"We the people of the United States do not have a single national soul, but rather two souls, warring with each other. The battle for the soul of America is actually the battle between the souls of America."
– Ibram Kendi
One of the main reasons racism persists is because so many people think racism no longer exists.
And of course it's the people who are most racist – overtly or covertly – who perpetuate the myth that racism no longer exists.
Who say things "are better than they used to be" and that we have made irrefutable racial progress and that there is no need to talk so often and so seriously about racism. . .
. . .while ignoring the fact that every political, social, economic, and cultural advancement toward racial progress is always – always! – followed by an aggressive, intentional, angry, resentful response to slow that racial progress.
Slavery ended. The Black Laws and the KKK and Jim Crow and lynching and the burning of Black Wall Street replaced them.
Civil Rights gained momentum. Dogs and firehoses and assassinations and disenfranchisement and redlining and mass incarceration and arcane drug laws and "law and order" slowed that momentum.
A Black man became president. We know what happened next. . .
We do indeed have two souls in this country. Which one is yours?