Fools' Errand

Find out just what any people will quietly submit to

and you have the exact measure of the injustice and

wrong which will be imposed on them.

--Frederick Douglass                                                

Living in a deeply deep red state is not easy.  At a recent Academic Affairs retreat, the university President opened the morning session by asking, “Has anyone here ever lived in a country under an authoritarian government?”  A few people raised their hand.  For the most part, such questions are usually posed from the perspective of the United States being a free and open society; that democracy and the rule of law are cherished American values.  I chose not to raise my hand or to offer my thoughts out loud. 

My experiences in predominantly white spaces have taught me to avoid falling into the trap of being “the angry black man.”  I have learned to choose my moments to speak out with great care and to seize those moments when they materialize.  Throughout much of the African American experience in this country, the federal, state, county and municipal governments have functioned as brazen authoritarian rulers.  All levels of government have been employed to sustain a suffocating white supremacy behavioral system.  Our only recourse has always been to resist unjust laws.

Our enslaved ancestors understood the true nature of not only the people who owned them, but the society that profited from their enslavement.  One of their folktales ends with this truth, “Dem dogs make them laws and dem dogs break them laws.”  When state legislatures pass laws based on their belief that colleges and universities are “too woke,” or when they redraw voting districts to maintain white power, many of us understand precisely what it means and who is being targeted.  The English Founding Fathers never envisioned an America where white people would no longer constitute the majority or where Spanish would become the most widely spoken language.

What does MAGA really mean?  In Two Nations: Black and White, Separate, Hostile, Unequal, Andrew Hacker writes, “Europeans who colonized the western hemisphere sought to recreate it in their image, and to transform North and South America into ‘white’ continents.  With conquest comes the power to impose your ways on territories you have subdued.  The treatment of the Native Americans simply ratified that view…something can be learned by looking at how ‘white’ was originally conceived, and the changes it has undergone.”

He continues, “Most white Americans believe that for at least the last generation blacks have been given more than a fair chance and at least equal opportunity, if not outright advantages.  Moreover, few white Americans feel obliged to ponder how membership in the major race gives them powers and privileges.”  That this battle to define a 21^st century United States of America is being waged in the schools should surprise no one.  If only black students were taking Black Studies classes, it wouldn’t be a problem.  If only women were taking Women’s Studies classes, it wouldn’t be a problem.

The attacks on Black Studies, Women’s Studies, Latinx Studies, LGBTQ+ Studies, and DEI initiatives are fundamentally the same.  They represent a longing for the “good old days” when lower class whites knew their place, when the savage Indians were out of sight on desolate reservations, when the Blacks were grateful and hidden in plain view, when the Mexicans were in Mexico and the Asians were in Asia, when the LGBTQ+ crowd was in the closet, when women were barefoot and pregnant and white men were firmly in control. 

The MAGA politricks of grievance are fueled by the fear of giving critical thinking skills to young people that would empower them to not only challenge a moribund status quo but to also reject the inherent advantages of white privilege.  Matters of race continue to be the proverbial elephant in the room.  Dressing Jim Crow in a new suit of clothes cannot disguise who he is or who he has always been.  Renaming Jim Crow James cannot and must not fool us into taking our eyes off the real prize.

I opened with the Frederick Douglass quote because 47 and his merry band of MAGA politricksters are trashing precedents and passing laws to determine just what this iteration of the American public “will quietly submit to.”  Douglass also pointed out what continues to be the real issue, “Men talk of the Negro problem.  There is no Negro problem.  The problem is whether the American people have honesty enough, loyalty enough, honor enough, patriotism enough to live up to their Constitution.”

I left the retreat that day understanding why so many people rationalize submission as the right thing to do and knowing there can be no progress without struggle.