I enjoyed this read! I’m looking forward to reading your book when it comes out! I’ve been processing through similar thoughts. I launched a series entitled: We The Americans to process our current moment and invite others to speak into the moment by leaning in and sharing their stories. I’ll drop my page here: https://www.actjustlylovemercy.org/
In high school I assumed Jefferson's "We" as in "We the people" meant all of us. I now know it referred to white male landowners who were endowed with the right to vote. From that view, a phrase that sounds so inclusive was actually blatantly elitist and exclusive. Whole groups of people, women, people of color, men of low financial means were not even considered as part of the We [the people]. So at our founding we were some semblance of a "democracy" with an embedded caste system. That sanctioned racism and misogyny was part and parcel of how this country defined itself; it was hard-wired in.
Since then the emancipation proclamation, the 19th amendment, and the Voting Rights and Civil Rights acts have removed the legal basis of this caste system, but much of the wiring remains. Our justice system now affords equal rights to all of us We people, but our politics, knowing the true diversity of the American psyche, can sometimes energize those old circuits as a way to select voters of a certain kind. Open and accepted exclusion has been replaced with a subtle, more egregious variety.
Please, never conform. The very best of this country is our diversity. We are so much better for it despite our fumbling, falling, despicable acts, it keeps saving us.
As always Prof. Glaude, clarifying, maddening and inspiring. Thank you!
Love this line: "the blues chord at the core of the nation’s self-conception." As always, thank you.
I enjoyed this read! I’m looking forward to reading your book when it comes out! I’ve been processing through similar thoughts. I launched a series entitled: We The Americans to process our current moment and invite others to speak into the moment by leaning in and sharing their stories. I’ll drop my page here: https://www.actjustlylovemercy.org/
In high school I assumed Jefferson's "We" as in "We the people" meant all of us. I now know it referred to white male landowners who were endowed with the right to vote. From that view, a phrase that sounds so inclusive was actually blatantly elitist and exclusive. Whole groups of people, women, people of color, men of low financial means were not even considered as part of the We [the people]. So at our founding we were some semblance of a "democracy" with an embedded caste system. That sanctioned racism and misogyny was part and parcel of how this country defined itself; it was hard-wired in.
Since then the emancipation proclamation, the 19th amendment, and the Voting Rights and Civil Rights acts have removed the legal basis of this caste system, but much of the wiring remains. Our justice system now affords equal rights to all of us We people, but our politics, knowing the true diversity of the American psyche, can sometimes energize those old circuits as a way to select voters of a certain kind. Open and accepted exclusion has been replaced with a subtle, more egregious variety.
Please, never conform. The very best of this country is our diversity. We are so much better for it despite our fumbling, falling, despicable acts, it keeps saving us.