Coming in third in the race of the conversational red herrings is "Stop living in the past!".
This red herring, typically lobbed when the arguer runs out of fact-based arguments to add to the conversation, seeks to suggest that at some point in time racism ended; that there was a hard stop somewhere along the way. If there was, I missed it. Me and the rest of POC America.
The only reasonable response to "Stop living in the past" is................
but sometimes more than that is required. Here's my "more".
History casts a long shadow. Even when particular events come to an end, the consequences follow. Hurricane Sandy occurred in 2012. Five years later, the impacts are still being felt. Folk can't just turn the page and go on. Enslavement likewise ended in 1862, but the long term impacts continue. Jim Crow? Segregation? The Civil Rights movement? Each of these was a time-bound and time delimited event. Impacts of each continue long after the era formally ended. This is true of all parts of US history. History's events cast a shadow and history's shadows, some of them mighty long, prevent sunlight from penetrating certain dark corners of this nation. So when you say to me, "Stop living in the past!" it becomes immediately clear to me that either (i) you don't really know the history, or (ii) you haven't done the juxtaposing of that history with contemporary acts. Let me help you with that.
Here's a brief history lesson for your edification.
Example 1
History
1703: Connecticut assigns punishment of whipping to any slaves who disturb the peace.
History's shadow
2016: Black teens at pool party terrorized by Texas police officer. Someone called the police cuz, you guessed it, Negroes disturbing the peace.
2013: Michael Dunn shoots at a retreating vehicle carrying several teens, including Jordan Davis. The cause? Loud music. Negroes disturbing the peace of a nice White male. The end result? Jordan Davis, Black child is dead. He's 17.
While Dunn was eventually sentenced to 90 years for his crime, it took two tries to see him convicted of the murder of young Jordan Davis. Dunn's first trial ended with guilty verdicts on four charges, including three of attempted second-degree murder, but for inexplicable reasons, the jury was unable to agree on a first-degree murder charge arising out of the very same incident.
It is useful (and important) to remember that young Mr. Davis didn't die because of something he did (unless you count his mouthing off to a White man, how familiar is that?), but rather he died because of what he represented in Dunn's mind. That right there is very much a part of history's long shadow in America.
Example 2
History
1703: Rhode Island makes it illegal for Blacks and Native Americans to walk at night without a pass.
History's long shadow
2012: Trayvon Martin is killed by a neighborhood watch 'officer', while walking - at night - in his father's neighborhood. Young Mr. Martin was unfamiliar and therefore dangerous.
In the 1700s Rhode Island didn't make this 'crime' one punishable by death, but America in the 2000s sure has. We've determined that any number of offences committed by POC are reasonably punishable by death. On the street. Where we will leave your exposed remains for instructional purposes. Walking while Black is one of those offences, as is selling CDs, cigarettes, standing at a bus stop, and leaving parties early.
Example 3
History
1712: New York prohibits free Blacks, Native Americans, and mulattoes from owning real estate and holding property.
History's long shadow
1933: FHA is routinely subsidizing builders who are mass producing entire subdivisions for Whites only.
Through the FHA's support of discriminatory builder behavior, ghettos and Whites-only middle class enclaves were created. These situations didn't arise accidentally. The FHA had a significant hand in creating these environments and it is no stretch to draw a straight line from housing policy to disparate educational funding for communities of color in these United States.
It would not be unreasonable to charge the FHA with responsibility for the disparity between Black and White wealth. Whites currently have thirteen times the household wealth of Blacks. Thir-facking-teen. That ain't no accident. Discriminatory lending hampered the growth of Black wealth and limited community wealth (on which school funding is based) thereby inflicting lasting harm on the educational, professional and economic prospects of POC for three or four generations and likely into perpetuity. That ain't no damn accident, so don't tell me no sh*t about living in the past the past ain't passed us yet.
History's even longer shadow
2008: In the run up to the mortgage crisis of 2009, who do you think was targeted with sub-prime mortgage loans? I'll give you two guesses to be generous but you really only need one. Minorities.
It may no longer be legal to simply exclude people of color from one's lending policies. That sh*t is seriously frowned upon these days, but fleecing them? We ain't got no trouble with that! So organizations have gone from not letting POC access capital to letting us access over-priced capital and then putting us out on the streets when our entire financial house of cards comes tumbling down because other areas of economic fragility give way under the weight of White supremacy.
Example 4
History
1730: New York state regulates meetings of slaves
Wherever two or moreNegroes are gathered together, sh*t's bound to pop off right? I mean, it's been thus since the 1700s! We all know Black people are bad seeds. The lot of 'em.
Example 5
History
1740: South Carolina passes a comprehensive Negro Act making it illegal to move abroad, assemble in groups, raise food, earn money or learn to read.
History's shadows
2010: Raising food.......
Black farmers, long frustrated in their dealings with the Department of Agriculture, win a massive lawsuit against the agency. Whether they will ever receive owed payment is yet to be seen, but history's shadow is clear.
2017: Assembling in groups...........
Jefferson Beauregard Se(ce)ssions' DOJ comes up with the term Black Identity Extremists to describe assemblages of Black folk who have the temerity to agitate for the recognition of their rights and equal treatment & protection under the law.
This move is quintessentially American. This move is the typical pro-status quo anti-Black schtick of every preceding era in American history. The act contains shades of the FBI vs MLK Jr.; shades of the FBI's COINTELPRO operation; shades of the FBI vs the Black Panther Party. "The purpose of this new [sic] endeavor is to expose, disrupt, misdirect, discredit or otherwise neutralize". Their words, not mine. I'm going to guess that that language will appear forty years from now in the newly (at the time) released documents about the FBI's Black Identity Extremist work.
This red herring, typically lobbed when the arguer runs out of fact-based arguments to add to the conversation, seeks to suggest that at some point in time racism ended; that there was a hard stop somewhere along the way. If there was, I missed it. Me and the rest of POC America.
The only reasonable response to "Stop living in the past" is................
but sometimes more than that is required. Here's my "more".
History casts a long shadow. Even when particular events come to an end, the consequences follow. Hurricane Sandy occurred in 2012. Five years later, the impacts are still being felt. Folk can't just turn the page and go on. Enslavement likewise ended in 1862, but the long term impacts continue. Jim Crow? Segregation? The Civil Rights movement? Each of these was a time-bound and time delimited event. Impacts of each continue long after the era formally ended. This is true of all parts of US history. History's events cast a shadow and history's shadows, some of them mighty long, prevent sunlight from penetrating certain dark corners of this nation. So when you say to me, "Stop living in the past!" it becomes immediately clear to me that either (i) you don't really know the history, or (ii) you haven't done the juxtaposing of that history with contemporary acts. Let me help you with that.
Here's a brief history lesson for your edification.
Example 1
History
1703: Connecticut assigns punishment of whipping to any slaves who disturb the peace.
History's shadow
2016: Black teens at pool party terrorized by Texas police officer. Someone called the police cuz, you guessed it, Negroes disturbing the peace.
2013: Michael Dunn shoots at a retreating vehicle carrying several teens, including Jordan Davis. The cause? Loud music. Negroes disturbing the peace of a nice White male. The end result? Jordan Davis, Black child is dead. He's 17.
While Dunn was eventually sentenced to 90 years for his crime, it took two tries to see him convicted of the murder of young Jordan Davis. Dunn's first trial ended with guilty verdicts on four charges, including three of attempted second-degree murder, but for inexplicable reasons, the jury was unable to agree on a first-degree murder charge arising out of the very same incident.
It is useful (and important) to remember that young Mr. Davis didn't die because of something he did (unless you count his mouthing off to a White man, how familiar is that?), but rather he died because of what he represented in Dunn's mind. That right there is very much a part of history's long shadow in America.
Example 2
History
1703: Rhode Island makes it illegal for Blacks and Native Americans to walk at night without a pass.
History's long shadow
2012: Trayvon Martin is killed by a neighborhood watch 'officer', while walking - at night - in his father's neighborhood. Young Mr. Martin was unfamiliar and therefore dangerous.
In the 1700s Rhode Island didn't make this 'crime' one punishable by death, but America in the 2000s sure has. We've determined that any number of offences committed by POC are reasonably punishable by death. On the street. Where we will leave your exposed remains for instructional purposes. Walking while Black is one of those offences, as is selling CDs, cigarettes, standing at a bus stop, and leaving parties early.
Example 3
History
1712: New York prohibits free Blacks, Native Americans, and mulattoes from owning real estate and holding property.
History's long shadow
1933: FHA is routinely subsidizing builders who are mass producing entire subdivisions for Whites only.
Through the FHA's support of discriminatory builder behavior, ghettos and Whites-only middle class enclaves were created. These situations didn't arise accidentally. The FHA had a significant hand in creating these environments and it is no stretch to draw a straight line from housing policy to disparate educational funding for communities of color in these United States.
It would not be unreasonable to charge the FHA with responsibility for the disparity between Black and White wealth. Whites currently have thirteen times the household wealth of Blacks. Thir-facking-teen. That ain't no accident. Discriminatory lending hampered the growth of Black wealth and limited community wealth (on which school funding is based) thereby inflicting lasting harm on the educational, professional and economic prospects of POC for three or four generations and likely into perpetuity. That ain't no damn accident, so don't tell me no sh*t about living in the past the past ain't passed us yet.
History's even longer shadow
2008: In the run up to the mortgage crisis of 2009, who do you think was targeted with sub-prime mortgage loans? I'll give you two guesses to be generous but you really only need one. Minorities.
It may no longer be legal to simply exclude people of color from one's lending policies. That sh*t is seriously frowned upon these days, but fleecing them? We ain't got no trouble with that! So organizations have gone from not letting POC access capital to letting us access over-priced capital and then putting us out on the streets when our entire financial house of cards comes tumbling down because other areas of economic fragility give way under the weight of White supremacy.
Example 4
History
1730: New York state regulates meetings of slaves
History's shadow
2015: Straight Outta Compton debuts in theaters, to heightened security concerns, because Negroes.Wherever two or more
Example 5
History
1740: South Carolina passes a comprehensive Negro Act making it illegal to move abroad, assemble in groups, raise food, earn money or learn to read.
History's shadows
2010: Raising food.......
Black farmers, long frustrated in their dealings with the Department of Agriculture, win a massive lawsuit against the agency. Whether they will ever receive owed payment is yet to be seen, but history's shadow is clear.
2017: Assembling in groups...........
Jefferson Beauregard Se(ce)ssions' DOJ comes up with the term Black Identity Extremists to describe assemblages of Black folk who have the temerity to agitate for the recognition of their rights and equal treatment & protection under the law.
This move is quintessentially American. This move is the typical pro-status quo anti-Black schtick of every preceding era in American history. The act contains shades of the FBI vs MLK Jr.; shades of the FBI's COINTELPRO operation; shades of the FBI vs the Black Panther Party. "The purpose of this new [sic] endeavor is to expose, disrupt, misdirect, discredit or otherwise neutralize". Their words, not mine. I'm going to guess that that language will appear forty years from now in the newly (at the time) released documents about the FBI's Black Identity Extremist work.
 |
| From the FBI vault doc on COINTELPRO |
Don't tell me to stop living in the past. There is no past. There's never been a hard stop to the ugliness America has to mete out to POC.
It is said that past is prologue. Well, that's a nice idea but it suggests that we have a past. In America there is no past, there is only present continuous and it is really only people who are not likely to be directly affected by that continuous present who can offer up this particular red herring without an iota of shame.
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