Fandango’s Provocative Question #165

For some people, this is an interesting, albeit impersonal question. For some of us, it’s personal and cuts painfully close to home.

How do you feel about what is going on in the United States in regard to racism? Do you see any way of reconciling the concepts of White Replacement Theory and Critical Race Theory?

As a bi-racial couple, we have never felt there was a “right” place for us. New England is as good as any place we are likely to find in this country. Mind you, there are plenty of racists and bigots here, but at least the general attitude is liberal.

Mixed couples often seem to upset everyone on every side of this subject. When you mix that with different religions? We aren’t going to win any popularity contests anywhere, so we might as well stay where at least we are known.

America is in the process of (pardon the pun) of white-washing our history. Please don’t assume that the U.S. is the only country eliminating hunks of history to which we don’t want to own up. The British are the masters of “who-me?-ism.” After plundering half the world, they went home to be pure as driven snow. I guess we come by it naturally.

America’s original sin was slavery. It was the the biggest battle at our constitutional convention from May 25, 1787 through Sep 17, 1787. The south would never have agreed to nationhood without slavery and there were plenty of northerners who didn’t own slaves, but made enormous profits by importing and selling them. It was our original sin for which we have never apologized, made amends or even fully acknowledged. Now we’ve come to a point where we won’t even going to allow it to be part of our history books.

Not to worry. Much of the two world wars has been expunged by other countries. Our refusing to acknowledge slavery is not unusual. It’s probably tragic but not rare. If during the past 235 years of nationhood the U.S. was unwilling to own up to its own errors and past-imperfect, I see no reason to assume we ever will. We might eventually tone down our rhetoric — assuming we remain a republic in future years — or for that matter, have a viable nation and are not in an outright shooting civil war.

Toning down bigotry and racism ain’t gonna do the job. This ongoing hatred and irrational fear has been part of America since before we were a country. Slavery was our ugliest battle — and we lost it. We are still fighting the same battle and we are still losing. I don’t see a big change in the future. Everything is stacked against it. If we aren’t going to teach kids what really happened, we can’t expect them to accept a truth to which they were never exposed.

When you sup with the devil, you need a VERY long spoon. I think our spoon is not nearly long enough.

Categories: #American-history, #FPQ, Anecdote, Culture, Education, Hatred and bigotry, New England, Provocative Questions, Racism and Bigotry

Tags: #American-history, #FPQ, bigotry, culture, Fandango's Provocative Question, Marilyn Armstrong, racism