The American dream is a beautiful and terrible thing. The American mantra that with hard work any person can attain any success in this country, while inspiring and anecdotally true, is not the reality.
I want to believe that every person born in this “land of the free” is equal and has equal opportunities. I want to believe that no matter the circumstances of one’s birth or the poverty of one’s upbringing, that the United States gives people of every race the same opportunities to “pull themselves up by their bootstraps.” Evidence shows that this is not the case.
After Eric Holder, the first African American to head the U.S. Justice Department, gave a speech encouraging Americans to have frank conversations about race, Boston Globe Columnist Jeff Jacoby wrote a scathing article that called Holder’s logic backward.
Jacoby wrote:
“What justifies Holder’s belief that the only way to surmount them is to have frank conversations about the racial matters that continue to divide us? He has it exactly backward. Harping on old grievances, constantly revisiting past resentments, relentlessly picking at scabs – those are a recipe not for social harmony but for never-ending antagonism.”
I would like to give Jacoby the benefit of the doubt. As I do, Jacoby believes in this country. But to preach the American dream without considering its validity is to deprecate that which this country has achieved and can achieve. To settle for current disparities and claim, with blind optimism, that we have achieved that dream is to compromise. Where Jacoby and I differ is in his willingness to compromise. It is easier to do so when you are comfortable and unexposed to or unscathed by the lingering destruction caused by racism.
There are numerous examples of continuing racial injustice, and I will only mention one. Graduate students at New York University in the “Reporting the Nation” program reported on uranium contamination in the water on the Diné, or Navajo, Indian reservation. People are essentially drinking radiation. In the piece titled “The Forgotten Navajo: Uraniam contamination” these students reported the disease-riddled reality of these impoverished Native people. The United States government didn’t just relocate Native people to reservations where they lived independently and prospered. As a result of this “Native Solution,” people are dying.
And yet, Jacoby denies that we need to have a discussion about the consequences of racism in this country.
Please listen here to Janice Pryor’s WUMB (Boston) radio interview of Robette Dias, Co-Director of Crossroads Anti-Racism Organizing and Training as they discuss why we still need to talk about race-including a discussion of the United States’ cruel colonialist history.
Jacoby calls talking about race picking scabs. What he wants is to accept a band-aid on racism without healing the wound. Anti-racism work does mean exposing wounds, removing the band-aids and finding methods of better medicine. Only with this exposure can progress be made; if left ignored, the wound will only leave a deeper scar.
Filed under: Identity Politics, Muses & Reflections Tagged: | American dream, Crossroads Anti-Racism Organizing and Training, Eric Holder, Native Americans, racism, uranium poisoning
The sad truth is that whites are the ones with the racism directed AT them.
Over 30,000 Dead Americans, most white, on the borders of America from illegals.
I think you need to re-examine how you’re defining “racism.” While the deaths of any group of people is tragic, racism isn’t just one group of people being mean to another. It’s embedded in how our institutions work; it’s systematic, which means it is inflicted by the people in society who systematically and institutionally have power. If you look at wealth disparities, health disparities, and educational disparities in the United States, you won’t find that it’s the illegal immigrants who have the power.
Furthermore, it would be more convincing if you defended that argument with a source.
excellent comment and “sorely” needed!
Thank you for your support, Jenifer. Sorely needed as a point of discussion or because I’ve been neglecting my blog?
“sorely” was used to be a wry comment on the use of “picking scabs” as a analogy in your blog on racism….
Jenifer
Thank you for spreading the word about my conversation with Janis Pryor. We’re still waiting (hoping) for Jeff Jacoby to accept our offer to have a productive conversation about race and racism in the United States. Your blog is evidence that it is possible!
I hope he accepts the challenge.
Do you ever sometimes get the feeling that maybe a deep scar on the face of the US is needed as a constant reminder of what was done. Is the consequences of past grievances ever going to heal? Perhaps not. Not if people refuse to confront history and attempt reparations.
What I find shocking is that after realising what has happened in the past is wrong, similar afflictions continue today… worldwide.
Without the ability to police everyone on the planet 24/7 the only solution I can see to abolish this issue IS to vocalise it loud and clear… together.
Big up to momma Dias too.
I think we already have that scar, it’s all the injustice that brings people of color down everyday. That scar is that about which I am writing: racism in action.
Big ups to Momma Dias, indeed, and to you, faithful CP reader.