Past or Future, Where Does Hope Reside?
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Think about it, past or future, where does hope really reside?
Critical Race Theory isn’t a theory, in my opinion. If it were, each premise would consistently lead to the described result. Most Japanese Americans would be calculably poorer than, for instance, Korean Americans – because the internment camps of the 1940s and restrictions on employment and ownership of real estate applied only to citizens of Japanese origin. Perhaps the status of Americans of Caribbean or African origin might not exceed that of those who were enslaved in the North American Mainland.
Frequent horrors against other American minorities, such as the Calle de Los Negros riot of 1871 which was a racial massacre that occurred on October 24, 1871, in Los Angeles, California, when a mob of around 500 White and Hispanic persons entered Old Chinatown and attacked, bullied, robbed, and murdered Chinese residents. Residents of the San Francisco Chinatown suffered greatly in many ways, financial and legal. Chinese Americans and immigrants were assaulted, murdered, and stripped of civil rights for a good part of the 19th century and were refused entry or deported until 1943.
There was the 1887 Hell’s Canyon Massacre of Chinese miners in Oregon or to the others. If we’re to assert a “theory” of history shouldn’t it be able to explain the status of today’s Chinese American citizens which may be considerably better than that of African Americans on average?
I’m not denying such factors as the Tulsa riot or Chicago or East St Louis, inter alia, only that there are many of them at work and always have been but the effects of similar causes may vary and that doesn’t support the theory as well as it might.
Certainly, the centuries of massacred Native American villages and the virtual incarcerations into reservations has had a huge effect on most tribes, but as you hear on TV: “your experience may differ” and when it comes to dollar-denominated justice the accounting cannot be simple or rightly called Justice For Tulsa, for Los Angeles or for minority or disadvantaged Americans in general. It’s not that simple.
Can we take a break from shouting about how bad it once was and look at what’s changed, how much it’s changed, and what we hope to see in the future? Is anyone doing that, or willing to do it?
Might I propose that the wealth gap and other conditions between immigrants and the majority might be about more factors that we can either count or ascribe to a riot of 100 years ago? No, it’s not theory, it’s a conjectural hypothesis and a hyperbolic one at that considering the many factors that history offers us. Raising money makes it a sales pitch: a series of talking points with prefabricated defenses. A political assertion defended by an accusation of racism and conspiracy by the government of White People.
I’m certainly not suggesting we not attempt anything to improve social and economic mobility for all who might benefit. Quite the opposite. There are a number of “teach a man to fish” opportunities that should, over time, make things better. Things like access to education; trade schools and perhaps government employment to suggest a few. Things that don’t involve punishing people for their race, fostering anger and disunity, and blame. But as has been said by smarter people than I, the notion that something has to be done is, as likely as not, to produce many a bad measure. Looking at the mood of activists today, that possibility is real.
Injustice can last a very long time. Culpability blurs and fades and becomes irrelevant. That’s why there are statutes of limitation. Anger lasts longer than mountains and that’s why we need to offer opportunities to all, justice to all, and freedom to all – that this passion does not vanish in hate and disunity.
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One final note and I will shut up. The Europeans who traversed the Atlantic Ocean to this land and so arrogantly claimed it to be their country did so with an abominable amount of savagery and disregard for human life that it is difficult today to hold them in such an honored position. Of course, they were following their own cultural beliefs of superiority over everything and everyone. Much of the problem was and still is, due to their religious beliefs that somehow their God and his son were caucasian and not a Middle Eastern Jew if they actually existed at all simply shouts out their ignorance.
AYUP. just this week, some nuclear grade asshole of a gooper actually said that the US had no one here before the white man came and took land. He was dragged on twitter.
That was the disgusting Rick Santorum. CNN fired him over that despicable remark.
Thanks for reminder. Ty and I went at the asscrack of dawn to the National cemetery here and I am exhausted with the crying I did. I seriously wish all this fighting would stop. Fighting for peace is like fucking for virginity, as that magnificent bastard George Carlin said many moons ago.
I used to believe in fighting for peace, and then, following a 3-year stint in the US Army, as well as about 30 years more living, I find I believe what that magnificent bastard said…
Recently and just before I wrote that, I watched a PBS special about Chinese immigrants from the 1860s on. Although it wasn’t all news to me, the extent of the brutality and racism was. For about 100 years after the Exclusion Act Chinese were forbidden entry, Large numbers of people were deported, American born and foreign born and citizens regardless of the constitutions. Refused admission to public schools, forbidden to own property, excluded from a great many jobs. Neighborhoods were burned, Lynching of large numbers went on and no, we didn’t learn about it in school. It’s ironic that for the last two days, we’ve been entertained with ads for the CNN special about Tulsa as though everything you need to know about racial problems in this country were contained therein and there has been no news since. I have tremendous sympathy for Minorities who have been abused here and the many more who have been abused abroad. It’s been an ugly and nasty world for a long time, but the practice of addressing a continuing problem in a competitive way is disturbing. There is no war between various disadvantaged minorities that should interfere with looking at history in a competitive way. I see racism and xenophobia as all one piece It’s absolutely possible to accept what was done to many parts of our population and to be in sympathy and to want to make sure it ends and never happens again without competing to declare who is the most victimized. To paraphrase what someone said, “whatever you do to the least of us, you do to all of us.”
But not only can we not fix the past, the attempt has been a major cause of war and violence forever. We need to look at the future. We need to accept progress for one group as progress for us all and stop fighting with each other as though it is about ratings and not justice.
Well written Glenn. I can only speculate based on the environment in which I was raised. Deep South Alabama, which has always been in a race to the bottom of the intellectual scale with Mississippi. I am not sure but I think Alabama has edged out a win over Mississippi and Georgia. I don’t think I ever met a minority other than a black person or a few Native Americans until I was out of high school. Although I am not sure that makes any difference in terms of defining a variable in your definition of a theory. However, when one views the origin of the various races there is a bit of clarity as to their present situation. Asian Americans who make up roughly 5.5% of the current population came from countries with stable civilizations with long histories of culture and discipline. Those of Hispanic origins from relativity chaotic and poor cultures as did those of the Black race.
It is clear even today that many of those from people from Asia often arrive with support from their home countries to come here and start businesses. That is why we see such large numbers of Indians, for example, in the motel/hotel business and the convenience store businesses. There is also a much different type of work ethic. Several families from India and Pakistan pooled their resources and sent relatives to the U.S. to start businesses. The Koreans, Chinese, and Japanese have simply outworked and out-educated Americans. My adopted granddaughter from China is two grades ahead of her American counterparts and though small is a dynamic basketball player. Her life revolves around her family, her studies, and basketball. She was adopted at 13 months old from an orphanage after being left by the roadside.
When we look at the truly poor in America they are almost always white, black, or Hispanic. Most do not have the same kind of backup system that the Middle Eastern or the Asian have. Or it may be that they simply work harder to overcome their situations. In any event, as a country, America is slowly turning browner which is frightening the crap out of white supremacists. By 2060 America will be less than 50% white and maybe things will settle down a bit. Sadly, unless there is something to reincarnation I will not be around to see the outcome.
Absolutely right about current immigrants who arrive with family assistance and money and education. That is true of many Africans and Caribbeans and Asians. But back when they were building the railroads and the West was wild the mostly Southern Chinese came with nothing and were often in debt. The only worse off people were slaves. I just think it’s time to pay attention to the huge differences today and stop pretending nothing has changed, that the “system” is permanently rigged. Playing up events of a hundred to 400 years ago is intended to maintain the rage which maintains the contributions and minimizes progress.
No disagreement here. This is especially true for those of African heritage who have “made it big”. There is something to be said for those who forget from whence they came. Many of them do reach out to help, but not nearly enough. It isn’t always just about the money but about setting the tone for future generations of their own race. What is it that should be expected of those who rise on the backs of their own people. Those of the “Hip Hop” culture. The R. Kellys, P. Daddy, 50 cents, etc. Instead of setting a tone of civilized behavior, they publicize the violence, misogyny, glamorization, of the pimp lifestyle. It is difficult to reconcile those behaviors with the distortion of the real people of the black culture. Society forgets that for that thousand on the street rioting there are five times that many not there because they are working or staying home with families. We have members of the BLM who are pushing for something they already have if they just work at it. Then members of the white supremacist’s organizations are committing acts and then pointing at the blacks. Everyone needs to step back and look at what is really going on. A few errant police officers who make bad decisions should not condemn them all. But, with the politicians like Trump and his Trumpians constantly stirring the pot this soup will never be done.
They believed that abomination they call The Bible gave them half a planet as their New Jerusalem. One of the first acts was killing the natives and killing other Christians too since there never has been a single thing called Christianity and never will be.
Look up the Boston Martyrs, four Quakers hanged there for preaching that pacifist faith in 1659. They were considered by law to be “Heinous Heretics” like Jews.
But that was their world. This is our world and doing things like passing the Voting rights act makes a difference and spending two weeks shouting Tulsa- Tulsa has no purpose but to pump up the anger and ramp up the donations.
Could not agree more, although Farcebook would call it Hate Speech and block you.
What he said. WHAT, it’s only mimosas with breakfast causing my silence.
LOL!! I used to do that when I lived in the Keys. Pretty much every Sunday a ‘friend’ and I would meet at the Hilton, right on the pier, and drink Mimosas until we were quite blind 🙂