If Only …

If only Lincoln had not been assassinated and able to serve his second term, America could have been put back together, divisions healed, and the former slaves truly granted their constitutional rights. Regrettably, Johnson, Lincoln’s successor, ceded control back to southern land barons and ex-confederate leaders ensuring that Reconstruction would continue to oppress an entire race for generations. If only the duly elected Black leaders of Wilmington, NC had not been overthrown in 1898 and massacred in a coup by Whites, other cities would have had a model of Black leadership to emulate. If only Woodrow Wilson had not showcased that damn racist film “Birth of a Nation” in the White House, the dormant KKK would not have been resurrected to torture and spread fear and hate in the 20th century.  Wilson also deliberately re-segregated the federal government.

If only the traditions of the unpopulated western territories had been left unchanged after the Civil War during the march toward statehood. For example, traders historically dealt with, and lived peacefully among, Indians, Mexicans, Blacks and foreign adventurers. Even a third of cowboys were black, according to Heather Cox Richardson, author of How the South Won the Civil War. Southerners who migrated west introduced their brand of racism against blacks that replaced peaceful coexistence.

If only Franklin Roosevelt had extended his benevolent approach to restoring dignity to people traumatized by the Depression to blacks, equality could have been baked into the New Deal programs. Ironically, FDR’s agriculture secretary and later wartime vice president, Henry Wallace, along with Eleanor Roosevelt, saw the need for civil rights and equality for blacks much better than FDR. They were downright radical with their talk of social justice and threatening to the status quo. If only the Democratic party establishment leaders had not insisted on replacing progressive Wallace with forgettable hat salesman Truman for FDR’s fourth term vice president when FDR was dying, we might have had a post-WWII revolution regarding race relations.

The innumerable 20th century lynchings celebrated by whites who mutilated the corpses and took body parts as trophies were a national disgrace but hardly mentioned by whites. Prominent black leaders were relegated to token status as exceptions to an entire race by the white establishment — Frederick Douglas, Booker T. Washington (who allowed for discrimination in exchange for the right to be educated), and the uncompromising W.E.B. Du Bois. Later, leaders who demanded equality were assassinated — several in the 1950’s and 1960’s (from Rev. George Lee, Medgar Evers, the three civil rights activists murdered by the KKK in Mississippi — Chaney, Goodman & Schwerner — Malcom X, and Martin Luther King, Jr.).

If only Barrack Obama on his watch, as the pioneer president of color, had forced on us a reckoning for America’s original sin — slavery — we might have made progress. He might have been a one-term president (fulfilling Mitch McConnell’s wish). Instead of getting little done due to Republican resistance, he could have undertaken initiatives (perhaps through Executive Orders) to undo generations of post-Civil War white reactionary traditions, state Jim Crow laws (now codified as contemporary voter suppression laws), lynchings, imprisonment to sustain indentured workers (the current international disgrace of American incarceration rates), and theft of black-owned land and businesses (reparations).

Taking to the Streets

I blame lack of political will and whites unwilling to share the riches of our nation to explain the missed opportunities to do better . Historic white dominance is waning in multicultural America. By the year 2045, the majority is estimated to become the minority race. Brown and black Americans are growing intolerant of being told to “wait,” “now is not the time,” or “change must be incremental.” Scared whites are hoping to postpone or deny the inevitable. (Can that fear be exploited one more time to win a presidential election?)

The uninterrupted procession of black folks murdered by police compels action. Finally, Americans have taken to the streets, an honored protest tradition. No more waiting. What a summer 2020 has been! The protests have been the one bright spot in this pandemic-shrouded country.

Mass protest is the only method that captures the attention of politicians driven more by fundraisers than principles or service to powerless, vulnerable people. Politicians had better notice that whites have joined, and swollen the ranks of, Black Lives Matter. Blacks cannot be so easily be marginalized when non-blacks march by their side.

After every shooting, we hope that this case is “the one,” the exemplar that breaks resistance to change by the triumvirate — abusive police, enabling district attorneys and pro-law enforcement judges.  At least that’s what everyone seeking social justice wants to believe. We want the murders to stop. How could one think otherwise?