America’s Dark Renaissance

View From Here
David Mark Greaves
Here we are trapped in America’s history of Europeans bringing to the continent an innate belief in White supremacy, the genocide of the indigenous people, the enslavement of Africans for four hundred years, Reconstruction, lynchings, Jim Crow, and then suffering its gradual suppression during the Civil Rights Movement.

And now White supremacists, emboldened by the authoritarianism of Donald Trump, see a chance to regain control of the country, where it will be led by those who lust for power over others, and with self-interested political and financial agendas and no use for democracy.

So we are engaged in a battle with the darkest part of the American experience, fighting an enemy who has active international allies, primarily China as FBI Director Christopher Wray recently testified, who enter our social media and use sleight of mind to shape our behavior and world view.

Regarding African Americans, John Henrik Clarke said in a 1996 Our Time Press Interview, “If Black people don’t unite and begin to support themselves, their communities and their families, they might as well begin to go out of business as a people.

Nobody’s going to have any mercy. Nobody’s going to have any compunction about making slaves out of them.”

That is true for Blacks and the majority of White people should take note and see it as a metaphor for what Trump and his minions have in store for them because it’s not just White supremacy now, it’s authoritarianism, which means they’re coming for you.

They’ve already started with banning books and abortions and making it harder to vote.
This is a battle we must win as a nation, and yet, since 50,000 votes in the “swing states” can decide the election, that victory is far from certain.

We can send money and moral support, but our big weapon, our vote, is a hostage in the Electoral College, an agitated spectator to the drama unfolding across the country.

What we can do, the majority who believe in democracy, the would-be abolitionists, suffragettes, and civil rights workers, is follow Dr. Clarke’s admonition and ensure our communities and families are strong and resilient, and our city, state, and federal representatives, have the mettle to prepare for and deal with the most dangerous enemy we have ever faced, the nation in the mirror.