Page 23 - Time Magazine, Sep. 17, 2018
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facts of our daily lives in this country speak vol- majority minority nation. Demography isn’t des-
umes. Studies reveal the racial bias in policing; tiny, and the mere fact that white people will be
in sentencing and rates of incarceration; in dif- a minority does not guarantee the country will
ferential punishment in schools for black and suddenly become a more racially just society.
brown children; in the persistence of residen- But something fundamental is changing. As a
tial segregation and its cascading effect in the life country, we have been at the crossroads before—
cycle of black people; in how even if an African- the Civil War, Reconstruction, the New Deal, the
American or Hispanic adult earns a college de- civil rights movement—and found ourselves
gree, she will still financially lag behind a white with a choice to be otherwise. In each moment,
American with the same degree. no matter the possibilities in front of us or the
But all of this was the case before Trump was significant changes in our social imaginations,
elected. It is not enough, then, to decry the loud the country held tightly to its prejudices and its
racists or to resist Donald Trump. We must, once unseemly beliefs about the value of white peo-
and for all, confront the silent majority—even ple. Trump broke the post–civil rights consensus
if until now we did not realize we are them. We that America would keep its racism quiet. He has
must confront ourselves. unwittingly cracked a pernicious impediment—
one we still hear in those who in one breath decry
his explicit racism and then accept policies and
positions that stoke the flames of white racial re-
III sentment. Surprisingly, though, Trump has pro-
vided us another choice, another chance.
What has for so long been hidden—or will-
fully ignored—is now in the open. Americans
will have to decide whether or not this country
THE DESIRE TO DISTANCE ONESELF FROM will remain racist. To make that decision, we
Trump fits perfectly with the American insis- will have to avoid the trap of placing the bur-
tence that we not see ourselves for who we ac- den of our national sins on the shoulders of Don-
tually are. We evade the historical wounds, the ald Trump. We must address not just the nasty
individual pain and the lasting effects of it all. words, but also the policies and the practices.
The lynched relative; the buried son killed at the We need to look inward. Trump is us or, better,
hands of the police; the millions locked away to you. And by the irony of history, my fate and my
rot in prisons; the children languishing in failed son’s safety are bound up with you.
schools; the smothering, concentrated poverty How do we clear the space—Can we clear
passed down from generation to generation; and it?—to debate states’ rights, to argue over the ne-
the generalized indifference to lives lived in the cessity of a social safety net, to haggle over polic-
shadows of the American Dream are generally ing and prisons or to fight about the importance
understood as exceptions to the American story, of public education without the undertow of ra-
not the rule. Blasphemous facts must be ban- cial animus and without the attribution of bad
ished from view by a host of public rituals and faith? I am convinced that, if we are to imagine
incantations. We tell ourselves a particular story the country as a genuinely multiracial democ-
of the civil rights movement with Rosa Parks re- racy, we have to tell ourselves a better story about
fusing to give up her seat and Dr. King dreaming who we are, how we ended up here and why we
of America as it should be. Our gaze averted, we keep returning to this hell. No more Pollyanna-
congratulate ourselves for how far we have come ish tales about the inherent greatness of America.
and ruthlessly blame those in the shadows for Ours is a history of not just obvious racist mon-
their plight in life. Our innocence secured, we sters but also of lily white communities with nice
feel no guilt in enjoying what we have earned by picket fences and good schools, of concerning
our own merit, in defending our right to educate comfort, of fits and starts and abject failure—rife
our children in the best schools and in demand- with ordinary people doing horrific and, some-
ing that we be judged by our ability alone. In this times, courageous things.
illusion, Trump has to be seen as singular. Other- Perhaps Samuel Beckett’s words from his
wise, he reveals something terrible about us. But 1983 novella, Worstward Ho, offer a more ap-
not to see yourself in Trump is to continue the propriate (and humble) approach to the crisis
lie. We must finally reject the lie. we now face: “Ever tried. Ever failed. No mat-
The longing for a time when matters were ter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” Forward
simpler, and the angst over lost superiority over movement is halting, inhibited, interrupted. Our
people of other races and ethnicities, will not dis- history, if we’re honest, suggests we will fail. No
appear on their own. By 2045, America will be a matter. We go on—together.
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