After the horrific murder of George Floyd in 2020 and the most racially biased US presidential administration in about a century, America faced an uproar on a scale not seen since the 1960s. “A racial reckoning,” boomed the press while corporations funded new efforts for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Astute observers noted that real change would consist not in ephemeral gestures but in lasting structural change. Three years later, the uproar has died down. Some progress has been made, but an attitude of resilience is now needed to continue the push for a more racially just America. These essays collected by D.B. Maroon reflect on what next steps need to happen, on the ground and in America’s collective soul.
These writings all center around the topic of race in America. Many focus on history while others explore the meaning of race in contemporary life. A large number of reflections spring from the field of anthropology. All warn against forgetting of race’s unduly large role in American society, a century and a half after emancipation. Not forgetting means remaining disciplined towards confronting racial injustice’s ill effects. Frustration or hate over these issues must not consume us; rather, remembering race means remembering how much more we love America, true American freedom, and our good lives on this earth. It means constructing a better, more inclusive narrative of who we are.
These essays reminded me that American love also entails remembering those whose history’s pages have not recognized. American colonization’s two-class system privileged and enshrined a few while overlooking too many others’ contributions. These reflections reminded me that our founding narratives need to be grounded in reality because complicated reality is far more moving than jingoistic mythology. It taught me several new facts about that reality, like the first Memorial Day on May 1, 1865, in Charleston, South Carolina (a former home). There, newly emancipated slaves honored the newly dead with Union soldiers who paid the ultimate sacrifice for others’ freedom.
Unfortunately, the deep problem of race in American society will not be solved with one book. Indeed, this problem will remain with us for centuries as the nation continues to heal from prior centuries of oppression. That said, we must heal, and books like this can apply balm to those aching wounds. They can direct us to specific, concrete ways that we can heal the world around us. Words like these can help heal the destruction of injustices around us done to ourselves inside. Racial rivalries and systemic problems continue to affect almost anyone in American society. Reading a book like this can be another therapeutic step towards a better tomorrow.
Black Lives, American Love: Essays on Race and Resilience
Edited by D.B. Maroon
Copyright (c) 2023
Lawrence Hill Books
ISBN13 9781641609326
Page Count: 297
Genre: Society, Personal Essays
Sponsored link to www.amazon.com