As I am mentally constructing this fantasy-esque novel of mine I am puling in threads from real world conversations we should be having but are yet unwilling to have. The key one to me is the powerful relationship between privilege and status quo. To begin, status is something that is really hard to achieve for those who don’t have it and really hard to accept losing for those who have gained it and those born into it. Status change looks like nothing less than a fall or loss of something unless your status is moving upwards, which would of course mean no change at all in the larger scale.
I believe that is what is at the root of our race problem everywhere. If you are born into a particular status or class then that is your normal operating space. Everything in your life tells you to stay in that class or move upward. That status level is based entirely on who is below you and who is above you on the ladder. I realize people do not consciously think that way, but that does not change the way it is. We can only have a so-called middle class because we have constructed upper and lower classes and we, at least unconsciously, recognize this. When those of a lower status, be it through wealth, or profession, religion, or skin color, etc. are seen on the same level as “us” it subconsciously puts us on the level of those who were below us, triggering “us” to strive to be higher. This is the fundamental concept behind chasing the Joneses.
Now, imagine a movement where an entire race of people who you were conditioned to feel were beneath you are suddenly thrust up to a level where they have the same rights, privileges, and abilities as you. For the average person that had to be psychologically jarring. Suddenly the person you saw and were told was less than human is considered equal to you? How can you consciously accept that they are suddenly equal? I fear there is always a part of everyone that feels superior to that group, especially in the sense of having been a part of granting that group equality.
That is what happened with slavery in my opinion. A group of so-called lessers were granted equality because a group of people who had power decided to have the conversation and take action to give that other group power; to bring that other group up to their level.
The problem with one group deciding to have the conversation is that they can just as easily tire of having the conversation. They can always think that they control the conversation…