The Soul Of A Nation
Can the soul of something that hasn’t existed for its entirety now be fought over? This is the question I keep coming back to when it comes to the United States.
One of the popular talking points during the past two days from pundits on a number of different cable tv networks has been the fight over or for the “soul of the nation” as far as the outcome of the election goes. What that means I don’t know exactly, but the talking point has been one that has peaked my attention.
While this is more than likely hyperbole it makes you wonder, if the soul of the nation is at stake during this election than what was at stake in 2016 or as far back as 1876? The soul of the nation or a call for a return to normalcy is more about continuing systematic racism and oppression of groups than a want for decency in our politicians.
It disturbs me when we frame the last four years of Trump as something unique to United States political history. Donald Trump may be a racist but no more racist than the many American politicians who came before him. Strom Thurmond, South Carolina senator who carried out a 24-hour filibuster to prevent the passage of the 1957 Civil Rights Act. President Woodrow Wilson who screened the movie “Birth of A Nation” at the White House. Newspapers in both the early 1900s and then again in 1929 publishing the poem “Niggers In the White House” in response to black Americans being invited to the Oval office.
The United States has always been a soulless nation built on white supremacy and the exploitation of black and poor labor. So why now is there a want to rectify such humble and consistent beginnings? The country did not seem to be concerned about if it had a soul or not when the country was - enslaving black people, segregating black people and very recently justifying state sanctioned murder of black people but having a split electorate for a polarizing President is what does it for many.
The soul of the nation should’ve been fought for and settled more than 150 years ago, after the Confederate states succeeded from the Union and a war to protect state’s rights (ability to have slaves) was fought on its soil.
But it didn’t. And for the last 155 years the United States has tried to bandage social issues that needed surgery culminating in the Presidency of Barack Obama which was suppose to enter us into the “post racial” era. Eight years later and the winner of the Presidential election secondary campaign slogan was, “Mexican are rapists”
The soul of the nation isn’t at stake because it was never there to begin with and getting back to normal is a non starter. What was normal for many Americans was racism and oppression for others and that can’t be accepted any longer. If the U.S. won’t try to make amends for it’s original sin, enslavement of African people and the subsequent treatment of their descendants it will continue to find itself in a struggle for togetherness and unity as. a whole.