Then the indigenous and the Gazan need not be listened to when they speak out.
As that educator James Baldwin explained, in the US, black Americans are viewed with a particular strain of venom by white America. When white America looks on at black America, it sees, even if not clearly, a history of enslavement, history of brutality and cruelty, of inhumanly mistreating human beings, of rape and torture, threatening to topple the belief in white innocence.
I remember a white retired faculty telling me that it was no wonder the faculty in my department had issues with me. I taught "that slavery" business. This was in 2006-- at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. So today, in 2025, when the presence of a black in front of a college classroom will come under the scrutiny of diversity, equity, and inclusion-challenged administrators and when the subject of "race" or "slavery" will call for an interrogation of books on those subjects or a rejection of those subjects outright, ask why, if you dare.
And, yet, to echo Baldwin, in the US, how long are black Americans to wait for the change that will bring white America to a rejection of fascism, white supremacy, anti-blackism? How long?
How long will white America fool itself into thinking democracy is just around the corner if we present there was no past, no history of violence to confront? Only think of one big happy family and everyone with free healthcare and free education and free everything.
Capitalism has been crushed.
And what of those who won't join the fight because of their fear of a toppled supremacy of whiteness? What of those willing to maim and kill as was the policy during and after the enslavement of black people in the US? What of those who took out their anger on the Vietnamese women and girls? Or who armed themselves with the necessary weaponry to join a mostly American-trained force in carrying out US-backed policies in Chile or Peru? What of the George Wallaces or Bull Conors' and Derek Chauvins. Or George Zimmerman?
What about those who believe this country is for "whites only"?
Or your everyday co-worker or neighbor who states, definitively, that black people are racist! That white Americans have suffered, been the victim, in fact, of black violence. What about the neighbor who tells another that I've been to jail or another who tells me that I have all that education but never worked!
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