And thus is why almost 250 years ago, it’s become such a deeply foundational issue in American society.  And because of its deep roots, our solutions, even the ones that have been meaningful, have not been deep enough to address the problem in totality and thus the result has lacked complete change and the problem continues to plague us.  As far back as the Revolution, when we wanted economic independence from England, and to create a free society, but only to a point.  White landowners got rights.  Women, slaves, and basically everyone else, were left out in the dark.  The greatest American heroes of the Revolution such as Jefferson, Monroe, Madison and even George Washington were slaveowners.  Not saying they were bad people, but they did own slaves, and Jefferson even fathered children with one of his slaves.  But back then, slavery wasn’t seen as a bad thing, because it was considered part of the culture at the time.   It also meant that the white man could have the power and right off the bat, even all men weren’t created equal, and we started very, very far behind the starting line.  

Fast forward from 1776 to 1860.  Slavery was a divisive issue between the north and south.  Racism has its roots in slavery, because the feelings of white superiority, and African American inferiority come from a time when slavery made those two things a virtual reality.  The same could be said for white men’s superiority of women’s inferiority; again culture made it a virtual reality.  Slavery was a part of the culture, both socially and economically, everywhere but especially in the south.  Plantation owners had major investments in their crops, and they required their cheap slave labor to maintain those investments.  Part of why it was so profitable was because they didn’t have to pay for labor.  Even thought it can be argued (and very legitimately) that they should not have been making money off of the blood of slave labor, the problem had grown such roots that it wasn’t going to changed overnight..it would require a cultural change.  And the economic realities, as well as the entanglements of slavery and racism at its infancy, prevented people in the South (and other places too) from embracing the change.  But even when Lincoln passed the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring slavery illegal under the law, we still fought a bloody war over these ideals.  And when the war ended at Appomattox Courthouse in 1865, all seemed like it might be well, but it was clear that even though the war was over, the sentiments had not been deterred, as evidenced by the assassination of Lincoln, and the reality that the Reconstruction, basically allowed the South to return to its life before the War undeterred.  Changes were made, but they didn’t address the root of the problem, and so it continued to fester.  You can’t eliminate the weeds without pulling by the roots.  Cutting off the tops, will only lead to weeds returning eventually. 

Fast forward to 1960.  The Civil Rights movement was in full bloom. Great strides were made all throughout the 20th Century for equality, not only based upon race, but of gender and other areas, and there was a lot of blood, sweat, and tears, tragedy and triumph, but the law finally caught up to the times.  Or so we thought.  And it continued up to present day, with gay rights, transgender rights etc.  And even with all the advancements, plenty of things happened in the shadows.  But we’ve made some progress.  

So why are tragedies like George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and so, so many others still happening?  And furthermore, why is it that African American live their daily lives facing threats, hardship, and just plain looked at differently, just because they are black?  Why is any of this happening in 2020?

Hopefully you’ve noticed a parallel in this historical narrative: we’ve never dealt with the most fundamental problem, and that goes back to a famous quote:  “We’ve eliminated racism from our laws, now we must eliminate it from our hearts and minds.”  The kicker is eliminating it from our hearts and minds.  Because we’ve never eliminated it from our hearts and minds.  Because we want to have the ability to think and feel as we wish and we don’t want others telling us how to think. And we don’t want to tell others how to think.  And really, we’re allowed to think and feel the way we want; there’s really not a legal black and white (no pun intended) reason for people to think a certain way.  That’s because its opinion based, and we’ve been raised to believe that we’re entitled (I’ll get back to that word later) to our own opinion.  If one chooses to believe that black people are inferior, they can choose that (and yes, before you start hurling things, I don’t prescribe to that way to thinking…its just an example…see the logic to the end), but what they can’t do is discriminate, or attack something because of the color of their skin.  Or their gender, or numerous other platitudes that have nothing to do with someone’s humanity.  There is always that unspoken part of free speech: you have to right to say whatever you want, as long as you don’t infringe upon the rights of someone else. The second part can get lost, especially this day in age.  We’re very ego centric in our thinking: i.e. I should do what I want to do, rather than considering how it will affect other people.  

But being allowed to feel a certain way, often leads to other things.  Take Adolf Hitler.  One of the reasons he hated the Jewish people was because when he was a young man, his artwork was denounced by leaders of an art school who happened to be of the Jewish faith.  But instead of growing from the experience, he turned his hate on an entire religion, and through his evil hateful rhetoric turned an entire country against them and more.  And that all festered from one thought and perception, and the choice to act on it in an evil way.  There is also some scientific evidence that lends credence to the notion that you can inherit feelings from our genes.  

I believe that in order to create a truly free and equal society and to eliminate racism, sexism, homophobia and all the other labels we use to discriminate, we must change how we think and feel about it.  We must eliminate it from our hearts and minds.  We must let go of the notion that we are better than anyone else for any reason.  We must break the cultural cycle that recycles these ideals…and make the change through education, and kindness and understanding.  We must model to the various groups from leadership to neighbors that have created and sustained a racist system, how a peaceful transformation can take place.  And we must do it now.  

While there is nothing that can be said to legitimize the idea of superiority of one human or another, we cannot break the cycle without addressing those feelings and thoughts, in an honest open way.  We can easily get over our fear of telling others how to think, by simply avoiding that all together; flip the notion upside down and instead focus on a honest, open discussion.  We can no longer run from uncomfortable conversations; that’s part of why little progress has been made.  But we can have the conversations in a healthy way, that eventually leads to healing, understanding and change.  

An honest open discussion, is really the only way to get things out in the open.  Because an honest open discussion leaves out the notion of absolutes such as “I am right and you are wrong.”  Instead of insisting on our way, have an honest discussion and let that influence be the change we want to see.  Bear in mind that there is no logical argument that could be used in defense of racism.  But feelings aren’t always logical, so having an open, honest discussion is the only way to put things like that to rest.  

Another important part of having a honest open conversation is that we must let go of the hate we feel, and channel our dislike for people in a more healthy way.  That is not to say we have to like everyone..we don’t, but we must tolerate everyone and get along.  Its easy to give into stereotypes when we are angry, but in this case we cannot: villify all law enforcement because of the irresponsible actions of some police officers NOR villify an entire race of people because some African Americans turn out to be thugs.  Stereotypes are the foundation of a lot of this turmoil, and that needs to go.  “It’s not too late to let go of our prejudices.” (Henry David Thoreau). 

We also cannot give into a biased media, that constantly pumps the most negative things on our TVs.  How many of you were honestly aware that there were many protests throughout the country the last week that were non-violent…even some where law enforcement stood with the protesters and the leaders recognized and legitimized the concerns of the protesters?  Perhaps that was lost behind the image of a burning police station in Minneapolis, cops in Buffalo throwing down a senior citizen, or a certain leader in Washington DC, tear-gassing peaceful protesters so he could stand in front of a church and wave the Bible around like a professional sports athlete might wave a trophy.  Even if you missed it, those relationships between law enforcement and protesters happened, and that’s a very healthy step to healing the wounds created.  

Last but not least, is the need to change our system, in a way that doesn’t leave people behind.  There’s a great West Wing quote that occurs after a mass shooting that says the following:  A conservative lawyer makes the following accusation of liberal lawmakers: “ The most insidious thing is that you make it out that you don’t like guns, but really you don’t understand that there are people that do like guns…you don’t like the people.”  The parallel is palpable.  I am one that guns are not an active part of my culture, so I do not understand those who cling hard to their second Amendment rights, and I do take issue with those who think we can’t at least ban assault rifles (because honestly, can’t we give the deer a fighting chance?) but that does not mean those people are wrong, or they are evil.  They are just different, and have a culture that’s different than mine.  And in America, that’s ok, because America has no inherent culture of its own; its a melting pot of pieces of all sort of different cultures.  We cannot change our society, and an inherently racist system, while at the same time leaving people behind.  That’s why we need the honest dialogues, the peaceful protest that can heal, and then approach the change from a healthy place.  We need to make a greater effort to accept cultures that we may not understand, and to approach the changes in a healthy, kind and understanding way.  And lastly, we must elect leaders that share those ideals, and cast out those that don’t.  Protests and Politics must go hand-in-hand.