JUNE 2, 2021 – I watched most of President Biden’s speech delivered yesterday in Tulsa. If we can debate the details of how to diminish racial economic disparity in America, all responsible citizens must acknowledge the fact of that disparity. All of us must also give Biden credit for—acknowledging formally, officially, openly, and in Tulsa, not the Rose Garden—for acknowledging what all Americans must acknowledge. The core of his speech deserves repeating here:
Millions of white Americans belonged to the Klan, and they weren’t even embarrassed by it. They were proud of it. And that hate became embedded systematically and systemically in our laws and our culture. We do ourselves no favors by pretending none of this ever happened or doesn’t impact us today, because it does still impact us today. We can’t just choose to learn what we want to know and not what we should know. We should know the good, the bad, everything. That’s what great nations do. They come to terms with their dark sides.
For many years after WW II, we debated whether Germany had come to terms with its Nazi past. Now, finally, we need to come to terms with our own bad past.
In the minds of some, “coming to terms” means “erasing.”
A few examples run like this: Did a signer of the Declaration of Independence own slaves? Yes? Air-brush his name off the document. . . Say, what?! The author of the nation’s most sacrosanct document was a slave-owner? Knock him off his pedestal! . . . Huh? The Great Emancipator wanted to ship all Blacks back to Africa to fend for themselves? No more “Mr. Nice Guy” treatment of him! . . . You don’t say—the Kennedy brothers were convinced by J. Edgar Hoover that Martin Luther King, Jr. was a Communist, or at least heavily influenced by commies, and therefore political uranium? So much for the Eternal Flame!
And so on, right down to widespread use of the N-word by otherwise perfectly well-behaved, well-intentioned white people, who rarely heard or considered the word “racist” outside a sentence containing “the KKK.”
But rather than erase the past and condemn everyone in it, we should know our history, face it, and most important, learn from it.
On the PBS News Hour yesterday evening, I hear Judy Woodruff interview William Darity, professor at Duke University. His research has centered on long-term, Black vs. white wealth accumulation, revealing empirically, the vast gap in family wealth—Black vs. white. On average, the latter is nearly eight times Black wealth.
Impressed by Darity, I looked him up and sent him an email. “Your scholarship and analysis are critical parts of [the redemptive process,] I wrote, “and I, for one, am grateful for your efforts. May your work and voice find increase with every turn.”
Twenty minutes later I received this reply: “Thank you so much for this warm and supportive message. Much, much appreciated. Wishing you all the best in solidarity. – Sandy Darity.”
I invite my followers to follow Professor Darity.
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© 2021 by Eric Nilsson
