My dad immigrated from the Bahamas in the 1950's. I remember
when I was younger he would talk about living through the 1950's and
1960's here in the USA. He would reflect on working in, living in, and
navigating the way racism presented itself in the US, which was a bit
different than in the Bahamas, though it was still very present there
too. I mean let's not act like colonialism didn't leave the plague of
racism and anti-blackness on every land mass it touched.
The
one thing that always sticks with me when thinking about those stories
he told was him saying "Give me a southern racist over a northern one
any day. At least with the southern racist you know where you stand." It
took me a few years and some living to realize that his use of north
and south in this context was more about overt and covert racism than it
was about geographical locations. He'd usually included this sentiment
when he was recounting his life in the business word. He would talked
about the white people who smiled at you and were cordial to your face,
while they were undermining you at ever turn.
This
concept of my father's came to mind quite often over the course of the
2016 election campaign and has even more so since the advent of the new
administration. The way that whiteness, embodied by white people, felt
empowered to throw off subtlety and coded language, crawl out of the
woodwork and from under every ancient rock it lived, and bare it's ugly,
evil face has been mentally, emotionally and spiritually taxing. And I
will not negate that this ramping up of white supremacy poses an
increased physical threat to those of us on the receiving end of their
ire. However, as I find myself in recent days assessing where we are
headed as a nation and where my gifts can best be used to serve the
greatest good, I have realized that this exposing of these once shrouded
elements of whiteness, though painful, shows us all exactly where we
stand; with ourselves, with our neighbors, our coworkers and
friends, as a country.
I am no Pollyanna. I know that the
road to this country truly living up to it's written creed and ideals,
if it can indeed do it, is long and treacherous. I understand that more
likely than not it will get worst before it gets any better in America.
The roots of white supremacy upon which this country was formed will not
be easily unearthed. They will strain against the soil of liberty
hoping to hold on to old familiar ground. But, more than any time in my
lifetime, we all know where we stand.
We
live in a time where one can no longer hide behind a facade of fake
civility. People can smile in cordiality with coworkers, but their
social media activity will belie the truth of their heart. One can no
longer claim association to one POC as a way to side step responsibility
for perpetuating anti-blackness. Companies can no longer claim
diversity by instituting systems of tokenization without having it
called out. And white supremacists are no longer hiding behind hoods and
robes. It is from this place of clarity we have an opportunity to
shift the course of our nation and with our collective skills strive to
form a more perfect union, whether in the confines of this current
structure or by building a new one on a firmer foundation of equality.
I
finally get what my father was saying. As painful as it may be to
experience, it is a lot easier to form strategies for both survival and
victory when everyone is playing their hand openly. I hope against hope
daily that we as a nation will make it through to the other side of now.
But I know that no matter what, we were never gonna make it at all in
this new millennium without this moment of clarity that we are now
living. The truth is painful, rarely pretty but always necessary for
forward motion. Racism is insidious, even more so when it is subversive.
Now that we are all clear that it is alive and well and has never gone
anywhere, let's work to make this current iteration the last gasping
breaths of a dying paradigm.
