WHITE AMERICA'S RACIAL RECKONING

The supposed gentility of post-racial white America has been brutally exposed recently, and the facade beneath it is horrific and violent. Racism is thriving in America, and by clinging to a legacy of brutality and hatred, we white Americans have lowered ourselves to the status of those we condemn. By espousing the view that white people are superior to blacks, we are, as much as possible, taking an evolutionary step backwards by not capitalizing on the evolutionary gift of reason and critical thinking, a gift that allows us to see through otherwise opaque skin.

It’s time to come to grips with this, because we are all accountable for it. White Americans must stand up and demand something better.

The images above are essentially the same. The version on the right is an American representation of the German version on the left and vice versa. The brutal oppression represented by these symbols differ in their scope and scale, but the meaning behind both are in perfect harmony with one another.

The biggest difference, in fact, is not between Germany’s concentration camps, and Mississippi’s plantations. No, the biggest difference lies in how Germany and America have responded to their respective histories.

Germany has — as much as it is possible to atone for a sin such as the Holocaust — paid penance for its crimes. Imperfectly, Nazi war criminals were, and still are, prosecuted. The German people recognized and admitted the gravity of what they had done. Former death camps in Germany and Poland are now the most somber historic sites. They stand as a testament to evil that Germany must not let itself forget in order to prevent its reappearance. Germany may have a few neo-nazi skinheads running around, but Jews are not shot by German police on a routine basis. Ironically, in fact, many young Jews have been immigrating to Germany from Israel. By acknowledging the sin, Germany has been able to move past it.

Contrast this with how we have approached our soiled racial history here in America. Despite having more than twice the time to cope with the legacy of slavery, many of us still deny that such a history even exists! As Jon Stewart recently pointed out, in South Carolina — and all over the South — we drive down roads named for Confederate generals in cities and counties named for Confederate generals. In my home state of Mississippi, the Confederate battle flag is still enshrined in the upper left corner of the state flag! Take that, South Carolina!

As a matter of fact, in my hometown of Oxford, MS — one of the more progressive towns in the state — we have not one, but two monuments to the Confederate soldier, each topped with Johnny Reb himself, and valiantly facing north to confront the perceived tyranny of government. The irony is impossible to miss, but somehow we do. Or we ignore it. We drape the facade of heritage over the horror of racism, and even when that facade is 150 years old, rotting, transparent, and lethal, we cling to it. Heritage. Maybe, but not one that any rational human being would be proud of, what a horrifying thought, to perpetuate such vile, to be proud of the legacy of slavery.

But that’s exactly what we’ve done, perpetuated it. Germany took ownership of the Holocaust, but we have tried to extend slavery. Share cropping, Jim Crow, the War on Drugs, the not-so-subtle but far-enough-away-that-we-can-kind-of-ignore-it systemic racism that is pervasive today in schools, in housing, in employment and incarceration. We don’t live in a post-racial society, we live in a neo-racist society, and too many white Americans are either in favor of it or too scared to take a stand for something better.

I don’t care if you’re a Mississippian like me or a progressive techie in Seattle. If you are white, this is a message you need to spread. This is a demand you need to make, because unless it gets better, it will get worse. It will get worse for all of us. A better society is one for all of us.

Dylan Roof’s staggering crime wasn’t just appalling, it was fantastical. His haunting words betray his disconnect with reality:

“You rape our women and you’re taking over our country. And you have to go.”

You have to go. I know hundreds of years ago my ancestors brought you here against your will, beat you, separated you from your families, profited from your labor, and yes, killed you, but now you’re taking over, and you have to go.

It is this historical distortion, this redacted vision of a gleaming old south, “the red earth of Tara,” that has led us to where we are. This ongoing racial fallacy has resulted not in healing, not in opportunity, not in a better world for all of us, but to a place where a young white man can walk into a church and commit a massacre. Excuse me, not can, does. We live in a country in which a young white man walked into a church and commited a racially motivated massacre. If only it were an isolated incident.

In his manifesto — which is no longer posted, but can be read about on many sites — Dylann Roof tells us that he was first drawn to white supremacy in the wake of the Zimmerman trial after reading about black on white crime. Undoubtedly, there is black on white crime in this country. We are left to wonder how much less of it there would be if white America had recognized the sins of our past, attempted to atone for them, provide real opportunity to African-Americans, and built friendship instead of enmity. More importantly we are obligated to demand those things, to demand a better world. White Americans, no matter how much we think we are disconnected from racism in our nation, have this obligation. Only by acknowledging the racism pervasive in our past and present can we avoid more violence in the future. America is facing a racial reckoning, it is long past time white America stands up to face it.

#RacialReconciliation