Although the events in Charlottesville are deplorable, I really don’t understand why anyone is surprised by this behavior. I am not saying this just because of the hateful and reckless rhetoric spewing from the White House that has encouraged it. Rather, I say it as a student of history. If you find yourself shocked by Charlottesville, then I would encourage you to study history a bit closer. But, do not study it to only to uncover the actions of our ancestors, study it also in order to uncover what is to come. History is prophetic. Within the past holds answers to the future. Humanity, despite its great innovations, is terribly predictable. Too often we confuse the advancement of technology with the advancement of civilization. Actually, humanity operates in cycles. If you want to know what we are about to do then look at what we have already done.
This has certainly held true within the American story as it relates to race relations. As I wrote in my six part series on black rights in America, racism in this country has operated on a cycle of oppression. What we see in Charlottesville is no different than what we saw during Reconstruction, the period immediately following the end of slavery when the federal government tried to incorporate blacks into society as full citizens. The white backlash led to the creation of the KKK. Now, following the Presidency of the first Black President and another push for Black equality through the Black Lives Matter movement we have Charlottesville (Ferguson, Baltimore, Charleston, etc.). In other words, when there are moments of great black progress (whether symbolic or actual) they are inevitably met with equally great white backlash and white politicians all too willing to exploit it. [FN1]
Therefore, as outrageous as the events in Charlottesville are, we must not lose site of the larger issue. There is a cycle that we must break. I don’t believe the cycle is necessarily inevitable so long as we work to change it, but if we don’t do that work then its recapitulation is certain. The first step in doing that is to acknowledge that it exist. We have not been a country slowly progressing to a more inclusive state. We have and will continue to shut those out of society we deem necessary to exclude at any given movement without regard to our purported creeds or values. Failure to acknowledge this will only leave us blind to the rise in oppression until it is ramming a car into protestors or sitting in the White House.
I know the popular phrase today is to “stay woke.” Indeed we must stay woke! But being woke is more than a phrase. It is meaningless if you’re lulled into futile efforts based on an ignorance of history. We must stay woke, learn our history and break the cycle!
–Until Next Time–
Palooke
[FN1] For more info, you can read more in my six-part series available here. Just click the numbers: Part 1; Part 2; “Part 3; Part 4(a); Part 4(b); Part 5; Part 6
We are fighting a battle that most blacks don’t take seriously because they have money and they’re trying to protect it by being silent, they just don’t know or care because they’re blind to the facts or choose to be blind or their buckdancing and bootlicking we must first build a young group of leaders who will stand against all I know this will be hard but it must be done to counter act the foolishness we face