"EQUALITY AND INNOCENCE"

“EQUALITY AND INNOCENCE”

            Many of us are in the middle of a national reckoning on the history and current strength of the power of racism and the white supremacy that is the foundation for it.  Some of us continue to be in denial, and some of us amazed that we are even having the conversations, and some of us are glad that we finally seem to be taking much needed steps.  The power of race is both resistant and resilient, and it is boosted by two parts of the American experience. 

            First, we have the powerful idea of equality in our national DNA, the idea that all people are created with equal dignity.  We inherited part of this dynamic from our European ancestors, and we found that some of the peoples living on the land, like the Iroquois, also had this idea and had baked it into their social structures.  Our European ancestors took this idea of equality and developed it.  This idea of equality was originally meant only for propertied white men, but it is such a powerful idea that white men cannot control it.  Women heard it and believed it.  Those designated as “Black” heard it and believed it.  LatinX folk heard it and believed it.  LGBTQ folk heard it and believed it.  Indigenous people heard it and believed it.

            This idea of equality caused those of us classified as “white” in USA to refine the system of race and white supremacy.  Europeans brought the idea of “whiteness” with them to these shores, but it is a category that consistently changes as it needs to.  People of Irish descent were not seen as “white” when they came to USA – it would be the late 1800’s before Irish people were seen as “white.”  Because of white supremacy, we developed a hierarchy of humanity that would seem to be at odds with the idea of equality.   To paraphrase from George Orwell’s “Animal Farm,” we came up with the idea that some humans were more equal than others, and the “others” were primarily Black and Indigenous peoples, now known as BIPOC.  One reason that white supremacy has such a strong hold on our hearts is that those of us classified as “white” felt the need to downgrade the humanity of the “other,” so that the idea of equality would not apply to them.  It is the system of race baked into our individual and national consciousness. 

There is no better example of this paradox than the life of Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence, who also was holding people as slaves even as he wrote, and even as he raped one of those held as a slave.  Jefferson did not grant freedom to those held as slaves at his death – he freed only those who were children of Sally Hemmings.  That freedom came at the price of her continuing to act like she was submitting to him. “Sally’s Choice” – a novel equivalent to “Sophie’s Choice” – no choice at all.

The second part of the American experience that makes the struggle with racism so deep and difficult is the idea of innocence in our history.   The Europeans who came to this land felt that they were leaving a class-bound, unequal society, and they saw themselves starting over in this new land.  The idea was to start a new society, a new Israel (as so many preachers and writers put it), where the natural goodness of humanity could prevail over old, tired Europe.  In our Anglo excitement, we even believed that the land belonged to us, that we had “discovered” it.  As Robert Frost put it in 1960 at John Kennedy’s inauguration from his poem “The Gift Outright”. “The land was ours before we were the land’s….”  It is known as American exceptionalism, and at its heart is the idea of a new society, a new construction of human life forever.  It is a powerful story, but it is not the truth.

            As we are being reminded yet once again, there were already people living here when the European ancestors arrived.  They were terrorized and killed and removed from the land.  We brought others here, most especially people from Africa, to work the land and the factories and build up our wealth.  If we have to confront and acknowledge this legacy, those of us classified as “white” will have to give up this story of innocence, of a new world.  We have heard this narrative of truth many times in our history, but we have always rejected it in the end.  Let us hope that this time is different.  Let us hope and work so that this time, we can actually celebrate and incorporate the idea of equality in our hearts, in our structures, in our institutions. 

            The variety of the human family is deep and powerful.  Let us embrace that idea rather than the idea of innocence built on a hierarchy of humanity.  Let those of us classified as “white” hear that we too can find life in a world built not on a hierarchy of humanity, but rather on the radical and powerful idea of equality.  It calls to us still.  Let us embrace it so that it can bring life to everyone.  As we think about or national heritage this week, let this be our guide.