The on-going normalization of perpetual violence, put in words and song as land became country, flag, military, "'the land of the free.'"
"This land is your land."
James Madison drafted the Second Amendment and it was added to the Constitution, writes Dunbar-Ortiz, in 1781. Not until the 1960s did Americans recall the Second Amendment. And wouldn't you know-the 1960s was the height of the Civil Rights Era in the US. The "political, social, and economic shifts," she writes, opens "nearly everything to question in the 1960, particularly segregation and anti-Black racism." So there is that US Constitution, writes Dunbar-Ortiz-that "sacred text of the civic religion." What is it but "U.S. nationalism!" And it's that nationalism that is "inexorably tied," she argues, "to white supremacy."
After over a hundred years of "freedom" from enslavement, after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that outlawed racial discrimination, the National Rifle Association (NRA) saw an increase in membership in the following years. The Ronald Reagan Americans recall now in light of Trump's presidency, isn't Reagan, standing before cameras in Philadelphia, Mississippi, the town where three civil rights, Schwerner, Goodman, Chaney, were brutally killed by white supremacists, announcing his candidacy for president. That Reagan, Dunbar-Ortiz recalls, indulged the John Birch Society. That Reagan winked at the NRA as membership continued to rise in the 1980s, giving the gun organization a substantial voice in shouting down any opposition calling for gun control legislation.
Trump addresses NRA in April 2017. It's members at the convention cheered and cheered. Even 30-40 percent of Americans cheered as Trump reminded them that he was the only candidate who came to speak to them. And now as president, he wouldn't forget the NRA. "'I am going to come through for you.'" Trump-the self-proclaimed "nationalist," the president who acknowledges "fine" people in the white nationalist movement, who still believes the Central Park Five guilty of rape, still believes Obama was born in Africa, and calls any one black who opposes his racist mentality "a low-IQ individual"--reminds some Americans of the good ol' days when Ronald Reagan was president! (Last year, I heard late night talk show host Stephen Colbert hark back to Reagan).
What are Americans readying themselves for?
So many Americans have no idea who they are.
In Loaded, we revisit the legacy of the Black Panthers, discuss the frequency of mass shootings, police shootings of black citizens, as well as movements such as Black Lives Matter and Indigenous campaigns to saving life on Earth.
Change must consist of a radical rebuke of white supremacy, toxic masculinity, and capitalism. Climate devastation is happening now. It won't wait!
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