Hey John, America can't wait...
There are many challenges to fighting racism. Some of those challenges are our American Myths. One myth I’ve heard off and on my entire life is, “It takes time.” Does it? Why is it taken as a given that it takes time? Is that etched in stone somewhere? Is it in the Bible? Moses’ tablets? Our Declaration of Independence? 246 years and 11 generations ago, when Thomas Jefferson penned, “We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal…” did he mean to say, “In a few hundred years, give or take, the ancestors of the humans I now enslave by keeping a boot on their neck shall be equal to white people. It would be sooner, but it takes time you know.”
I don’t buy it. The promise of America doesn’t need to take this long. If we can go from horse and buggy to jet travel in just a few generations and then put a man on the moon in less than a generation than it doesn’t need to take this long. If we can develop a vaccine to a deadly pandemic in less than a year - than we know that ending racism doesn't really need to take hundreds of years. That’s just a pretense…a stalling action that represents a country that isn't serious about it.
Another frustrating myth I often hear is, “I know that we have a long way to go, but we’ve come a long way.” That, to me, seems to sort of let us off the hook. If we’d been at this for maybe ten years, I could buy that. But if you start the clock 403 years ago when Africans were first dragged to these shores, or 157 years ago when the war to end slavery ended and reconstruction began, or 68 years ago when the Supreme court decreed that segregated education could no longer be the law of the land, or 58 years ago when the Civil Rights Act was enacted - whenever it is that you choose to start the clock, then it becomes difficult to actually believe and be excited about the progress we have made because at this rate - and especially when you take into account the two steps forward/one step back pattern of progress - full racial equity will take hundreds of more years.
I was frustrated when Judge Ketanji Jackson was confirmed onto the Supreme court and it was celebrated as progress. It was, but it took 243 years.
I was frustrated in August when, as a Marine and as a Black American and as a person who cares deeply about justice, I read that Marine Corps 3-star general Michael Langley had just gotten promoted to the Corps’ first Black 4-star general. The first in the Marine Corps’ 246-year history. His promotion was hailed as ‘progress’. Progress?!? After 246 years? I’m struggling trying to imagine white America celebrating their first white female Supreme Court Justice after 243 years. Or their first white Marine Corps 4-star general after 246.
Black Americans are six times more likely than white Americans to be incarcerated in their lifetime. And get this… while Hawaii has the lowest rate of incarceration for Black men, that rate is still fifteen percent higher than Oklahoma, the state with the highest rate of incarceration for white men.
Black maternal deaths occur at 3 times the rate of white deaths. And that’s across all geographical, social, class, and wealth categories. Black infant mortality is about 3 times the rate of white infant mortality. And the rate for white infant mortality is falling as the rate for Black infant mortality is actually rising,
White wealth still exceeds Black wealth by a factor of ten while Black unemployment remains at about twice the rate of white unemployment…about the same as it was in 1963 when the March on Washington/I Have A Dream speech occurred. Progress.
Life expectancy is two years shorter for a Black American than a white American and schools are more segregated today than they were in 1954 when the Supreme Court determined that segregation in schools was illegal.
But if statistics aren’t your thing, than try this. Drive around any large American mainland city. Pretend that there are no people for you to see. Can you tell when you are in the Black section? Or try this other gut-check. Jesus finally returns and make you the offer of becoming Black. Right now. Do you take him up on it?
We haven’t come all that far in correcting something that never should have happened in the first place.
And…I write this with my apologies to my white friend John who has two adopted Black children, but who said to me, “We’ve come a long way.” Thanks, John, for giving me something to write about. I love you.
And this…if you think these posts are useful, insightful, and interesting. And if you have any actual friends or acquaintances, please…PLEASE…pass this on. Ask them to subscribe. It’s even free…for now! We have a problem here and America can’t wait.