Here:
There are two basic approaches to America. Either America has always been a great country despite its sins. Or America has yet to be a good country because of its sins.
The Left has convinced a growing number of Americans, especially younger ones, that next to America, there have been few truly evil societies in history. Ours is a racist, genocidal, imperialist nation where the evils of racism, oppression, bigotry and genocide are as much in our national DNA as they were in the DNA of the Nazi Party.
Part of this has been monlithing such sins a racism. Was a time when we understood racial bigotry was bad. More than one American had fought against racism since before America. By the time I came along, racism was clearly a societal no-no. You drop the N-Word in school and it would be off to the principle's office in no time. Though you probably wouldn't have been expelled, had the cops called, or saw the media descend on your school like an armored division. Probably just given a warning and a talking to.
But racial bigotry was merely one of many such foibles. And it was certainly varied. It was understood that to tell a racially insensitive joke, while certainly evidence of the lingering effects of socially accepted racist thinking, was not the same as seizing control of a central European country and mass murdering ethnic minorities in gas chambers. Perhaps you could argue it might lead there, but it wasn't the same.
That is no longer the case. Racism is simply the worst, all defining, unforgivable sin that even Jesus could never forgive. And there are no levels to it. Seize that central European country or drop an N-Word in a 20 year old email, and you're now a racist. Period. End of statement. You could have cured cancer or rescued twenty kids from a burning building. Now you're merely a racist, and that's all you'll ever be. Not a human, an American, a father, or a sister. Racist.
To that end, and based heavily on the Left's push for a world of endless group identity, America is nothing but racist and, therefore, nothing but irredeemable. It's history is one of racism, where every black American lived in the equivalent of an America shaped death camp, and every white American had privilege enjoyed from being racists 24/7. End of template.
Hence, there is no good in America's past. There was only racism, or sexism, homophobia, or whatever you wish to focus on, depending on the group in question. While Haley's is clearly a politically spun recollection, it isn't false. Those were things more than one American would have valued across the demographic board, hence America worked to end such injustices on its own. Nobody had to invade and conquer America to get the US to give women the right to vote, or pass the Civil Rights Act. Yet Ms. King acknowledges none of that. She could have said 'Yes, those things are missing and we could use them again, however there were also problems back then ...'. Or something to that effect.
But nope. It's straight to the bad. Only the bad. Not faith, not country, not family, only racism in our racist nation filled with American racists.
Note also that nothing Nikki Haley said prevents one from acknowledging the sins and failings of the past. Which is a good thing. Goodness knows we are the generation that defines itself by eternal finger pointing at those who came before. But Ms. King's response all but wipes those virtues aside, as if to say yearning for those cannot happen but that we focus exclusively on the sins of our nation. It's either acknowledging sins, or ignoring them by embracing the best. Almost as if the purpose of continually focusing on the sins of the past is specifically for the purpose of getting us to forget the best of the past.
Bernice King is the only one of MLK's children that has a claim to being a serious person. Her remark here is a cheap shot.
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Haley was born in 1972. Life in 1983 was marginally more uncomfortable materially, was degraded in ways life in 1948 hadn't been, and was free of certain pathologies from which we now suffer. The political order is certainly in worse shape and our elites in general are quite awful. Haley's take on matters is too sentiment-driven.
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Bernice King could have reflected on this. Instead, she plays the victim card. Screw her.
I thought Haley could have said a little more, but it was far less problematic than King's 'only the bad' approach that is now far too common, and not just among those who swing left of center.
DeleteIt constantly bugs me how there's this entire thing about we're either in the 1960s/70s - or now. Like if you look back at yesterday, you may as well be looking at the Rosa Parks sitting on a bus. As if there's not 3, 4 or even 5 decades between then and now in which things might have - dare I say it - improved?
ReplyDeleteIt's all so tiresome and frustrating. Because I can remember growing up in the 90s, being hopeful, and thinking I was going to live to see the end of racism just like I got to see communism end and sure the world wasn't going to be perfect, but it was going to be better. We would finally be able to see the humanity in each other.
So please give me a minute to weep over a child's broken and lost dreams.
The 90s, the post-Cold War, is when they began walking back on 'look how much progress we're making!'. When I was a youngster, the uber-message was 'we must put old conflicts behind us.' That was especially important as Japan was trouncing us economically. Time for us to put our grudges with the Japanese over WWII in the past. As you say, up through the 90s the idea that we were improving and getting better and overcoming the sins of the past was still there, but by the end, the shift began (I think the Rodney King/OJ Simpson stories were a big part of this change).
DeleteI'm going to disagree with you there, especially with reference to public discussion. The public discourse between 1977 and 1992 was rife with discussions of social and economic conditions in the black population and had a generally dismayed and pessimistic outlook.
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