Very fine people

This past weekend in Florida, another white racist went on a murder spree against Black people. 

Of course, he published a manifesto detailing his hatred of Black Americans. And of course, the gun he used was covered in Nazi symbols.

And, of course, when Black people speak up about their pain, their anger, their fear, they're told to not politicize it. That the shooter does not represent white America. That he was a loner. That he was mentally disturbed.

Ascribing the cause of violent, murderous racism to "mental illness" absolves white America writ large from addressing a central fact: For four hundred years it's been open hunting season on Americans of African descent. There's nothing "mentally ill" about this fact. Its genesis does not originate in schizophrenia. This country was founded as a racist enterprise. A cursory overview of its history should make this not be an outrageous proposition. But it is. Every time. It began with the expropriation of the native inhabitants, and was built on the backs of Black chattel slavery. No amount of "well, not all white people" will hide the fact whatever one's personal views on racism, that racism has been a benefit to white America and a detriment to Black America. 

This weekend was also the sixtieth anniversary of the March on Washington, when hopes for racial reconciliation were running high, and the soaring oratory of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. filled the country. Maybe, just maybe, this country could finally finish the work of Reconstruction, and make this land a place for all its children.

We know what happened next. Whitelash. Dixiecrats becoming Republicans. The Southern Strategy. "Welfare queens."

The fact is that anti-Black racism is so deeply encoded in this nation's DNA that no amount of "Can't we all just get along" will suffice. Because, again, the fact is that a large portion of white America does not want to get along. Without the Black "other", many white people simply don't know how to define themselves. This is shown by how the definition of "white" has expanded, bringing in people like Italians and the Irish who were once considered no better than Black people, just to increase the number of whites and prevent a joining of communities which suffered discrimination at the hands of the dominant white power structure. We see this with my Latin people, where you have someone like Nick Fuentes spouting the most horrid fascist drivel, even though his confrere Matt Walsh avers that someone like Fuentes can never truly be "white", simply because one-half of him is of Mexican descent. The goal of American racism has been to scupper any effort to form an anti-racist coalition. It has, to varying degrees, succeeded.

One must remember that Adolf Hitler drew inspiration for his antisemitic policy not from other European antisemites, but by the example of Jim Crow in America, and America's oppression of its Black citizens. German neo-Nazis, banned from flying the swastika, instead fly the Stars and Bars. And the Confederate battle flag is as likely to be found in upstate New York as it is in deepest Alabama. Anti-Black racism is ecumenical, bringing in the descendants of Confederates and Unionists in one gorgeous orgy of rage and hate.

Donald Trump has given people like the Jacksonville murderer license to express themselves openly, but he didn't create the atmosphere of racism. It much predated him, and, unless we tackle hatred with seriousness and purpose, it will long outlive him.

I wish I could say that Jacksonville will be a wake-up call. But let's be frank. We have had innumerable wake-up calls, and the country remains asleep, fitfully dreaming. And as long as we have one of the two major political parties explicitly pushing this vile racism, things will get worse before they get better. 

But I will offer this bit of hope. 

The problems which face us as a species transcend all the artificial divisions to which we cling. The ravaging of the climate will not pass over you if you're white. The only viable solution is for the human community to set aside these trivial differences and unite to save the species. I have faith that, if nothing else, enlightened self-interest will win the day. If that seems like a slender thread, don't look at it that way. See it as the beginning of the fashioning of a mighty quilt. But only if we stop treating a frank discussion of race as a step too far.

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