I recently read two books back to back that made me realize why conservatives are losing their freaking minds over Critical Race Theory.
Caste:The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson and The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story by Nikole Hannah-Jones lays out the case why America’s feeble attempts at rectifying the wrongs perpetuated on minority communities all too often fail. They really should be read back to back, they will make you stop and think continually as you read them.
Slavery is a foundational principle of the Constitution. The obstacles and roadblocks it throws up continues to hamper our progress as a country. We have hobbled ourselves socially and politically as if carrying a millstone. Do you remember how Jon Stewart used to say the Democratic Party acted as if it were an abused wife to the Republican Party’s abusive husband? From Caste: The origins of our discontents pg. 329:
“A subliminal awareness of the power of caste… appears also to be at work, to whatever degree, in how the parties respond to their respective bases. The Republican reverence for its white evangelical base stands in stark contrast to the indifference often shown the Democratic base of African Americans, who are devalued for a host of reasons, among them their oppressed status at the bottom of the social hierarchy.”
Recent voting numbers indicate The Democratic party is now the dominant party in America, yet we continue to act as subordinate to the Republicans.
This past week, i’ve been roaming you tube for news and came across this video for the new HBO drama The Gilded Age and it hit me. If you’re trying to steal from someone, you’re not going to treat them as people, you’re going to ignore them as if they didn’t exist. from The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story-
“The renowned historian Peter H Wood wrote in a 1999 paper on slavery and denial “After all, as several eminent academics have recently reminded us, ‘nations need to control national memory, because nations keep their shape by shaping their citizen’s understanding of the past” pg xxvii (introduction)
You can’t very well deny a people exist unless you refuse to teach their history. That’s my FP this week. What’s yours?