A POLITICAL ACCOUNT: A step off in the right direction Part 2

Let’s get into it — it’s the donkey in the room — we still have a race issue in this nation and it’s not going away anytime soon.

Nowhere else in the world is there as racially

diverse a nation as the United States. It can be argued that European nations have quickly approached similar numbers per capita, but those nations were built on a national identity first and only in the past five decades have we seen an influx in immigration that is responsible for propping up those numbers.

Here’s the root of the problem as I see it:

Predominantly English, our founding fathers constructed a nation which was intended for the freedoms of all individuals — as long as you were also English (not white, English). Most of these men would have been considered the aristocrats of the American colonies at the time.

With that, came an imperialist attitude. I mean, why not? Why wouldn’t they think this way? No nation in history had ever allowed or conceptualized a different race and/or culture infiltrating their populations and marketplaces without the threat of war.

The French were our neighbors at the time, separated by the proclamation line of 1763 that was a result of the Seven Years War that spanned multiple continents, and yet there was no commingling of the two nations. There was only a bilateral idea of cooperation built on a mutual benefit (the American Revolution); once achieved, the two nations continued their solidarity and separation.

Within the newly formed United States, there was a smattering of Dutch and Hessians, but mostly English. The way American citizens had identified themselves — as Americans first — created a common unity (although contentious at times during the Constitutional Convention) that led to the creation of our Bill of Rights and a parchment of ideas that has become our Constitution and the true symbol of the free world.

Did you notice that I left out Native Americans and African slaves?

Sorry about that. Let’s give our founding fathers a little credit, maybe like three-fifths credit .… Oh that’s right, we counted our “total” population by taxation (those who paid taxes), and threw a bone to the southern states by counting their living, breathing, personal property (slaves) at 60 percent of a person.

Native American and didn’t pay taxes?

Sorry, you weren’t a person at all.

I’m not a psychiatrist, sociologist, or contractor qualified to provide the following statement — what I am is a great believer in common sense, and my common sense would indicate — that any foundation that has been laid incorrectly, will inevitably crumble. And it has — more than once.

But let’s not lose hope here. Remember that piece of parchment I mentioned earlier? One of its greatest qualities is that it has an ability to morph, change, evolve into what we have become and what we are becoming.

Speaking in historical terms about race relations and identifying origins, most of us would be inclined to jump right into the issue of slavery and the can that was kicked down the road by our founding fathers.

The truth, often forgotten, stems from much earlier: this was not virgin soil when Europeans landed on Plymouth Rock. Colonialism was an expansion of power through a land-grab and subjugation of all indigenous people for the purposes of

exploiting untapped resources. The colonists at the time saw the Native populous as barbaric and socially backward and this ethnocentric idealism produced a mistrust and a “divine need” to assimilate an entire culture that — in my opinion — still continues to this day.

When the Native Americans pushed back against this threat, they were quickly assessed as both an enemy of the newly formed nation and a roadblock to our manifest destiny. The Iroquois League had a name for George Washington, “Conotocarius,” which translates to “destroyer of towns (villages).”

For most (including me), it is difficult to paint some of our historical heroes in this light, but denying this truth is the very reason for our continued racial divide.

In the past couple of years we have watched universities change names of buildings, and the defacing and destruction of statues of those associated with racism as we define it today. To me, this is a very dangerous practice, given the perception of today is not the same perception throughout history. If we wipe away the symbolism of some of these figures, we wipe away the very history that has led us to where we are. As with all things, we need to take the bad along with the good so we can learn to not repeat the same mistakes of our past.

“Perception” is the key word here. If we couple that term with “social norms,” we can begin to fully appreciate the gravity of what shackles our minds in making progress.

But, what is progress?

In part 3, I will evaluate that question and attempt to provide the very perception that has produced movements such as Black Lives Matter and Me Too, and the daily claims that our president is racist.