The Flame That Never Goes Out

“The potter’s wheels are still there, but the clay is not.” Andrew Solomon

The other day I was re-reading some columns by the great journalist I.F. Stone (and wishing he were around today, along with Alexander Cockburn and Hunter S. Thompson and James Baldwin), and Stone was describing the backlash to the Civil Rights movement that galvanized the presidential campaigns of George Wallace, an outspoken racist and white supremacist. Fast forward to 2015 and the malignant rise of Donald J. Trump, a similar reaction to a period of black ascendancy, eight years of a black man occupying the White House. Then I saw the new Spike Lee film, BlackkKlansman, and I was struck, again, of the incredible persistence of racist ideas in this so-called “all men are created equal” limited democracy we call America. Periods of progress for African-Americans are always followed by periods of regression, in the same way night follows day. When Lee, at the end, shows actual footage from the 2017 white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, the point is slammed home. Torches cut through the dark in our past, torches cut through the dark in our present.

Let’s not forget that Woodrow Wilson screened Birth of a Nation in the White House in 1915. Fifty years later the Voting Rights Act was passed. But only a few years after that, Richard Nixon was playing his “Southern Strategy.” Fast-forward again, to the Obama years, and some whites, seeing the demographic writing on the wall, flock to Donald Trump, spouting the absurd notion of “white civil rights” and cheering for Trump’s stupid Border Wall and his ban on Muslims. Sometimes the racism in America is subtle, and sometimes it’s as loud as a five-alarm fire.   

Nor should we the forget the image of Michael Brown lying dead on the street in Ferguson, Missouri, and the cop who killed him walking free. On Bill Maher’s show recently the comedian D.L. Hughley said that Donald Trump is who we are. Hard to argue with that. Racism, like mendacity, pervades everything Trump does. The Orange Menace is freaking out again about NFL players -- black players -- refusing to stand for the national anthem. Trump says the players don’t know what they’re protesting about. Yes, they do. Rewind to Michael Brown and Oscar Grant and all the rest of the unarmed human beings shot down for having the audacity to have been born black.

Nobody wants to surrender an ounce of privilege, a foot of ground, a rung on the ladder. One person’s gain must come at another’s expense. We must feel superior to someone. And so we stumble onward trailing a list of grievances, real and imagined, and the planet smolders and the sun is unforgiving. Have to stand on the edge, balanced between hope and despair.