The history of racial and ethnic strife in the United States, in particular the treatment and status of those citizens of African descent, is long and complex. Other groups can claim being treated poorly from time to time but no other group has as consistently, pervasively, and with as grave of consequences been mistreated as African Americans. My own Dutch ancestors could claim certain indignities by the English in the late 1600’s. My German ancestors faced prejudicial treatment leading up to and during World War I. Catholics, Jews, Mormons, Eastern Europeans, the Slavic peoples, Middle Easterners, Latinos, virtually any and every ethnic or religious grouping present in the United States for any amount or time and in any appreciable numbers has faced discrimination or other indignities at one time or another. None of these peoples’ struggles compare in magnitude and scope to that faced by African-Americans throughout our history, nor the still present negative consequences of past and present conditions. The only group whose history even arguably begins to compare is the plight of the indigenous peoples of the Americas, and their suffers are not of the same scope perhaps only by virtue of their relatively small numbers.
The country started out with the declaration, ” We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” A little over a decade later, when the country was duly constituted, the founding document at the very least tolerated the enslavement of millions of African-Americans in the Southern States, in direct contrast to the lofty ideals of the original declaration.
Our country, in a war I think unmatched in history, saw the North go to war against the South largely to try to right the wrong written into the Constitution. For whatever failings we have, and there were and are many, the ideal was not stamped out. Our nation was instrumental in the defeat of the two great scourges of the 20th Century, Soviet Marxism and Nazi Fascism. A telling illustration of how much of the rest of the world views the freedoms we enjoy in the United States is the fact there is a debate here about how and/or if to keep foreign nationals from entering our country, while in Asia the other great superpower, Communist China, has no such problem. No one, except corporations looking for cheap labor, is fighting to get in. In fact, the ethnic Chinese people of Hong Kong and Taiwan are doing all they can to not be completely swallowed up.
Make America Great Again
Which brings us to the first slogan, Make America Great Again. For many white Americans this slogan may simply conjure up vague images of a return to an idealized past. A slogan geared to national renewal and rebirth, a recommitment to “American Values.” But whether or not the slogan was intended to be a “dog whistle,” when many African Americans hear that slogan I think they see it as a veiled call to return to a time when racial discrimination against them was more pervasive, more universal, more pronounced, to a time before we had a president of African descent, before the Civil Rights Movement, a time of Jim Crow and legalized segregation. To many African Americans, the slogan Make America Great Again, could be translated into put Blacks back in their place again. I don’t think that is what comes to mind when most “Trump supporters,” as some in the media like to derisively call those who voted for President Trump, hear the slogan. But certainly some do.
The slogan “make America great again” can be compared, admittedly imperfectly, to another phrase that I heard often growing up. That phrase is “the neighborhood changed.” This phrase was very popular in describing urban and sometimes suburban neighborhoods that went from predominantly white to predominantly African American. The euphemistic phrase’s implications and meaning was clear to both whites and African Americans, this was a great neighborhood until the African Americans moved in. Many African Americans resent the phrase, and for good reason. The counter to the sentiment behind the phrase was the claim “white flight” destroyed these neighborhoods, the idea that racist whites leaving when African Americans moved in was what caused all the problems. Many white Americans resent the implications of this phrase as well.
In reality, I think both the idea that African Americans moving in or whites fleeing in reaction causing the decline of so many urban and suburban neighborhoods is a gross simplification, confusing causes and effects. Our cities have been plagued by so many issues that go way beyond racial strife. So many of our urban areas grew remarkedly fast in the early 1900’s and through to just after World War II. Most of these neighborhoods where densely packed, poorly planned and constructed, and mixed residential, commercial, and industrial uses in close proximity to each other. As newer housing was continuously added on the periphery, especially with the construction of the interstates, those who could afford to move more often than not did. Left behind was an overabundance of housing stock, and commercial real estate, much of it becoming economically unviable. Economic competition becoming more global only magnified the problems. Left were those who couldn’t afford to leave or those who migrated and immigrated in to fill the void. Racial issues, and those seeking to benefit from racial animosities, further exasperated the problems in these neighborhoods, but it didn’t create them. People also often have a skewed memory of the neighborhoods they grew up in, either romanticizing them or painting them in an overly negative way. How we see neighborhoods of our youth changing is a symptom of that.
In many ways America is the greatest country that ever was, in large part because of the diversity of its population and freedoms promised in our Constitution. But no one should suffer under the misperception that its greatness is complete, or its promised freedoms always universally and evenly available to its many peoples. Such is not the case. The greatness of America is not something to be returned to but something to be realized in more fully in the future.
Black Lives Matter
Which brings us to the second slogan, Black Lives Matter. Whatever anyone, including African Americans, may think of the organization “Black Lives Matter,” the slogan resonates with so many African Americans because historically and in the present time too many don’t feel as if they have had or presently have a voice that is heard. Too many feel that their lives don’t matter in the national narrative. Some may seek, and have sought, to turn the slogan into a weapon against President Trump, but the sentiments swirling around the issues unarguably predate President Trump. We need only remember Ferguson Missouri and Trayvon Martin during the Obama Administration. The issues go way beyond the short attention span of our present political narratives and crosses political divisions.
I don’t believe it is loss on African-Americans living in Minneapolis at the time of George Floyd’s death, that theirs was a city with a Democratic Mayor; all Democratic City Council; a Democratic congresswoman born in Africa; in a state with an Attorney General who is African American, Muslim and a former representative of the city of Minneapolis; a Democratic Governor; and that produced a leading Democratic presidential candidate and former Senator who had been a county prosecutor in Minneapolis’ home county. Virtually all the relevant locally elected officials were Democrats. So why when the videos of George Floyd’s death began circulating, did those African American citizens express so adamantly the concern that, at the very least, their voices were not being heard, their issues addressed? Certainly, our popular culture is not devoid of African Americans of immense popularity who seemingly have a platform, both then and now. Certainly, the votes of African Americans have been responsible for putting countless elected officials into office. So why would so many African Americans feel that in this country Black lives don’t matter?
In my mind, in the current political climate, there are two complimentary reasons why Black lives, in the form of African American votes, don’t matter. Or more precisely don’t accrue the benefit to African Americans that they should. In general terms, too many Democratic politicians take these votes for granted and too many Republican politicians either are too ignorant or too disinterested to compete for their votes. In both cases the parties on a national level are not really sufficiently motivated to do the heavy lifting and actually work to help better the condition of African Americans. One has their votes, one can’t get their votes, what motivates either to continue to work for their votes? Lip service and rallies and speeches and posturing don’t really change much for the better in any material, lasting way, but they do serve to get out the vote.
To say simply “all lives matter” in response to the proclamation “Black lives matter” is to many African Americans a denial that too often and for too long African American lives have mattered too little in our public and private discourse, to a degree unmatched by any other people. It’s a denial of their unique struggle.
Certainly much more can be said on the subjects above then I’ve attempted to say, or been able to articulate. But I do believe that until we really make sense and try to understand in an objective and non-partisan way the resonance both slogans have the country will have a difficult time moving forward and fulfilling its promise to the world.