The Pendulum of Palpable White Supremacy
The Pendulum of White Supremacy
The United States has never rectified its racist past. Therefore, it can’t move forward. Since its inception, when colonizers embarked on this land to kill, maim, destroy, and confiscate land that was never theirs, they sold us a fallacy of equality equivalent to snake oil. An imaginary bootstrap that was magically going to propel us from the perils of racism, sexism, misogyny, and homophobia.
Any hope that the pendulum would land somewhere to the left of love one another always goes back to the right of hatred in this nation. The racial reckoning deemed to have taken place during President Obama’s two terms in office was proven to be nothing but a grand experiment as the undercurrent of white supremacy reared its head with the formation of the now-defunct Tea Party, and Google searches for the word “nigger” the night we elected our first Black President. (Notice the hard “r.”)
Tick. Tock. Tick. Tok.
Left. Right. Left.
In 2020, with George Floyd's death, books like White Fragility by Robin Diangelo and The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander sold like hotcakes. New study groups and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) task forces were formed throughout the country. The one-step forward, two-steps back dichotomy began to resemble a forward march as whites attempted to understand white privilege in a game of who could become the best anti-racist. (Notice I did not say ally.)
Fast forward to 2025, and this country has swung so far right that every day feels like an exercise in self-discipline and burying my head in the sand as countless DEI programs were dismantled with the flick of a pen. I get whiplash some days trying to figure out what the oligarchs are trying to distract us from now. The one percent is now driving the whip and throwing metaphorical nooses on trees.
As an author, I find the words being thrown around misleading. I can also understand how whites can start to believe their children are being indoctrinated into an existence that may one day swing toward something like equality. As a proud 70’s baby, I can attest that I was drowned in indoctrination on day one of kindergarten. Who didn’t make the turkey hand to celebrate Thanksgiving, or celebrate the days of “heroes” like Christopher Columbus or George Washington?
It wasn’t until college that I discovered Thanksgiving wasn’t a happy dinner party between the pilgrims and the indigenous people. Always a shy child, books were my solace. Still, I realize today that although I visited the schools’ libraries often and soaked up every English class, I honestly recall only ever studying Harlem, a poem by Langston Hughes, and Alice Walker’s The Color Purple. Black stories were put on a shelf only to be pulled out in the context of slavery, our ever-present origin story, as if we were never queens, kings, or the educators of the world. Even in graduate school, courses centered around white men as the epitome and experts of all subjects and skills. So, who is indoctrinating whom?
Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.
Where does this author of color, whose fourth book, To Dance Under the Weeping Tree, which centers around a fictional Black madam and bootlegger, belong? I can only hope that readers, regardless of skin color, will read it and celebrate a Black history steeped in marvelousness, struggle, heartbreak, love, and respect for our representation. We exist.
I am only one of the 92% who still believe that love, truth, and common sense conquer hatred, and all that divides us has been carefully orchestrated by the colonizers of old. It’s time we stopped swinging and stopped the clock somewhere in the middle.