Racism in America

[dubman]

i get the impression that a lot of our televised history is simply "willed" into existence. if enough people write about a certain sentiment blooming around a period of time, all it needs is traction for people to "remember" it that way, or use that version as the precedent.

so then i start thinking that so many people want this time to be one of those moments. a grandchild-relating, PBS documentary, stirring-soundtrack moment. the moment where not just a black man was elected president, but where we made the great leap of suddenly escaping the complexities and social headache of racial tension and privilege and entered this momentous, natural awakening. stragglers will be stragglers, but the popular dialogue would be forever changed.

there was a lot of optimism for that time to be okay, make right, and move on. unfortunately it was just another ez-serv attempt at dodging reality and the window is closing very quickly on that idea.

the california elections no doubt disabused many people of these high-tootin notions, but not every state had near-disastrous state elections like ours did.