It seems one of the many tasks for the (apparently) incoming Biden administration will be to “undo” America’s long “history of hate.”
So claims The Atlanta Voice’s Stacy Brown and several academics with whom she spoke.
(After all, it only took Mr. Biden a half-century in public service to be ready for this vast task!)
As is typical, Brown says the 74 million or so people who saw fit to cast a vote for Donald Trump on November 3 — including the largest percentage of minorities in over 50 years — are a personification of the country’s hateful history.
How can these folks support a man who is “racist, chauvinist, and one whose policies separated immigrant children from their parents and put them in cages”? Not to mention, one who is currently attempting to invalidate votes in heavily black areas like Philadelphia and Detroit?
Lycoming College’s Sarah Silkey says this is just the latest example of a “backlash” against the “broadening […] definition of American citizenship.”
“Jim Crow segregation, the convict lease system, redlining, the war on drugs, and other systems created to maintain white supremacy denied access to full citizenship for generations of Americans,” Silkey told Brown.
Silkey also believes the American Dream is a myth, saying that “defining personal success solely as a product of individual initiative and effort” ignores white privilege, “reinforces” racial stereotypes, and dismisses the culpability of white politicians of responsibility for “dismantling entrenched systems of inequality.”
Washington and Lee law professor Nora Demleitner concurs, claiming the US was built on the “powerful myths” of equal opportunity, the pursuit of happiness “and the city on a shining hill.”
She says the “playbooks” of racism and ethnic hatred have always been utilized, and the latest examples are folks’ desire for “law and order, widespread suppression of minority voters, and unwillingness to invest in infrastructure and education to support all.”
Tim Powell, a University of Chicago journalism master’s student, discards the myth of an America that welcomes labeling as a melting pot.
“Consider that the colonists left England to rebel against religion, and when they arrived here, we had a colony of rebels to some degree,” Powell relayed.
“The administrations can only do so much to counter the inherent unacceptance of races by a white, male American. It will be up to the next generations that will determine the acceptance of differences.”
“The best administrations will be those that do not stoke division.
“Look at McCarthyism as an example of the people demanding we rid America of ‘communists.’ It was not McCarthy himself, but the people demanding it. Without a market, a leader of a campaign – like Trump’s immorality – the leader has no followers.”
Virginia Union University’s Terrell Strayhorn says the Biden/Harris administration should “reduce or remove” challenges facing African-Americans such as low college graduation rates, large college debt and allegedly “hostile” environments at PWIs (Predominately White Institutions).
“A new administration, comprised of individuals who reflect the diversity of their constituents, can champion culturally-relevant initiatives, create equity, and foster racial healing,” he said.
MORE: Yale shrink who claims Trump ‘mentally unfit’ refuses to diagnose Biden
MORE: Biden blames English legal traditions for campus sexual assault
IMAGE: Center for American Progress / Flickr.com
Please join the conversation about our stories on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Reddit, MeWe, Rumble, Gab, Minds and Gettr.