To Demand More from Ourselves

In 1946, the Allies believed they destroyed the evils of fascism. Hilter was dead. World War II was over. His rise and the outcomes of his power were not, as Albert Camus noted in a lecture at Columbia University about his homeland: "And it’s too easy…simply to accuse Hitler and say that the snake has been destroyed, the venom gone. Because we know perfectly well that the venom is not gone, that each of us carries it in our own hearts.”

It applies today. To America, the herald of individual liberties and equality.

The Covid-19 crisis brings out the ugliness of our failure as a herald. In communities of color, the virus spreads faster than that of white Americans. The death rate for African Americans, for example, exceeds that of European Americans. The shortage of protective equipment in those communities is more critical than in other areas of America. Yet nothing changes.

At the same time, people of color are facing greater financial troubles at this time. Because of bigotry and lack of opportunities, these people work in fields that provide little or no chance for them to accumulate wealth. Therefore, when they are laid off, they lack the resources to weather the Covid storm well. To top that off, African-American men worry that following the C.D.C. recommendation to cover their faces in public could expose them to harassment from the police.

The NAACP has railed against these state of affairs. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has questioned why this state of affairs. Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, raised similar issues on a recent episode of The Daily Show.

In an opinion piece for the The New York Times, Jeremiah Bey Ellison, a member of the Minneapolis City Council, wrote, "During every crisis, well-meaning white people here make a ritual of acknowledging the city’s steep inequities, but we’ve been hearing the same 'woe is you' sentiment for a long time." Isn't it time for European Americans to stop nodding in agreement when someone like Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren talks about the nation's inequities? Isn't it time for European Americans to act? To demand more from their politicians. More from themselves.