This statement reflects history, not opinion, and save a few fringe political organizations, I find little argument with what it says about us. The most common response I see and hear reflecting the current majority of Americans contains some form of the phrase, "So what?" Acknowledging that these atrocity occurred in the past, most people in the present absolve themselves of any responsibility for what took place, and assume that our country can go forward with a pledge to "do no further harm" and that will resolve the issue.
Anyone paying attention should know that the issue remains far from resolved.
If we are to survive as a whole nation, we must agree to face up to our history, accept it, right those wrongs to the greatest extent we can, and then move forward. A hand-waving and sweeping it under the rug will not do, we need a full truth and reconciliation commission tasked with fully detailing the hard truths and quantifying the damaged caused. Only when that happens will we move on.
After the fall of the Third Reich and the end of World War II, Allied occupation facilitated the dismantling of the Nazi Party control of Germany. Around a decade later, Germany began a process it called Vergangenheitsbewältigung (literally "overcoming the problems of the past") by which it acknowledged German responsibility for WWII and the Holocaust, codified education about it in the German curriculum, and created permanent monuments and memorials as warnings for future generations who will have little direct connection to what happened. Germany repeated this process after the 1991 reunification to deal with human rights abuses that occurred in East Germany under the Social Unity Party (SED). This process took over five years and included social systems meant to help the nation heal as the tough work of merging the two economies left East Germans unemployed and West Germans paying high taxes to cover the cost of merging the two halves of the nation.
In a similar way, after the end of apartheid in South Africa in 1994, that nation established a truth and reconciliation commission that formalized three main components of the process from with the US could learn:
1. Public airing of the human rights abuses suffered,
2. Full accounting of the consequences of the abuses,
3. Amnesty for those who committed abuses and came forward.
Although all of these processes had their detractors, common wisdom says they provided needed social dialogue during trying periods in a nation's history that might have otherwise caused irreparable harm.
Many get hung up on the "full accounting" part of the process which they interpret as "free money to [name your subgroup]". We cannot reach a state of acceptance if we do not stay open to the fact that previous decades and centuries of actions by the majority not only obstructed the advancement of minority populations, but in some cases intentionally took wealth from them for the inurment of the majority. Without a deliberate, full, and careful accounting of that history, we cannot fully understand the scope of what we currently have created, nor can we adequately fathom the true scope of the impact. That full accounting must happen along side the full airing/accepting of the actions of the past as well as a clean slate for those who have committed the atrocities. Without any one leg of the process, the remaining crumble.
Others more versed in the history will identify all the right people to participate, but in the current climate at a minimum, this truth and reconciliation process needs the participation of
In a similar way, after the end of apartheid in South Africa in 1994, that nation established a truth and reconciliation commission that formalized three main components of the process from with the US could learn:
1. Public airing of the human rights abuses suffered,
2. Full accounting of the consequences of the abuses,
3. Amnesty for those who committed abuses and came forward.
Although all of these processes had their detractors, common wisdom says they provided needed social dialogue during trying periods in a nation's history that might have otherwise caused irreparable harm.
Many get hung up on the "full accounting" part of the process which they interpret as "free money to [name your subgroup]". We cannot reach a state of acceptance if we do not stay open to the fact that previous decades and centuries of actions by the majority not only obstructed the advancement of minority populations, but in some cases intentionally took wealth from them for the inurment of the majority. Without a deliberate, full, and careful accounting of that history, we cannot fully understand the scope of what we currently have created, nor can we adequately fathom the true scope of the impact. That full accounting must happen along side the full airing/accepting of the actions of the past as well as a clean slate for those who have committed the atrocities. Without any one leg of the process, the remaining crumble.
Others more versed in the history will identify all the right people to participate, but in the current climate at a minimum, this truth and reconciliation process needs the participation of
- Financial institutions,
- Both major political parties,
- Law enforcement at all levels,
- Human rights advocacy groups across the entire population
In addition, as was learned during the process in Ireland in the 1990s that led to the political solution that dismantled the IRA, it will require representatives of groups that hold unpopular opinions about racial integration in this country. We have to remain open to all input and testimony, and must recognize everyone who participates. The end result will not 100% satisfy anyone, so we must air it all, and carefully select leadership and commissioners that we trust.
I note without irony that the current administration and the current time and place provide the right backdrop for this. Had President Obama gathered such a commission - especially in 2009 when Democrats controlled two branches of government - the results would have held suspect legitimacy. Given the years of complaints against the GOP for its obstruction of minority voting rights and its dismantling of the social safety nets that affect minority communities directly, a convening by the Trump administration in cooperation with Congress - and with intense scrutiny by the opposition party and communities of color - could pave a better path toward accepting and enacting the recommendations of such a commission. Why might they agree to do something like that? If your electoral success with a population falls somewhere between 5% and 25%, and the size of that population will only increase in the coming years, putting the issue of race behind you holds a key to survival.
Whatever the outcome politically, socially we need this work done. We thought we had solved it in Reconstruction, and then again in the 30s with the growth of wealth in Harlem and Bronzeville, and then again after the 1960s, and then again after the 1990s, and then again in 2008...but in each case we failed. Blinding ourselves to the past and hoping for the best in the future has proven a horrible strategy for addressing race in this country. Only by identifying the facts, accounting for the consequences, and offering amnesty do we establish a path by which we can realize the full promise of America.
Without truth and reconciliation, we doom ourselves to a future without the America our founders envisioned.
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