Saturday, June 20, 2015

RACE IN AMERICA A VIEW FROM THE TRENCH

To discuss race lets only go back to 1955 and move forward from there. The lost generation is not the current crop of so called "Millennials" but rather the entire "baby boomer" generation.
Dozens of lynchings, mostly of Black americans but some Whites as well.
Emmit Till
Medgar Evers
Malcolm X
James Chaney
Andrew Goodman
Michael Schwerner
JFK
MLK
RFK
Rodney King
Reginald Denny
So many more who were beaten and killed, who's names I do not know.

With the possible exception of Emmet Till (he never had the chance to reach his potential) most were the leaders of the Boomer generation. All in concert could have led us to the integrated America most of us want and deserve. Instead we murdered them all before they could fully teach their differing messages to the youth of the day. Each in death fostered more mistrust and hatreds. Each death another turning point in the American psych.

In 1954 Thurgood Marshall argued and won the Supreme Court case that in effect made our schools systems equal, the quality of our education the same for all of America's children but that too, when it came to practice, was denied for 20 years coming to a head during the bussing upheavals nationwide, or the using national guard troops to keep Black high school students from entering a white school. What the end result of Brown v Board of Education and similar rulings was self segregation; people isolating themselves by race. Detroit from 1955 forward is the perfect example of my point, though not the only one.

There is only one instance where integration has thoroughly and completely worked that I can think of and even that took a half decade to complete and that was when Truman ordered full racial integration of the Military, which now has (with some reservations over combat roles) worked it's way up to include gender integration. We had(ve) segrgated ideologies and communities in America but in the jungles of Vietnam (and every combat action forward) the issue wasn't the color of the man fighting alongside you but rather can we help keep each other alive? Returning troops had a different perspective on race than that which they had before being drafted or enlisting. The military is the only arena where a soldier gives up constitutional rights, replaced under the UCMJ.
Why is it only the military has found a way to full integration but no other facet of society?
The only answer I can think of is during the decade of assasinations those who were sucked up into the vacuums created were not up to the task of complete cultural integration at the most critical time in the modern era.

Preachers saw a void and ran to fill them, but they did not teach a path of inclusion for all but both White and Black preachers laid out the message of separatism. Politicians who moved in to fill the void started to sell themselves to the highest bidder, who did not want an integrated society because a divided society is easier to control and divert attention away from the economic fraud being perpatrated on both the black and white communities, though more so on the black communities.
As a result the boomer generation, the truly lost generation, had nothing but individual lack of experiential knowledge to pass on to the succeeding generations. Now we have a society that reveres inequality, not racial but financial, we no longer go to church to transform our spiritual being but rather we heap adoration on the gods of Rock & Roll, enlightenment is today knowing all the words to a rap song.

We should also not leave the media of the past 35 years out of the equation of our dysfuntion; for the messages were willingly passed to the mass of people through a willing ever consolidating media.
The 9 murders in South Carolina were not the singular actions of one lunatic, but like all mass murders in this country it was the result of American societies inability to integrate, communicate and tolerate our differences into a cohesive whole. The issue of the Dozeal woman was not so much a fraud perpetrated within the NAACP as it was society teaching us "by whatever means necessary" get ahead.

Our American dysfunction has no reset button, there is no way to send our culture back to some period that could be called default setting that would be acceptable. Many of the framers of the constitution, in their private correspondence recognized the future trouble the continuation of slavery would cause, but they too were gutless in addressing one of the most important issues of America and freedom, all men created equal (but not). I can excuse them somewhat in the context of their times but not us, in our times after near 300 years of experience with inequality, segregation, and hatred among Americans. A dislike no one is ever free of and an equality we are constantly wary of.
What is the way forward?

That is the beginning of the discussion in my opinion.

7 comments:

  1. You bring out some honest poinits and ask an honest question. What is the way forward? I wish I knew, but I know that on one level--having lived through school desegration and bussing in the South--the racial struggle is a defining theme of my life.

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  2. Isn't it interesting how everyone has embraced Jenner, and villified Dozeal. There is acceptance and flexibility with gender, but not race. Of maybe fame has a bit more to do with it. A nice recap, I wonder where our freedom will get us eventually - honestly. What new ways will we find to shock ourselves. & why?

    Sorry, I know i am rabbit trailing down a side topic, but...

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  3. sports has generally been integrated pretty well, although there are still issues on occassion. I just don't know what the answer is. I Just con't get it.

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  4. Excellent and well thought out post. It has occurred to me that if one can't accept the scientific fact that there is no such thing as race...that we are all biologically the same, then it is easy to transcend to the idea that there are people on the planet that are inferior to oneself. Which, of course, spawns the idea that the "inferior" doesn't deserve equal consideration. Add to that fear mongering by conservative "clergy" and news media and you have a situation such as we are currently in.

    I have no idea what the solution is, because it is not one with which constructive dialog can be established. The perpetrators of hate just don't want to hear it.

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  5. Life is what it is ... everybody has a story ... every time I wanna tell mine, someone wants to tell theirs first ... so here I am ... listening and listening and listening and ... ya. Love, cat.

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  6. i think at a core level the cause of this is an unparalleled generations of people, many while adolescents and young adults, who are totally alone and their fringe rescue provides a means to feel not just worthy, but superior. I saw the crumbling when ronald reagan eliminated truant officers.

    mark, this piece is so thoughtful and intelligent, i'm comforted reading it, if only to hear what is true.

    i can't believe how much of a hateful racist mess exists. how often police bully or shoot. how anyone even if not in his right mind could think that 'the blacks' are winning? good god. i know progress is there, i know it is--i see it in so many real faces, but random violence has arrived. we have to get that underground railroad going full steam now, have to stand up, have to be clear.

    love
    kj

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  7. Good news, bad news, and same ol' news...which do you want first?
    I figure, Detroit, he'll want the worse up front...
    The bad news is, Every revolution carries with it the seeds of its own destruction. (Frank Herbert, the Children of Dune)
    The good news is every revolution carries with it the seeds to its own destruction.
    (same man, same book)
    The same ol' news, There will always be those who think themselves better, more deserving, and a premium to any society even though they are the least better, the least deserving, having absolutely impoverished souls, completely destitute of character or morals. (Berry Connell, the Seven Doors of Time)

    Nice article, Mark.

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So Walking Man I was thinking...