Another Angle: Parker Johnson
When I first read the headline for this week's article for the newsletter, I cringed. Sina had sent it to a couple of members asking for our thoughts before posting it. My knee-jerk reaction was “pick your battles.” And what I meant by that was how do we - the privileged descendants and beneficiaries of a radically different historical experience - weigh-in and take a stand on something we can and will never fully comprehend? Where empathy and compassion are not enough; where judgements are loaded with privilege and ignorance; and where efforts and opinions run the spectrum from guilt and fragility to rage and victimization - taking a stand in this multi-dimensional, omni-verse of quantum complexity is fraught with, well... pick your battles.
At the other end of the spectrum of esteemed Black academics weighing-in on the plight of their race and culture in the 21st-century is Duke professor Dr. William Darity, who with equal conviction and eloquence offers a polarizing perspective to Dr. Steele’s opinions. Dr. Darity makes the case that crimes were committed, reparations were promised, then welched, and because of this, the plight of African Americans has been systemically subjugated for 400+years. A debt is owed, and it must be paid. Reparations and restitution are requisite and compulsory to healing and moving on. A position I agree with.
After getting beyond my impulsive reaction of white fragility to the title and implications of Dr. Steele’s article, and after sleeping on the content of what he has to say, he is making a courageous and credible case that the plight of Blacks in America is systemically poisoned by a narrative of victimization and entitlements. The “good” liberal in me says, what a heartless, cold-blooded, from the neck-up, pragmatism - put forth by a privileged Black Stanford Fellow. And yet, I find myself nodding my head - wondering how in the world to square these two seemingly conflicting world-views.
In honor of this conversation, and given this is Thanksgiving week, I offer this additional article as food-for-thought as we count our blessings and consider all our relations: Healing From Colonization on Thanksgiving and Beyond.