An old view cracks
It takes a massive social, political, and economic commitment to structural inequality to keep old, rigid hierarchies in place.
Dear ones: As autumn deepens, I’ve been thinking a great deal about what is holding and what is cracking. What we fear, and what we hope for. What this rumbling is beneath our feet, and how it might erupt.
When I hear or read about parents expressing concern that teachings on the history and immediacy of structural racism will cause distress for their children, I also see what is cracking open. Let’s be honest, after all: the children of our communities, the young folk growing up in our shadows, are far more equipped to sort out past, present, and future than we are. They are not stupid. They understand how the decisions of the past impact them, without being confused about who is responsible for those decisions. Mostly, then, the concern for them is a mask for something else.
Perhaps it masks the fear of losing a world view, a structure of society, that has made them feel safe. They’ve been taught that safety comes from their status, and that their status comes from their own individual efforts. In a way, it’s clinging to the old medieval world view of a rigid hierarchy in which knowing, and keeping to, one’s own place provides the only comfort possible. The rigid hierarchy is painted with a thin veneer of rugged individualism, the better to pacify those who aren’t quite at the bottom.
But our privilege, insofar as it comes from the deprivation of others, is hardly secure: it is fragile. And it is hardly the result of our own efforts. It takes a massive social, political, and economic commitment to structural inequality to keep this hierarchy in place. Otherwise, why would so much money pour into its preservation? Why would there be such deep resistance to ending the filibuster, to removing dark money from political campaigns, and ending gerrymandering? Why would we allow one or two Senators to throw the switch that stops legislation which would help millions?
And if our children learn this hierarchy they live in is based on a long history of inequality and deprivation, they will quite naturally want to change it. Younger folk are already engaged in cracking open our fragile structures. They always do.
The core fear, perhaps, is not that our children are so fragile as to be damaged by an understanding of our history. It might just be that our children, empowered by this understanding, will crack open the world as we know it.
And build a new, more equitable, more inclusive world to take its place.