I think so many folk say something like “It’s too complicated” when talking — or not talking -about the middle east/war between Israel and Hamas is because in this country we’re socialized to see our issues in black and white, literally.
The truth here is far more complicated.
Black people long ago became the second largest minority but you’d never know it because all social advancements, battles, laws, school books, and elections are presented as binary — Black vs. white.
Of course there’s a historical uniqueness to being Black in America in that we are the only formerly enslaved people of all the other non-white folk.
The only ones needing emancipation, and who are descendants of Africans and white enslavers. Caribbean folk are included, too, of course. We’ve survived enslavement and its horrific aftermath of massacres of our cities and neighborhoods, and thousands of lynchings and murders by white citizens.
And our education, pop culture, laws, law enforcement, and all of it are always informed by that history, first, middle, and last. And all other non-white folk bear the secondary consideration in such an unfair way it causes fighting between all the groups.
We know of the devastation of the original peoples on this land, the genocide, the ongoing destruction of lands and broken treaties. We know the southwest states all the way to California were part of Mexico. The inhabitants of those lands were suddenly made foreigners on land they’d occupied for generations.
Broken Treaties With Native American Tribes: Timeline | HISTORY
See a timeline of treaties signed and then broken by the U.S. government with various Indigenous peoples across the…
We know Chinese citizens helped build infrastructure that is still used today. We know construction, farming, and other industries populated by non-white folk contribute to us being able to maintain a standard of living that wouldn’t exist without their incredible contributions.
Building the Transcontinental Railroad: How 20,000 Chinese Immigrants Made It Happen | HISTORY
Railroad companies were at first reluctant to hire Chinese workers, deeming them too “weak,” but the immigrants soon…
But no matter the complicated facts for hundreds of years, America boils everything to Black vs white. So many are left out because Americans crave simplicity over the effort to understand nuance and complexity.
We want good to be a white hat and bad to be a black hat. Good to be a white man and sometimes a white woman and bad to be a Black man or Black woman.
We want the allies versus. the axis.
Avengers vs. Thanos.
Everyone vs the Yankees.
It is part of the reason bros hate women-directed movies that explore emotion, grey areas, resolution without the biggest gun (though women movies certain do those well/better, too).
We want a wealthy dummy like Trump speaking dumb soundbites over an experienced woman like Hillary who provides long thoughtful answers.
We want a wealthy dummy who spoke in malapropisms like George W. Bush versus an intelligent Black man like Obama or a smart accomplished woman like Kamala who both speak in detail, in nuance, and who can laugh at themselves.
We end up with a population quick to join other nation’s struggles because we refuse to join *this nation’s struggles.
The rapid widespread support for Ukraine is the other side of the coin to the rapid pro-palestine support.
Again, Americans are quick to join other nation’s struggles because we refuse to join this nation’s struggles.
“We have it great, we’re number one, America is the best nation ever -Americans will retort with self-satisfaction and unearned confidence.
We tell ourselves those things to absolve ourselves and to convince ourselves to see past the nuance and embrace the simplicity.
Americans will tell you the entire history of the british monarchy, every shakespearean reference to kings and politicians of the day, the history of Ireland and North Ireland, facts about Mr. Darcy, how their ancestors came on the Mayflower, were half Cherokee, or why plantation weddings are ok.
But ask them about Black history, Mexican American history, the histories of Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, Hawaii, Black farmers, indigenous treaties, or detailed history of American slavery that includes the wealth our folk created and be met with blank stares, deflection, and an admission that for all the education folk have there are grand canyon-sized gaps filled with non-white history that happened in this nation.
Ask americans about the mass slaughters, mass rapes, baby killing, breeding, and daily violence that done by American slave owners and you’ll be quickly shut down, your books banned, and even place your jobs in jeopardy.
You never see slave and plantation owners listed as “most prolific killers” but they were.
They also ate us.
Look at the range of colors of American Black folk. How did we get these shades of black and brown? We didn’t come to these shores brown, light brown, or light. And we didn’t voluntarily give our our deep beautiful Blackness.
Our color, like our lives, was stolen.
We can speak on the Middle East just like we can speak on Ukraine.
Or Congo.
Or Sudan.
We can say, as I have said since the day Netanyahu tried to derail president Obama with a misguided speech to congress at the behest of racist republicans-that fool needs to go.
Former President Obama spoke about the war with the nuance, skill, and moral clarity he is known for, while expounding on the inability to be dispassionate about the carnage we are witnessing.
Former President Obama on Friday said the current conflict in the Middle East is a “moral reckoning for all of us.”
“[A]ll of this is taking place against the backdrop of decades of failure to achieve a durable peace for both Israelis and Palestinians,” the former president said at the Obama Foundation’s “Democracy Forum” Friday. “One that is based on genuine security for Israel, a recognition of its right to exist, and a peace that is based on an end of the occupation and the creation of a viable state and self-determination for the Palestinian people.”
“Now, I will admit, it is impossible to be dispassionate in the face of this carnage,” Obama continued. “It is hard to feel hopeful. The images of families mourning, of bodies being pulled from rubble, force a moral reckoning on all of us.”
Netanyahu needs to go. Hamas needs to go. Palestine needs a state. Israel needs to be safe and as our 80+ year ally, we need to continue to support them, as we do all our allies, like Ukraine, the United Kingdom, Japan, S. Korea, and so on.
That’s not complicated.
America is complicated and we’ve somehow managed to exist with longstanding racial, ethnic, religious, and ideological differences and disagreements.
We understand it because as much as we like to be happy fools, we have to face ourselves daily.
It’s not Black and white.
Dear Dean 