There's the Rub

Last night I received an email from Derrick Johnson, the NAACP CEO. He wrote that as a black man, a father, and husband, the killing of George Floyd revived some of his worse fears. He feared for the well being of his sons.

The world is changing, however, and I'm not naive enough to be referring to the inequities of the American system, a system that has used African Americans as its economic fodder. Yet, we should not be studying America through the lens used to rationalized all forms of human entrapment.

We need a new lens for an emerging America.

Am I being a Pollyanna? God, I hope not. How can I prove that I'm right? Evidence contradicts me. Dozens of deaths in the past two decades, such as George Floyd's in Minneapolis, feed the fears of parents such as Johnson. Simultaneously, decades of lynchings have repressed rage. Centuries of enslavement "have proven" whites cannot be trusted.

It's a psychological torture born of white indifference and ignorance. Most white Americans remain indifferent to the systemic injustices inflicted on African Americans. For example, a New York Times article about the outrage around Floyd's death noted, "Although Minneapolis is politically progressive and many white residents speak of racial justice, black residents say it has not been enough to solve the inequities. In fact, there is often resistance."

We, again meaning white Americans, seem to forget that the philosophies and economic greed that drove slavery in the Americas also fueled the slaughter of other groups. I am not equating experiences, but if white Americans look into their own histories, they may find shadows of the atrocities inflicted on African Americans.
For example, my forebears and a million others left Ireland in the 19th century. British absentee landlords dominated the island's economy and politics. For more than three centuries, they stole land from my forebears, their friends, and neighbors. They killed forebears, friends, and neighbors who refused to Anglicize their Irish names, spoke Irish, or practiced Catholicism or Duridism. They shot or imprisoned forebears, friends, and neighbors who ignored or disobeyed orders from landlords. They were forced to raise a single variety of potato because the English loved them. (Contrary to the stereotype, the potato wasn't indigenous to Ireland. In the 16th Century, the Spanish exported it from the Americas where the indigenous tribes had domesticated the plant.) The mandatory methodology of farming potatoes led to a blight in the 19th Century. Starvation killed one million of my forebears' families, friends, and neighbors in two decades. The Irish call it the Great Hunger. Another million, like my forebears, fled--some going to the U.S., others to Canada, and some to Australia.

Comparing the enslavement of and subsequent segregation of African Americans with the English persecution of the Irish is fool's errand. Each tragedy left different scars. More important, the repression of the Irish ended a century ago. I cannot say the same for African Americans. I can say, however, I share a history of unjustified repression, and with only a little effort, I should be able to empathize. Am I foolish enough to believe African Americans want my sympathy? No. They don't. There's been enough white sympathy for their causes over the past two hundred years. If I can empathize, then I should understand. With understanding, I should work to fix America's white problem.

There's the rub.

We must first stop thinking the problem is the victim's problem. Indifferent, ignorant, and racist attitudes made them victims of physical, economic, and psychological torture.White Americans fashioned artificial distinctions among different ethnic groups, concluding the lighter the skin, the better the person. (It evolved into the "science" called Eugenics, which the Nazis embraced in the 20th Century.)

Armed with such bullshit, America's forebears suspended the principles of Christianity and the core principles of their Constitution. It enabled so much. They enslaved people for their enrichment. They segregated them, again, for their enrichment. And they have failed to remedy the problems caused by centuries of mistreatment.

European Americans caused the problem, perpetuated it, and have failed to resolve it. They are America's plurality. They, therefore, are the problem.

And what of the new emerging America? I am a small part of it. I, like Johnson, worry about my family. I am frightened for my grandsons, both African Americans. I don't want them forged in a crucible of hatred. I don't want their wind pipes crushed. I don't even want them to worry about this crap.

We don't get wishes.

Change comes only when we change.