Being President of the United States of America is a hard job. It is hard even when the President is on vacation. Events don’t care what hole you are playing, they surge ahead without regard to your score relative to par. Sometimes events can have tragic consequences, requiring the President to put his vacation on hold and lead our country through a time of crisis. We saw this with the sad and tragic events that took place in Charlottesville, Virginia this past weekend. It is difficult for me to wrap my head around how such a thing can happen in our country in 2017, but happen it did.
45 has been roundly criticized for his remarks on Saturday regarding the violence in Virginia. Only his most ardent supporters have risen to his defense and even many of them have been ready to admit that he missed the mark by not calling out these hate-filled groups for what they are. One comment I hear and read over and over is that it is a pretty low bar to call out the KKK and Nazi’s. You would think!
Unfortunately for 45, Presidents don’t really get mulligans. Now it feels like he is just bending to public pressure and saying way too little, way too late. The opportunity to lead is fleeting and once gone is difficult, if not impossible to retrieve. Hopefully he will learn from this experience, improve his swing and hit it straighter next time. For there will be a next time.
My father fought the Nazi’s and even brought home one of their flags. My wife hated that flag and would not have it in the house, but my position was that if that flag was not in Nashville, Tennessee it might be the flag she and I were raised under. I had to give it to my brother. Americans raising that flag on our soil is revolting, repulsive and offensive to my father and for what he risked his life to protect, therefore it is revolting, repulsive and offensive to me and I would like to think to all Americans, but clearly that is not so.
White supremacy has its roots in the time of the enlightenment, when the learned white men of Europe thought it a moral obligation to rule over the uneducated, uncivilized and less informed societies of the world. Well, maybe not the world really, mainly Africa, not so much Asia and I suspect that is because the Asians had guns as good as any the Europeans had. Let’s go where we can do the most good. Perhaps in time we can help them lift themselves up and when they can rule themselves we will be happy to move on down the road. Wink, wink?
As a white Tennessee boy, I can in no way understand what it must be like to be an African-American living in this country. But what I can do is understand better the history of why we have struggled with the issue of race in this country since well before it’s founding. Maybe if we can understand our history better, we can understand each other better.
The English authorities used to send indentured servants to the American Colonies, probably as a way to make them someone else’s problem. Some came with those they were indentured to, while others came alone and were indentured to someone when they arrived. My guess is honest men released their servants at the end of the indenture and that dishonest men resisted releasing their servants for as long as they could get away with it.
Something interesting happened in 1619 that still echo’s in American life today and boiled over in Charlottesville this past weekend. A Dutch ship anchored off the coast of Jamestown, Virginia in need of supplies. We need tobaccy, likker, fresh water, chickins, whatever you got. We have about 20 Africans we can let you have in return. It’s a deal!
From that day in 1619 until now, politicians in this country have been struggling with how to deal with persons of African decent. Slavery came to America slowly, like a dripping faucet, not like an open showerhead, but the idea of white supremacy was still widely held and slowly but surely Africans found themselves in a social caste that they could not escape.
The ship Desire was launched in Massachusetts in 1636 and became the first Colonial slave ship. With Africans now arriving at a steady pace, policies needed to be developed for their management and for the next 225 years, until the outbreak of the Civil War, laws were passed, repealed, enforced or ignored all designed, I think, to rationalize the institution of slavery in a place populated by people that valued freedom above all else. Here are some examples of laws passed related to slavery.
- Virginia becomes the first state to pass the hereditary slave law in 1662. A child born to a slave is a slave.
- In 1664 Maryland passes a law making all black slaves, slaves for life. Other states soon follow suit.
- The Act Regulating Slaves was passed in New York in 1702. This law forbid slaves from testifying in court, no more than three could meet in public and no trading of goods.
- South Carolina passes the Negro Act in 1740. This makes it illegal for slaves to move abroad, assemble in groups, raise their own food, earn money or learn to read English.
- The United States Constitution is ratified in 1788 and includes the three-fifths clause and a fugitive slave clause.
- In 1819 Virginia outlaws any meeting for the education of slaves and forbids the teaching of slaves to read and write.
- The Georgia legislature in 1842 declares that it will never recognize free blacks as citizens.
I could go on and on and on (there are thousands of these) but I think you get the picture. This is quite an assemblage of laws for a country founded on the concept of all men being created equal. The moral imperative of helping those less educated and less civilized seems to have been turned on its head.
Chattel slavery existed on this ground for almost 250 years. Another 100 years passed before the country seriously attacked the issue of white supremacy and it has been over 50 years since the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed. That much remains to be done is evidenced by the events in Charlottesville.
Modern white supremacists espouse the belief that white people are naturally superior to black people and therefore have a God given right to rule over the inferior races. (Yeah, it does sound ridiculous) They often point to the struggles that African-Americans have long endured as proof of their position. This is even more ludicrous.
For 225 years a system was deliberately structured in which black families were not respected or even recognized. Children could be sold away from their parents; wives and husbands could be sold separately. A slave never knew when the family might be torn asunder and separated by hundreds of miles. It was also common for slaves to live in large buildings known as slave quarters with no privacy, no opportunity to build a cohesive nuclear family unit. The practical outcome of this uncertainty, coupled with a lack of private living quarters was that for many black families, they never developed the patriarchal structure that has historically been beneficial for agrarian societies.
The modern white supremacists point to this remnant to support their illogical claim of natural racial differences. They point to the fact that many African-American children are raised by single mothers and grow up with absent fathers. Where their logic falls off the cliff is their idiotic position that African-American families just want to take advantage of social services and are not capable of living in the traditional family structure.
No group of people would be able to immediately overcome these types of social constraints imposed upon them from without for such a long period of time; social constraints designed with the singular purpose of oppression, compliance and dependency.
For 225 years a system was deliberately structured in which it was illegal for black people to learn to read or write. It should be self-evident why such a system was imposed on a group of people who were denied the basic unalienable right of self-determination.
This is another remnant pointed to by the sad white supremacists to buttress their ignorant claims of superiority. Children with educated parents, tend to do better in school than children whose parents lack the same level of education. People that are deliberately kept in a state of complete ignorance are easier to oppress, are dependent on others for their basic needs and I would guess tend to be more compliant than people that have the ability to inform themselves.
Of all the constraints imposed on African-Americans since 1619, this withholding of education for almost three centuries has, in my mind, been the most destructive, the most oppressive and the most regrettable.
As much as we resist facing our past, it is important, especially for young people, to understand that despite our remarkable achievements as a country, our proving to the world that a free people can govern themselves, our history is one that unfortunately holds more than its share of malice, oppression and hate. We all, black and white, still have much to overcome.
We have to make it clear to people who want to romanticize the ugly parts of our past, who want to elevate themselves by holding others down, that as Americans the rest of us strive to progress, to improve our character as a nation, to walk toward and not away from the founding principle of our nation; that all men are created equal. For too long we excluded too many from that promise that God whispered into the ears of our founders.
The true moral imperative of any society is the obligation to evolve as a people, to recognize and acknowledge our shortcomings and to make a well-intentioned effort at self-improvement. America is now, always has been and always should be a country of extreme diversity not extreme vetting. The idea that America is God’s gift to white people is ignorant on its face and those that hold those beliefs should be left in the dust as the rest of forge ahead to make sure that each of us has the opportunity to enjoy life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
When you attempt to shout the rest of us down or are prepared to intimidate through violence because your ideas are repugnant, your voice will not be heard and you know it. When you give the Nazi salute, you disrespect all Americans that have made the ultimate sacrifice and you know it. When you wave a Confederate battle flag, you are demonstrating support for treason and you know it.
I am afraid we now taking a step back in our efforts to improve race relations in this country and I sincerely hope that it will be a short-lived phenomenon. Now more than ever I believe we require a President who is not afraid or reluctant to condemn those who attempt to divide and conquer. If 45 cannot or will not stand at the head of the opposition to such beliefs as we saw on display in Charlottesville, then the rest of us need to be prepared to raise our voices and carry on without him!
Who is the man of honor, the only true American in this picture?
Love To All!