I woke up strangely optimistic this morning. At times it seems like we are floating in a vast sea, no winds to return us home or to take us to another port. Just stuck, waiting either for rescue or for a change of weather.
This week almost felt like a change of weather.
Yes, our Führer-wannabe is still in the White House, but as a sign of his decreasing power and increasing fear of his own subjects, he turned his executive complex into something resembling the Green Zone, surrounding himself with generals, lackeys, and his own Republican Guard. Orange Saddam even retreated to his bunker (aren’t mixed metaphors great?).
Here in Dartmouth, an overwhelmingly white town, a high school student organized a parade against racism and local businesses donated water to marchers. It was only last year that the Black Lives Matter movement was considered too extreme for most of White America. But now, here the locals were, marching and shouting “Black Lives Matter” and “No justice, no peace” with gusto.
Now, if only they would get rid of the racist Dartmouth school mascot.
Sometimes White America hops on movements in the same spirit as attending a fiesta: many hashtags are consumed and a good time is had by all. Then everybody goes home — to read about it with their support system or their reading group, with the emphasis on personal growth (there’s got to be something in it for me).
Sometimes a hashtag movement gains a bit of traction and actually results in something. Let us hope that the fight against structural racism is more than a passing fad and that proposals for police, criminal justice, and economic reform are daring, sweeping, and radical — in the sense of dealing with the root causes of these problems.
But so far I am seeing White Americans pretty much buying up anti-racism books, scheduling Zoom coffee klatches, and having deep and abstract conversations with one another. There seems to be a lot of discussion about reforming police training — but a lot of push-back against progressive efforts to reduce funding for police departments; wrest control from police unions of discipline, hiring and policy; and using taxpayer money for social services for distressed, police-occupied communities — while “defunding” the police at local, state, and federal levels.
Kaffee klatches for discusting racism are certainly no substitute for working for meaningful reform, but (as one person texted me): “To be charitable, they need to work their feelings out and that is important in its own way.” Ouch.
And as anemic as White America’s response has been, it is still cause for cautious optimism.
But we — fellow white people — we ought to be able to do a hell of a lot better than this.
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