Black Americans outnumbered white Americans among the 29,500 people who lived in Selma, Alabama, in the 1960s, but the city’s voting rolls were 99% white. So, in 1963, Black organizers in the Dallas County Voters League launched a drive to get Black voters in Selma registered. The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, a prominent civil rights organization, joined them.
In 1967 several of my college classmates and I formed a local chapter of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) chapter in the community in Pennsylvania where our college was located. Among our first activities was to open an after-school tutoring program for struggling high school students located in the public housing projects near our off-campus apartment complex. We felt we needed a way to connect with the local community in order to politically activate them and helping their kids was a good way to make that connection. In time we commenced conducting voter registration drives and politically activating the community for a number of causes. By the time my class graduated we had even placed several members of the local neighborhood on the school board, City Council, and in several municipal boards and commissions.
That community activism during my college years caused me to become engaged in advocating for voting rights and various social justice causes. Now 50 plus years later I find the same causes for which I advocated then still denied to too many. I cannot believe that we are still engaged in this struggle which to me seems so righteous and just. I find the denial of voting rights to be among the most insidious forms of suppression of basic human rights and dignity. It disgusted me over 50 years ago and angers me today. To think I am still engaged in this struggle without a final victory yet more than 50 years after the passage of the Voting Rights Act saddens me greatly.
I remind myself, though in frustration, that the national activation and mobilization of literally millions of demonstrators in the streets of our nation and our legislative halls have always been required to achieve progress in social justice. We cannot simply depend on our legislators to do the right and moral thing. It seems they must be pushed and pushed again. It is again time to activate and mobilize millions in this cause again, as our legislators once more seem to be ignoring the will of the people. Time to rise up yet and demand the will of the people is represented in our legislatures. Let the peoples' voices be heard.
Powerful story. Yes, today's backlash is so discouraging, but what an inspiration to all of us what your small group of students was able to accomplish! Maybe it is time for Seniors for Democracy?!
Look up James Baldwin talking about how in the wake of Civil Rights, we were too quick to declare victory. He warned very clearly about this coming back to haunt us. E.S. Glaude's book about Baldwin (Begin Again: https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/2021/02/22/black-history-month-james-baldwin-racism-resonates-activists/4080047001/) is a very decent overview of Baldwin's life, told through Glaude's own personal journey. I try to look to Black women's perspectives when things get muddy. They've seen it all and can help us steer past the gaslighting, the hypocrisy, the disingenuousness of so many of these arguments that try to deflect, obstruct, obscure the horrific embedded racism that not coincidentally also includes some deep misogyny--because it is all about maintaining power. There are a lot of wolves in sheep clothing out there trying to confuse us.
And James Baldwin was also a gay Black man--which was not a safe combination of identities in most Black communities (still isn't a safe combination, actually), let alone white ones.
You cannot talk about voter suppression of people of African-American ancestry without also mentioning sexism and non-straight suppression.
We have a beautiful opportunity now. Like Bruce Carpenter and the rest of you, I never thought it would take my entire life to get here, and still the job is not done. Legislators in FORTY THREE STATES. And you don’t have to do any research to know that those legislators are 90+ % not only white but also male supremacists and straight supremacists.
The Republicans are now clearly the party of white supremacy, male supremacy, and straight supremacy. And the supremacy of the rich, my wife keeps reminding me, I have to remember the suppression of the poor.
Here’s where I differ with some of you: this is not the 1960s. I do not believe any more that we are fighting an uphill battle. Now, after the blue team took the White House and both chambers of Congress, an outcome absolutely nobody expected, it is clear to me that we have passed the point of no return.
Am I being naïve and stupid? HELL NO. Not for a minute do I suggest we take our foot off the gas pedal. Use rage. Use fury. Use passion. Step HARDER on the gas pedal. Shift into HIGHER gear. No coasting, no cruising.
And this is also why perhaps we disagree, superficially only, on a relatively minor subject like use of profanity. When a person of good character and good values feels passionate about injustice, feels rage and fury, words are not always pretty because injustice is not pretty. It’s so easy to use in offensive words and language when one is not truly confronting the reality. The reality is that whites-on-top, males-on-top, and straights-on-top words and values leads straight to ugly things. Lynchings. Attacks. Blood. Guts.
Remember: Donald Trump‘s America lost this past election cycle. Not by much, but they lost. The reason we are having these conversations is because Mitch the Twitch is no longer in control. H.B. 1 would be in deep slumber, effectively dead and buried, without Georgia on January 5. The Georgia special election outcome was and still is a miracle. We have to elevate every voter registration and voter support group operating in Georgia to gold metal status, because they are real heroes, as are the voters in Georgia that they supported.
I agree. I also point out that virtually every major social justice cause has required millions of people to demonstrate, advocate for that change, making their views more than evident. Women's suffrage, civil rights, the anti-war movement, voting rights, LGBTQ rights and equality, and so much more all required millions of demonstrating and advocating for change often for years if not decades. Change is hard but happens when public opinion is overwhelming moved through mass movement advocacy. I have often pointed out that even hundreds of demonstrators are the opposition but millions are the resistance.
I point out often to others that as appalling as the January 6 Capitol riots and Trump Train processions and rallies are the participants number no more than several thousand. The March on Washington, the March for our Lives, the Women's March following the Trump Inauguration all involved hundreds of thousands, even millions worldwide. The passion and energy to advocate for the changes we wish to see are palpable and significant. However, it requires focus and organization. So let us organize and focus. The numbers to get the changes we wish are there. We need to show the strength of the movement for change.
We LOST seats in the House and BARELY won the Senate. We won the White House because the Rs ran an unbalanced, misogynistic, crude cretin directly responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of his fellow citizens (for whom 74 million people voted nonetheless). The president's party always loses House seats in midterms and many D Senate seats are very vulnerable in 2022. Forgive me if I don't share your optimism.
I don’t expect anybody to share my optimism. You’re good. I got lucky seeing it the way I do. Before Jan. 5, I didn’t see it this way. I did not expect team blue to sweep. I did not expect that we could be talking about HR1 in March 2021. I thought for certain Mitch would retain control.
We are living a miracle right now. We should be talking, right now, this very instant, about how Mitch the Glitch is obstructing all new society legislative traffic. We should be having to wish and hope and pray for HB1, the wishful thinking of diehard dedicated social progressives who never give up despite the obstacles thrown up by the regressives. Instead we are watching the miracle of the reapplication of the Voting Rights Act. Amazing. Astonishing. Miraculous.
“The president's party always loses House seats in midterms”. On Jan. 4, Georgia never had 2 Democratic senators. Never had a
Black Senator. Never lost two Republican Senate seats at the same time. What do you say we make an exception this time around in 2022? GO TEAM‼️🎉
Mitch and his rich wife are not having the best March—2021 is a little wake up call for them and their Chinese relative who don’t like reading about themselves on 2 page spreads in the Nytimes—losing face is a brand new experience
I agree, this is a very delicate moment. Things could get tipped in the opposite direction very suddenly with the gerrymandering, the corruption, the unfettered flow of Mercer/Murdoch money and the social media poison is still flowing through the Trump cult members, and Putin's hackers are deep into our systems. If anything all of this went into overdrive, the smell of desperation is in the air, and a cornered animal is the most dangerous of all. Our only hope is they eat their own. I don't think the 1%ers will allow that to happen, though.
They got a taste of power and they are eager to flip it back over again. Peter Thiel types will fund Hawleys all over the US and they will be 10x worse than Trump. We need ordinary Americans to wake up from their crazed fever and decide this isn't for them, not anymore. That it's too much drama.
Biden’s steady but undramatic hand steering us towards we the people, all the people, this time is very comforting. Like a warm, cozy blanket to snuggle under, isn’t he currently surfing a 60% favorability rating? We just have to work hard locally. Get some support for good strong Dems locally. We’re in good hands at the top, let’s focus on bringing it home.
Both times the WH kept the House happened either from an overreach ( the Clinton impeachment) or a catastrophe (9/11). We at least have the latter here.
Thank you, Bruce, for reminding us that action is the only way to effect change for the good. You have inspired me to join Stacey Abrahms here in Georgia and march to the statehouse with others to protest voter suppression proposals.
It is indeed frustrating and maddening that we must keep fighting the battles we thought we won 50 years ago. But such injustice as we’re again experiencing must not stand. Thanks to Ellie for compiling and Lynell for resharing the list of organizations we can join and/or continue to contribute to to rejoin the battle.
I agree with you. And we certainly cannot depend upon THIS SCOTUS to do the right thing, given John Roberts own position on voting rights and his action to gut the Voting Rights Act. The actions in states now to restrict access and to make voting more difficult is appalling.
This is such a powerful and moving piece about this day in history. Our history. A story of Alabama. I wonder how to change this story. Together, we must make a new story.
“You must be the change you would like to see in this world”
This quote is attributed to Mahatma Gandhi. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., drew inspiration from Gandhi, and studied his principles of non-violence. imho, these principles involve all aspects on one’s life, including speech and action, thinking and intention.
I feel I need to bring to the community our speech and intention, with people with whom we disagreeing views.
* I want to apologize to the community and take back my biting words that I have written on this board, about conservatives and people who follow Donald Trump. I feel shame that I have fallen into the violence of the Pettis Bridge, with my own hateful speech. I have long admired Gandhi, King and Rosa Parks, and all who have fought a far greater struggle in life than I, in the journeyfor a kind and gentle heart, let alone peace in their world and the world we share.
How can we ever expect to have a less violent world - and in our own personal life - if we cannot stop the violence that comes from our own pen, and therefore our mind. We simply will not cross the bridge to the world we desire if we cannot accept and welcome the stranger.
In the spirit of free speech, I welcome anyone to express themselves in the manner one chooses. However, there is ample evidence in history that free speech does NOT lead to freedom. Liberation comes from within. I feel this requires courage, and support from others.
I ask you to join me in gently reminding others in our community to reach within for words that welcome, and acknowledge our habitual speech of aggression.
I ask for your support in our journey across our own Pettis bridge.
Frederick, thank you for this post. As someone who has to regulate her speech because I get soooo angry at what I am seeing happening, I understand and empathize with your regret at some of the language you might have used in the past. I also dislike the racially-charged monikers that occasionally pass for discourse on this platform and would encourage people to try to use other vocabulary. But I also have to say this:
Women and Black people and other people of color (but especially women and Black people) have been targeted by the white male patriarchal system for what in the 19th century was called "intemperate" speech. That is: any speech that protests with energy and vigor the oppressions imposed on them by the white male dominators. The Obama administration (Michelle in her book made veiled references to this--and not so veiled) felt hamstrung at times because being proactive would have labeled the president an "angry Black man." He seems to have been so concerned about that label that he failed to do things that President Biden now can do: because he is an old white man. Women who protest their oppression are called "shrill," "bossy," "castrating" and worse--I have been called all of these and a lot worse. Women who expect not to be interrupted by the nearest white man in a professional meeting, who expect respect and collegiality in the workplace, who expect cooperation and partnership with their spouses and partners often find themselves threatened with violence. Even when they are confident that their life partners will not be violent (and I admit that my experience of this is that a woman can never be 100% confident of this), the threat of violence for being "uppity" in the workplace and in public is ever-present.
So if one is female--and today (March 8) happens to be International Women's Day--and/or a Black person (and Black women have a double threat directed at them, as VP Harris knows only too well) the pleas for politeness and a refusal to acknowledge and accept the absolutely rational anger women and Black people experience and articulate seems like more silencing, more oppression, and more gaslighting. I know that is absolutely NOT what you intended, but I have to say this.
And for all of you who want to say "but women are mean to other women too": yep, they are. It is called the Patriarchal Bargain. Women are trained to denigrate other women in order to appear complicit with their male "companions". It's not right and it's not rational but it happens.
Thank you for your post. You articulate very well the truth that women, black and white, have endured and continue to endure. I was raised to be “seen and not heard”. Years of therapy and somehow I have managed to raise a daughter who has a voice. Change comes slowly, but it comes.
Thank you Linda for explaining so concisely my exact thoughts on women, our place in a patriarchal society, and the struggle we face within our own personal lives and also within our workplaces.
Thank you for this, Linda. In my own personal assessment of what is so attractive to the "right" I have been confounded as to whether the espoused racism or sexism is the driving force; the true answer is both.
Thank you so much for your post Linda! I appreciate hearing your perspective.
I’d like to ask you this Linda. In our community within this blog, where we are formulating our ideas to share, do we have the opportunity to move the conversation forward in a manner that engages or enlivens? We have this conscious choice. And I feel we we can also inflame by using hurtful language. Language matters, for it is the expression of our heart-mind and soul (connection with life). Here, we are all in a setting that allows each of us to craft our message.
I appreciate your expression of the inequities within the workplace and other settings where our patriarchal training, or imprint, may arise. To this point, how do you feel the effort of the nonviolence of Gandhi and King, Jr., may forward the workplace environment, where it is so evident that all-too-many men have not had the privilege to spend time considering other options to their behavior?
btw, I feel it’s vital that we understand that other’s hurtful language, such as labelling, will be forthcoming from others who are simply resorting to what is available to them, at the time.
This discussion is more evidence of the need for white fellows to have our own movement to confront patriarchy, and the damage it has done to us and our families and associates.
Frederick, I think that fear motivates a lot of people to behave very, very badly: fear of being dismissed as unimportant, fear of losing one's position in the world, fear of change, fear of questioning, fear of difference. And while I absolutely admire the nonviolence professed by MLK, Gandhi, and others, what seems to drive real change in this country is a response to horrible things happening: JFK, MLK, and RFK's assassinations propelled an abashed white male Congress into passing legislation that benefited a lot of people; the murders of George Floyd and Brianna Taylor and so many others has finally pushed not just Black people but also white people into rethinking and moving against the oppression of BIPOC by the legal-industrial complex. There are lots of other examples, of course.
I don't advocate violence and I get annoyed when one of my activist students parrots Audre Lord with the quotation "The master's tools will never dismantle the master's house" (I ask my students to identify a tool that is NOT utilized by the "master"--when they stop to think about it there are none) because until we get beyond platitudes we cannot have a real conversation. But I am also aware that the hardest work an individual can do is to look inside herself and strive to change. And that is what I think happens on this platform--this beautiful space that HCR has given us to struggle with our ideas, to articulate our fears, to express our anger and frustration, and to learn about how others we would never meet or know experience the world. And that is why I come back here every day--multiple times a day--to read, to comment, and to listen.
I have felt this struggle as a disabled person. We must fight. But if we use the bastards methods the bastards wins. This is why Ghandi and MLK Jr.'s methods need to be part of the discussion.
Wow...after I just responded to Frederick's excellent post above, I find you have pretty much echoed exactly what I said! Ah...I see great minds thinking alike, and all that...it does make my heart glad. You rock.
Mary Daly wrote about women as the 'token torturer'
Horizontal violence is often prevalent
oppressed people's righteous anger can emerge in many ways, frequently sideways.
Speaking truth to power in the form of non-violent resistance is effective. It is not, however, sustainable on its own. Being a citizen requires participation, alertness, recognition of skin in the game. The movements referenced above DID change their worlds, but citizens got complacent. Greed took over.
When the Rs developed their 20-year plan, beginning with local and state elections, the Ds didn't pay attention. The public was not notified, to my knowledge. And if there was notification, there was complacency in the face of it.
Alas, my uni has a firewall to protect from Zoom invaders (it was problem last year). I love Marc Both too! And was talking about Feudal Society AND The Royal Touch (my favorite of his books) in the last couple weeks. But my take on feudalism is a little less systematic. 🤪 My students always look like their heads are going to explode afterwards.
Marc Bloch is very appealing -- doubly inspiring as intellectual and French resistance martyr. But I agree with H Stuart Hughes in The Obstructed Path. Bloch's choices were heroic, but uncomplicated in the commitments they demanded. A 19-20C French patriot resisting German and Nazi aggression always would find wide support. Contrast with Jean Jaures, French historian and socialist statesman, assassinated on the eve of WW1 for his antiwar stance and pacifism. His assassin garnered more approval at the time.
"But my take on feudalism is a little less systematic."
Feudalism itself was unsystematic. If I recall correctly, Bloch showed that the precise term didn't appear until Boulainvilliers in the early18C, when the system had nearly run its course. Then Montesquieu and especially Marx/Engels grabbed and ran with it. Back in the last millennium I read a helpful if pedestrian book on feudalism, Bou and Mon, but can't find the ref. right now. Darn Amazon for making us boycott them.
Hear, hear! I won’t say that I never laughed at a derogatory meme about the previous administration and its supporters. But it bothers me more and more to hear people called idiots, and animals, and so on. I do think the far right is wrecking the country, but I don’t think that perpetually insulting them as individuals is going to create the democratic country I’ll be happy living in. Do I want bigotry and spurious assumptions about superiority to continue being disproportionately represented in the governing of this country? No, of course not, I’m not even slightly OK with that and I dearly want to see it stopped. but wanting representational justice is a far cry from being OK with hearing my fellow Democrats, leftists, liberals, whatever, themselves using language, and letting that language slide them into ways of thinking, that escalates opposition for no good
whoops.... that escalates opposition into a cycle that raises the emotional stakes higher and higher. What good has escalation of hostilities ever done? I know that some of the people on this list will call me a Pollyanna for speaking this way, and accuse me of mollycoddling a bunch of thugs and so on and so on and so on. I do support your right to say what you want, but my question to you is....what good does it do to vent your ire in forums where political thinking is under discussion?
Venting ire is expressing anger and frankly one has to be able to do it in an effective way. For instance I think Biden’s use of the word Neanderthal recently was spot on.
I happen to disagree about the expressing of anger. I feel one has to resolve the anger within oneself, to understand from where it arises. What is touched and triggered? From a more balanced place then, I feel it is appropriate to discuss the issue, and take ownership of one’s experience. I’m not always the most skillful with this, but it is a practice, as I have found with expressions on this blog.
Anger is a secondary emotion. For many it becomes more comfortable to just be and stay angry, delaying the challenge to ask, “Why do I feel this way?”, “what can I do to fix the underlying issue that made be angry?” It can be as small as just not being heard. Most choose to stay in comfort, as if suspended in Auto pilot of life mode, they have let themselves “go to seed”. Quakers have a really cool custom for letting people vent, speak, learn, and grow. That’s how I see this forum. It’s about learning from DR. Richardson, listening and sharing each other’s perspective, and taking this experience out to the world in order to heal it. Which, we are all finding out is a whole lot harder in practice. We seem to be pre wired to complain and get angry ( and for good measure). We seem ill equipped with the tools and realistic timeline as political transformationalists. If we all could turn a just a few family, friends, and coworkers, it’s worth it, but it’s not going to be easy.
I second your comment, Ted. It is not easy, and that is why there is a spiritual dimension behind the efforts of every great social movement of our times, with Mandela, King, Gandhi and even the putting aside of disagreements in Ireland.
It is vital to see oneself in the supposed “other.” We so dearly need a time for silence and relaxation, before we go into the trenches.
Operating out of anger will attract a like response. We see failure.
Anger is a human and necessary response. Let Jesus be Jesus and let us be human beings. I still think Mother Jones had it right: Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living.
I do not support violence, but suppressing anger is not the answer either. Non-violent political action is the only answer.
I don’t see Frederick suggesting that we suppress it but similar to your suggestion is to channel all that energy constructively as in non violent political action rather than name calling. We should respect our anger like we should respect our physical pain and investigate it in terms of self rather than just blaming others. Only then can we use it to direct ourselves toward constructive behaviors to work towards resolving the anger. I think we should learn from mentors like Rosa Parks and John Lewis. Certainly they could show us how to use our anger to benefit all.
Jesus got very angry, too! How about when he turned over all the vendors' tables in the temple? He also told his fair share of parables about how not to behave. He was a radical who spoke truth to power, which is why the Romans executed him.
I got into Eastern thot, even have an Om tat on my arm tho I am not Hindu. Traveled to Assisi (Not Catholic either) and India on pilgrimage and attempted Ahimsa, prostrating myself before a spiritual master. It was very enlightening.
I learned that I AM NOT A SAINT. I get angry and express that anger. Oh wait, Jesus did shit like that too.
I agree. The myth that one must express anger in order to discharge that negative energy is pervasive in our culture, but is based on old research that has since been disproven. Giving vent to anger reinforces it and gives it strength.
Every human needs to acknowledge the emotion of anger, irritation, etc. It is how we acknowledge it that is the concern. To express anger by harming or hurting others with words or actions is not acceptable. To relate that something has sparked anger in you is very acceptable. And, don't interpret negative words as name-calling or insulting. Sometimes those words are very accurate. I use the word ignorant to describe some things. I am not calling a person ignorant, but the state of being from which actions or words come from. For example, I am very ignorant of the science of maintaining and repairing automobiles. It is the truth, not an attack on myself.
Anger is not negative. That is a strange myth. Anger is just energy, it’s neutral. Sometimes outrage arises from natural causes, like witnessing injustice. If you feel outrage (passion, rage, fury) when you witness an injustice, that is natural. The rage then provides energy for you to act in loving and helpful ways to end that injustice. And sometimes being loving means screaming at an attacker to stop it. So is that negative? If your outrage causes you to stop an injustice, do you therefore vilify the energy that causes you to act in a positive way?
No offense, but I believe men rend to resolve issues internally while women tend to talk them out. Of course, this is a generalization . . . nevertheless, like stereotypes, they came to be for a reason.
We all benefit when the ranks of our elected officials are in gender balance. Same for race balance. Many a General has said that, " Diversity is a force multiplier".
Oft-forgotten but not gone altogether. Neanderthal DNA still resides in millions of modern people. Ns have gotten a bad rap ever since the first fossil remains were found, blamed for stupidity, ugliness, aggression. Calling someone "Neanderthal" is a common insult. Most likely they were less violent than those who supplanted them and forcibly merged their DNA. Not sure about details, but there is ongoing research about their genetic heritage. Apparently it even impacts the incidence and severity of Covid-19.
Let’s rethink vocabulary in the spirit of Heather’s post. Trump supporters are: misled, wounded, angry, afraid (above all), unable or unwilling to voice their opinions productively, brainwashed, beaten down ... please add to the list as you see fit.
Fear most of all. And what happens when one is afraid? Fight or flight. And tRump supporters take the fight mode, afraid of losing their status as white privileged people. Fight to keep those of whom they are afraid down.
I think this one key facet that cannot be overlooked. All people fear change to that which they have become accustomed and comfortable. People share that fear with others of their community, race, and station in life. And they are validated by the other for doing so.
Jean Vanier, the Canadian Catholic philosopher who founded L’Arche communities around the world, wrote that people need to belong more than they need to be loved. And so this validation by others is exceptionally powerfully.
From fear to hate is a short distance. So when somebody filled with his own combination of fear and malignancy publicly lays down a carpet for people to “righteously” make that trip they will do so in droves. More acceptance and a painfully low barrier to entry. The club is not exclusive.
Trump of course did not invent racism. But he was sadly the wrong man at the wrong time. He followed Barack Obama, a man of the deepest grace, eloquence and reason - a man who happened to be the first black President. At a time of profound economic insecurity. At the moment when the smart phone and Facebook converged, making communication between those of like beliefs, those with similar fears, a quantum leap easier.
In his own way, Obama inadvertently stoked racism within the racist simply by threatening stereotypical beliefs of who Black people are, stereotypes that had been given a boost by Reagan’s “welfare queens”, by the disgraceful Willie Horton campaign ad, and by numerous racist dog whistles peddled by politicians. Obama didn’t fit the stereotype and fears were raised.
Along came Trump, the wrong man at the wrong time. He invited people to cross from fear to hate through example after example in his own vile behavior. He validated hate. And people followed in their millions in part because of all they had had to suppress for years for what they termed “political correctness”.
It seems to be a never-ending cycle that rises and falls in intensity with every generation. It is profoundly disheartening to me who is white. I cannot imagine being Black.
I found Heather’s brilliant post today to be deeply saddening. It was hard to read. As I age, I find it difficult to engage with some of what I used to read avidly. I read about the Holocaust with increasing understanding until I could not read about it any more. Slavery and its aftermath has been a more drawn out Holocaust and I find it ever harder to read about it. It’s simply too upsetting. I wonder if there are others who have gone through that same metamorphosis.
Anyway, thank you Heather once again for a graceful, temperate and factual lesson.
Lovely post Eric, thank you. You and I are clearly on the same page. One quibble: I think Trump was exactly the right man at the right time. As you suggest obliquely, Trump is exactly the backlash of the old society (of racism sexism gayism et al) to our first Black President and First Lady. Eight years of Barack and Michelle was more than they could stand. Big backlash. I know it won’t sound like music to your ears for me to say this, but the administration of Racist-Sexist-in-Chief is the loud screeching of tires you hear as they slam on the brakes and lock up the wheels and skid along the pavement for 4 years just before the car runs straight into a concrete wall and gets obliterated.
Thank you, Eric. For a historical perspective: 'Anti-Semitism, sometimes called history’s oldest hatred, is hostility or prejudice against Jewish people. The Nazi Holocaust is history’s most extreme example of anti-Semitism. Anti-Semitism did not begin with Adolf Hitler: Anti-Semitic attitudes date back to ancient times. In much of Europe throughout the Middle Ages, Jewish people were denied citizenship and forced to live in ghettos. Anti-Jewish riots called pogroms swept the Russian Empire during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and anti-Semitic incidents have increased in parts of Europe, the Middle East and North America in the last several years.'
Thank you for this very thoughtful reply. You are so right that people fear change, and change is very much in the wind. There are some changes even fear will not be able to stop. One of the major changes in the longer term....whites will become a minority. I hope I live long enough to witness this truth.
"From fear to hate is a short distance" AND it's easier to chose hate. I've lost my optimistic view of humanity this past year. I know there are good people trying to make the world a more equitable place but I see now that there are just as many determined to keep us from evolving from the tribal, war-mongering species we seem to be. All I hope now is that the efforts of the former outweigh those of the latter, but I realize this is a long game and even this healthy 59 year old won't live to see much progress.
White male fear has the scent of violence attached. the former guy stokes that fear. It appears that this fear has no class or education restrictions. The fear of being 'replaced' is interesting, chanted by unemployed, under-employed young white men. The fear that POC and white women may get out of control and no longer (as is said in southern Alabama) "know their place."
Good point. You can't persuade most people to change by punching them in the face or gut. From outpoint of view, they seem ignorant or worse, and we tend to assume they choose to be racist. Many were never given a chance to choose; they were simply taught from earliest childhood that that was a fact of existence. The question is how to draw them to a point where they can make the decision to move from blind to seeing.
At what point can we say that individuals are responsible for their beliefs? White supremacists like themselves. And they like their beliefs. I live among Trumpsters. If I suggested to any of them that the problem was their childhood, they’d laugh and then say something equally stupid about my grownup in a liberal urban environment. These people are immoral,not psychologically damaged.
Many grew up having to deny they’re on truths to survive. Once those pathways are set in our brains they are difficult to overcome. Denial of their truth is such a huge part of this. Many people don’t realize how the small incremental denials of truth tear away at the fabric of who we are collectively. It’s much more complicated than simply fear.
This doesn’t work for me. These adjectives evoke pity. I do not pity these people. I do not respect them because they are racist, prejudiced, anti-democracy, beyond selfish and hateful!
Except that doesn't describe my two brothers who are Trump supporters in any way. Maybe misled. But they are intelligent, educated, and very successful in their jobs. They don't have a history of conspiracy theories, etc. I wouldn't call them average supporters, but they are avid.
Then WTF is their problem? Why do "intelligent, educated, and very successful" ppl support such a clearly mentally defective, unqualified president who is also a racist, misogynist bigot?
Ah!.... but their leaders do it very well and know the limits of the people following them. What does that say about the rest of humanity when visibly this minority is still managing to dominate in many spheres. Cleverer we must be!
It points to social media and the diminishing quality of our public education across our country. It also reflect the ever widening social, class and economic divide between our haves and have nots.
When you get to a leadership position, the first thing is to understand your role. You give the direction, protect your team and fight to get the ressources necessary for them to make you look really good...and you make sure that they are "more intelligent" in their speciality than you. If all goes according to plan you and the team get the praise...if it goes wrong the blame is all yours.
I feel Joe is remarkably the ONLY politician in America to address this divide. I feel it comes from his roots, family and the tragic losses he has experienced. So, he is truly a ‘relational’ person, who apparently has always maintained the human connection, effete with his adversaries. "May it be so" for far more of us!
Joe is putting his wisdom on display and to good use. He is using his extensive experience in working with people over many years to good use. He is using his age as a positive instrument for doing the right things.
I have a Trump supporter very close to me in my family. In fact, she is the closest person in my family of origin. I have had to wrestle with our difference, and am only recently coming to peace with this schism. I only hope we can retain our loving relationship, because right now we do not have this relationship. To me, if we can save this relationship, then America can be saved. WHERE else would the healing happen?
Within the drama of the two of us is the tale of every dysfunctional ideological divide.
I feel you, Frederick. My sister, who is a rabid Republican, ghosted me after I published a piece about the direction of our country. I told her I wasn't going to allow differences of opinion break our family apart. Still, she remains silent and I feel an emptiness inside.
Randy, do you have the desire to reach out to her again. I do, with my sister. And I can feel the unease and fear. But I feel I have to make that call.
I know these divisions are painful and persistent. It helps me to realize that human perception is a mysterious thing. We never really know what someone else sees but each of us is a human being deserving of the benefit of the doubt and especially family and friends. I meditate with the help of the app Calm and this helps me.
The perplexing thing I have discovered is that this really isn't true. It would be easier for me to swallow the fact that people support him if they were all cretins, but I know several who are intelligent, even compassionate people and I am no longer convinced that the idiots (who nonetheless get all the press attention) are in the majority. Since these are thinking people, I can't get my head around what they could possibly be thinking.
Reid, do you know the work of George Lakoff, a linguist who’s studied political framing for decades? Conservatives and liberals have differing synapses in their brains, due to consistent messages, over the years. So, for each ’tribe', we process information very differently. I do not buy the story of the Christian discovery of America, and that we are a nation of ‘destiny’, etc. But, conservatives do. They do not buy a multicultural, pluralistic society. Well, this makes sense to me. It helps for me to perhaps understand from where another may come.
Do you see any benefit in understanding from where they come? I feel I have an insight as to how to approach, say, an extended family member with a belief in ‘traditional values'
I don't feel that the words you call name-calling are actually trying to hurt them. I feel that those words actually describe the words, actions, behaviors, and efforts to suppress people based on looks, sex, etc. The things we have observed this last 5 and more years are not intelligent or smart, but often emotional responses. The feelings of fearing and hating a group of people so much that you must spend your life suppressing their rights and harming them. The blatant hypocrisy and lies that is fact-checked in a hot minute, and yet they persist with them. That's idiocy, uneducated, and non-caring.
What a wondrous and lovely post. thank you for reminding us of our generosity of spirit. The horizontal violence that arises from the powerless, or the perception of powerlessness wreaks havoc and harm upon ourselves and our communities. There is an excellent text, "Peace and Power: New Directions For Building Community" by Peggy Chinn that offers guidance.
The following quote I found in the blog by Peggy Chin, which i relate with, in changing our patterns:
"The process seems simple (and it is) but it is also very hard, because it challenges so many competitive and divisive ways most people have practiced for years. But in the context of a group of people who come together with the intent to change toward “Peace and Power,” it is a rewarding experience that becomes more and more “easy” as you go along!”
Perhaps we can grow into a more loving presence, through support and effort
Well, I think MLK might turn over in his grave to see how little a large part of America has changed since his martyrdom. The same goes for Ghandi whose beloved India is struggling with its own bigoted Trump-like leader. And I cannot imagine that Rosa Parks was too satisfied with the direction America was taking at the time of her death. Gentleness, pacifism and open mindedness in the face of racism and violence may be admirable, but so far they have not led to a just society, at least not in the USA.
Of course, I agree with you that gratuitous insult is generally counterproductive and should be avoided. But I have no words of welcome for anyone scheming to turn the USA into an oligarchy of the authoritarian sort. Sorry.
The point of the life and teachings of Mahatma is then, exactly, what? Why are King and Parks so admired?
It is simply because they found the moral high ground, within their heart, to address violence and injustices. They're revered because they set an example, that so many recognize. It is not magic, that wipes away the dark aspects of our human condition. This dark force of racism and hatred of ’the other’ is a dominat strain of American existence, and throughout our human family.
You may see the violence in our society today and diminish the example set by these three. I see the conundrum of the human condition, and want to live by the example set by these three, and the teachings of the great spiritual traditions.. Because, personally, I feel the power they have in my own little twisted karmic existence.
I certainly do not wish to diminish the example set by Martin Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi and Rosa Parks, but I do wish a larger number of my compatriots would learn to better distinguish fact from fiction and reality from fantasy. I am sure all three of these moral exemplars hoped their teachings and example of humane behavior would be taken to heart and used to improve the human condition in some not impossibly distant future. Instead, in the year 2021 we have resurgent racism, voter suppression and continuing poverty, as well as stupidity and violence of every sort, suggesting a rapid conclusion to the human experiment. It's not what I expected to find in my 69th year.
They ran an experiment that largely failed. It was a noble experiment and I applaud them for taking the high road, but voting rights are still under attack; schools are more segregated today than they were before Brown vs. Board; BIPOC are arrested, hassled, killed, and convicted at much, much higher rates; Black wealth is a fraction of white wealth, there are no Black women in the Senate...I could go on and on. I am not advocating violence, but to look to Gandhi, King, Parks and other proponents of nonviolence for inspiration seems a bit disingenuous to me. Yes, it makes us feel better to be all peaceful in our hearts, but this isn't about feeling better, it's about justice. It's 2021 and we are still having to deal with 265 proposed state laws which directly target Black voters and a Supreme Court which has determined they will not intervene. We are still having to deal with prosecutors who refuse to charge police officers with murder when they commit extrajudicial killings. I'm not sure carrying a placard or putting up a yard sign is an effective countermeasure to these forces of evil.
I have to admit I love the entire conversation. Thank you Frederick.
Reid, I hear you.
Here’s what I have to say:
Peace with strength. Loving kindness with power. Social change through the use of power, loving power.
Peace and love do not mean weakness. Peace and love, when harnessed properly and correctly, are the most powerful forces in the universe. Unstoppable.
Do not mistake peace for weakness. Do not mistake love for weakness.
We are not talking yard signs. We are talking fundamental change in American society, and world society if you want to go there. India is facing the same fundamentalist backlash that we are. Gandhi’s work is still not done. His greatest challenge was overcoming the schism of Hindu versus Muslim. See what’s happening in India now.
Gandhi was unable to keep India together, it
split into “India” and West Pakistan and East Pakistan, Muslim majority nations.
We are fortunate, because we did not split into two countries at the time of the Civil War. We escaped the Partition of India.
Extrajudicial murder by white policemen is a real problem, as you point out, that yard signs will not cure.
However I recommend you do not underestimate the power of your, and Frederick’s, desire for justice. That’s what we are harnessing as a group. People working together are force multipliers. People like the two of you, and everyone else here as well, and all of the blue team, have changed US society for good. That is my belief and understanding at this time.
Never doubt that we are changing society, because we are.
Believe me, I agree, and have lived my entire 64 years by these principles. But we have to be clear-eyed about where we are. All these decades of struggle and this is all we have to show for it? Some of the proposed voter suppression legislation in Georgia would make a Jim Crow legislator blush. Limiting Sunday voting, for instance, is nothing but a blatant racist attack on Black church voting drives. Not to mention the fact that climate change is a five-alarm fire over which Republicans are roasting marshmallows. Our desire for justice and all the liberal hand-wringing in the world will not match the urgency of the problems we face.
Certainly technology is progress (or not) and effects our overall evolution. Whether it allows for contagion of hate or rather is shining a blinding light on the dark corners of our humanity, might be debatable. However if technology is a conduit for hate it can just as easily be used for love. It’s all about which wolf we want to feed.
Reid, Gandhi and Parks and King challenged capitalism at its core. They all coordinated a massive resistance movement against the economic forces that ran their societies at the time. THEY have run the most successful social movements in history, it can be said.
The fact that the left and liberalism is a bit coward to challenge capitalism says more about our tactics, that is says about the forces that removed the empire from England, and the forces that prevented blacks from the vote
Do not mistake the challenges that we face as the failure of the nonviolent resistance movements. It is a failure of US to adopt these tactics.
We may just have to disagree here. I can't look at the mess that is India and Pakistan and call that any kind of success. I can't look at racial injustice in this country and call this any kind of success. If I "succeeded" at my job to this degree, I would be unemployed.
I have errored in omitting the successful boycott strategy many of us supported against the krugerrand in South Africa - another successful movement that used boycotts and passive resistance toward a positive outcome. While we walked in protest every Saturday in America during the 1980s, the boycott strategy successfully recruited universities and pension funds, and ultimately other financial institutions, to turn against the ruling oppressors in South Africa.
The vote which elected Nelson Mandela, and Barack Obama and Joe Biden, and Jwhl Nehru are testimony to the success of these efforts.
The movement In India and the American South, and in South Africa, was far from "feel good” - but a strategic strike against the capitalist forces that kept people subjugated.
So, Reid, what can we learn from these successful movements for democracies?
and we, or “one” needs to be involved in the active resistance
We can continue to build alternative structures, also. For example, look at the Maine Climate Council - borne from 50 years of back-to-the-land effort, and now a feminist progressive governor. Who is also a poet!
Your assessment of leaders who believed in non-violence seems incomplete to me. They were teachers and the lessons were not only concerned with non-violence. Gandhi, Henry David Thoreau, Charles Stewart Parnell, Leo Tolstoy, Alice Paul, Martin Luther King Jr., Daniel Berrigan, Philip Berrigan, James Bevel, Václav Havel, Andrei Sakharov, Lech Wałęsa, Gene Sharp, Nelson Mandela... They made our lives better and enlightened us as they enriched society.
Me too Frederick—the incredible power of so called passive resistance was like the force of a huge tidal wave in India. I get it in my own life. Sometimes when I say nothing with my husband I can win an argument
This being International Women’s Day I have to say that all husbands young and old have to keep learning again and again from their wives if they value their marriages.
Frederick, I so appreciate your comment. As a health care provider, it took me sometime to recognize that my words could be more healing than my prescriptions. But as I learned it, everything began to come into focus. Without connection to others, newborns will fail to thrive, they give up. We need connections to others. Some of us are fortunate to be nurtured in our formative years. Sadly, many aren't. I have a stack of books piling up to read as a result of reading comments here. I want to share a list of a few here that have helped me to recognize that words are powerful and make all the difference in connecting with others. ( I am no expert, it's very much a work in progress for me, but being aware at least has mattered).
* Nonviolent Communication by Marshall Rosenberg
*The Art of Communicating by Thich Nhat Hanh
*Don't Think of an Elephant by George Lakoff
*Sacred Instructions by Sherri Mitchell
Peace and Love to y'all. We are all transmitters! Hats off to DHLawrence
Christy. I think I’d like to read your book, too. Written from your perspective of a health care professional, and the way you touch the heart of your patients. You have years of first hand research! I’d like to read of your prescriptions!
I agree with Gandhi's first principle of being the change you wish to see in the world and the importance of language and moderating rage. However, I also point out that Gandhi's 4th principle is:
Without action you aren’t going anywhere.
As Gandhi said, “An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching.” Without taking action very little will be done.
So, as we remember to practice empathy and moderation in our language, we must also remember to push for the change we wish to see in the world as well. Simply wishing for change accomplishes little beyond frustrating yourself and those who would benefit from change.
A big "BRAVO" to you, Frederick! In my book it is an honourable man indeed who can admit his mistakes and own up to them. Not everybody can turn their gaze inward and examine themselves. Sometimes we don't like what we see. On the face of it, we 're human beings, high order primates, and by getting angry and frustrated, we vent. Letting off steam is only human. But, as you've shown, maybe one needs to try and turn down the "burner" that is heating up the "pot" that is making the steam, y'know? I would venture that the majority of people on this forum are of a like mind about most issues--with an outlier here and there..."not namin' no names!", as we say down here. Coming on here to yell and rant and rave may make one feel better, but ultimately isn't it a waste of energy, because one is basically "preaching to the choir"? If I want to vent, I tend to do it on my Facebook page, and use every foul word one can think of, even in a variety of languages. I find that is not really necessary here because the people in this "cyber-community" that has sprung up around HCR's "Letters" are a pretty sane, wise, august bunch of folks and may necessarily need reminding what pisses us all off. I come here to get away from it. I can forgive anyone letting their anger go on here--it's only natural--but then I think, "why?" Let's talk each other off of our various "ledges" and use this "hive-mind" on here to examine what we think and discover what we can learn from each other. (And besides, if someone goes ballistic...computers have this wonder feature called "scroll"...so just "scroll on by"...apologies to Dionne Warwick...)
Just my $.02...giving credit to my therapist from 15 years or so ago who showed me how to turn my gaze in on myself (thank you Dr. Jung) and try to do my own self-analysis and "house-cleaning". Yeah, I occasionally "fall off the wagon" and go ballistic, but later I take some deep breaths (oxygen is a wonderful "sedative"!) and calmly reflect. As far as I'm concerned, no apologies are necessary, but your doing it publicly is what you need to do. Again, BRAVO! Crossing that Pettus Bridge together...
Being a "nice guy" in dealing with evil doesn't always work. There's an old fable about a farmer who takes a comatose snake home to revive it and is subsequently bitten and dies. There is a limit to "turning the other cheek," unless one is willing to accept assassination and martyrdom as both Gandhi and King did. You need not be ashamed of any "biting words" you used in addressing evil, if you felt they were justified.
Thanks Jacob. But you really do know that Gandhi, King and Parks did NOT turn the other cheek. They used a moral force, of just anger, and a massive campaign against capitalism to boycott and disrupt the very economic foundations of their oppressors. Their boycotts turned the tide of history toward the moral arc of justice. We simply have forgotten the success of their resistance movements
Professor Richardson's letter today provides a history lesson in change. I read of protest, resistence, National Guard, FBI agents, federal marshals, and legislation...nothing about "Liberation com[ing] from within" or "We simply will not cross the bridge to the world we desire if we cannot accept and welcome the stranger."
I love you Frederick, and I do not accept your apology. I have read your words, and I find there is nothing you have to apologize for. You are one of many beautiful people here expressing yourself and your lovely values admirably. If on occasion you feel natural outrage re: injustice and the violent and abusive repercussions of that injustice, and you express that rage in a forum of your peers, well, guess what, this is the perfect place for that. In fact, you could argue that this is exactly the place for that.
Now out in public, or in your family, with Republicans and Old Order Society voters in audience, different story. Soothing words. Loving words. Words that bridge the divides and heal the divides. Gandhi.
But here, Malcolm X.
As TPJ knows well, because he works there, MLK did his training at Boston Univ., which is where I expect he studied Gandhi.
If I can get away from this confounded computer screen, I'll head to downtown Boston for one of my periodic "pilgrimages" to sites associated with abolitionists and human rights advocates. There is so much here to savor and commemorate, but it's not limited to one town. Dive in to your own local history and you'll find more than you imagined. That's another answer to Reid's query "What is to be done?" (Lenin's too): find inspiration in places connected to inspiring people.
I'm proud of BU's connection to Rev Dr King. But the BU admin gleefully exploits the connection for everything from donations to cachet, while frequently embodying contrary practices and principles.
I'm sorry but no apology here for calling the previous poser in the White House an Asswipe, which he and his entire family still are, and his supporters brainless cult followers.
I remember well those days. Remember the opinions of people who were convinced that’s black marchers were simply lawbreakers. I remember gas stations with three bathrooms: “Men, Women, Colored”. I remember the freedom riders coming through town and escorted right on out of town. And I remember Bloody Sunday, and attack dogs, and four little girls who didn’t make it home from Sunday School. I remember, and I’m a white southerner. I saw what happened and I saw change — then backsliding when the Voting Rights bill was gutted. How could anyone NOT remember or better yet forget or let the monsters back out in the light of day and say well, they’re very fine people on both sides? God help us!
Because like after the first Civil War, we let their leaders off scot-free and allowed them back into positions where they could influence and control affaires. They very logically assumed that this meant that they could start to recreate life around them as they liked to see it.....and we let them do it just as before.
I remember those days also, Patricia, and as of a small town Southerner. It gives me chills that now 43 states are adopting these horrendous laws to deny people their rights. We have a lot of work to do!
Let’s remember that they are far from ‘adopting’ them. In these states they have simply been introduced. Many of these states have a Democratic Governor or a state house in which Dems are the majority. A few may have the political climate to pass draconian measures. And these states will probably loose the case in the courts. So I feel is a far less scary thought than you have stated. I appreciate what you have seen in your life in the south, and have the life that has led you to this blog!
I see the countervailing rise of the forces of justice in places like Georgia and Arizona, and I anticipate this is an unstoppable movement. Because we are witnessing younger generations take the responsibility to address the errors we elders have lived through
There's about as many resolutions introduced to expand and protect voting rights. Contact your officials or check the web site of the state legislature to learn about them and how to offer support.
Thank you for that suggestion! It's easy to see the negative - we've had so much of it recently. I will check out my own state legislature ASAP. This last weekend, I wrote to my US Senators regarding HR1 (which will be S1 when it reaches the Senate) and asked them to get into some "good trouble"! I would have also written to my Representative, but unfortunately her website does not recognize my address as being that of a constituent (which reminds me that I need to get that taken care of, also ASAP).
I try, Ally, to monitor the news and other media I consume. This is a teaching from Thich Nhat Hanh. Because, truly, in this moment, right now, my world is perfect. I have much to be thankful for. I give gratitude every day, for my life
I remember that as well Patricia, I moved to Atlanta in June of 1964 from just south of Portland Oregon where I had spent my high school years, the Deep South then was like a different planet 🌎. I live near Atlanta today and while it is indeed very different from what it was like in 1964, the rural south not so much so. The soil in Georgia is referred to as “red Georgia clay” and that speaks to the roots of much of the rural southern population. What we have watched for the last 4 years, is a president that pandered to the inherent racism that is deeply rooted here in the south, in my lifetime we had never had a president so openly support white supremacy as the last one. He breathed new life into what was a gradually dying way of life; an overview of the state’s election results clearly demonstrates the spread of democratic support radiating out from our major cities, the influx of non southerners into the Deep South is responsible for much of that. What the Georgia legislature is attempting to do today is despicable but not unpredictable, after all they are horrified that we replaced both useless US Senators with two men that flipped over the senate. Warnock’s seat will be in play again in 22 which is exactly what all of the activity in the Georgia legislative bodies is all about.
Dick, you are correct in stating that Fake45 “breathed new life” into the insurrectionists. He and his bombastic rhetoric was like the savior they had been looking for forever.
Thank you Dr. Richardson for providing historical background for Bloody Sunday and connecting it with President Biden's act today. I watched Oprah's interview with Meghan and Harry revealing the racism towards her and their son Archie. In the interview Meghan reveals that she wanted to end her own life because of the racism. I know that white Americans have got to stand in black peoples' shoes to be with them in their suffering, historically and now. We have to. We have to personally take responsibility for our whiteness and educate ourselves about the continuous stressors that black (and all ethnically diverse) people endure daily, to the point that they have racial physical and mental health disparities. I am sick to my stomach everyday reading, watching, hearing about another atrocity towards black people that is simply genocide.
So thank you for telling us about another freedom that African Americans have had to fight to the death for. The freedom to vote. And may we all ask ourselves why is this still happening?
Honor Amelia Boynton, John Lewis, Dr. King, Jimmie Lee Jackson, James Reeb, Viola Liuzzo, and all those who have shed blood for the foundational right to vote. Honor them by taking action on behalf of voting rights.
The wave of voter suppression laws making their way through state legislatures is 253 bills in 43 states. What is your state doing?
Learn the basics of H.R.1/S.1 For the People Act, which addresses 3 issues:
1. Voting rights
2. Campaign finance
3. Ethics and accountability of public officials
What resonates with you the most? Talk about it to friends and family, contact the politicians, post on social media, and as Heather says, "take up oxygen!"
Thank you so much Ellie for posting these great resources! I now feel I want to return to my familiar writing chair and desk, and jot notes to new voters
Except the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act of 2020 expired with last year’s Congress and has yet to be re-introduced. (Thank you, R. Dooley, for the update.)
Thank you Ellie Kona! Excellent post with links to act upon. Voting is my grassroots focus, so I appreciate your thoughtfulness in supplying ways to get involved to this substack group. ❤️🤍💙
Also, when I think back to this, I remember Harlan Ellison, with whom I was friends in the 80s (before he did to me what he did to every friend he ever had), telling me about going down to Selma and marching in that big march. He went down as a writer to cover it, there were two other prominent white Hollywood notables there too, Paul Newman and Charleton Heston (!). I once met Newman in the business, and remarked to him about respecting him for doing that, to which he said he went so that if the cops did it again, if they beat him up there would be at least one white guy the country knew, which would be sure to have the papers cover it. As honorable a guy personally as he was publicly.
Especially the NRifleA, but that should not cause anyone to presuppose opposition to equal rights. In the South, at the time under discussion, the KKK and other groups opposed to any rights for people of color were far more likely to be Democrat oriented than Republican.
Until Goldwater and Nixon adopted the "Southern Strategy" which brought those opposed to equal rights into the Republican Party ... where they remain to this day.
Indeed they have, but Heston was well known for his participation in the Civil Rights movement, maybe because of his upbringing on the North Shore (Evanston and Wilmette) of Lake Michigan, maybe because of his time at NU, maybe just because he was, overall, a pretty decent person. Even his support for the NRA was more a product of his belief in individual freedom and responsibility than anything to do with the now bankrupt lobbying group. Guilt by association would get many of us in trouble if people didn't take the time to find out the context and the reality of what we thought or did.
Dr. Richardson’s Letter from and American for today, March 7, 2021, must rank among her most important contributions to the survival of our nation. It addresses one of the most corrosive agents eroding the core of our democracy. The caustic nature of white supremacy, or anti-blackness, is the key component of the danger our society faces today.
The creation of a “white” race and the invention of its necessary opposite “black” race, laid the groundwork for a “superior” race and an “inferior” one. It was on this corrupt foundation that America was raised.
This is the fundamental rationalization for that detestable institution: slavery; it is the justification used to excuse the rape of the indigenous cultures found on this continent, the pillaging of their wealth, and the near extinction of their populations. It is the root cause of the virulent misogyny that poisons our family and community life.
The malodorous rot that we have recently discovered in our society has been festering for centuries. It is now visible and undeniable to all but the unfortunate, brainwashed, deluded millions who have based their existence in this Big Lie!
Those of us who have not succumbed to this odious and detestable fairy tale are now faced with the enormous responsibility to recreate this nation in its own image. American exceptionalism has yet to exist—except in a demented and thoroughly corrupt form—so we must put on our big boy pants, gather our tools, and get to work building it right this time.
Also: I recommend this article and the book that is its subject:
Don't forget the other "colours" as there was the "red" indian and the "yellow" chinese too in popular "literature.
It's interesting to compare how this subject is discussed in different parts of the world. You quickly discover that the "White" Europeans are not the only racists. A first stop would be in Africa itself and you observe the disdain expressed by locals who are "more or less dark" for those that are "more oe less dark" than themselves and slavery of different kinds has always existed and continues in some parts today. If you are just looking at slavery then try a trip to Saudi Arabia too and find that not all the slaves are locals; many are from the Indian Continent and are considered somewhat less than human!. If we then continue on your travels to the indian sub-continent and start to examine attitudes towards more or less dark and the still dominant caste system, you will quickly find that some of the Brahmin cast agree with the Saudis. Our last stop for this post could be in Tokyo and for anybody that has travelled there on business, there are certain parts of the city and certain restaurants where your hosts will invite you to a restaurant for dinner without difficulty ....and only there for reasons that segregationists in Alabama would quite understand.
So what is the message....that racism is everywhere and often results from a group's dominance of the wealth structure...but that doesn't make it right or acceptable only that we are all concerned in the need to stop it.....black, white, red and yellow....or whereever inbetween we situate our own particular skin colour. Should we be disdainful of the other just for a question of which pigment by which we are "coloured"? I don't think that this can ever be qualified as other than a "barely skin-deep" analysis of the human condition.
I’ve always found it interesting that, linguistically, one of the most fundamental notions of “the other” — even in the most primitive cultures — is to refer to ones own tribe as “human”; while anyone outside that group is referred to as the equivalent of “not human”, and that’s seems to be where our species is stuck sometimes.
Racism is a highly complex socially constructed phenomenon that can only be understood on an interdisciplinary basis. Racism develops and increases where human exploitation, extreme inequality, and oppression exist. The contradictory character of racism is coupled to the fact that it is often accompanied by claims of anti-racism. For example, as far as I can tell these posts are overwhelmingly from white people, probably people with enough income to pay fifty bucks to be a "member". Dr. Richardson, as far as I can tell, lives in an all-white community, dialogues with an all white academia and appears on zoom with only white people (Preet Bharara, who will introduce her Thursday night, is a culturally "adopted" white person now.) The violence that is experienced worldwide, and called "racism" deserves a black voice. White people, like me, discussing "racism" from my entitled, privileged life, without the experience of racial violence and aggression that is experienced by people of color everyday is troubling on many levels. Until there are black voices in this "dialogue", it is simply white people imagining what "racism" is.
I hear you and I definitely feel you and share concerns. However I want to add that HCR has been under attack for not addressing these issues. I do not know her other than from reading her words. I believe she understands what you speak of but on the other hand these issues have to be discussed regardless of our paleness. I believe she focuses on what she is best at. Her contributions to the well being of our democracy have been priceless. I would love to see more diversity of voices here, and the eurocentricity is thick and nonwelcoming unintentionally to such diversity. I strongly disagree with your statement about only imagining racism. This crowd is extremely well read and if one cannot travel or otherwise "beam" oneself into a minority community then the next best thing is vicariously living it by being immersed into another's life story. And, how arrogant of you to claim Mr. Bharara has divorced his origins. my 2 cents.
Well put. But, I never said that Mr. Bharara has "divorced his origins." I was suggesting that he is "acceptable" because of his "appropriate" alignment with white ideas, a graduate of both Harvard and Columbia, and is a comfortable fit in the white mind. Other than his Indian name, I'm not sure of any distinction in the public mind. I know of no activism on his part for people of color. People of color like Esmeralda Simmons, Ciara Taylor, Michelle Alexander, Shaun King, and others who fight for justice, are mostly unknown in the white community. And the astonishing author Christina Sharpe who wrote "In The Wake" or Natasha Marin's curation for the collection for the book, "Black Imagination" are little known by the "well-read." Yet, these are critical readings. But, as we all know, "reading" about racism is much different than experiencing racism. But we can fight for the inclusion of marginal voices. Otherwise, we are preaching to ourselves and not listening to, or advancing, the voices of experience.
thank you for clarifying what you were communicating about Mr. Bharara. I'm still confused. You would rather that HCR did not write of Bloody Sunday today because she is white and as far as you know she has no experience with racism?
On the contrary, I appreciate the historical perspective HCR provides. I would prefer that this newsletter was attractive to and invited marginal voices as part of the conversation. I would prefer that HCR referred to black historians like John Hope Franklin, author of the renowned "Slavery to Freedom: A History of African Americans", and the many modern Black historians. As long as Blacks exist in a world apart, we are the poorer and what we come to know, again, is a white person's interpretation and discussion of history. HRC has done so much to enlighten historic understandings and established a renewed interest in history itself, alone. But there is a more intricate inclusion called for. The link below relates the experience of Black historians and is, consequently, a plea for wider and knowledgeable inclusion. https://bit.ly/3elDTC4
Race is a social construct and not based in biological differences other than ones ancestors lived in hot climates and developed tans or lived in cold climates covered up to stay warm and remained pale. Using the person's ancestry makes some sense. Native American, African American, Asian American. Why do I still have to check the odious "White" box for race? Why isn't one of the choices Euro American? That's my equivalent ancestry.
Thank you, Dr Heather, for another informative detailed history of events from "Bloody Sunday" on its 56th anniversary. It was before my time and I do not recall it being discussed at all in any of my history classes when I was growing up. But it is horrifying to read.
Present-day events seem to point to a return to those terrible times in some states. This sentence jumped out at me: "Among the things Georgia wants to outlaw is giving water to voters as they wait for hours in line to get to the polls." The depth of inhumanity is disturbing. I hope such laws will not get passed! It is sad to know that all over the country more restrictive laws are being passed to prevent ordinary people from voting.
That is beginning to change now. My teenaged boys had to read John Lewis’ graphic novel, March. And the district in which I work is revamping its K-12 social studies curriculum right now, and will include history from multiple perspectives.
I am from MN, and we have one of the worst achievement gaps in the country, sadly. I hope these curriculum changes will be one part of an overhaul that will close that gap.
MN here, too. Education excellence used to be a great hallmark here. I'm hopeful that once the intense pressure of COVID has at least abated, Gov Walz (an educator before becoming GOV) will narrow the gaps!!
Thanks for your illuminating comment. The fact that you had never encountered "Bloody Sunday" in your studies growing up shows how far we still have to go as a nation where justice is taken seriously.
I remember today like it was yesterday. I was still in the Navy over in Vietnam. I remember a friend saying "What are those people doing?" He was speaking of the whites. I looked at him and said "You're on *this* ship withy *this* crew, and you have to ask?" I was referring to the southern whites we served alongside. For me as a relatively naive white boy from Colorado in 1962, the most shocking thing that happened to me in the Navy was meeting southern whites. My recruit company was 1/3 us Colorado boys, 1/3 Californians and 1/3 from South Carolina. There were some black guys among the Californians (who all ended up in leadership positions in the company) and I had no trouble seeing from the first who they thought the enemy was. Those South Carolinians were the strangest people I'd ever met. Half of them scored under 20 on teh AFQT (I scored 97) I'd never been around people I thought were too stupid to be morons. I never met a white southerner in the Navy who wasn't a mean sonofabitch, and dumber than shit. It wasn't till I went down to the South myself in the later 60s as a left activist and ran across good Southerners that I believed such critters existed. Good southern whites are amazing people, because it's hard to be a good southern white, with so many evil morons around, And sadly, 56 years later it doesn't seem much has changed, other than the fact I also thought half the northern whites I knew back in the Navy were also morons turns out to have been generous on my part. The problem isn't just southern. You met great people in the service, but the truth is, looking back, they were notable for being the minority they were.
It's sad to know I could go down there today and meet the exact same types I did before. Now they all wear red baseball hats, so at least they're easy to recognize.
I am a transplanted northerner who now lives in TN. I will say this about what you wrote, when bigotry is what you’re taught and it surrounds you, it’s what you in good faith believe. I will say also it’s been my experience generally, not universally, many southerners don’t have a lot of interest in traveling above the Mason-Dixon Line, much less out of the country.
My daughter went to college in SC and was surprised at how many of her classmates were afraid to go north of the Mason Dixon line. We never understood what they were afraid of.
Thank you TCinLA for this bio note. I used to travel US and was always uneasy in some Southern States. Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida...traveling the backroads in a car with NY plates made me very anxious. 2016 when I saw huge Trump signs on pick up trucks was a visual signal of his permission to come out in the open. And here we are. I was dumb to not know what was happening behind the scenes since Newt Gingrich or before. That’s on my head. ❤️🤍💙
Morning, all!! Morning, Dr. R!! In response to Dr. R's post today, I am copying Ellie's post. We've got a lot of work to do. Let's get busy:
Ellie Kona4 hr ago
Honor Amelia Boynton, John Lewis, Dr. King, Jimmie Lee Jackson, James Reeb, Viola Liuzzo, and all those who have shed blood for the foundational right to vote. Honor them by taking action on behalf of voting rights.
The wave of voter suppression laws making their way through state legislatures is 253 bills in 43 states. What is your state doing?
Learn the basics of H.R.1/S.1 For the People Act, which addresses 3 issues:
1. Voting rights
2. Campaign finance
3. Ethics and accountability of public officials
What resonates with you the most? Talk about it to friends and family, contact the politicians, post on social media, and as Heather says, "take up oxygen!"
Good morning, Lynell! Thank you for amplifying Ellie’s post. We must all do what we can, within our own abilities/ circumstances, to support this and these links are helpful. I didn’t realize the Sierra Club provided an opportunity and will be looking into that as soon as I’m done reading today’s comments thus far.
Ellie's post was so comprehensive. Most of us do not have the time to read every singIe reply. I was trying to target those who may not have seen the original post.
Today's "Letter" is as eloquent and powerful a succinct history of voting rights legislation in the U.S. as I've ever seen. It should be widely syndicated in newspapers, newsletters, and online publications.
having been a teenager during the 60's I never fully understood the background of the Selma March that Heather Cox Richardson has stated today with such clarity. It has been a long journey in my life to come to terms with racial inequality. I have encountered numerous people in our area of Nebraska (usually the older generations) that still converse in racial and demeaning terms as they have always done. My wife and I toured the MLK historic sight in Atlanta as well as the museum in Memphis where Dr. King was murdered. While at the MLK historic site, I came upon a book entitled "Carry Me Home" which I purchased. This very powerful book was written by person who grew up and lived in Birmingham AL. during the civil rights struggle. I recommend it to anyone who wants to continue to learn about the history of the civil rights struggle and the racism that is a part of our country's history.
Carry Me Home is highly recommended. Also cf. Charles Payne, I've Got the Light of Freedom: The Organizing Tradition and the Mississippi Freedom Struggle
It has an AMAZING passage describing how Fannie Lou Hamer's singing "This Little Light of Mine" electrified a dreary, failing meeting. It will stay with you forever.
Thanks, Heather. I needed that. I grew up in the shadow of that event, but for a turn of fate could have been part of it, and yet never knew the whole story until you told it in its historical context. Of all the gifts of your service, this contextualizing is the greatest.
Where is our party? Where is the political party that will make it unnecessary to march on Washington? Where is the political party that will make it unnecessary to march in the streets of Birmingham?
Huge thanks for underlining Biden’s executive order regarding essential voting rights—and for describing the details of civil rights 60 years ago. The context of Bloody Sunday (hopefully) inspires all of us to help move voting rights onward and forward.
In 1967 several of my college classmates and I formed a local chapter of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) chapter in the community in Pennsylvania where our college was located. Among our first activities was to open an after-school tutoring program for struggling high school students located in the public housing projects near our off-campus apartment complex. We felt we needed a way to connect with the local community in order to politically activate them and helping their kids was a good way to make that connection. In time we commenced conducting voter registration drives and politically activating the community for a number of causes. By the time my class graduated we had even placed several members of the local neighborhood on the school board, City Council, and in several municipal boards and commissions.
That community activism during my college years caused me to become engaged in advocating for voting rights and various social justice causes. Now 50 plus years later I find the same causes for which I advocated then still denied to too many. I cannot believe that we are still engaged in this struggle which to me seems so righteous and just. I find the denial of voting rights to be among the most insidious forms of suppression of basic human rights and dignity. It disgusted me over 50 years ago and angers me today. To think I am still engaged in this struggle without a final victory yet more than 50 years after the passage of the Voting Rights Act saddens me greatly.
I remind myself, though in frustration, that the national activation and mobilization of literally millions of demonstrators in the streets of our nation and our legislative halls have always been required to achieve progress in social justice. We cannot simply depend on our legislators to do the right and moral thing. It seems they must be pushed and pushed again. It is again time to activate and mobilize millions in this cause again, as our legislators once more seem to be ignoring the will of the people. Time to rise up yet and demand the will of the people is represented in our legislatures. Let the peoples' voices be heard.
Powerful story. Yes, today's backlash is so discouraging, but what an inspiration to all of us what your small group of students was able to accomplish! Maybe it is time for Seniors for Democracy?!
Hey I’d sign up for sure.
I'm IN!!! Tell me WHERE and WHEN!!!🤔😏
Somebody has got to do the logo
Excellent idea
Count me in!
Like the idea! I am the right age let's do this.
Me 4, Me 5. I’m in.
EYUD = Elders and Youngers United for Democracy
Sounds too much like LIKuD— how about Keepers of Democracy KD — shortened to The Keepers.
DAKY
Democratic Alte Kakkers and Youth.
Ok forget that.
How about Democratic Party, but lose the donkeys? In 2021 gazelles more apropos.
I’m in too!
Look up James Baldwin talking about how in the wake of Civil Rights, we were too quick to declare victory. He warned very clearly about this coming back to haunt us. E.S. Glaude's book about Baldwin (Begin Again: https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/2021/02/22/black-history-month-james-baldwin-racism-resonates-activists/4080047001/) is a very decent overview of Baldwin's life, told through Glaude's own personal journey. I try to look to Black women's perspectives when things get muddy. They've seen it all and can help us steer past the gaslighting, the hypocrisy, the disingenuousness of so many of these arguments that try to deflect, obstruct, obscure the horrific embedded racism that not coincidentally also includes some deep misogyny--because it is all about maintaining power. There are a lot of wolves in sheep clothing out there trying to confuse us.
And James Baldwin was also a gay Black man--which was not a safe combination of identities in most Black communities (still isn't a safe combination, actually), let alone white ones.
You cannot talk about voter suppression of people of African-American ancestry without also mentioning sexism and non-straight suppression.
We have a beautiful opportunity now. Like Bruce Carpenter and the rest of you, I never thought it would take my entire life to get here, and still the job is not done. Legislators in FORTY THREE STATES. And you don’t have to do any research to know that those legislators are 90+ % not only white but also male supremacists and straight supremacists.
The Republicans are now clearly the party of white supremacy, male supremacy, and straight supremacy. And the supremacy of the rich, my wife keeps reminding me, I have to remember the suppression of the poor.
Here’s where I differ with some of you: this is not the 1960s. I do not believe any more that we are fighting an uphill battle. Now, after the blue team took the White House and both chambers of Congress, an outcome absolutely nobody expected, it is clear to me that we have passed the point of no return.
Am I being naïve and stupid? HELL NO. Not for a minute do I suggest we take our foot off the gas pedal. Use rage. Use fury. Use passion. Step HARDER on the gas pedal. Shift into HIGHER gear. No coasting, no cruising.
And this is also why perhaps we disagree, superficially only, on a relatively minor subject like use of profanity. When a person of good character and good values feels passionate about injustice, feels rage and fury, words are not always pretty because injustice is not pretty. It’s so easy to use in offensive words and language when one is not truly confronting the reality. The reality is that whites-on-top, males-on-top, and straights-on-top words and values leads straight to ugly things. Lynchings. Attacks. Blood. Guts.
Remember: Donald Trump‘s America lost this past election cycle. Not by much, but they lost. The reason we are having these conversations is because Mitch the Twitch is no longer in control. H.B. 1 would be in deep slumber, effectively dead and buried, without Georgia on January 5. The Georgia special election outcome was and still is a miracle. We have to elevate every voter registration and voter support group operating in Georgia to gold metal status, because they are real heroes, as are the voters in Georgia that they supported.
I agree. I also point out that virtually every major social justice cause has required millions of people to demonstrate, advocate for that change, making their views more than evident. Women's suffrage, civil rights, the anti-war movement, voting rights, LGBTQ rights and equality, and so much more all required millions of demonstrating and advocating for change often for years if not decades. Change is hard but happens when public opinion is overwhelming moved through mass movement advocacy. I have often pointed out that even hundreds of demonstrators are the opposition but millions are the resistance.
I point out often to others that as appalling as the January 6 Capitol riots and Trump Train processions and rallies are the participants number no more than several thousand. The March on Washington, the March for our Lives, the Women's March following the Trump Inauguration all involved hundreds of thousands, even millions worldwide. The passion and energy to advocate for the changes we wish to see are palpable and significant. However, it requires focus and organization. So let us organize and focus. The numbers to get the changes we wish are there. We need to show the strength of the movement for change.
Bruce I hope your cleanup and recovery in Texas is coming along OK
Thanks for the kind thoughts. We are recovering. Many hit quite hard but we were well prepared.
Agreed— I love that word palpable
Roland I so agree! We are at a new tipping point but we have to push that danged barrel over the cliff!
Linds yes now is the time to make great gains in this new administration.
PUSH‼️PUSH‼️
We LOST seats in the House and BARELY won the Senate. We won the White House because the Rs ran an unbalanced, misogynistic, crude cretin directly responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of his fellow citizens (for whom 74 million people voted nonetheless). The president's party always loses House seats in midterms and many D Senate seats are very vulnerable in 2022. Forgive me if I don't share your optimism.
I don’t expect anybody to share my optimism. You’re good. I got lucky seeing it the way I do. Before Jan. 5, I didn’t see it this way. I did not expect team blue to sweep. I did not expect that we could be talking about HR1 in March 2021. I thought for certain Mitch would retain control.
We are living a miracle right now. We should be talking, right now, this very instant, about how Mitch the Glitch is obstructing all new society legislative traffic. We should be having to wish and hope and pray for HB1, the wishful thinking of diehard dedicated social progressives who never give up despite the obstacles thrown up by the regressives. Instead we are watching the miracle of the reapplication of the Voting Rights Act. Amazing. Astonishing. Miraculous.
“The president's party always loses House seats in midterms”. On Jan. 4, Georgia never had 2 Democratic senators. Never had a
Black Senator. Never lost two Republican Senate seats at the same time. What do you say we make an exception this time around in 2022? GO TEAM‼️🎉
Mitch and his rich wife are not having the best March—2021 is a little wake up call for them and their Chinese relative who don’t like reading about themselves on 2 page spreads in the Nytimes—losing face is a brand new experience
I agree, this is a very delicate moment. Things could get tipped in the opposite direction very suddenly with the gerrymandering, the corruption, the unfettered flow of Mercer/Murdoch money and the social media poison is still flowing through the Trump cult members, and Putin's hackers are deep into our systems. If anything all of this went into overdrive, the smell of desperation is in the air, and a cornered animal is the most dangerous of all. Our only hope is they eat their own. I don't think the 1%ers will allow that to happen, though.
They got a taste of power and they are eager to flip it back over again. Peter Thiel types will fund Hawleys all over the US and they will be 10x worse than Trump. We need ordinary Americans to wake up from their crazed fever and decide this isn't for them, not anymore. That it's too much drama.
Biden’s steady but undramatic hand steering us towards we the people, all the people, this time is very comforting. Like a warm, cozy blanket to snuggle under, isn’t he currently surfing a 60% favorability rating? We just have to work hard locally. Get some support for good strong Dems locally. We’re in good hands at the top, let’s focus on bringing it home.
Both times the WH kept the House happened either from an overreach ( the Clinton impeachment) or a catastrophe (9/11). We at least have the latter here.
Yes the Pandemic is still evolving
The numbers of Repugs not going to run again is rising.
Yes the Georgia special election was a miracle. Thanks for the reminder.
I second your opinion that the Glaude book is excellent.
Thank you, Bruce, for reminding us that action is the only way to effect change for the good. You have inspired me to join Stacey Abrahms here in Georgia and march to the statehouse with others to protest voter suppression proposals.
It is indeed frustrating and maddening that we must keep fighting the battles we thought we won 50 years ago. But such injustice as we’re again experiencing must not stand. Thanks to Ellie for compiling and Lynell for resharing the list of organizations we can join and/or continue to contribute to to rejoin the battle.
Thank you for sharing. Living truth to power is admirable at its least, and courageous.
I agree with you. And we certainly cannot depend upon THIS SCOTUS to do the right thing, given John Roberts own position on voting rights and his action to gut the Voting Rights Act. The actions in states now to restrict access and to make voting more difficult is appalling.
It’s shocking but so real.
I love this ❤️
Thank you, Bruce.
This is such a powerful and moving piece about this day in history. Our history. A story of Alabama. I wonder how to change this story. Together, we must make a new story.
“You must be the change you would like to see in this world”
This quote is attributed to Mahatma Gandhi. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., drew inspiration from Gandhi, and studied his principles of non-violence. imho, these principles involve all aspects on one’s life, including speech and action, thinking and intention.
I feel I need to bring to the community our speech and intention, with people with whom we disagreeing views.
* I want to apologize to the community and take back my biting words that I have written on this board, about conservatives and people who follow Donald Trump. I feel shame that I have fallen into the violence of the Pettis Bridge, with my own hateful speech. I have long admired Gandhi, King and Rosa Parks, and all who have fought a far greater struggle in life than I, in the journeyfor a kind and gentle heart, let alone peace in their world and the world we share.
How can we ever expect to have a less violent world - and in our own personal life - if we cannot stop the violence that comes from our own pen, and therefore our mind. We simply will not cross the bridge to the world we desire if we cannot accept and welcome the stranger.
In the spirit of free speech, I welcome anyone to express themselves in the manner one chooses. However, there is ample evidence in history that free speech does NOT lead to freedom. Liberation comes from within. I feel this requires courage, and support from others.
I ask you to join me in gently reminding others in our community to reach within for words that welcome, and acknowledge our habitual speech of aggression.
I ask for your support in our journey across our own Pettis bridge.
Frederick, thank you for this post. As someone who has to regulate her speech because I get soooo angry at what I am seeing happening, I understand and empathize with your regret at some of the language you might have used in the past. I also dislike the racially-charged monikers that occasionally pass for discourse on this platform and would encourage people to try to use other vocabulary. But I also have to say this:
Women and Black people and other people of color (but especially women and Black people) have been targeted by the white male patriarchal system for what in the 19th century was called "intemperate" speech. That is: any speech that protests with energy and vigor the oppressions imposed on them by the white male dominators. The Obama administration (Michelle in her book made veiled references to this--and not so veiled) felt hamstrung at times because being proactive would have labeled the president an "angry Black man." He seems to have been so concerned about that label that he failed to do things that President Biden now can do: because he is an old white man. Women who protest their oppression are called "shrill," "bossy," "castrating" and worse--I have been called all of these and a lot worse. Women who expect not to be interrupted by the nearest white man in a professional meeting, who expect respect and collegiality in the workplace, who expect cooperation and partnership with their spouses and partners often find themselves threatened with violence. Even when they are confident that their life partners will not be violent (and I admit that my experience of this is that a woman can never be 100% confident of this), the threat of violence for being "uppity" in the workplace and in public is ever-present.
So if one is female--and today (March 8) happens to be International Women's Day--and/or a Black person (and Black women have a double threat directed at them, as VP Harris knows only too well) the pleas for politeness and a refusal to acknowledge and accept the absolutely rational anger women and Black people experience and articulate seems like more silencing, more oppression, and more gaslighting. I know that is absolutely NOT what you intended, but I have to say this.
And for all of you who want to say "but women are mean to other women too": yep, they are. It is called the Patriarchal Bargain. Women are trained to denigrate other women in order to appear complicit with their male "companions". It's not right and it's not rational but it happens.
Thank you for your post. You articulate very well the truth that women, black and white, have endured and continue to endure. I was raised to be “seen and not heard”. Years of therapy and somehow I have managed to raise a daughter who has a voice. Change comes slowly, but it comes.
One of my favorite books from counseling is "Dance of Anger". I discovered that I needed to give myself (as a female) permission to be angry.
Thank you Linda for explaining so concisely my exact thoughts on women, our place in a patriarchal society, and the struggle we face within our own personal lives and also within our workplaces.
Thank you for this, Linda. In my own personal assessment of what is so attractive to the "right" I have been confounded as to whether the espoused racism or sexism is the driving force; the true answer is both.
Thank you so much for your post Linda! I appreciate hearing your perspective.
I’d like to ask you this Linda. In our community within this blog, where we are formulating our ideas to share, do we have the opportunity to move the conversation forward in a manner that engages or enlivens? We have this conscious choice. And I feel we we can also inflame by using hurtful language. Language matters, for it is the expression of our heart-mind and soul (connection with life). Here, we are all in a setting that allows each of us to craft our message.
I appreciate your expression of the inequities within the workplace and other settings where our patriarchal training, or imprint, may arise. To this point, how do you feel the effort of the nonviolence of Gandhi and King, Jr., may forward the workplace environment, where it is so evident that all-too-many men have not had the privilege to spend time considering other options to their behavior?
btw, I feel it’s vital that we understand that other’s hurtful language, such as labelling, will be forthcoming from others who are simply resorting to what is available to them, at the time.
This discussion is more evidence of the need for white fellows to have our own movement to confront patriarchy, and the damage it has done to us and our families and associates.
Frederick, I think that fear motivates a lot of people to behave very, very badly: fear of being dismissed as unimportant, fear of losing one's position in the world, fear of change, fear of questioning, fear of difference. And while I absolutely admire the nonviolence professed by MLK, Gandhi, and others, what seems to drive real change in this country is a response to horrible things happening: JFK, MLK, and RFK's assassinations propelled an abashed white male Congress into passing legislation that benefited a lot of people; the murders of George Floyd and Brianna Taylor and so many others has finally pushed not just Black people but also white people into rethinking and moving against the oppression of BIPOC by the legal-industrial complex. There are lots of other examples, of course.
I don't advocate violence and I get annoyed when one of my activist students parrots Audre Lord with the quotation "The master's tools will never dismantle the master's house" (I ask my students to identify a tool that is NOT utilized by the "master"--when they stop to think about it there are none) because until we get beyond platitudes we cannot have a real conversation. But I am also aware that the hardest work an individual can do is to look inside herself and strive to change. And that is what I think happens on this platform--this beautiful space that HCR has given us to struggle with our ideas, to articulate our fears, to express our anger and frustration, and to learn about how others we would never meet or know experience the world. And that is why I come back here every day--multiple times a day--to read, to comment, and to listen.
I have felt this struggle as a disabled person. We must fight. But if we use the bastards methods the bastards wins. This is why Ghandi and MLK Jr.'s methods need to be part of the discussion.
“You must be the change you would like to see in this world.”
-- Mohandas Gandhi
"We are the ones we've been waiting for. we are the change that we seek."
-- Barack Obama
Wow...after I just responded to Frederick's excellent post above, I find you have pretty much echoed exactly what I said! Ah...I see great minds thinking alike, and all that...it does make my heart glad. You rock.
Mary Daly wrote about women as the 'token torturer'
Horizontal violence is often prevalent
oppressed people's righteous anger can emerge in many ways, frequently sideways.
Speaking truth to power in the form of non-violent resistance is effective. It is not, however, sustainable on its own. Being a citizen requires participation, alertness, recognition of skin in the game. The movements referenced above DID change their worlds, but citizens got complacent. Greed took over.
When the Rs developed their 20-year plan, beginning with local and state elections, the Ds didn't pay attention. The public was not notified, to my knowledge. And if there was notification, there was complacency in the face of it.
3.5% of us, of US, can change the world.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/feb/01/worried-american-democracy-study-activist-techniques
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190513-it-only-takes-35-of-people-to-change-the-world
Dear Linda, as usual a magnificent argument. ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
Awwww. Thanks Roland! I am off to give a lecture on feudalism to my class today (thought you would like that!)
I'd love to attend, Linda. Do you have a Zoom invitation?
PS, Marc Bloch is among my favorite historians.
Alas, my uni has a firewall to protect from Zoom invaders (it was problem last year). I love Marc Both too! And was talking about Feudal Society AND The Royal Touch (my favorite of his books) in the last couple weeks. But my take on feudalism is a little less systematic. 🤪 My students always look like their heads are going to explode afterwards.
Marc Bloch is very appealing -- doubly inspiring as intellectual and French resistance martyr. But I agree with H Stuart Hughes in The Obstructed Path. Bloch's choices were heroic, but uncomplicated in the commitments they demanded. A 19-20C French patriot resisting German and Nazi aggression always would find wide support. Contrast with Jean Jaures, French historian and socialist statesman, assassinated on the eve of WW1 for his antiwar stance and pacifism. His assassin garnered more approval at the time.
"But my take on feudalism is a little less systematic."
Feudalism itself was unsystematic. If I recall correctly, Bloch showed that the precise term didn't appear until Boulainvilliers in the early18C, when the system had nearly run its course. Then Montesquieu and especially Marx/Engels grabbed and ran with it. Back in the last millennium I read a helpful if pedestrian book on feudalism, Bou and Mon, but can't find the ref. right now. Darn Amazon for making us boycott them.
J Israel, Radical Enlightenment
Where do you teach?
You historians have all the fun.
😁
Hear, hear! I won’t say that I never laughed at a derogatory meme about the previous administration and its supporters. But it bothers me more and more to hear people called idiots, and animals, and so on. I do think the far right is wrecking the country, but I don’t think that perpetually insulting them as individuals is going to create the democratic country I’ll be happy living in. Do I want bigotry and spurious assumptions about superiority to continue being disproportionately represented in the governing of this country? No, of course not, I’m not even slightly OK with that and I dearly want to see it stopped. but wanting representational justice is a far cry from being OK with hearing my fellow Democrats, leftists, liberals, whatever, themselves using language, and letting that language slide them into ways of thinking, that escalates opposition for no good
whoops.... that escalates opposition into a cycle that raises the emotional stakes higher and higher. What good has escalation of hostilities ever done? I know that some of the people on this list will call me a Pollyanna for speaking this way, and accuse me of mollycoddling a bunch of thugs and so on and so on and so on. I do support your right to say what you want, but my question to you is....what good does it do to vent your ire in forums where political thinking is under discussion?
Venting ire is expressing anger and frankly one has to be able to do it in an effective way. For instance I think Biden’s use of the word Neanderthal recently was spot on.
I happen to disagree about the expressing of anger. I feel one has to resolve the anger within oneself, to understand from where it arises. What is touched and triggered? From a more balanced place then, I feel it is appropriate to discuss the issue, and take ownership of one’s experience. I’m not always the most skillful with this, but it is a practice, as I have found with expressions on this blog.
Anger is a secondary emotion. For many it becomes more comfortable to just be and stay angry, delaying the challenge to ask, “Why do I feel this way?”, “what can I do to fix the underlying issue that made be angry?” It can be as small as just not being heard. Most choose to stay in comfort, as if suspended in Auto pilot of life mode, they have let themselves “go to seed”. Quakers have a really cool custom for letting people vent, speak, learn, and grow. That’s how I see this forum. It’s about learning from DR. Richardson, listening and sharing each other’s perspective, and taking this experience out to the world in order to heal it. Which, we are all finding out is a whole lot harder in practice. We seem to be pre wired to complain and get angry ( and for good measure). We seem ill equipped with the tools and realistic timeline as political transformationalists. If we all could turn a just a few family, friends, and coworkers, it’s worth it, but it’s not going to be easy.
I second your comment, Ted. It is not easy, and that is why there is a spiritual dimension behind the efforts of every great social movement of our times, with Mandela, King, Gandhi and even the putting aside of disagreements in Ireland.
It is vital to see oneself in the supposed “other.” We so dearly need a time for silence and relaxation, before we go into the trenches.
Operating out of anger will attract a like response. We see failure.
Anger is a human and necessary response. Let Jesus be Jesus and let us be human beings. I still think Mother Jones had it right: Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living.
I do not support violence, but suppressing anger is not the answer either. Non-violent political action is the only answer.
I don’t see Frederick suggesting that we suppress it but similar to your suggestion is to channel all that energy constructively as in non violent political action rather than name calling. We should respect our anger like we should respect our physical pain and investigate it in terms of self rather than just blaming others. Only then can we use it to direct ourselves toward constructive behaviors to work towards resolving the anger. I think we should learn from mentors like Rosa Parks and John Lewis. Certainly they could show us how to use our anger to benefit all.
Jesus got very angry, too! How about when he turned over all the vendors' tables in the temple? He also told his fair share of parables about how not to behave. He was a radical who spoke truth to power, which is why the Romans executed him.
I agree anger is a human emotion and as such is neither good nor bad. It is how that anger is expressed that defines it.
I got into Eastern thot, even have an Om tat on my arm tho I am not Hindu. Traveled to Assisi (Not Catholic either) and India on pilgrimage and attempted Ahimsa, prostrating myself before a spiritual master. It was very enlightening.
I learned that I AM NOT A SAINT. I get angry and express that anger. Oh wait, Jesus did shit like that too.
I agree. The myth that one must express anger in order to discharge that negative energy is pervasive in our culture, but is based on old research that has since been disproven. Giving vent to anger reinforces it and gives it strength.
Every human needs to acknowledge the emotion of anger, irritation, etc. It is how we acknowledge it that is the concern. To express anger by harming or hurting others with words or actions is not acceptable. To relate that something has sparked anger in you is very acceptable. And, don't interpret negative words as name-calling or insulting. Sometimes those words are very accurate. I use the word ignorant to describe some things. I am not calling a person ignorant, but the state of being from which actions or words come from. For example, I am very ignorant of the science of maintaining and repairing automobiles. It is the truth, not an attack on myself.
Anger is not negative. That is a strange myth. Anger is just energy, it’s neutral. Sometimes outrage arises from natural causes, like witnessing injustice. If you feel outrage (passion, rage, fury) when you witness an injustice, that is natural. The rage then provides energy for you to act in loving and helpful ways to end that injustice. And sometimes being loving means screaming at an attacker to stop it. So is that negative? If your outrage causes you to stop an injustice, do you therefore vilify the energy that causes you to act in a positive way?
Yes.
No offense, but I believe men rend to resolve issues internally while women tend to talk them out. Of course, this is a generalization . . . nevertheless, like stereotypes, they came to be for a reason.
Men talk a lot. Ask any woman who has had to listen to them.
We all benefit when the ranks of our elected officials are in gender balance. Same for race balance. Many a General has said that, " Diversity is a force multiplier".
Many if not most stereotypes came into being as a way to separate and opress.
It was insulting to actual Neanderthals, but they are all gone and he made a good point.
Oft-forgotten but not gone altogether. Neanderthal DNA still resides in millions of modern people. Ns have gotten a bad rap ever since the first fossil remains were found, blamed for stupidity, ugliness, aggression. Calling someone "Neanderthal" is a common insult. Most likely they were less violent than those who supplanted them and forcibly merged their DNA. Not sure about details, but there is ongoing research about their genetic heritage. Apparently it even impacts the incidence and severity of Covid-19.
Thank you. My husband and I had this conversation just the other day.
Whoever wrote that for him nailed it.
Hey! Easy on the revisionist history! As a proud white straight male I take offense to that statement. We are alive and well, thank you very much. 😉
That great Roland— I love good men.
What can I say, Roland! Sending hugs!
Cancel culture. When will it end.
Escalate love.
"Love is at the root of everything ... love or the lack of it."
-- Fred Rogers
TPJ you are a wise teacher. Thank you.
The sad thing is, the average Trumper IS an idiot. At best.
Let’s rethink vocabulary in the spirit of Heather’s post. Trump supporters are: misled, wounded, angry, afraid (above all), unable or unwilling to voice their opinions productively, brainwashed, beaten down ... please add to the list as you see fit.
Fear most of all. And what happens when one is afraid? Fight or flight. And tRump supporters take the fight mode, afraid of losing their status as white privileged people. Fight to keep those of whom they are afraid down.
I think this one key facet that cannot be overlooked. All people fear change to that which they have become accustomed and comfortable. People share that fear with others of their community, race, and station in life. And they are validated by the other for doing so.
Jean Vanier, the Canadian Catholic philosopher who founded L’Arche communities around the world, wrote that people need to belong more than they need to be loved. And so this validation by others is exceptionally powerfully.
From fear to hate is a short distance. So when somebody filled with his own combination of fear and malignancy publicly lays down a carpet for people to “righteously” make that trip they will do so in droves. More acceptance and a painfully low barrier to entry. The club is not exclusive.
Trump of course did not invent racism. But he was sadly the wrong man at the wrong time. He followed Barack Obama, a man of the deepest grace, eloquence and reason - a man who happened to be the first black President. At a time of profound economic insecurity. At the moment when the smart phone and Facebook converged, making communication between those of like beliefs, those with similar fears, a quantum leap easier.
In his own way, Obama inadvertently stoked racism within the racist simply by threatening stereotypical beliefs of who Black people are, stereotypes that had been given a boost by Reagan’s “welfare queens”, by the disgraceful Willie Horton campaign ad, and by numerous racist dog whistles peddled by politicians. Obama didn’t fit the stereotype and fears were raised.
Along came Trump, the wrong man at the wrong time. He invited people to cross from fear to hate through example after example in his own vile behavior. He validated hate. And people followed in their millions in part because of all they had had to suppress for years for what they termed “political correctness”.
It seems to be a never-ending cycle that rises and falls in intensity with every generation. It is profoundly disheartening to me who is white. I cannot imagine being Black.
I found Heather’s brilliant post today to be deeply saddening. It was hard to read. As I age, I find it difficult to engage with some of what I used to read avidly. I read about the Holocaust with increasing understanding until I could not read about it any more. Slavery and its aftermath has been a more drawn out Holocaust and I find it ever harder to read about it. It’s simply too upsetting. I wonder if there are others who have gone through that same metamorphosis.
Anyway, thank you Heather once again for a graceful, temperate and factual lesson.
Lovely post Eric, thank you. You and I are clearly on the same page. One quibble: I think Trump was exactly the right man at the right time. As you suggest obliquely, Trump is exactly the backlash of the old society (of racism sexism gayism et al) to our first Black President and First Lady. Eight years of Barack and Michelle was more than they could stand. Big backlash. I know it won’t sound like music to your ears for me to say this, but the administration of Racist-Sexist-in-Chief is the loud screeching of tires you hear as they slam on the brakes and lock up the wheels and skid along the pavement for 4 years just before the car runs straight into a concrete wall and gets obliterated.
Thank you, Eric. For a historical perspective: 'Anti-Semitism, sometimes called history’s oldest hatred, is hostility or prejudice against Jewish people. The Nazi Holocaust is history’s most extreme example of anti-Semitism. Anti-Semitism did not begin with Adolf Hitler: Anti-Semitic attitudes date back to ancient times. In much of Europe throughout the Middle Ages, Jewish people were denied citizenship and forced to live in ghettos. Anti-Jewish riots called pogroms swept the Russian Empire during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and anti-Semitic incidents have increased in parts of Europe, the Middle East and North America in the last several years.'
'Anti-Semitism', Author,History.com Editors
https://www.history.com/topics/holocaust/anti-semitism
Thank you for this very thoughtful reply. You are so right that people fear change, and change is very much in the wind. There are some changes even fear will not be able to stop. One of the major changes in the longer term....whites will become a minority. I hope I live long enough to witness this truth.
"From fear to hate is a short distance" AND it's easier to chose hate. I've lost my optimistic view of humanity this past year. I know there are good people trying to make the world a more equitable place but I see now that there are just as many determined to keep us from evolving from the tribal, war-mongering species we seem to be. All I hope now is that the efforts of the former outweigh those of the latter, but I realize this is a long game and even this healthy 59 year old won't live to see much progress.
They fight because someone finally was in power and supported and continues to support them on their hate feelings and actions.
White male fear has the scent of violence attached. the former guy stokes that fear. It appears that this fear has no class or education restrictions. The fear of being 'replaced' is interesting, chanted by unemployed, under-employed young white men. The fear that POC and white women may get out of control and no longer (as is said in southern Alabama) "know their place."
Good point. You can't persuade most people to change by punching them in the face or gut. From outpoint of view, they seem ignorant or worse, and we tend to assume they choose to be racist. Many were never given a chance to choose; they were simply taught from earliest childhood that that was a fact of existence. The question is how to draw them to a point where they can make the decision to move from blind to seeing.
At what point can we say that individuals are responsible for their beliefs? White supremacists like themselves. And they like their beliefs. I live among Trumpsters. If I suggested to any of them that the problem was their childhood, they’d laugh and then say something equally stupid about my grownup in a liberal urban environment. These people are immoral,not psychologically damaged.
Many grew up having to deny they’re on truths to survive. Once those pathways are set in our brains they are difficult to overcome. Denial of their truth is such a huge part of this. Many people don’t realize how the small incremental denials of truth tear away at the fabric of who we are collectively. It’s much more complicated than simply fear.
This doesn’t work for me. These adjectives evoke pity. I do not pity these people. I do not respect them because they are racist, prejudiced, anti-democracy, beyond selfish and hateful!
Thank You.
I agree Mary.
Except that doesn't describe my two brothers who are Trump supporters in any way. Maybe misled. But they are intelligent, educated, and very successful in their jobs. They don't have a history of conspiracy theories, etc. I wouldn't call them average supporters, but they are avid.
Then WTF is their problem? Why do "intelligent, educated, and very successful" ppl support such a clearly mentally defective, unqualified president who is also a racist, misogynist bigot?
I think this is the 6 million dollar question that eludes us.
tRump supporters are hateful, racist, misogynist, lying, hypocritical, bigots.
Prove me wrong.
Ah!.... but their leaders do it very well and know the limits of the people following them. What does that say about the rest of humanity when visibly this minority is still managing to dominate in many spheres. Cleverer we must be!
It points to social media and the diminishing quality of our public education across our country. It also reflect the ever widening social, class and economic divide between our haves and have nots.
When you get to a leadership position, the first thing is to understand your role. You give the direction, protect your team and fight to get the ressources necessary for them to make you look really good...and you make sure that they are "more intelligent" in their speciality than you. If all goes according to plan you and the team get the praise...if it goes wrong the blame is all yours.
True leadership. Not being the "boss of you".
That attitude is what made Eisenhower a great general.
For sure.
Yes he’s a fine sort of clever—our leader with a heart and Kamala who I see as a kind of lioness standing right there behind him.
I feel Joe is remarkably the ONLY politician in America to address this divide. I feel it comes from his roots, family and the tragic losses he has experienced. So, he is truly a ‘relational’ person, who apparently has always maintained the human connection, effete with his adversaries. "May it be so" for far more of us!
Joe is putting his wisdom on display and to good use. He is using his extensive experience in working with people over many years to good use. He is using his age as a positive instrument for doing the right things.
And Republicans are finding out he is NOT a “sleepy Joe.” I feel he, and Heather, will inspire us more than ever.
Did you mean to type “even with his adversaries”?
I have a Trump supporter very close to me in my family. In fact, she is the closest person in my family of origin. I have had to wrestle with our difference, and am only recently coming to peace with this schism. I only hope we can retain our loving relationship, because right now we do not have this relationship. To me, if we can save this relationship, then America can be saved. WHERE else would the healing happen?
Within the drama of the two of us is the tale of every dysfunctional ideological divide.
I feel you, Frederick. My sister, who is a rabid Republican, ghosted me after I published a piece about the direction of our country. I told her I wasn't going to allow differences of opinion break our family apart. Still, she remains silent and I feel an emptiness inside.
Randy, do you have the desire to reach out to her again. I do, with my sister. And I can feel the unease and fear. But I feel I have to make that call.
I reach out weekly like clockwork. Good luck with your sister.
I know these divisions are painful and persistent. It helps me to realize that human perception is a mysterious thing. We never really know what someone else sees but each of us is a human being deserving of the benefit of the doubt and especially family and friends. I meditate with the help of the app Calm and this helps me.
The perplexing thing I have discovered is that this really isn't true. It would be easier for me to swallow the fact that people support him if they were all cretins, but I know several who are intelligent, even compassionate people and I am no longer convinced that the idiots (who nonetheless get all the press attention) are in the majority. Since these are thinking people, I can't get my head around what they could possibly be thinking.
Reid, do you know the work of George Lakoff, a linguist who’s studied political framing for decades? Conservatives and liberals have differing synapses in their brains, due to consistent messages, over the years. So, for each ’tribe', we process information very differently. I do not buy the story of the Christian discovery of America, and that we are a nation of ‘destiny’, etc. But, conservatives do. They do not buy a multicultural, pluralistic society. Well, this makes sense to me. It helps for me to perhaps understand from where another may come.
Reading Lakoff helps me to understand, but it doesn't allow me to want to be close to conservatives, nor to forgive what they do.
He wouldn’t want you to.
Do you see any benefit in understanding from where they come? I feel I have an insight as to how to approach, say, an extended family member with a belief in ‘traditional values'
I don't feel that the words you call name-calling are actually trying to hurt them. I feel that those words actually describe the words, actions, behaviors, and efforts to suppress people based on looks, sex, etc. The things we have observed this last 5 and more years are not intelligent or smart, but often emotional responses. The feelings of fearing and hating a group of people so much that you must spend your life suppressing their rights and harming them. The blatant hypocrisy and lies that is fact-checked in a hot minute, and yet they persist with them. That's idiocy, uneducated, and non-caring.
What a wondrous and lovely post. thank you for reminding us of our generosity of spirit. The horizontal violence that arises from the powerless, or the perception of powerlessness wreaks havoc and harm upon ourselves and our communities. There is an excellent text, "Peace and Power: New Directions For Building Community" by Peggy Chinn that offers guidance.
https://peaceandpowerblog.org/
Gratitude to you, Frederick.
🙏
The following quote I found in the blog by Peggy Chin, which i relate with, in changing our patterns:
"The process seems simple (and it is) but it is also very hard, because it challenges so many competitive and divisive ways most people have practiced for years. But in the context of a group of people who come together with the intent to change toward “Peace and Power,” it is a rewarding experience that becomes more and more “easy” as you go along!”
Perhaps we can grow into a more loving presence, through support and effort
Well, I think MLK might turn over in his grave to see how little a large part of America has changed since his martyrdom. The same goes for Ghandi whose beloved India is struggling with its own bigoted Trump-like leader. And I cannot imagine that Rosa Parks was too satisfied with the direction America was taking at the time of her death. Gentleness, pacifism and open mindedness in the face of racism and violence may be admirable, but so far they have not led to a just society, at least not in the USA.
Of course, I agree with you that gratuitous insult is generally counterproductive and should be avoided. But I have no words of welcome for anyone scheming to turn the USA into an oligarchy of the authoritarian sort. Sorry.
The point of the life and teachings of Mahatma is then, exactly, what? Why are King and Parks so admired?
It is simply because they found the moral high ground, within their heart, to address violence and injustices. They're revered because they set an example, that so many recognize. It is not magic, that wipes away the dark aspects of our human condition. This dark force of racism and hatred of ’the other’ is a dominat strain of American existence, and throughout our human family.
You may see the violence in our society today and diminish the example set by these three. I see the conundrum of the human condition, and want to live by the example set by these three, and the teachings of the great spiritual traditions.. Because, personally, I feel the power they have in my own little twisted karmic existence.
I certainly do not wish to diminish the example set by Martin Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi and Rosa Parks, but I do wish a larger number of my compatriots would learn to better distinguish fact from fiction and reality from fantasy. I am sure all three of these moral exemplars hoped their teachings and example of humane behavior would be taken to heart and used to improve the human condition in some not impossibly distant future. Instead, in the year 2021 we have resurgent racism, voter suppression and continuing poverty, as well as stupidity and violence of every sort, suggesting a rapid conclusion to the human experiment. It's not what I expected to find in my 69th year.
Nor I in my 72nd.
They ran an experiment that largely failed. It was a noble experiment and I applaud them for taking the high road, but voting rights are still under attack; schools are more segregated today than they were before Brown vs. Board; BIPOC are arrested, hassled, killed, and convicted at much, much higher rates; Black wealth is a fraction of white wealth, there are no Black women in the Senate...I could go on and on. I am not advocating violence, but to look to Gandhi, King, Parks and other proponents of nonviolence for inspiration seems a bit disingenuous to me. Yes, it makes us feel better to be all peaceful in our hearts, but this isn't about feeling better, it's about justice. It's 2021 and we are still having to deal with 265 proposed state laws which directly target Black voters and a Supreme Court which has determined they will not intervene. We are still having to deal with prosecutors who refuse to charge police officers with murder when they commit extrajudicial killings. I'm not sure carrying a placard or putting up a yard sign is an effective countermeasure to these forces of evil.
I have to admit I love the entire conversation. Thank you Frederick.
Reid, I hear you.
Here’s what I have to say:
Peace with strength. Loving kindness with power. Social change through the use of power, loving power.
Peace and love do not mean weakness. Peace and love, when harnessed properly and correctly, are the most powerful forces in the universe. Unstoppable.
Do not mistake peace for weakness. Do not mistake love for weakness.
We are not talking yard signs. We are talking fundamental change in American society, and world society if you want to go there. India is facing the same fundamentalist backlash that we are. Gandhi’s work is still not done. His greatest challenge was overcoming the schism of Hindu versus Muslim. See what’s happening in India now.
Gandhi was unable to keep India together, it
split into “India” and West Pakistan and East Pakistan, Muslim majority nations.
We are fortunate, because we did not split into two countries at the time of the Civil War. We escaped the Partition of India.
Extrajudicial murder by white policemen is a real problem, as you point out, that yard signs will not cure.
However I recommend you do not underestimate the power of your, and Frederick’s, desire for justice. That’s what we are harnessing as a group. People working together are force multipliers. People like the two of you, and everyone else here as well, and all of the blue team, have changed US society for good. That is my belief and understanding at this time.
Never doubt that we are changing society, because we are.
Believe me, I agree, and have lived my entire 64 years by these principles. But we have to be clear-eyed about where we are. All these decades of struggle and this is all we have to show for it? Some of the proposed voter suppression legislation in Georgia would make a Jim Crow legislator blush. Limiting Sunday voting, for instance, is nothing but a blatant racist attack on Black church voting drives. Not to mention the fact that climate change is a five-alarm fire over which Republicans are roasting marshmallows. Our desire for justice and all the liberal hand-wringing in the world will not match the urgency of the problems we face.
Certainly technology is progress (or not) and effects our overall evolution. Whether it allows for contagion of hate or rather is shining a blinding light on the dark corners of our humanity, might be debatable. However if technology is a conduit for hate it can just as easily be used for love. It’s all about which wolf we want to feed.
Reid, Gandhi and Parks and King challenged capitalism at its core. They all coordinated a massive resistance movement against the economic forces that ran their societies at the time. THEY have run the most successful social movements in history, it can be said.
The fact that the left and liberalism is a bit coward to challenge capitalism says more about our tactics, that is says about the forces that removed the empire from England, and the forces that prevented blacks from the vote
Do not mistake the challenges that we face as the failure of the nonviolent resistance movements. It is a failure of US to adopt these tactics.
We may just have to disagree here. I can't look at the mess that is India and Pakistan and call that any kind of success. I can't look at racial injustice in this country and call this any kind of success. If I "succeeded" at my job to this degree, I would be unemployed.
I have errored in omitting the successful boycott strategy many of us supported against the krugerrand in South Africa - another successful movement that used boycotts and passive resistance toward a positive outcome. While we walked in protest every Saturday in America during the 1980s, the boycott strategy successfully recruited universities and pension funds, and ultimately other financial institutions, to turn against the ruling oppressors in South Africa.
The vote which elected Nelson Mandela, and Barack Obama and Joe Biden, and Jwhl Nehru are testimony to the success of these efforts.
The movement In India and the American South, and in South Africa, was far from "feel good” - but a strategic strike against the capitalist forces that kept people subjugated.
So, Reid, what can we learn from these successful movements for democracies?
Most of them take time to reach their goals
and we, or “one” needs to be involved in the active resistance
We can continue to build alternative structures, also. For example, look at the Maine Climate Council - borne from 50 years of back-to-the-land effort, and now a feminist progressive governor. Who is also a poet!
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=973997449611032
Your assessment of leaders who believed in non-violence seems incomplete to me. They were teachers and the lessons were not only concerned with non-violence. Gandhi, Henry David Thoreau, Charles Stewart Parnell, Leo Tolstoy, Alice Paul, Martin Luther King Jr., Daniel Berrigan, Philip Berrigan, James Bevel, Václav Havel, Andrei Sakharov, Lech Wałęsa, Gene Sharp, Nelson Mandela... They made our lives better and enlightened us as they enriched society.
Religious Society of Friends (Quakers)
TPJ, Please recommend two books about Lincoln. No one I know is as familiar with him as you are.
I’m not sure either but every little bit helps.
Me too Frederick—the incredible power of so called passive resistance was like the force of a huge tidal wave in India. I get it in my own life. Sometimes when I say nothing with my husband I can win an argument
I can see, Liz, that the ole chap is in a tough position, and hopefully he is learning 😀
This being International Women’s Day I have to say that all husbands young and old have to keep learning again and again from their wives if they value their marriages.
Although what you say is absolutely true in my own marriage (!), I disagree strongly with larger implication of your point - probably not intended.
We all have to deal with our own craziness. Nobody is exempt. In a good marriage, both learn “again and again” from their spouse.
Happy wife, happy life. Works for us.
YES! And I am thrilled to see that there is not EVEN a tint of gender boas in your comment ! 🤣🤣
Thank you David —neither do I
Frederick, I so appreciate your comment. As a health care provider, it took me sometime to recognize that my words could be more healing than my prescriptions. But as I learned it, everything began to come into focus. Without connection to others, newborns will fail to thrive, they give up. We need connections to others. Some of us are fortunate to be nurtured in our formative years. Sadly, many aren't. I have a stack of books piling up to read as a result of reading comments here. I want to share a list of a few here that have helped me to recognize that words are powerful and make all the difference in connecting with others. ( I am no expert, it's very much a work in progress for me, but being aware at least has mattered).
* Nonviolent Communication by Marshall Rosenberg
*The Art of Communicating by Thich Nhat Hanh
*Don't Think of an Elephant by George Lakoff
*Sacred Instructions by Sherri Mitchell
Peace and Love to y'all. We are all transmitters! Hats off to DHLawrence
Christy. I think I’d like to read your book, too. Written from your perspective of a health care professional, and the way you touch the heart of your patients. You have years of first hand research! I’d like to read of your prescriptions!
I appreciate your vote of confidence. you are indeed a nurturer of what's best in us.
Back in the mid-1980s in Boston my housemate actually engaged Marshall Rosenberg for a resolution. So I met him, and he worked with 3 of us.
I agree with Gandhi's first principle of being the change you wish to see in the world and the importance of language and moderating rage. However, I also point out that Gandhi's 4th principle is:
Without action you aren’t going anywhere.
As Gandhi said, “An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching.” Without taking action very little will be done.
So, as we remember to practice empathy and moderation in our language, we must also remember to push for the change we wish to see in the world as well. Simply wishing for change accomplishes little beyond frustrating yourself and those who would benefit from change.
A big "BRAVO" to you, Frederick! In my book it is an honourable man indeed who can admit his mistakes and own up to them. Not everybody can turn their gaze inward and examine themselves. Sometimes we don't like what we see. On the face of it, we 're human beings, high order primates, and by getting angry and frustrated, we vent. Letting off steam is only human. But, as you've shown, maybe one needs to try and turn down the "burner" that is heating up the "pot" that is making the steam, y'know? I would venture that the majority of people on this forum are of a like mind about most issues--with an outlier here and there..."not namin' no names!", as we say down here. Coming on here to yell and rant and rave may make one feel better, but ultimately isn't it a waste of energy, because one is basically "preaching to the choir"? If I want to vent, I tend to do it on my Facebook page, and use every foul word one can think of, even in a variety of languages. I find that is not really necessary here because the people in this "cyber-community" that has sprung up around HCR's "Letters" are a pretty sane, wise, august bunch of folks and may necessarily need reminding what pisses us all off. I come here to get away from it. I can forgive anyone letting their anger go on here--it's only natural--but then I think, "why?" Let's talk each other off of our various "ledges" and use this "hive-mind" on here to examine what we think and discover what we can learn from each other. (And besides, if someone goes ballistic...computers have this wonder feature called "scroll"...so just "scroll on by"...apologies to Dionne Warwick...)
Just my $.02...giving credit to my therapist from 15 years or so ago who showed me how to turn my gaze in on myself (thank you Dr. Jung) and try to do my own self-analysis and "house-cleaning". Yeah, I occasionally "fall off the wagon" and go ballistic, but later I take some deep breaths (oxygen is a wonderful "sedative"!) and calmly reflect. As far as I'm concerned, no apologies are necessary, but your doing it publicly is what you need to do. Again, BRAVO! Crossing that Pettus Bridge together...
Above should be..."...may *NOT* necessarily need reminding..." Damn lack of self-editing!! WHEN will I proof-read???
Thanks brother. Onward. But not by making war, in the process. By Being Peace 😎
Being a "nice guy" in dealing with evil doesn't always work. There's an old fable about a farmer who takes a comatose snake home to revive it and is subsequently bitten and dies. There is a limit to "turning the other cheek," unless one is willing to accept assassination and martyrdom as both Gandhi and King did. You need not be ashamed of any "biting words" you used in addressing evil, if you felt they were justified.
Thanks Jacob. But you really do know that Gandhi, King and Parks did NOT turn the other cheek. They used a moral force, of just anger, and a massive campaign against capitalism to boycott and disrupt the very economic foundations of their oppressors. Their boycotts turned the tide of history toward the moral arc of justice. We simply have forgotten the success of their resistance movements
Frederick, your words are beautiful and inspiring. Thank you for voicing them.
🙏
* * * IN HONOR OF INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY * * *
i offer a video of a favorite poet of mine - my Governor!
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=973997449611032
A good day for Mary Oliver as well. “The Journey” (also a same name, but by David Whyte)
Professor Richardson's letter today provides a history lesson in change. I read of protest, resistence, National Guard, FBI agents, federal marshals, and legislation...nothing about "Liberation com[ing] from within" or "We simply will not cross the bridge to the world we desire if we cannot accept and welcome the stranger."
I've accepted way too much from this bunch.
So grateful for this message, and reminder. I am in.
Thank you Frederick, your words ring true. Name calling hurts others without accomplishing anything. Peace and justice begin within.
I love you Frederick, and I do not accept your apology. I have read your words, and I find there is nothing you have to apologize for. You are one of many beautiful people here expressing yourself and your lovely values admirably. If on occasion you feel natural outrage re: injustice and the violent and abusive repercussions of that injustice, and you express that rage in a forum of your peers, well, guess what, this is the perfect place for that. In fact, you could argue that this is exactly the place for that.
Now out in public, or in your family, with Republicans and Old Order Society voters in audience, different story. Soothing words. Loving words. Words that bridge the divides and heal the divides. Gandhi.
But here, Malcolm X.
As TPJ knows well, because he works there, MLK did his training at Boston Univ., which is where I expect he studied Gandhi.
If I can get away from this confounded computer screen, I'll head to downtown Boston for one of my periodic "pilgrimages" to sites associated with abolitionists and human rights advocates. There is so much here to savor and commemorate, but it's not limited to one town. Dive in to your own local history and you'll find more than you imagined. That's another answer to Reid's query "What is to be done?" (Lenin's too): find inspiration in places connected to inspiring people.
Roland, we are challenged to BE THE PEACE we supposedly talk about. Talking is cheap.
Let the heart sing! Come from “connection.”
Then, I can sit on the park bench, with the corporate executive, or the homeless brother. Because they are family.
You’re just proving you’re beautiful. We all see it.
I'm proud of BU's connection to Rev Dr King. But the BU admin gleefully exploits the connection for everything from donations to cachet, while frequently embodying contrary practices and principles.
I'm sorry but no apology here for calling the previous poser in the White House an Asswipe, which he and his entire family still are, and his supporters brainless cult followers.
Thanks for the reminder. We must be better to do better.
I remember well those days. Remember the opinions of people who were convinced that’s black marchers were simply lawbreakers. I remember gas stations with three bathrooms: “Men, Women, Colored”. I remember the freedom riders coming through town and escorted right on out of town. And I remember Bloody Sunday, and attack dogs, and four little girls who didn’t make it home from Sunday School. I remember, and I’m a white southerner. I saw what happened and I saw change — then backsliding when the Voting Rights bill was gutted. How could anyone NOT remember or better yet forget or let the monsters back out in the light of day and say well, they’re very fine people on both sides? God help us!
Because like after the first Civil War, we let their leaders off scot-free and allowed them back into positions where they could influence and control affaires. They very logically assumed that this meant that they could start to recreate life around them as they liked to see it.....and we let them do it just as before.
The lead conspirators of the Jan 6 insurrections are not off scot-free. DOJ and FBI are on the case. Mills are grinding; walls are closing in.
I remember those days also, Patricia, and as of a small town Southerner. It gives me chills that now 43 states are adopting these horrendous laws to deny people their rights. We have a lot of work to do!
Let’s remember that they are far from ‘adopting’ them. In these states they have simply been introduced. Many of these states have a Democratic Governor or a state house in which Dems are the majority. A few may have the political climate to pass draconian measures. And these states will probably loose the case in the courts. So I feel is a far less scary thought than you have stated. I appreciate what you have seen in your life in the south, and have the life that has led you to this blog!
I see the countervailing rise of the forces of justice in places like Georgia and Arizona, and I anticipate this is an unstoppable movement. Because we are witnessing younger generations take the responsibility to address the errors we elders have lived through
There's about as many resolutions introduced to expand and protect voting rights. Contact your officials or check the web site of the state legislature to learn about them and how to offer support.
Thank you for that suggestion! It's easy to see the negative - we've had so much of it recently. I will check out my own state legislature ASAP. This last weekend, I wrote to my US Senators regarding HR1 (which will be S1 when it reaches the Senate) and asked them to get into some "good trouble"! I would have also written to my Representative, but unfortunately her website does not recognize my address as being that of a constituent (which reminds me that I need to get that taken care of, also ASAP).
Keep at it, Lanita. There's a lot of issues that get overlooked. A handful of people can make a big difference with a local office.
I wish I shared your optimism.
I try, Ally, to monitor the news and other media I consume. This is a teaching from Thich Nhat Hanh. Because, truly, in this moment, right now, my world is perfect. I have much to be thankful for. I give gratitude every day, for my life
I remember that as well Patricia, I moved to Atlanta in June of 1964 from just south of Portland Oregon where I had spent my high school years, the Deep South then was like a different planet 🌎. I live near Atlanta today and while it is indeed very different from what it was like in 1964, the rural south not so much so. The soil in Georgia is referred to as “red Georgia clay” and that speaks to the roots of much of the rural southern population. What we have watched for the last 4 years, is a president that pandered to the inherent racism that is deeply rooted here in the south, in my lifetime we had never had a president so openly support white supremacy as the last one. He breathed new life into what was a gradually dying way of life; an overview of the state’s election results clearly demonstrates the spread of democratic support radiating out from our major cities, the influx of non southerners into the Deep South is responsible for much of that. What the Georgia legislature is attempting to do today is despicable but not unpredictable, after all they are horrified that we replaced both useless US Senators with two men that flipped over the senate. Warnock’s seat will be in play again in 22 which is exactly what all of the activity in the Georgia legislative bodies is all about.
Dick, you are correct in stating that Fake45 “breathed new life” into the insurrectionists. He and his bombastic rhetoric was like the savior they had been looking for forever.
Thank you, Patricia.
Thank you Dr. Richardson for providing historical background for Bloody Sunday and connecting it with President Biden's act today. I watched Oprah's interview with Meghan and Harry revealing the racism towards her and their son Archie. In the interview Meghan reveals that she wanted to end her own life because of the racism. I know that white Americans have got to stand in black peoples' shoes to be with them in their suffering, historically and now. We have to. We have to personally take responsibility for our whiteness and educate ourselves about the continuous stressors that black (and all ethnically diverse) people endure daily, to the point that they have racial physical and mental health disparities. I am sick to my stomach everyday reading, watching, hearing about another atrocity towards black people that is simply genocide.
So thank you for telling us about another freedom that African Americans have had to fight to the death for. The freedom to vote. And may we all ask ourselves why is this still happening?
and in asking ourselves why is this still happening, take it to the next level: What can I do?
Honor Amelia Boynton, John Lewis, Dr. King, Jimmie Lee Jackson, James Reeb, Viola Liuzzo, and all those who have shed blood for the foundational right to vote. Honor them by taking action on behalf of voting rights.
The wave of voter suppression laws making their way through state legislatures is 253 bills in 43 states. What is your state doing?
Learn the basics of H.R.1/S.1 For the People Act, which addresses 3 issues:
1. Voting rights
2. Campaign finance
3. Ethics and accountability of public officials
What resonates with you the most? Talk about it to friends and family, contact the politicians, post on social media, and as Heather says, "take up oxygen!"
Declaration for American Democracy: https://dfadcoalition.org/
Connect with an organization that is already mobilized. Get the most bang for your buck. Places to start:
https://democracyreform-sarbanes.house.gov/newsroom/press-releases/leading-grassroots-advocacy-organizations-endorse-house-democrats-once-in-a
https://campaignlegal.org/democracyu
https://indivisible.org/
League of Women Voters: https://www.lwv.org/
(Did you know the name means "for women voters" from the Women's Suffrage era?)
Stacey Abrams' Fair Fight: https://fairfight.com/
(Fair Fight is taking their Georgia playbook to other states.)
Additional organizations suggested by HCR Reader Joan on March 5 (in case you missed it):
https://www.commoncause.org/
(click "Join the Action Team" or Volunteer to learn more)
https://www.sierraclubindependentaction.org/
(volunteers needed to write letters to register new voters)
https://front.moveon.org/volunteer-with-moveon/
(they have texting opportunities)
https://newgeorgiaproject.org/about/
(In addition to Fair Fight, New Georgia Project has been very active in registering new voters and fighting back against voter suppression.)
and how could I forget the NAACP with its action link in support of the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act of 2020:
https://naacp.org/latest/john-r-lewis-voting-rights-act-2020/
Thank you so much Ellie for posting these great resources! I now feel I want to return to my familiar writing chair and desk, and jot notes to new voters
Except the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act of 2020 expired with last year’s Congress and has yet to be re-introduced. (Thank you, R. Dooley, for the update.)
Thank you Ellie Kona! Excellent post with links to act upon. Voting is my grassroots focus, so I appreciate your thoughtfulness in supplying ways to get involved to this substack group. ❤️🤍💙
Thank You Ellie. May I share?
Please do. Thank you!
We must work together to protect Voting Rights. Otherwise there is no freedom or democracy.
Also, when I think back to this, I remember Harlan Ellison, with whom I was friends in the 80s (before he did to me what he did to every friend he ever had), telling me about going down to Selma and marching in that big march. He went down as a writer to cover it, there were two other prominent white Hollywood notables there too, Paul Newman and Charleton Heston (!). I once met Newman in the business, and remarked to him about respecting him for doing that, to which he said he went so that if the cops did it again, if they beat him up there would be at least one white guy the country knew, which would be sure to have the papers cover it. As honorable a guy personally as he was publicly.
Wonder what Charleton Heston was doing there? Newman I can understand but Heston, no.
He started out as a Democrat, became a Republican. I’ve always wondered if that’s when Alzheimer’s set in.
Why would you be surprised about Heston's participation?
His involvement with right-wing, republican type organizations is well known.
Especially the NRifleA, but that should not cause anyone to presuppose opposition to equal rights. In the South, at the time under discussion, the KKK and other groups opposed to any rights for people of color were far more likely to be Democrat oriented than Republican.
Until Goldwater and Nixon adopted the "Southern Strategy" which brought those opposed to equal rights into the Republican Party ... where they remain to this day.
But since both parties have gone 180 degrees on their previous historical positions.
Indeed they have, but Heston was well known for his participation in the Civil Rights movement, maybe because of his upbringing on the North Shore (Evanston and Wilmette) of Lake Michigan, maybe because of his time at NU, maybe just because he was, overall, a pretty decent person. Even his support for the NRA was more a product of his belief in individual freedom and responsibility than anything to do with the now bankrupt lobbying group. Guilt by association would get many of us in trouble if people didn't take the time to find out the context and the reality of what we thought or did.
wow!
TC that’s a great story thank you so much for telling us about Newman and Heston.
Dr. Richardson’s Letter from and American for today, March 7, 2021, must rank among her most important contributions to the survival of our nation. It addresses one of the most corrosive agents eroding the core of our democracy. The caustic nature of white supremacy, or anti-blackness, is the key component of the danger our society faces today.
The creation of a “white” race and the invention of its necessary opposite “black” race, laid the groundwork for a “superior” race and an “inferior” one. It was on this corrupt foundation that America was raised.
This is the fundamental rationalization for that detestable institution: slavery; it is the justification used to excuse the rape of the indigenous cultures found on this continent, the pillaging of their wealth, and the near extinction of their populations. It is the root cause of the virulent misogyny that poisons our family and community life.
The malodorous rot that we have recently discovered in our society has been festering for centuries. It is now visible and undeniable to all but the unfortunate, brainwashed, deluded millions who have based their existence in this Big Lie!
Those of us who have not succumbed to this odious and detestable fairy tale are now faced with the enormous responsibility to recreate this nation in its own image. American exceptionalism has yet to exist—except in a demented and thoroughly corrupt form—so we must put on our big boy pants, gather our tools, and get to work building it right this time.
Also: I recommend this article and the book that is its subject:
https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/05/us/heather-mcghee-racism-white-people-blake/index.html
God bless America!
Don't forget the other "colours" as there was the "red" indian and the "yellow" chinese too in popular "literature.
It's interesting to compare how this subject is discussed in different parts of the world. You quickly discover that the "White" Europeans are not the only racists. A first stop would be in Africa itself and you observe the disdain expressed by locals who are "more or less dark" for those that are "more oe less dark" than themselves and slavery of different kinds has always existed and continues in some parts today. If you are just looking at slavery then try a trip to Saudi Arabia too and find that not all the slaves are locals; many are from the Indian Continent and are considered somewhat less than human!. If we then continue on your travels to the indian sub-continent and start to examine attitudes towards more or less dark and the still dominant caste system, you will quickly find that some of the Brahmin cast agree with the Saudis. Our last stop for this post could be in Tokyo and for anybody that has travelled there on business, there are certain parts of the city and certain restaurants where your hosts will invite you to a restaurant for dinner without difficulty ....and only there for reasons that segregationists in Alabama would quite understand.
So what is the message....that racism is everywhere and often results from a group's dominance of the wealth structure...but that doesn't make it right or acceptable only that we are all concerned in the need to stop it.....black, white, red and yellow....or whereever inbetween we situate our own particular skin colour. Should we be disdainful of the other just for a question of which pigment by which we are "coloured"? I don't think that this can ever be qualified as other than a "barely skin-deep" analysis of the human condition.
One of the myths of American exceptionalism is that we are better than this. We aren’t, but maybe we can be. Let’s make it so.
This was a hard lesson to have demonstrated during 2016-2020.
I’ve always found it interesting that, linguistically, one of the most fundamental notions of “the other” — even in the most primitive cultures — is to refer to ones own tribe as “human”; while anyone outside that group is referred to as the equivalent of “not human”, and that’s seems to be where our species is stuck sometimes.
In Native American terms more often "the people" as opposed to " not the people" rather than de-humanizing the other.
Racism is a highly complex socially constructed phenomenon that can only be understood on an interdisciplinary basis. Racism develops and increases where human exploitation, extreme inequality, and oppression exist. The contradictory character of racism is coupled to the fact that it is often accompanied by claims of anti-racism. For example, as far as I can tell these posts are overwhelmingly from white people, probably people with enough income to pay fifty bucks to be a "member". Dr. Richardson, as far as I can tell, lives in an all-white community, dialogues with an all white academia and appears on zoom with only white people (Preet Bharara, who will introduce her Thursday night, is a culturally "adopted" white person now.) The violence that is experienced worldwide, and called "racism" deserves a black voice. White people, like me, discussing "racism" from my entitled, privileged life, without the experience of racial violence and aggression that is experienced by people of color everyday is troubling on many levels. Until there are black voices in this "dialogue", it is simply white people imagining what "racism" is.
I hear you and I definitely feel you and share concerns. However I want to add that HCR has been under attack for not addressing these issues. I do not know her other than from reading her words. I believe she understands what you speak of but on the other hand these issues have to be discussed regardless of our paleness. I believe she focuses on what she is best at. Her contributions to the well being of our democracy have been priceless. I would love to see more diversity of voices here, and the eurocentricity is thick and nonwelcoming unintentionally to such diversity. I strongly disagree with your statement about only imagining racism. This crowd is extremely well read and if one cannot travel or otherwise "beam" oneself into a minority community then the next best thing is vicariously living it by being immersed into another's life story. And, how arrogant of you to claim Mr. Bharara has divorced his origins. my 2 cents.
Well put. But, I never said that Mr. Bharara has "divorced his origins." I was suggesting that he is "acceptable" because of his "appropriate" alignment with white ideas, a graduate of both Harvard and Columbia, and is a comfortable fit in the white mind. Other than his Indian name, I'm not sure of any distinction in the public mind. I know of no activism on his part for people of color. People of color like Esmeralda Simmons, Ciara Taylor, Michelle Alexander, Shaun King, and others who fight for justice, are mostly unknown in the white community. And the astonishing author Christina Sharpe who wrote "In The Wake" or Natasha Marin's curation for the collection for the book, "Black Imagination" are little known by the "well-read." Yet, these are critical readings. But, as we all know, "reading" about racism is much different than experiencing racism. But we can fight for the inclusion of marginal voices. Otherwise, we are preaching to ourselves and not listening to, or advancing, the voices of experience.
thank you for clarifying what you were communicating about Mr. Bharara. I'm still confused. You would rather that HCR did not write of Bloody Sunday today because she is white and as far as you know she has no experience with racism?
On the contrary, I appreciate the historical perspective HCR provides. I would prefer that this newsletter was attractive to and invited marginal voices as part of the conversation. I would prefer that HCR referred to black historians like John Hope Franklin, author of the renowned "Slavery to Freedom: A History of African Americans", and the many modern Black historians. As long as Blacks exist in a world apart, we are the poorer and what we come to know, again, is a white person's interpretation and discussion of history. HRC has done so much to enlighten historic understandings and established a renewed interest in history itself, alone. But there is a more intricate inclusion called for. The link below relates the experience of Black historians and is, consequently, a plea for wider and knowledgeable inclusion. https://bit.ly/3elDTC4
Race is a social construct and not based in biological differences other than ones ancestors lived in hot climates and developed tans or lived in cold climates covered up to stay warm and remained pale. Using the person's ancestry makes some sense. Native American, African American, Asian American. Why do I still have to check the odious "White" box for race? Why isn't one of the choices Euro American? That's my equivalent ancestry.
I may start checking "other" and writing in Euro-American. It sounds better than "white European mongrel of 8+ nations".
Wanted: a box for "Human Being."
Damn, you beat me by two, I think. Maybe \we have not traced all our family trees back far enough.
Thank you for that link.
Thank you, Dr Heather, for another informative detailed history of events from "Bloody Sunday" on its 56th anniversary. It was before my time and I do not recall it being discussed at all in any of my history classes when I was growing up. But it is horrifying to read.
Present-day events seem to point to a return to those terrible times in some states. This sentence jumped out at me: "Among the things Georgia wants to outlaw is giving water to voters as they wait for hours in line to get to the polls." The depth of inhumanity is disturbing. I hope such laws will not get passed! It is sad to know that all over the country more restrictive laws are being passed to prevent ordinary people from voting.
Yeah, unfortunately the "history" you learn in Public Miseducation and actual history are two very different things.
That is beginning to change now. My teenaged boys had to read John Lewis’ graphic novel, March. And the district in which I work is revamping its K-12 social studies curriculum right now, and will include history from multiple perspectives.
That's good to know - I wish it was happening everywhere, but it isn't.
I am from MN, and we have one of the worst achievement gaps in the country, sadly. I hope these curriculum changes will be one part of an overhaul that will close that gap.
MN here, too. Education excellence used to be a great hallmark here. I'm hopeful that once the intense pressure of COVID has at least abated, Gov Walz (an educator before becoming GOV) will narrow the gaps!!
Yes!!
Thanks for your illuminating comment. The fact that you had never encountered "Bloody Sunday" in your studies growing up shows how far we still have to go as a nation where justice is taken seriously.
If it is passed, I will be glad to go to Georgia and be arrested for giving water to waiting voters.
Water Drinker Protectors
I remember today like it was yesterday. I was still in the Navy over in Vietnam. I remember a friend saying "What are those people doing?" He was speaking of the whites. I looked at him and said "You're on *this* ship withy *this* crew, and you have to ask?" I was referring to the southern whites we served alongside. For me as a relatively naive white boy from Colorado in 1962, the most shocking thing that happened to me in the Navy was meeting southern whites. My recruit company was 1/3 us Colorado boys, 1/3 Californians and 1/3 from South Carolina. There were some black guys among the Californians (who all ended up in leadership positions in the company) and I had no trouble seeing from the first who they thought the enemy was. Those South Carolinians were the strangest people I'd ever met. Half of them scored under 20 on teh AFQT (I scored 97) I'd never been around people I thought were too stupid to be morons. I never met a white southerner in the Navy who wasn't a mean sonofabitch, and dumber than shit. It wasn't till I went down to the South myself in the later 60s as a left activist and ran across good Southerners that I believed such critters existed. Good southern whites are amazing people, because it's hard to be a good southern white, with so many evil morons around, And sadly, 56 years later it doesn't seem much has changed, other than the fact I also thought half the northern whites I knew back in the Navy were also morons turns out to have been generous on my part. The problem isn't just southern. You met great people in the service, but the truth is, looking back, they were notable for being the minority they were.
It's sad to know I could go down there today and meet the exact same types I did before. Now they all wear red baseball hats, so at least they're easy to recognize.
I am a transplanted northerner who now lives in TN. I will say this about what you wrote, when bigotry is what you’re taught and it surrounds you, it’s what you in good faith believe. I will say also it’s been my experience generally, not universally, many southerners don’t have a lot of interest in traveling above the Mason-Dixon Line, much less out of the country.
My daughter went to college in SC and was surprised at how many of her classmates were afraid to go north of the Mason Dixon line. We never understood what they were afraid of.
F Scott Fitzgerald's short story "The Ice Palace" expresses this alienation superbly. The imagery remains sharp for decades after reading it.
I never saw it as afraid; I saw it as uninterested, which might be worse!
Thank you TCinLA for this bio note. I used to travel US and was always uneasy in some Southern States. Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida...traveling the backroads in a car with NY plates made me very anxious. 2016 when I saw huge Trump signs on pick up trucks was a visual signal of his permission to come out in the open. And here we are. I was dumb to not know what was happening behind the scenes since Newt Gingrich or before. That’s on my head. ❤️🤍💙
If I had a dollar for every time you've used the word "moron" in all your comments, I could be a tax-dodging billionaire like Jeff Bezos.
Morning, all!! Morning, Dr. R!! In response to Dr. R's post today, I am copying Ellie's post. We've got a lot of work to do. Let's get busy:
Ellie Kona4 hr ago
Honor Amelia Boynton, John Lewis, Dr. King, Jimmie Lee Jackson, James Reeb, Viola Liuzzo, and all those who have shed blood for the foundational right to vote. Honor them by taking action on behalf of voting rights.
The wave of voter suppression laws making their way through state legislatures is 253 bills in 43 states. What is your state doing?
Learn the basics of H.R.1/S.1 For the People Act, which addresses 3 issues:
1. Voting rights
2. Campaign finance
3. Ethics and accountability of public officials
What resonates with you the most? Talk about it to friends and family, contact the politicians, post on social media, and as Heather says, "take up oxygen!"
Declaration for American Democracy: https://dfadcoalition.org/
Connect with an organization that is already mobilized. Get the most bang for your buck. Places to start:
https://democracyreform-sarbanes.house.gov/newsroom/press-releases/leading-grassroots-advocacy-organizations-endorse-house-democrats-once-in-a
https://campaignlegal.org/democracyu
https://indivisible.org/
League of Women Voters: https://www.lwv.org/
(Did you know the name means "for women voters" from the Women's Suffrage era?)
Stacey Abrams' Fair Fight: https://fairfight.com/
(Fair Fight is taking their Georgia playbook to other states.)
Additional organizations suggested by HCR Reader Joan on March 5 (in case you missed it):
https://www.commoncause.org/
(click "Join the Action Team" or Volunteer to learn more)
https://www.sierraclubindependentaction.org/
(volunteers needed to write letters to register new voters)
https://front.moveon.org/volunteer-with-moveon/
(they have texting opportunities)
https://newgeorgiaproject.org/about/
(In addition to Fair Fight, New Georgia Project has been very active in registering new voters and fighting back against voter suppression.)
Ellie Kona1 hr ago
and how could I forget the NAACP with its action link in support of the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act of 2020:
https://naacp.org/latest/john-r-lewis-voting-rights-act-2020/
Good morning, Lynell! Thank you for amplifying Ellie’s post. We must all do what we can, within our own abilities/ circumstances, to support this and these links are helpful. I didn’t realize the Sierra Club provided an opportunity and will be looking into that as soon as I’m done reading today’s comments thus far.
Hey, Karen. Was trying to target those who may not have seen Ellie's excellent post.
Me neither about the Sierra Club!
Good morning, and well repeated.
Ellie's post was so comprehensive. Most of us do not have the time to read every singIe reply. I was trying to target those who may not have seen the original post.
Today's "Letter" is as eloquent and powerful a succinct history of voting rights legislation in the U.S. as I've ever seen. It should be widely syndicated in newspapers, newsletters, and online publications.
having been a teenager during the 60's I never fully understood the background of the Selma March that Heather Cox Richardson has stated today with such clarity. It has been a long journey in my life to come to terms with racial inequality. I have encountered numerous people in our area of Nebraska (usually the older generations) that still converse in racial and demeaning terms as they have always done. My wife and I toured the MLK historic sight in Atlanta as well as the museum in Memphis where Dr. King was murdered. While at the MLK historic site, I came upon a book entitled "Carry Me Home" which I purchased. This very powerful book was written by person who grew up and lived in Birmingham AL. during the civil rights struggle. I recommend it to anyone who wants to continue to learn about the history of the civil rights struggle and the racism that is a part of our country's history.
That looks like a book I'd like to read. Thanks for the recommendation.
Carry Me Home is highly recommended. Also cf. Charles Payne, I've Got the Light of Freedom: The Organizing Tradition and the Mississippi Freedom Struggle
It has an AMAZING passage describing how Fannie Lou Hamer's singing "This Little Light of Mine" electrified a dreary, failing meeting. It will stay with you forever.
I like how you connect with music of different times and thank you for the tip on remembering dates-/ the telephone method would work for me.
Thanks, Heather. I needed that. I grew up in the shadow of that event, but for a turn of fate could have been part of it, and yet never knew the whole story until you told it in its historical context. Of all the gifts of your service, this contextualizing is the greatest.
Where is our party? Where is the political party that will make it unnecessary to march on Washington? Where is the political party that will make it unnecessary to march in the streets of Birmingham?
John Lewis
Speech at the March on Washington 1963
Good question
Luke100%
Thanks, Dr. Richardson, for reminding us of the details of this vital piece of American history.
Huge thanks for underlining Biden’s executive order regarding essential voting rights—and for describing the details of civil rights 60 years ago. The context of Bloody Sunday (hopefully) inspires all of us to help move voting rights onward and forward.