Erasing History
Festooned in stars and bars,
“Good Christian men” rejoice
With Bibles turned backward and upside down
Shouting for our nation’s greatness
Nonchalantly erasing the history of its abuses
Discounting destruction,
Ignoring inconvenient implications
Of the backs it was built on, the bloodshed and oppression that got us to this fine state.
Misplaced pride war-dances around a burning cross
Protesting examination of the chinks in sugarcoated symbols of our worst legacies
Complaining that to see their faults
To remove daily reminders of oppression
Why, that’s erasing history
And that’s not right
When the history is white.
We can never forget
America’s founding fathers and proud roots
(racism, genocide, slavery)
We can never forget
Pride in the America that chose not to be America
(Or notice the incongruence of waving the American and anti-American flag side by side).
Stepping up to unfairness is only fair game
If it’s tea and you’re lily-white disguised as “savages”
Or if your culture of noninclusion and violence is questioned
Not if it’s your actual life rather than your hate-skewed way of life at stake
Not if you’re fighting for peace of mind and equal protection instead of lingering in greed
Not if you’re trying to shine light into our nation’s dark heart instead of reveling blindly in denial
Not if you insist that we become more of what we never quite were but always wanted to believe we were.
We can never forget
Pearl Harbor, the loss of life
The Twin Towers, the loss of life
(Real enemies are never white)
(Attack the other)
Uphold the American way
Working hard for what you’ve got
Doesn’t mean you didn’t have it easier than
The guy you worked hard to threaten into compliance in a less-than-you place
Or at the very least kicked to the edge of your peripheral vision where you could ignore his pain.and struggle
Your jealousy at not having all the attention
Wars with trying to hide the parts of our heritage you actively try to sanitize
Waving fists and firearms in the air and blasting righteous anger, warning
“Best be careful not to step on toes, boy,
Or complain too loudly.”
I’m thankful for people of integrity insisting on
Interrupting our collectively whitewashed memories
I hate to tell you this, boys, but that’s the opposite of
Erasing history.
Fighting this endemic white power trip
Honoring and examining all the shades of our past,
Encompassing more voices, envisioning a future history that’s more worthy of our pride.
4 thoughts on "Erasing History"
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I’ve been fighting this one for a while and much like the arguments and the work that inspired it, it feels unfinished and messy and maybe that’s ok and truly the nature of working through this anyhow. Inspiration included the obvious recent debates about Trump clearing protestors to hold a Bible in front of a church over the removal of Confederate statues and flags, but also Langston Hughes’ “Let America Be American Again”, Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man YouTube series by Emmanuel Acho, learning about Black Wall Street and a massacre whose tipping point may have been literally stepping on a toe.
https://www.theatlantic.com/sponsored/hbo-2019/the-massacre-of-black-wall-street/3217/
Word.
Oh, yeah, and multiple ignorant and/or hateful posts I’ve seen, including a cousin’s meme/post about not being around when God passed out white privilege because he’s had to work his ass off for everything he ever got. *rolling eyes*
When there were way fewer of us on this planet, I think we had more room to ruminate over our slights and grievances, we also had to work harder to keep the forest back, the creeks dammed and the crops tended. It seems that the more technology we have to do our work, the less able we are to tolerate each other. You did such a good job with your perspective on where we are today.