American History In Whitewash
The Emerging Trend Toward Whitewashing History
I believe Michele Bachmann answered my question for me.
Bachmann, a twitchy political opportunist and would-be leader of the extremist, Obama-loathing racist Tea Party Express, soft-pedaled this nation's heinous record of slavery in a preview of her comical rebuttal to the president's 2011 State of The Union speech last month. Shifting into faux compassion, Bachmann bemoaned the scourge (which she mispronounced) of slavery while defending the nation's founding fathers as abolitionists who "worked tirelessly" to end it. Which is utter nonsense. Most of the founders were slave owners, including George Washington and, notoriously, Thomas Jefferson, and these men institutionalized the practice by writing it into the very first article of this nation's constitution. Bachmann confused John Adams with his abolitionist son, John Quincy Adams, who defended the mountaineering slaves of La Amistad, and continued to insist "the very same founders" did not rest until slavery was eradicated. But, the founders did rest. In fact, they died. Slavery was not abolished until nearly ninety years later, at a cost of six million mostly white American lives. The fat so many families were torn asunder, so many white men laid down their lives, homes and families to extend this nation's promise to all people is a fact often conveniently overlooked by bitter African Americans. The sacrifice of those families complicates even the question of reparations. The ease with which Representative Bachmann made her claims suggests to me that she honestly believed them. Which means somebody told her that story--George Washington Freed The Slaves. And that should give us all a moment of pause if not outright dread, and rather soundly answers the week's question about Black History Month and its value.
I was over a friend’s house the other day where I stupidly
wandered into politics, remarking that, in 2000 I was a huge
John McCain fan, but in 2008 McCain shifted too hard to the
right, and his selection of Sarah Palin as veep made the
decision for me to vote for Barack Obama. And it got really
quiet in there. My friend, white, middle-aged, kind of scratched
his neck and said, “Well, I like Sarah Palin.” I didn’t press
him for why, but started backpedalling and looking for the
exits. I was in his home. These are dear friends. I had no
idea—none—that these folks were Republicans and possibly Tea
Partiers. Mrs. Palin had legions of supporters, most of whom I
have characterized as southern and Midwestern white soccer moms,
their minds clouded by inhaling clouds of Ajax and vacuum
cleaner dust as they wile away endless days of trivial concerns.
These folks’ worldview is shaped by their plastic, rounded-edge
Mommy And Me universe of fat dancing dinosaurs and kiddie sports
where the game breaks for snack time and nobody keeps score. The
percentage of black mothers living that particular dream is, I
assure you, miniscule, as most black mommies I know work
tirelessly—at home and at a place of employment—to provide for
their children, and thus tend to exist more in the real world
than your average soccer mom, still in her nightgown fretting
over the grocery list. If it sounds like I don’t much like these
people, I don’t actually know these people, and I’m sure some
soccer mom will eventually sit me down and try and reorient my
thinking about how challenging their world is. But I’m a kid
who, for most of my childhood, saw only the back of his mother’s
head as she left for work. And this lady never complained and
never gave it up how miserable our lives were. She lived and
breathed in step with reality, and this was a woman who would
see Sarah Palin for what she is: a political opportunist
exploiting white women for money.
Palin's coy “Will she run or won’t she?” nonsense is just
keeping her on TV during the run-up to the 2012 race. If she
runs, my guess is she’d be running to make more money and to
position herself as kingmaker at some point. She’s not going to
beat Barack Obama in 2012. If the economy improves, nobody beats
Barack Obama in 2012. Palin is getting rich and richer, which
makes her a lot smarter than even I give her credit for. She’s
like a TV evangelist exploiting desperate, insecure, lost
grandmothers who yank out their checkbooks in hope of a miracle.
It’s really sad.
So imagine my surprise when my friend lays that on me. I knew,
anything I might say after that point would be awkward and not a
good idea. Any thinking, rational human being who is in the tank
for Palin is, for me, a very scary person. I can’t imagine why.
This clueless political lightweight—I mean, any half-way
competent high school junior could take her in a political
debate—her screechy, fingernails-on-chalkboard voice providing
instant migraines, won’t get out of the national spotlight.
Which suggests she has amazing political appeal in spite of the
fact she lost and lost badly in 2008.
I will leave the door open that, yes, maybe I am biased because of the disparity between my childhood and that of my white friends with their full-time moms, their station wagons (now minivans), their air conditioning and color TV. But the general obliviousness of these pampered women, wringing their hands over their trivial little problems while my mother, sister and I went to bed hungry and shivered through New York winters with no working heat, hits a raw nerve. You’ll have to make a strong case as to why those women, warm in their arc of safety, are more rational than my mom, or the millions of sisters just like her: soldiers, armor like steel, who live lives not of privilege but responsibility. I’d like you to go find one of those sisters who supports Palin.
