Author Dr. Robert Saul

Raising Young Citizens in the Age of Columbine

How the word is not passed

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“Our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white – separate and unequal.” The Kerner Commission, 1968

My previous discussions of the book by Clint Smith (HOW THE WORD IS PASSED: A RECKONING WITH THE HISTORY OF SLAVERY ACROSS AMERICA) reminded me of the need to continue and probe – to probe history and to learn from it; to probe history and not let it be ignored; to probe history and bring it to light in modern times; to probe history and use it for good.1-3

Well, such probing brought me to the books of Isabel Wilkerson.4,5   I have previously discussed her most recent book and its profound impact.6-8 In brief, the main point in CASTE is racism in America and shows that it is more than just skin color and how it serves to reenforce stereotypes which drive social behavior and the pernicious exclusion of certain groups based on the biases of those in power.

What I am leading up to with mentioning HOW THE WORD IS PASSED and CASTE is that I am still concerned (even more so than before) with our inability to use history to the betterment of our society.  The current trend with the current administration is to reshape history or to purposely bury it.  The examples of the latter two methods are too numerous to count.

Having just finished Wilkerson’s THE WARMTH OF OTHER SUNS: THE EPIC STORY OF AMERICA’S GREAT MIGRATION, I am further convinced of the need for so much more introspection.9  I was not aware of so many events that demonstrate our cruelty toward each other and our inability to rectify those issues.

  • The Detroit riots – Rioting for almost a week in 1943 left 34 dead and over one thousand wounded.
  • The Groveland 4 – in 1949, four men were falsely accused of rape and assault. One was killed before getting to jail.  Three were sentenced to death.  One of the three was already in custody at the time of the alleged crime so he was retried and sentenced to life in prison!  The other two were eventually shot by the sheriff when he transported them for a retrial – one died and the other played dead and survived. The state of Florida vacated the convictions, but 70 years later.
  • The Cicero riots – precipitated by a black family moving into a Chicago suburb in 1951, white mobs wreaked havoc over 4 days. One hundred and eighteen men were arrested, and none were indicted.  It took more than six hundred guardsmen, police officers and sheriff deputies to quell the riot.

These isolated incidents and more demonstrate the undertow of tension and dissent amongst ethnic groups in our society.  So much of it later came to a boil in the 1960’s leading to the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, commissioned by President Johnson and chaired by Otto Kerner of Illinois.  Now known at the Kerner Commission, the report had one basic conclusion – our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white – separate and unequal.10

Some will argue at this point that the above conclusion is a moot point.  Well, they miss the point.  The physical proximities of ethnic groups have changed some but the disparities that led to the Kerner Commission’s conclusion are unchanged – unequal earning potential, unequal food distribution, unequal housing, unequal health care, unequal education, unequal civic representation, unequal environmental exposures – in vast swaths of our country.  It is these disparities that perpetuate discontent and resentment.  The trickle-down effect of vast income inequality only aggravates the disparities.

Unequal justice is another significant factor. As Bryan Stevenson of the Equal Justice Initiative rightfully points out, “the opposite of poverty is not wealth; the opposite of poverty is justice.” Unequal justice is the breeding ground for continued unrest.11

The above discussion implies that disparities in America are purely a black/white issue.  Other marginalized groups (other ethnicities, special needs, sexual orientation) suffer from the same issues that the Kerner Commission reported back in the 20th century.

So, the question then is – How has the word been passed?  Have we looked at the reports of major governmental inquiries and have we learned from the lessons of past to improve the lot of our fellow citizens and overall improve our society?  I contend that the word has not been passed well.  If we are honest, we have turned a blind eye, not passing the word in an honest and coherent manner.

We can never cease to review what we have done, what we did well and what we need to improve.  An honest and humble assessment will always reveal that we need to do more to improve.  We need to do a better job of passing the word so we can be better stewards of our society.

 

 

  1. https://mychildrenschildren.com/the-gaps-that-should-be-filled/
  2. https://mychildrenschildren.com/gaps-in-our-past-history-or-nostalgia/
  3. Smith C. How the Word is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America. Little, Brown and Company, 2021. 336 pp.
  4. Wilkerson I: Caste: The Origins of our Discontents. Random House; 2020. 476 pp.
  5. Wilkerson I. The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group; 2011. 641 pp.
  6. https://mychildrenschildren.com/caste-a-purposeful-system-of-exclusion-part-i/
  7. https://mychildrenschildren.com/caste-inaction-is-action-part-ii/
  8. https://mychildrenschildren.com/caste-what-now-part-iii/
  9. https://mychildrenschildren.com/arent-we-all-midwives/
  10. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerner_Commission
  11. https://mychildrenschildren.com/the-injustices-of-poverty/