Books that address our changing culture now
M. Scott Peck was a theologian and psychiatrist whose
words over three decades ago seemed applicable to a
tiny slice of America. Now, those same words outline
clearly a sizable chunk of our country and the
psychological deficiencies that fit the descriptions
he gave.
Now that racism has come out of the closet, there is the
question of how to approach it. As black folks, many of
us have been waiting too long to turn big, bright lights
on it. Something so big, that we have been walking around,
climbing over and burdened under all of our lives – we want
to expose all the ugly, huge extent of it. Blacks are too (?)
angry about it and naturally want to throw it in the faces of
those who’ve taken advantage of us, dismissed us and
simply lied about us. Especially those who’ve accepted the
lies unquestioningly. Whites, say they feel suddenly exposed
and wanting to not be blamed for accepting “privileges”
that they didn’t realize are not afforded everyone.
Confrontation rarely causes people to immediately give in,
admit guilt and sin no more. Trying to convince, educate and
persuade really rankles many black folks. “Why should I have
to teach you how to not be prejudiced?”, they moan. And they
are right. Fairness, empathy and truthfulness are the expected
behaviors that mark one as human. How do you get people to
recognize the suffering of others and actively work to correct
the laws and social customs that cause it?
Author Celeste Headlee has some great ideas. She focuses on a
logical and valuable technique for getting people to change their
minds. It’s a tool that all of us can use. One wants to do what works
so that we can quickly reduce the spread of racism by those who
use it as a political tool.
“Race makes itself known in crisis, in the singular event that captures a larger pattern of abuse and pain,” writes author Jeff Chang (Can’t Stop Won’t Stop, Who We Be) in the introduction to a series of essays on the significance of ongoing police shootings, social inequities, housing discrimination and campus diversity.
As an historian, Chang helps us focus on the broader picture (and effects) of the long-term system of racism and how it has played out and continues to develop in our country. Chang touches on Trump’s speech in Mesa, Arizona (December, 2015), demonstrations in Ferguson, MO (where he was arrested for participating) on the anniversary of Michael Brown’s death, and the effects of gentrification to produce a powerful punch through the veil of denial that shrouds and nurtures systemic racism.
“They Can’t Kill Us All; Ferguson, Baltimore, and a New Era in America’s Racial Justice Movement
By Wesley Lowery, Publisher: Little, Brown.
Something big is happening across the country and Washington post reporter, Wesley Lowery, is documenting it. From Baltimore to Oakland, Ferguson to New York, Seattle to Miami, unarmed black men and women are being killed by the police. The stories are starting to sound the same. The policmen “thought” they saw a gun, which turned out to be a book, a cell phone or simply a hand. Guns and knives were “found” near the body but many victims were shot in the back. Two weeks pass, the story falls out of the headlines, the world moves on. The story repeats itself in another city, with another mother’s son or daughter and another community is devastated and hardened.
Wesley Lowery has conducted hundreds of interviews, following these shootings during 2014 and 2015 from city to city. Against the backdrop of the first African American president, these shootings are increasing. Many were documented in cell phone videos yet 97% of these killings resulted in no charges against the police.
Mr. Lowery is a member of his newspaper’s Pulitzer prize-winning team and focuses in with precision clarity on a wave of assaults against the black body that Ta-Nehisi Coates outlined earlier in his book, “Between the World and Me”.
Michele Alexander is a lawyer, legal scholar, advocate and author who has written a comprehensive, well-researched examination of what is happening to our young men and women, to our families, to our future generations at the hands of the criminal justice system.
It seems that nearly every black family has a child, cousin, nephew or uncle who has been incarcerated. It’s happening to our college students, business professionals, working dads & mothers, drug involved and not. At every level, all over the country, black men, in particular, have been stopped and questioned multiple times. Now, that level of intrusion into black life is resulting in more than overwhelming legal costs and delayed goals for families. The fact that our men are constantly being sought out for examination of their being, is resulting in staggering numbers of deaths. We can no longer blame it on the boys, the neighborhood, our color. It is way bigger than that. We need to understand exactly what is happening and why. You cannot negotiate with an enemy that you cannot identify. This book identifies the problem AND the solutions.
Jarvious Cotton cannot vote. Like his father, grandfather, great-grandfather, and great-great-grandfather, he has been denied the right to participate in our electoral democracy. Cotton’s family tree tells the story of several generations of black men who were born in the United States but who were denied the most basic freedom that democracy promises—the freedom to vote for those who will make the rules and laws that govern one’s life. Cotton’s great-great-grandfather could not vote as a slave. His great-grandfather was beaten to death by the Ku Klux Klan for attempting to vote. His grandfather was prevented from voting by Klan intimidation. His father was barred from voting by poll taxes and literacy tests. Today, Jarvious Cotton cannot vote because he, like many black men in the United States, has been labeled a felon and is currently on parole.
Cotton’s story illustrates, in many respects, the old adage “The more things change, the more they remain the same.” In each generation, new tactics have been used for achieving the same goals—goals shared by the Founding Fathers. Denying African Americans citizenship was deemed essential to the formation of the original union. Hundreds of years later, America is still not an egalitarian….(read more….)
