America's perpetual struggle with racism
Posted: Tue Jun 23, 2020 12:33 am
When I was growing up, my parents believed that the Constitution was divinely inspired. But by 1860, that divinely inspired document allowed 1 out of every 7 Americans to be owned by another American. For over 12% of Americans, the Constitution meant your family could be bought and sold, beaten and torn apart by men who were literally defined as being 2/5ths more of a human being.
We were taught that God inspired that government. You know...the Prince of Peace...Jesus loves the little children...
There is a tremendous cognitive dissonance between the narrative and the reality of American history. The narrative is all men are created equal. The reality baked into the Constitution is that many non-whites were counted as three-fifths of a human being. Racial inequality, without whom slavery could not exist, was etched into the DNA of the Constitution.
In 1825, 82 year old Thomas Jefferson replied to a woman who had written to him about the evil of slavery, and wondered when we would see its abolition.
That was not a divinely inspired government. That was the devil's bargain that created the United States of America.
In establishing a government based upon the principle that all men are created equal while permitting the institution of slavery, cognitive dissonance was bound fester in the American psyche. How did we resolve the conflict between the equality of men and the institution of slavery? By simultaneously believing that our government was God's instrument on earth (divinely inspired! Manifest Destiny! American Exceptionalism!), and that subjugation was the paternalistic 'white man's burden'. The American version of Christianity held that slaves owed their allegiance to their masters. The God of Moses who parted the Red Sea to liberate the Jews from slavery was not popular south of the Mason-Dixon line. Slave marriage vows were changed to read "till death or distance do you part" in recognition that slaves whom God had joined in marriage could be pulled asunder by a Christian or an atheist with enough money.
The American psyche adapted to the giant gap between the Declaration of Independence and the existence of Slavery. The cognitive dissonance between the 2 ideas was the clash between the narrative that white Americans told themselves and the reality that black Americans experienced.
Mounted on the wall of my room is a Depression era photo:
The photograph is the essense the two Americas. The people in the billboard are the American narrative. The people on the street are the American reality.
Throughout our history, the two Americas have been listening to different music, both figuratively and literally. Many white Americans were literally afraid of the harm that would come from listening to Negro music. Their fear impoverished their own experience of American culture.
My point in all of this is that most of the energy in our national discussions about race revolve around statutory solutions. Laws can change behavior but they will not kill the virus of racism. I think we see that as efforts to impose restrictions on racist behavior are implemented, racism gets driven underground, where it will continue to be transmitted.
The American psyche needs to resolve the dissonance between our mythos and our logos, between the ideal and the real. Perhaps we need something like truth and reconciliation committees, where white and black Americans can come together and speak about their perceptions and their hopes and fears.
But legislation is not the entire solution. As long as the underlying fears and prejudices continue to flourish, racism will continue to survive. It is a virus that lives in the human heart.
We were taught that God inspired that government. You know...the Prince of Peace...Jesus loves the little children...
There is a tremendous cognitive dissonance between the narrative and the reality of American history. The narrative is all men are created equal. The reality baked into the Constitution is that many non-whites were counted as three-fifths of a human being. Racial inequality, without whom slavery could not exist, was etched into the DNA of the Constitution.
In 1825, 82 year old Thomas Jefferson replied to a woman who had written to him about the evil of slavery, and wondered when we would see its abolition.
Slavery was the serpent in the American Garden of Eden. It was the price of forming the United States out of all 13 Colonies. Many of the founding fathers knew in their hearts that it was a monstrous evil. You hear Jefferson's conflict in his writing: We'll create the Union and fix slavery later....The march of events has not been such as to render it's completion practicable within the limits of time allotted to me; and I leave it's accomplishment as the work of another generation....The abolition of the evil is not impossible: it ought never therefore to be despaired of. Every plan should be adopted, every experiment tried, which may do something towards the ultimate object.
That was not a divinely inspired government. That was the devil's bargain that created the United States of America.
In establishing a government based upon the principle that all men are created equal while permitting the institution of slavery, cognitive dissonance was bound fester in the American psyche. How did we resolve the conflict between the equality of men and the institution of slavery? By simultaneously believing that our government was God's instrument on earth (divinely inspired! Manifest Destiny! American Exceptionalism!), and that subjugation was the paternalistic 'white man's burden'. The American version of Christianity held that slaves owed their allegiance to their masters. The God of Moses who parted the Red Sea to liberate the Jews from slavery was not popular south of the Mason-Dixon line. Slave marriage vows were changed to read "till death or distance do you part" in recognition that slaves whom God had joined in marriage could be pulled asunder by a Christian or an atheist with enough money.
The American psyche adapted to the giant gap between the Declaration of Independence and the existence of Slavery. The cognitive dissonance between the 2 ideas was the clash between the narrative that white Americans told themselves and the reality that black Americans experienced.
Mounted on the wall of my room is a Depression era photo:
The photograph is the essense the two Americas. The people in the billboard are the American narrative. The people on the street are the American reality.
Throughout our history, the two Americas have been listening to different music, both figuratively and literally. Many white Americans were literally afraid of the harm that would come from listening to Negro music. Their fear impoverished their own experience of American culture.
My point in all of this is that most of the energy in our national discussions about race revolve around statutory solutions. Laws can change behavior but they will not kill the virus of racism. I think we see that as efforts to impose restrictions on racist behavior are implemented, racism gets driven underground, where it will continue to be transmitted.
The American psyche needs to resolve the dissonance between our mythos and our logos, between the ideal and the real. Perhaps we need something like truth and reconciliation committees, where white and black Americans can come together and speak about their perceptions and their hopes and fears.
But legislation is not the entire solution. As long as the underlying fears and prejudices continue to flourish, racism will continue to survive. It is a virus that lives in the human heart.
