CGC Journal
We're Building a Co-learning Community of Empathetic Societal Change Agents
OCTOBER 2023 | ISSUE 3
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Current Events - Big Picture, 3 Important Things to Know, Why it Matters
America’s Great Debate over the ‘Great Society,’ the benefits of slavery, and reparations. A presidential candidate is cheered and applauded after blaming LBJ’s ‘Great Society’ programs for the chronic conditions of Black America today. And, as the UN calls for western nations to implement reparations for slavery, Florida approves curriculum informing students that Black people in America benefited from slavery.
Emily’s Corner - Emily’s reflections and insights
Teaching U.S. history to our kids: What lens should we use? What questions can we ask as we navigate decisions about textbooks used in our schools?
Talking With Kids - Example of how this looks in our home or community
Teachable Moments: Our children are immersed in a society wherein they are exposed to many so-called '“adult” issues. But how do we make the time, even when it is inconvenient, to provide contextualized explanations that help our kids make sense of what is happening?
Celebrating Change Agents - Feature of an empathetic societal change agent
Jaime D. Powell: Co-founder of New Cultivation an organization committed to building a new embodied anti-racist culture
Conversation Starter - This month we’re asking about …
Should the church facilitate conversations about race? Why or why not?
Recommended Resources - Mike and Emily share their recommended resources
Community Corner - This month, we are featuring a note from a community member, who’s son had an experience with racism in school and how she dealt with it.
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CURRENT EVENTS
AMERICA’S GREAT DEBATE
Slavery, Reparations and LBJ’s Great Society
I was stunned when Senator Tim Scott, a Republican presidential candidate, offered his remarks during the second Republican Presidential Primary debate on Sept. 27, 2023. Here’s what he said:
“America suffered because of slavery. We’ve overcome that. We’re the greatest nation on Earth because we faced our demons in the mirror and made a decision. Issues like crime, education and healthcare, we always think that those issues go back to slavery. Here’s the challenge, though: Black families survived slavery. We survived poll taxes and literacy tests. We survived discrimination being woven into the laws of our country.
What was hard to survive, was Johnson’s Great Society (applause) when they decided to take the Black father out of the household to get a check in the mail. And now you can measure that in unemployment, crime and devastation.
If you want to restore hope, you got to restore the family, restore capitalism and put Americans back at work together as one American family. Our nation continues to go in the right direction. It’s why I can say that I have been discriminated against but America is not a racist country (cheering and applause). Never ever doubt who we are. We are the greatest country on God’s green earth.”
Senator Scott packed a lot into a 90-second statement, which concluded with the usual platitude. “We are the greatest country…” That wasn’t stunning. Every president and wannabe president says the same thing. President Biden says it. Former President Trump said it. As did former President Obama. And so on.
“America is the Greatest” is the standard reinforcement of a belief that Americans are better than other humans living in other countries. America is stronger. America is wealthier. And lest we try to assert the nuance between people and country, let’s not go there. Lands and resources do not create laws, hierarchal powers, governance and enforcements, economic policies, etc. No, the definitive statement about “America” in comparison to all other countries in the world (193 recognized members of the United Nations) is a statement about the people of America. But that’s not stunning.
Scott started this particular statement by making this point: “America suffered because of slavery. We’ve overcome that.”
As extraordinary as this statement is, it is an accepted viewpoint and believed implicitly across mainstream society. It lacks substance. It lacks credibility. It lacks veracity. And it is easily challenged and refuted … but usually isn’t when uttered. And when Scott said it in front of a friendly audience of believers, it merely reinforced what other Republican leaders have publicly stated and underscores what a majority of the population believes across political party lines. Not stunning.
But here’s what was stunning to me. Scott goes on to say, “Black families survived slavery” (apparently some did, many didn’t) … but “what was hard to survive was Johnson’s Great Society…” Again, not a stunning statement. It lacks substance. it lacks veracity. But it received strong audience cheers and applause before he could even complete his sentence. Um, wow. What did Scott hit on that animated an audience of mostly White conservative-minded voters? The instant reaction of the audience to Scott’s attack on LBJ’s ‘Great Society’ initiative was stunning to me.
Scott capitalized upon the audience reaction by following up his attack on LBJ with a definitive statement about the character of this nation: “America is not a racist country…” I found that statement quite interesting, since it is polar opposite of the statement published in 1965 by the Johnson administration.
“… the racist virus in the American bloodstream still afflicts us. Negroes will encounter serious personal prejudice for at least another generation.”
The audience’s instant embrace of Scott’s absolution of America’s responsibility and accountability was particularly stunning because of its timing. At the same time Scott was proclaiming America had overcome slavery and the systemic problems across Black America stem from federal policies implemented in my parents’ generation, the United Nations had published a seminal report on the residual impact of slavery and was actively calling out all western nations to acknowledge their responsibility and urging each to implement reparations that would require structural changes in society.
“To address the lasting consequences of these histories – in terms of inequities, structural and systemic injustices, lack of equal enjoyment of human dignity and rights – that will include financing, but the point is not the financial compensation, but the structural and systemic transformation.”
To add insult to injury, earlier this summer, the state of Florida’s board of education approved curriculum which informed students that enslaved Black people actually benefited from slavery. Teachers are now required to include this information in their lessons when teaching students about the era of American chattel slavery which lasted 246 years.
For context, the United States has formally existed 247 years in total. But it was a whites-only national citizenry until 1868 and the 14th amendment. Therefore, according to the Constitution, the national citizenry of a multiracial United States has only existed for 155 years. And since the first 100 years following the Civil War was an era of co-conspiracy between public and private sectors to demean, diminish and destroy Black lives, it wasn’t until 1965 that the federal government finally said, enough. Hmmm … 1965. A seminal point in U.S. history that isn’t as well-known as it should be.
I was compelled to connect the dots that seem plain to me through the convergence of these national themes of public discourse: slavery, reparations and the ‘Great Society’ in a ‘Great America.’ So, I wrote an article published on LinkedIn that I invite you to read, share and discuss.
BIG PICTURE
The world is engaged in a great discussion and debate over slavery. America is at an inflection point. It has long diminished, distorted and dismissed any serious national discussion about the true horrors of slavery, the century of domestic white terrorism and government policies that targeted Black Americans following the Civil War, and any steps toward a national reckoning, reconciling and reparations. Now, the world is elevating the issue and America can no longer sweep it under a very dirty rug of unresolved history handed down to the present-day generations.
Now, as the attention of the world is spotlighting western powers and demanding accountability for massive exploitation of peoples, lands and resources for centuries, Americans are embroiled in a contentious political war that could determine whether the experiment as a democratic republic can continue. While the world seeks accountability and reparations for slavery, a significant segment of America is under the impression that slavery is a past resolved issue, Black people gained some benefits from slavery, and the worst thing that happened to Black people in America was LBJ’s ‘Great Society’ which apparently destroyed the post WWII society that conservative-minded Americans want to restore to “Make America Great Again.”
This inflection point in national discourse compelled me to do something that we urge all participants in our Conversations Journey process to do: I looked through the lens of history to learn from the voices that were there. In this case, the attack on the Johnson administration’s ‘Great Society’ programs warranted a look at what was happening in 1965 and what was being said about what the programs were and why they were being introduced by the federal government.
Moreover, I wanted to see what Black leaders were saying and doing at the time, as well as gain insight into the conditions of Black America, and the Black family, which Senator Scott proclaims was destroyed by the federal government. I welcome your feedback to my article, published on LinkedIn.
Note: if you do not have a LinkedIn account and experience any trouble accessing the article, please send a request to me at mike@commongroundconversations.com and I will email the article directly to you as a PDF.
3 IMPORTANT THINGS TO KNOW
The era of American slavery as taught in most American schools has resulted in generations of adults with a severe lack of knowledge about American history in general, and slavery in particular. Most adults do not know this history because they were not taught. We cannot teach what we don’t know. And this ignorance among adults perpetuates ongoing generations of ignorance. We must break the cycle. That starts with developing our own knowledge and understanding.
The ‘Great Society’ federal programs were not a panacea for the systemic racism ingrained in laws, systems, public policies and private sector practices. Nor was it any part of an attempt at reparations for slavery. Nor was it the single bullet that undermined Black families and communities. Nor should it carry the burden of blame for the oppressive systemic conditions that all Black families, regardless of structure, experienced and endured throughout the century following the Civil War, from 1865 to 1965 (the year LBJ introduced the Great Society programs).
When present-day attempts to revise and rewrite history are made in the public square, we can benefit in our knowledge and understanding by conducting research through credible sources. We can learn from the people who lived at the time and were instrumental actors and influencers in societal dynamics and the shaping and molding of the laws, systems, public policies and private sector practices that we inherited.
WHY IT MATTERS
We cannot change what we don’t know. And we cannot teach what we don’t know. The society we inherited we did not create. And we have no responsibility for our inheritance, whether good or bad. But we do own responsibility for the society we will pass to future generations. And it is our decision whether to pass on the status quo or change our society to be what we envision. That requires establishing a common ground of knowledge and understanding about the current conditions of our society, how the current conditions came to be, and a vision of the societal conditions we want to pass to future generations.