Dismantling the American Dream

On the cover of Ta-Nehisi Coates' book Between the World and Me, Toni Morrison is quoted "This is required reading". I couldn't agree more. Required especially if you're white.

Coates writes about what it was like and what it means to grow up black in white America. It is written as a letter to his son and hits also on what it is like to raise a black son in white America. The horrors of our country are painted into a picture that is easy to see and impossible to ignore. The horrors of how black lives have not mattered in this "land of the free."

It is a story hard to read. Painful to say the least. But necessary. So necessary.

It speaks to the truths of the building of this country and how it was built at the expense of black bodies.

"..the elevation of the belief in being white was achieved.. through the pillaging of life, liberty, labor, and land; through the flaying of backs; the chaining of limbs; the strangling of dissidents; the destruction of families; the rape of mothers; the sale of children; and various other acts meant, first and foremost, to deny you and me the right to secure and govern our own bodies."

Coates also speaks to the truth that if America continues to see itself as superhuman and as a gift from God then America will never change from who we were. "One cannot, at once, claim to be superhuman and then plead mortal error." America will continue to ignore the problem. To look away. To not talk about it. To stop people from asking too many questions. But rather, if we DO hold ourselves to such a high high standard of morality than we MUST admit our faults and DO BETTER.

We must awaken from our American Dream. It may be the "most gorgeous dream." It may have "perfect houses with nice lawns" and "Memorial Day cookouts, block associations, and driveways.. treehouses and the Cub Scouts." It may "smell like peppermint but taste like strawberry shortcake." It may be the perfect escape. A grand illusion. But we must remember that "the Dream rests on our (black) backs, the bedding made from our (black) bodies."

"Very few Americans will DIRECTLY proclaim that they are in favor of black people being left to the streets. But a very large number of Americans will do all they can to preserve the Dream. No one directly proclaimed that schools were designed to sanctify failure and destruction. But a great number of educators spoke of 'personal responsibility' in a country authored and sustained by a criminal irresponsibility. ... 'Good intention' is a hall pass through history, a sleeping pill that ensures the Dream."

Perhaps the most earth shattering passage for me in this entire book is this reflection over 9/11 looking out at the smoke:

"I kept thinking about how southern Manhattan has always been Ground Zero for us. They auctioned out bodies down there, in that same devastated, and rightly named, financial district. And there was once a burial ground for the auctioned there. They built a department store over part of it... ..but I did know that Bin Laden was not the first man to bring terror to that section of the city. I never forgot that. Neither should you."

Now, this Dream.. it has brainwashed so many of us and left us with cloudy eyes unable to see the plight of our brothers and sisters. It has brainwashed us into belief in it, but belief that this dream is just and is "the natural result of grit, honor, and good works," but in reality we couldn't be farther from the truth.

It is like we are tired of waiting for Moses talking with God on the mountain top, so we build a calf to worship and call our god. Only we enlisted other people to sweat, bleed, and die to form the calf and then we kick them out so they cannot even join the party or gain any benefits.

But as all empires fall, I fear we will some day reap what we have sowed. Even though I do not participate in this dream and consciously try to choose to live outside it's realms, I am still included in the history and the label of White, just as the black people of this nation, by no fault of their own, still live in the history and label of what it means to be black in America.

I want what Coates wants, which is what Black Lives Matter wants - to awaken the "Dreamers."

Resistance is inevitable. Convincing (perceived) "royalty" that they are no different and no better than the people they "rule" is close to impossible. It is going to be hard. It is going to be ugly. By why would we prefer to live in a white world rather than a free world!? Why? When we see things for what they are we will realize that freedom is what we want and our freedom hinges on the backs of black freedom. We are forever bonded and our fates are intertwined. We are not only cutting off the humanity from black lives, we are denying our OWN humanity. What does it mean that our lives, our bodies are precious and irreplaceable if we do not also think this of lives and bodies of different shades?!

Justice is long overdue for God's children.

We must dismantle the systems, the illusions, the lies, that strip our brothers and sisters of their humanity. A humanity we all share. A humanity entangled with God and in God.

Can we overcome our own egos? Can we admit our faults?

If not, what is the meaning of this life?.. white picket fences, bright green lawns, and a treehouse?..

You decide.