Sometimes coincidences pile up and form intricate webs that seem to be evidence of something more than happenstance.
Consider these five things:
1) I just finished reading James Lee Burke’s “Flags on the Bayou,” a novel set in Louisiana in 1863 as the Civil War was entering its final phase with the Rebels in retreat, Sherman about to march on Atlanta, the Union army in Louisiana in full conqueror mode, and irregulars laying waste to everything that hasn’t already been destroyed by the war.
2) Ron DeSantis and his cronies declare that students must learn of the long-term benefits slaves derived from being pieces of property.
3) The Supreme Court decided that the policy of affirmative action was, at best, no longer necessary and that merit is the only thing that should guide acceptance to college.
4) The North Carolina state legislature defied the Supreme Court in refusing to create a second majority Black congressional district.
5) And last (but never least), Donald J. Trump — otherwise known as Mr. Trump — is indicted for, among other things, conspiring to deprive his fellow citizens of their civil rights – namely, the right to vote for a presidential candidate of their choosing and having their vote count.
Let it be noted that I am an unabashed fan of James Lee Burke. I don’t know that “Flags on the Bayou” is his finest novel, despite what he writes at the beginning of his acknowledgments at the book’s conclusion, but that is irrelevant. What struck me, and I was reminded of, was the elaborate politeness and high-toned circumlocution of the speech of Southern plantation society, with all its references to honor, duty, obligation, and civilized behavior, all serving to mask the evil and corrupt core that lay at the heart of that society: Slavery. It’s not simply that owning another human was bad or immoral, but it was the meanness and cruelty, the freedom to whip and rape and kill at will, to lynch and burn at will, to divide families at will simply for profit, and on and on.
All this behavior by so-called civilized men and women who thought themselves superior to all others was endorsed and encouraged by so-called Christian ministries and institutions, a Christianity that so often has demonstrated how un-Christian it could be. The extraordinary thing is that it is a religion that was forced upon and adopted by slaves and remains, until this day, a far more optimistic, generous, humane, and “Christian” version of that religion than it might have been. It is that very optimistic culture from which the Rev. Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement in the 1960s sprang, and it remains a characteristic of the Black Christian church.
That plantation society decided that maintaining the evil of slavery was worth the deaths of thousands and thousands of lives, the deaths of men who most likely never going to own slaves themselves but were willing to die to maintain the ability of “their betters” to own other human beings. The flinging of men by the thousands to their certain deaths at Shiloh, Gettysburg, and Antietam, among all the other battles, strikes me not so much as evidence of their honor, bravery, and courage but more likely evidence of insanity. But that particular form of insanity is not unique to the Civil War. It is a fundamental characteristic of war.
Into the very dark heart of America’s slave-holding past steps Ron DeSantis and others of his ilk. While acknowledging that slavery was bad, even very bad, there must be some sliver of light, some virtue to the enterprise. Lo and behold, they found it. Slaves actually learned some skills that might be of use once they were freed! So, the blacksmith or the cotton picker, despite being whipped, despite being in chains, despite his wife being raped, despite his wife being sold to another slave-owner, despite their children being sold at auction, despite all this, he gained a trade by which he could support himself after he was forcibly freed. Where do you put that on a scale? I can think of no more absurd example of the current fashion of what-aboutism that seems to infect the Republican Party. No matter what gross example of behavior is exhibited by at least some so-called Republicans and their political leadership, it is sure to be accompanied by, “But what about …”
The Supreme Court majority has stepped into this mess with its fondness for “originalism” and a distorted and highly selective reading of American history, accompanied by an optimism that asserts that what is true in America is what it hopes is true rather than what is true. Thus, we have an end to affirmative action, the attempt to counteract the legacy of a group of Americans — slaves — that was first denied any education whatsoever and then, once freed, provided with as minimal education as could be gotten away with beginning in 1619 until the second half of the twentieth century (not to mention being denied entrance into the majority White society). Yes, some White Americans were discriminated against in the process, but if you think about it, those Whites who were most likely to be discriminated against are also those Americans (at least in terms of economic class) who were most interested in keeping their foot on the neck of Black Americans. They were the same Americans who fought in all those Civil War battles.
There is no clearer example of the desire to keep Blacks “in their place” than the recent actions of the North Carolina state legislature. Having been told by the Supreme Court that they must redraw their congressional districts in order that Blacks would have an opportunity to elect a second Black congressman, the legislature completely ignored the order.
In general, my understanding is that the Court has long decided that it is impermissible for states to use the redrawing of congressional districts to diminish the electoral clout of racial groups. On the other hand, it says it is pretty much powerless to prevent the creation of electoral districts designed to increase the likelihood of electing members of specific parties. In other words, racial gerrymandering is bad; political gerrymandering is okay. During the 1960s, at the time of the height of the civil rights movement, a familiar slogan was “one man, one vote.” The general idea was that the effectiveness of the vote of one person should be roughly equivalent to the vote of every other person in the state. Gerrymandering has been a powerful tool used by state legislatures to undermine that very concept. Even more, in recent years, we’ve seen Republican legislatures, in particular, write election rules to diminish the effectiveness of Black voters in urban areas under the guise of “election integrity.” These attempts to manipulate election districts and voting rules make a mockery of the idea of “one man, one vote.” They make a mockery of the very concept of democracy. And surprise, surprise, they are often aimed at diminishing the electoral clout of Blacks.
It should come as no surprise that the political career of Donald Trump has been based in significant part on racism. From his very beginning as a seeker of the presidency with his claim that Obama wasn’t a citizen, racism has been a defining feature of his campaigns, with his claim that rapists and murderers were pouring across our southern border, that cities were hell holes where Blacks and other minorities were terrorizing Whites, and that election fraud just happened to take place in those cities where those same Blacks and other people of color, were major constituencies. His solution, as we all know, is to burn the place down, overthrow the Constitution, and, by hook or by crook, reinstate himself as president of this country. And too many Republican politicians have followed him down this path, either by supporting him or by adopting his arguments. There are exceptions to this, but nowhere near enough. But fundamentally, in the indictment of Trump, “The United States of America vs. Donald J. Trump,” he is accused of attempting to deprive all Americans of the right to have their votes counted, certified, and deciding the outcome of an election.
Trump did not create racism in America. Nor did he create anti-Semitism or anti-immigrant fervor. Nor did he create the Proud Boys, the Oath Keepers, and the whole panoply of White supremacist, neo-Nazi, terrorist organizations. He simply gave license for them all to be openly expressed. When he derided “political correctness,” he was simply saying, don’t hide your bigotry if that’s what you feel. Don’t hide it in fancy speech with hidden meanings. Just say it loud and say it proud.
The other day I was thinking about a saying that I first heard in the late 1960s, although it had been around for longer than that. I first heard it in relation to some of the drug and alcohol rehab organizations that had some popularity: Phoenix House, Daytop Village, and Synanon. “Do as if, think as if, be as if.” The idea was that if you intentionally acted in a certain way, even if it was contrary to your normal behavior and you did it often enough, you would soon begin to think in that way, and, in the final step, you would actually become that more virtuous person. No more faking it until you make it. For the addict, it meant that if you refuse to pick up that drink, reach for the needle, or take that pill often enough, you will start to think like a non-addict and eventually be a normal non-addictive person.
In effect, that was what Justice Sandra Day O’Connor was suggesting when approving affirmative action programs. She thought that within 25 years, the need for it would wane because racism would recede sufficiently that the few remaining racists would no longer matter. Tragically, she was wrong no matter what today’s Supreme Court majority imagines. The Trumpian answer to that “do as if” saying, or its shortened version, “Fake it until you make it,” or “political correctness,” is simple: “Don’t bother.”
As much as I love James Lee Burke, for whom the past is an ever-present ghost in our presence, William Faulkner framed it best: “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” Republican politicians, particularly in Red state America, are demonstrating just how true that is.
Another excellent expose of life in America.
Excellent - You leave us with a terrific perspective - Thank you