In 2016 Emory Professor Carol Andersen released a text called White Rage. The book, written by a black woman, was largely ignored by the people who needed to hear the information the most. The book broke down the response of an aggrieved white populous to what they felt was an assault on their way of life. She traced this call and response all the way back to the beginning of this country and what she calls structural racism. Her main thesis goes like this: African American progress is always met with white backlash. This goes back to the loss of a labor force (i.e. the end of slavery) and quickly erupted into the social and legal criminalization of blackness. Her argument is sound, thorough, and absolutely timely.
Her book came out the year we elected Donald Trump. That election was a clear cut rebuke of the Clintons and the Obamas, as Trump’s foul-mouthed rallies did all they could to gin up anger to what had ‘been done’ to America and argued that he was the only person who could Make America Great Again. Well, is this the great America he hoped for? Instead I think the last 3.5 years have been a massive backlash for 8 years under Obama and the hyper-polarization and vitriol that followed his election in 2008. Fox News built a brand around divisive rhetoric at the expense of their pursuit of the truth. Now, as the election nears, we see more and more stations and websites following that mold. We see people like Rush Limbaugh, who is a known conspiracy pedaler who claimed repeatedly that Covid-19 was no worse than the common cold and openly dismisses the notion of consent in sexual relationships, be awarded the Medal of Freedom.
The argument here is also clear: You black and brown people get a step up and we will show you in no uncertain terms who this country belongs to.
So perhaps that is the question: does America belong to one group? Is it meant to be a place for all creeds and colors to gather and find freedom? Whatever we become, it shouldn’t be what we are now. What we are now is a reflection of some of the darkest societies in the world. We are narcissists and we are racists and elitists and extreme in our views. We are not what America should be.