I truly believe the short attention spanning 24 hr news culture of America makes it impossible for us to have real conversations about the country’s cultural and racial history. “That’s old news, so get over it” is so much a part of our culture now that we aren’t allowed to even think about the damage that has been done to groups and subcultures and how that damage affects us all even today.
Years ago Carson interviewed Richard Pryor and referenced Pryor’s use of the word, ‘Nigger’. Carson said the word almost conversationally–on late night TV–Pryor followed it with a joke and everyone laughed. It wasn’t a controversy. Just last month Paula Deen admitted to using the word, albeit in a different context, over a decade ago and lost her entire empire. We crack down now. We try to distance ourselves in order to reinforce the fact that we are supposedly a post-racist society. However, the quick reinforcement only shows that we are not past it. It is such a festering wound that is not being properly addressed that we are entering an age where hiding these proclivities is going to become the norm. That zero-sum game that is free speech has slowly eroded to a miasma of political correctness.
I don’t have any answers here, just reflections. The more I see us struggling to mask this idea that we still have deep seeded divisions in our country, the more I fear those divisions will fester and eventually tear us apart. I think the best example of that is the unwillingness of congress to engage on immigration reform. Republicans supposedly won’t engage, because it benefits democrats with votes and enrages their aging white base. Well, that sounds like the different sides are taking their ball and going home. That only points to more division in the long run, from which nobody will benefit.