Of course all lives matter, nobody in Black Lives Matter has said differently. The simple phrase has become, however, something that people hide behind to avoid addressing the uncomfortable realities of racism in American society. I would like to reclaim that phrase. Oppressed groups have long reclaimed the words that are used to oppress them e.g. nigger, bitch, faggot, queer. I want to use it to show that police militarization and brutality are not just black issues. All people of color, no matter how respectable they think they are, are subject to this brutality. The statistics for police violence against native Americans and Latino Americans are proportionately way higher than incidents of police violence against whites. Whites have long seen the police as protectors and well off whites call on police more than twice as often as member of minority groups to protect their persons or property. The recent Amy Cooper incident wherein a white women purposely lied to police about a black man simply to get her way, is only the latest incident in which whites use the police structure against nonwhites. By now it is probably not even the most recent. White women fraudulently claiming to be attacked, disrespected or raped has led to lynchings, imprisonment, beatings and murders of black people for hundreds of years. The current internet memes of “Karen” (that is white women) calling police to complain about black folk simply going about their business, are all too common. White males have not only used the police to enforce white superiority, but as the black man Ahmaud Arbery shot dead while jogging in southeast Georgia shows, they have taken vigilante actions themselves.

Note however that whites themselves have been the victims of police brutality too. White LGBTQ groups have long been the target of police violence. The police violence  (using rubber bullets, tear gas, and shields as battering rams,) has most recently been turned against white protestors. Rural and poor whites even have a mythology about fleeing the police exemplified by the “Dukes of Hazzard” for example. While a disproportionate number people of color are killed by the police, the police still kill more whites than blacks each year. The whites safest against police violence are those who show up at state capitals armed to the teeth. Ninety five percent of police killings of whites occur in neighborhoods where people earn less than $100,000 annually. There is thus a class bias in police killings. There is also a regional bias: people in Oklahoma had 6 times more police killings than Georgia in 2015 for example. Police killings have actually decreased in big cities and increased in suburban and rural areas. In 2019 there were only 27 days in the year on which the police didn’t kill someone. Let that one sink in for a minute. Whites who mock George Floyd are most likely not police supporters but racists who are willing to support things against their own interests to bolster their beliefs of black inferiority and white superiority.

Yet, only 1% of police are even indicted for police killings. The decrease in police killings in the big cities show that methods can be introduced to improve the situation. Shining the media’s light on the police can help the situation only if the people we elect to positions of power decide to do something. “Logical” police want to end police brutality because it prevents community support and makes their jobs harder. Tragically, entrenched police culture, police unions, wimpy civilian oversight, and timid politicians make reform difficult. If you truly believe that “All Lives Matter,” then you should work to end police brutality. If you, like the president, believe that police should meet the public with force, then brutality will happen and you don’t truly believe that all lives matter. You are lying to yourself. It is that simple.

James Baldwin said “To be a Negro in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a rage almost all the time.” I keep this in mind as riots break out throughout the country in response to police killings of brothers.  Maybe we should ask not why they continue to happen though nothing changes, but why they don’t happen more often? The differential fatality rates of Covid 19 among racial groups has laid bare the results of racism in the health care system. The underlying racial (yeah I know there are other ways of looking at this) economic and social inequality is staring us in the face. When you add the stress of police brutality and killings, the “Karens” who try to use the inherent racism in the system to get their way, and the obvious different treatment of white and black protestors, is it any wonder that black communities explode like raisins in the sun? 

I have read many of the impassioned pleas from parents of black children with sorrow in my heart. Every black person killed by police was somebody’s child. Many were somebody’s loved one or parent. We all have given “the talk” to our children, not the one about the birds and the bees, but the one about what to do if you are stopped by police. We also realize that this is not protection against the wrong policeman at the wrong time in the wrong place. We do it not because we think it will keep them safe, but because we think it’s all we can do and we must do something. If nothing else moves you I beg you to see the problem as a parent. There is no excuse you will accept for a policeman killing your child. 

When will it stop? Not until whites stop ignoring the racism in our society and do something about it. Oh, people of color have things to do too, we must keep reminding you of the need to do it whether we are in elected office, on the streets, or in the ears and eyes of those in power. However, given the white dominated power structure and what will be our minority status in that power structure, white folks will determine how it plays out. In short, white people must end racism. Right now that couldn’t seem further away. We have a white supremacist would-be dictator in the White House, put there by racists and those willing to tolerate or even ignore his racism, his ignorance (of basic science, the Constitution, the law and the American system of government,) his corruption, his childish behavior, and his narcissism. His reign too shall pass whether in November or four years from now and we will still be stuck with the problem of racism. There will always be  sizeable numbers of people who consciously or subconsciously believe in white supremacy. There will always be people who do not realize that they benefit from racism and think themselves non-racist.

 Whites must realize that racism not only limits people of color, it does not protect white folk as they think it does. We have seen that many white people (certainly not all) are more likely to do things out of self interest, not ethics or altruism. Trump rode into power on the backs of whites who feel that the “system” is more concerned with people of color than it is with them. The protections accorded racist white policemen are because too many whites feel that such behavior keeps them safe. Racism will end not when whites realize white superiority is a myth (many never will), but when they realize that it is in their self interest to do so. It is not cynicism to say so. Yes, during that golden age of the civil rights movement enough whites and people in power realized that segregation and second class citizenship was wrong, but if you look at the long history of America you understand that this was an aberration. Racism never went away. There were enough people who believed in the tenets of racism to limit how much progress was actually made.

We have both the necessity and the opportunity to do it again. I am calling for a new civil rights movement that does not let the American conscience ignore the problems of racism any longer and beats back the forces of racism. I am calling for frequent peaceful demonstrations, letting politicians know that they will not get our vote unless they are anti-racists (i.e. working against racism not just claiming they aren’t racists,) and the calling out of racist acts no matter how small and accepted. BLACK LIVES MATTER. We must make sure everyone believes they do.

 

I have read many of the tributes marking David Driskell’s death and they rightfully mention his enormous achievements.  However as one who met him I just wanted to remind folks that he was a wonderful man too. Over the course of my career I have had dinner with many of the the celebrity African Americans who came to my campus to speak. I just saw it as part of the job. Some impressed, some did not. One I will always remember was an unofficial private dinner arranged through an art historian colleague who was a great friend of David Driskell. She, my wife and I had dinner at his Maine summer home and studio with him and his wife. As a young man he had come to the Skowhegan art colony in Maine, liked the state so much that he became a part time Maine resident. He was the most sociable of people. We had a delightful, wide ranging conversation about life, academia, art and so many other things. His wife and mine hit it off so well that Mrs. Driskell would afterwards call my wife to go on shopping expeditions or just to talk. He regaled us with tales about how there were so few African Americans in Maine in his early days there, that turnpike toll-keepers many miles away could direct visitors to his house. As we talked it became clear how different our paths to academia had been. I had ridden an early wave of predominantly white institutions seeking to broaden their diversity by inviting African Americans into their parlors. He had come up in an era of strict segregation in which gaining a quality education and later academic employment was a much harder battle. He had moved around the HBCU circuit fighting for “Negro” art to become accepted by the white art world. Now of course it is recognized as part of the American art canvass. He was only about 20 years my elder so this massive shift had occurred just yesterday as historical time goes. As a pioneer he had gotten to know many of the African American artists of the 40’s 50’s and later, who were like him struggling to secure respect and recognition for their art. He had formed a strong personal bond between him and those I knew only from their work and the scholarship (including much of his own) devoted to them. At one point in our conversation he invited me out to his studio to show me something that illustrated a point we had been discussing. As he sifted through some completed canvases propped haphazardly in a corner, one struck my eye. When I mentioned it to him he stopped to pull it out of pile and said “that’s just something Jake gave to me.” “Jake” was Jacob Lawrence and the piece was an unknown Lawrence painting that any museum would give its eye teeth to have. I hope it eventually made its way into some collection or exhibit, but to David it was just part of the things picked up along the way.

I have always seen myself as incredibly lucky. Oh I worked hard and diligently, but that evening it came into focus how much harder it had been for David to achieve what he did. He was unpretentious about it; just shrugging it off as what you had to do in those days. To me it just magnifies his achievements and shows how special he was. Rest in peace David. You created generations of scholars, inspired dozens of artists, and made many, many friends along the way.

Everyone else is analyzing what happened so I thought I’d add my two cents for what it’s worth. Let’s first sum up. The Democratic primary voters have shown a preference for an innocuous, bland, no new ideas, oatmeal candidate who they feel is the most likely to defeat Trump rather than an insurgent candidate who they feel will alienate too many voters to oust Trump.  Barring some miracle it is now essential a two man (man used intentionally) race. I did not support either of the finalists, but I would vote for either in November. Both have shown weaknesses and strengths. Simplistically speaking Bernie has the support of the younger primary voter while as voters get older Biden moves in front. Those who want major change (Medicare for all, the Green New Deal, college for all)  support Bernie, while those whose primary concern is a safe candidate with (they assume) the best chance to defeat the Republicans at the top and down the ticket support Biden. African Americans support Biden while Latino and Asian Americans support Sanders by and large. Neither Bloomberg nor Warren have much chance of catching these front-runners before the convention. I want to emphasize that primary voting is different from general election voting. Even in areas where primary turnout was high, many more people vote in the general election than vote in primaries. Trends that hold in the primaries may not in the general election.

What to make of this situation? If neither Bernie nor Uncle Joe have enough delegates to win by the convention we will have what’s called a brokered convention where each candidate is wheeling and dealing for the delegates that will put them over the top. Warren is staying in the race so she can be a factor in a brokered convention. Bloomberg has become tired of spending his money in a lost cause and threw his support to Biden. Each would expect to get something for the support. If nobody wins on the first ballot then the super-delegates (elected and establishment Democrats) can vote and Bernie is toast. If Biden were in the lead at that point the establishment could claim that they were just confirming the “will of the people.” If Sanders were in the lead they would clearly be overturning the “will of the people.” The Dems have done this before in 1968 when the establishment chose Hubert Humphrey as their candidate while the insurgent candidate (McCarthy) had the most delegates at that point. They went on to lose the election to Richard Nixon. If Biden is the candidate there will be two questions 1) Will progressives especially the “Bernie bro’s” vote for him? 2) Will a Biden campaign “inspire” the turnout necessary to defeat Trump. If Sanders is the candidate the questions are the same but reversed, 1) Will the centrists support Bernie? 2) Will enough of Bernie’s youth brigade turn out to overcome the fear and lack of fervor that the centrist have about his candidacy?

Now I am not a prognosticator and many things can change between now and the convention. Biden or Sanders might reach out to the opposite “wing” of the party for a vice presidential candidate that may bring enough of those outcast by the nomination into the general election. Either might content himself with influence over the party platform and this consolation prize might be enough to convince at least some of his followers to support the other candidate. In any event unity is going to be the holy grail for the Democrats and will be hard to come by. One must contemplate what a second term for Trump would bring before making one’s decision. Those with privileged enough circumstances to ride out even a second Trump term must decide whether their cynicism, anger and disappointment at the rigged Democratic candidate selection process, the delay of the “revolution,” and the Democratic establishment, outweighs more Trump. Those without this privilege must turn out in droves to vote because their lives and those of people they love depend on it.

There is an African American narrative tradition in which a story begins “Now what happened was….” Once you hear this you know you are about to hear a long, convoluted tale that tells the story from the perspective of the storyteller and which only occasionally (and possibly never) has a connection to what actually happened. Here is a hilarious example of this storytelling tradition by Tiffany Hadish. The clip itself is about 8 minutes long but is so funny the time just flies by, however if you can sample just a minute or two you will understand the narrative tradition.  Enough of the things happened to make you think that all did, but some things are elaborations, fabrications or commentary. Like a great jazz player an excellent storyteller employs all of these things in their craft. At its best these stories can tell you what is going on behind the surface of events; at their worst they are self serving rationalizations of one’s behavior. Ms. Hadish is an entrancing storyteller and demonstrates this tradition at its best.

I am reminded of this tradition every time I hear Donald Trump speak. I am trying to understand his appeal, particularly to people for whom his actions are not in their best interests. Unlike Hadish however he is not a great storyteller. He should start all his speeches with “Now what happened was…” and we should expect a disjointed, self serving, rationalization that has only the most tenuous connection to reality. Some media has called him out on his lies, that is, the fact that many of the events he mentions or the inferences he draws are not true. Right wing media like Fox News although they occasionally fact check, propagate his stories as if they represent a reality. The fact that most of his pronouncements are true or false is really beside the point to his followers. What matters is that he is spinning narratives they want to hear, telling stories they want to hear and to believe. Like a great jazz player it is not how well he sticks to the truth of the melody, but how well they perceive his elaborations, restatements, improvisations, and commentary on the truth (melody.) His statements about his “exoneration” by the Mueller report, the transcripts he released, or his acquittal in the Senate provide evidence of this phenomenon.  Although a careful reading of all these things shows that their is no “exoneration,” he boldly claims that they do. The truth of his exoneration doesn’t matter; it is how well his performance of it is received.

The problem for his supporters is that they can’t live in his dream world forever. Reality always comes to bite one in the ass. Just ask his supporters whether his term as president has made any material difference in their lives. For some it has. If you are a member of the top 1% it has increased your income or your wealth. If you own a business that was beset by government regulations passed to protect the public, Trump’s deregulation has helped. If you are a member of his family or inner circle your wealth has probably increased. However, if you are a member of the middle class or a blue-collar worker it probably hasn’t. Has he stopped the exportation of your job abroad? Has he raised wages enough so that you can make a decent living? Has he cleared out the “swamp” in Washington or just changed the names? Has his immigration crackdown or planned border wall materially improved your life? How many of the promises he made during his campaign have come to pass? All you have gotten is the “psychological wage of whiteness.”

Indeed, I could spin a whole narrative that puts his ascension in a new light. Now what happened was this con man who is neither as smart, as rich, as good a businessman nor as good a negotiator as he said he was, harnessed people for whom the system isn’t working well and rode them to victory for himself and his cronies. He keeps tell them how much he is set upon (a condition to which they can relate because that is how they feel too) and promising them that he is working on their behalf while fattening his own wallet from the government trough. And so on and so on…

Let us change the narrative come November.

I recently read a piece by Robert Reich the former Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration which you can look at it (here) In it while not discounting racism as one of the driving forces behind Trump’s supporter, also lists anti-establishmentism as an additional factor. I have long been interested in those voters who voted for Obama and then Trump, two people who would seem to have little in common, except they were perceived by the electorate as outside the establishment. While both have proven that they were not outsiders, both promised the electorate that they would be. As the first African American presidential candidate from a major political party, he promised to overturn the Citizens United Supreme Court decision and to get big money out of politics. Trump’s appeal was that he was so rich he didn’t need to rely on big money and would do things for the “little man.” Neither followed through on his promises, both allowed big money to make further inroads into politics, and both presided over a concentration of wealth unseen on the planet before them.

Reich argues “Democrats cannot defeat authoritarian populism without an agenda of radical democratic reform, an anti-establishment movement.” I agree with that. Unfortunately the Democrat National Committee does not. They still think that turning their back on those suffering economically to  pander to an imaginary “soccer mom” swing voter will defeat Trump. The DNC centrists are part of the system against whom the electorate is rebelling. To quote Reich “They also drank from the same campaign funding trough as the Republicans – big corporations, Wall Street and the very wealthy.” The DNC are refusing to support progressive candidates who challenge Democratic incumbents, they both publicly and privately disparage Sanders or Warren and other threats to “their” candidate Joe Biden, and Hilary even refuses to say if she will support the progressive candidates if they somehow win the primaries. Their accepted wisdom is that voters will not support candidates who are in their view “too radical” and only non-threatening, marshmallow candidates like Uncle Joe can prevail, when most polls indicate that either Sanders or Warren could defeat Trump, some predict even more handily than Biden. As Reich argues however, “There is no longer a left or right. There’s no longer a moderate “center”. There’s either Trump’s authoritarian populism or democratic – small “d” – populism.” I write this before the Iowa and New Hampshire primaries which will be the first, though not the last, test whether “democratic populism,” can appeal to voters more than the centrism which Biden represents.

I also want to comment on the support that Biden draws form the African American community which will play a huge role in the southern state primaries that happen after lily-white Iowa and New Hampshire. Biden leads handily among this group in the early polls, probably because of his proximity to Obama. Black folks perceive him as a known quantity on civil rights rather than Sanders or Warren. The truth is that before Obama, Biden opposed busing to mitigate segregation, played footsie with the most rabid southern racists like Strom Thurmond, and just went with the flow on most civil rights legislation. He was not an advocate for minorities and at times an opponent of actions on their behalf. Yet black folks see him as the devil they know rather than the unknowns that the other candidates are. Given America’s history of racism African Americans are hesitant to try out something new in political candidates because they know they have so much to lose. Both Sanders and Warren have much to do to make inroads among this group, but they are making some slow progress. What they have to avoid is pandering while showing that their plans to help the “little guy” with things like single payer medical insurance, will help the black community much more than the establish status quo that Biden represents. They have to become the modern day equivalents of FDR in order for African Americans to muster the levels of enthusiasm, support, and turnout that the Democrats need. African Americans understand that they need to vote in this election as if their lives depended on it, but it is up to the primary system to give them something to vote for.

Being stuck in the middle will not win this election. Both Sanders’ and Warren’s  big plans are flawed (and will be refined in the process of actually executing them,) but they represent a change in business as usual and a threat to the “Establishment.” As such I hope they will appeal to an electorate fed up with things as they are and bring about a different future.