America is perpetually stuck with ourselves. A nation treading water unable to move forward with baggage filled with old battles, contested victories, and enough doubt to keep the nation mired in its self-made hell for many more generations.
A nation that has never allowed itself to self-interrogate its role in the near genocide of the millions of indigenous habitants or the centuries long multigenerational chattel slavery is a nation mired in denial and draped in unresolved issues.
America needs therapy, and fast.
Therapy that starts with America listening. And then listening some more. America has spoken and said too much of nothing while refusing to listen to learn, listen to understand, and listen to empathize.
And of course listen to make real and lasting change.
The nation refuses to listen and that contributes to the same issues being fought generation after generation.
We’re still fighting for the nation to acknowledge the lasting impact of chattel enslavement and to make any amends. We are waiting for restitution to Black farmers and reparations for Black people. Indigenous folk are waiting for treaties to be satisfied, and women are waiting for the right to control their bodies and to have access to safe abortions.
In 2022, Black farmers were persistently left behind from the USDA’s loan system
An NPR data analysis shows Black farmers were accepted for USDA direct loans at a lower rate than other racial groups…
Black people are still waiting for equal access to vote. Children are still waiting for free lunches, heat and air conditioning in schools, and current books in school libraries.
We are still fighting for safe and effective maternal care for Black women, and we are waiting for the city of Washington, D.C., and island nation of Puerto Rico to have equal status under all laws that govern all other states.
Working Together to Reduce Black Maternal Mortality
The Office of Health Equity (OHE) Mission: Advance health equity and women’s health issues across the nation through…
We are still fighting book bans, rampant Nazism, and against uncontrolled and unregulated corporations and robber barons. We are fighting for union membership, equal pay between men and women, and especially between Black and Hispanic/Latino women compared to white women. And we are fighting for better health care, better public safety nets, and better resources for unhoused people, and for veterans.
Mahogany’s List of Black Banned Books
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The water we tread is tinged red from the deaths of adults and children killed by guns. That same water contains the blood of those killed by police for hundreds of years, and the remnants of the drugs of those who have fallen from addiction to substances made by wealthy companies owned by wealthy people.
The nation has refused to consider the opinions of victims of itself, preferring instead to listen to those who perpetrate the evil or those who willingingly block attempts at resolutions.
We cannot move forward because we are stuck in the muck and mire of hate, racism, misogyny, and supremacy.
We breed generation after generation of white people who only want what is best for white people and who persistently vote to harm everyone else.
What makes it all so frustrating is that these battles have been fought — and won! — time and again but no matter how positive the results are for everyone, for business, and for communities, each new generation spawns new attempts to undue progress and return America to its worst self.
Just in past few years we’ve seen over one-hundred voting laws changes designed to make voting harder specifically for Black voters.
We’ve seen republicans rage and legislate against free breakfast and lunch for kids, all the while they get free meals.
We’re still fighting a nationwide nimbyism battle for much needed housing. And we’re fighting for inclusion of Black history from K-12 and even at the university level.
We are fighting for school funding for inner city schools, and for equal salaries and benefits for the teachers who teach Black, Hispanic/Latino, and Indigenous kids. And we’re fighting against, again, private schools — which are predominately in white neighborhoods and filled with kids from wealthy families, from stealing school funds from non-white schools.
how much are black schools underfunded – Google Search
Please click here if you are not redirected within a few seconds. Across the country, districts with the most students…
We are fighting gerrymandering especially but not exclusively in the South, and we’re fighting to get states such as Alabama to follow the law as they were told to do by the Supreme Court. But like their confederate forefathers, they are ignoring the law and defying the Supreme Court.
Nothing is new, all things have been done before.
We are re-fighting and re-losing The War on Drugs, and this time it is opiods as the main driver killing hundreds of thousands of people. Families, cities, schools, and communities are being devastated and no one is being held accountable, unless you count relatively insignificant monetary fines to billionaire families.
In things big — like politics and law enforcement, and differently big— like representation in television, movies, and sports management and ownership, the fights keep us stuck in a past we didn’t create and a present we are desperately trying to change.
Every one of America’s problems that are on repeat can be instantly fixed if the majority of population decided to do so.
It really is that simple.
And that unreachable.
The nation needs an expert therapist with experience in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Interpersonal Psychotherapy to really get into the muck and surface the issues that we know the nation has and needs to resolve. Then with openness and honesty, strategize specific time-based steps to address the issues that are holding the country back.
We have to confront the denial that chattel enslavement was bad and among the worst atrocities in human history.
Like any marriage that is on the rocks, the issues won’t go away just because they are ignored. They’ll get worse and more intense and the couple’s reactions will become more extreme. We see some of this playing out now with insurrections, Nazis in Florida proudly waving their flag, proud boys, and oathkeeper violence, and entire swaths of the population refusing to believe proven science.
We also see it in online harassment of Black people, especially Black women, all other women, and every other minority group… by the majority here and likeminded people from many other european nations.
Many say that every progress the country makes is immediately followed by harsh backlash from the majority. The most popular version being that of the election of Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012, but we see the as much if not more backlash to the ascendance of VP Kamala Harris.
VP Harris is already addressing the same lies and misinformation about her prior career as she did before then candidate Biden selected her to be his running mate. And despite all her work these past three years, she’s still fighting the mass media’s determination to cut her down and knock her back to another era.
While the Obama and VP Harris backlash continues to harm the nation, the broader truth is that every advance by every minority is met with backlash.
Whether we are a fictional mermaid, world class sprinter or tennis professional, Grammy or Emmy winner, a valedictorian, or customer service agent recently promoted, backlash happens.
Whether we are trying to learn our history in school, worship the way we want, love the way we want, wear our hair the way we want, or laugh and dance the way we want — we have to re-fight for every inch.
There’s no grace in the present just like there was none in the past.
We and our children and young adults are fighting the same fight our parents and grandparents fought and by the looks of it, the same fights our kids and grandkids will fight.
There is a way forward but there’s no going forward without steps being taken.
And like any project or problem the best time to start is right now.
Dear Dean 
Excellent post. Myron, you hit all the points. Are Black people tired you bet we are but we must keep on keeping on. Btw, Myron, I miss seeing your daily banter and conversations.(I’m no longer on Twitter)
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