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by Alexa Erickson
December 21, 2016
from
Collective-Evolution Website
An insightful opinion piece from The New Yorker has been
making its way around the Internet, and for good reason.
Titled
Now Is the Time to Talk About What We Are
Actually Talking About and written by Chimamanda Ngozi
Adichie, it discusses the fundamental need for a shift in
consciousness to occur - a need that has so badly been
stifled by the continuous drone of propaganda.
The 2016 U.S. presidential election proved to be one of the most
controversial elections in recent history, leaving many fearing that
a country born from an idea of freedom, that has worked tirelessly
to combat racism, misogyny, and anti-intellectualism, will once
again be ruled by and for the white man.
A melting pot of people with varying races, genders, sexual
orientations, and incomes cannot survive peacefully in a nation that
asks to build walls. And no, not just the infamous wall separating
the U.S. and Mexico, but walls against people of our own nation.
As Adichie says:
Now is the time to resist the
slightest extension in the boundaries of what is right and just.
Now is the time to speak up and to
wear as a badge of honor the opprobrium of bigots. Now is the
time to confront the weak core at the heart of America's
addiction to optimism; it allows too little room for resilience,
and too much for fragility.
Hazy visions of "healing" and "not
becoming the hate we hate" sound dangerously like appeasement.
The responsibility to forge unity belongs not to the denigrated
but to the denigrators.
The premise for empathy has to be
equal humanity; it is an injustice to demand that the maligned
identify with those who question their humanity.
Even before the election took place, a
question seemed to loom in the background:
What is happening to our world?
People are beginning to wake up from the
brainwashing of mainstream media, of government control, that
instills fear and pushes us down a one-way path of no return, with
little to no room for thoughts or actions that are specifically our
own, not crafted by someone else.
Adichie's offers a poignant revelation of how white identity
politics have shaped our present world:
This election is a reminder that
identity politics in America is a white invention: it was the
basis of segregation.
The denial of civil rights to black
Americans had at its core the idea that a black American should
not be allowed to vote because that black American was not
white.
The endless questioning, before the
election of Obama, about America's "readiness" for a black
President was a reaction to white identity politics.
Yet "identity politics" has come to
be associated with minorities, and often with a patronizing
undercurrent, as though to refer to nonwhite people motivated by
an irrational herd instinct.
White Americans have practiced
identity politics since the inception of America, but it is now
laid bare, impossible to evade.
The corruption and bias of mainstream
media, and its role in this continuous brainwashing, has caused an
up-rise of alternative media outlets to speak the truth for the
betterment of humanity, and the movement has only continued to grow
in popularity.
Patience is growing thin for media
outlets that don't prioritize education and information over motive.
"Now is the time for the media, on
the left and right, to educate and inform. To be nimble and
alert, clear-eyed and skeptical, active rather than reactive. To
make clear choices about what truly matters," she says.
Adichie also points out the desperate
need for us to not just know of, but also acknowledge and take
action on the unjust inequalities that no longer have a place in our
nation, or in our world:
Now is the time to put the idea of the "liberal bubble" to rest.
The reality of American tribalism is
that different groups all live in bubbles. Now is the time to
acknowledge the ways in which Democrats have condescended to the
white working class - and to acknowledge that Trump condescends to
it by selling it fantasies.
Now is the time to remember that there
are working-class Americans who are not white and who have suffered
the same deprivations and are equally worthy of news profiles. Now
is the time to remember that "women" does not equal white women.
"Women" must mean all women.
She urges us to make the art of questioning a priority.
Now is the time to elevate the art of questioning. Is the only valid
resentment in America that of white males? If we are to be
sympathetic to the idea that economic anxieties lead to questionable
decisions, does this apply to all groups? Who exactly are the élite?
And she concludes by asserting that now is the time to discuss the
reality of alternative forms.
Bernie Sanders's message did not scapegoat the vulnerable.
Obama rode a populist wave before his first election, one marked
by a remarkable inclusiveness. Now is the time to counter lies with
facts, repeatedly and unflaggingly, while also proclaiming the
greater truths: of our equal humanity, of decency, of compassion.
Every precious ideal must be reiterated,
every obvious argument made, because an ugly idea left unchallenged
begins to turn the color of normal. It does not have to be like
this.
Adichie's piece is nothing short of brilliant, but more than
anything, it's a desperate call for action. We can no longer ignore
the reality that our consciousness is shifting.
We must continue to wake up,
help others wake up, and make the change we require to live in a
better world.
Now is the Time to Talk About...
What
We are Actually Talking About
by Chimamanda Ngozi
Adichie
December 02, 2016
from
TheNewYorker Website
In the wake of
the election,
we must resist the
slightest extension
in the boundaries of
what is right and just.
PHOTOGRAPH BY LIVIO
MANCINI / REDUX
America has always been aspirational to me.
Even when I chafed at its
hypocrisies, it somehow always seemed sure, a nation that knew
what it was doing, refreshingly free of that anything-can-happen
existential uncertainty so familiar to developing nations.
But no longer.
The election of Donald Trump
has flattened the poetry in America's founding philosophy:
the country born from an idea of
freedom is to be governed by an unstable, stubbornly
uninformed, authoritarian demagogue.
And in response to this there are
people living in visceral fear, people anxiously trying to
discern policy from bluster, and people kowtowing as though to a
new king.
Things that were recently pushed to
the corners of America's political space - overt racism, glaring
misogyny, anti-intellectualism - are once again creeping to the
center.
Now is the time to resist the slightest extension in the
boundaries of what is right and just. Now is the time to speak
up and to wear as a badge of honor the opprobrium of bigots.
Now is the time to confront the weak
core at the heart of America's addiction to optimism; it allows
too little room for resilience, and too much for fragility.
Hazy visions of "healing" and "not
becoming the hate we hate" sound dangerously like appeasement.
The responsibility to forge unity belongs not to the denigrated
but to the denigrators.
The premise for empathy has to be
equal humanity; it is an injustice to demand that the maligned
identify with those who question their humanity.
America loves winners, but victory does not absolve. Victory,
especially a slender one decided by a few thousand votes in a
handful of states, does not guarantee respect. Nobody
automatically deserves deference on ascending to the leadership
of any country.
American journalists know this only
too well when reporting on foreign leaders - their default mode
with Africans, for instance, is nearly always barely concealed
disdain.
President Obama endured
disrespect from all quarters. By far the most egregious
insult directed toward him, the racist movement tamely termed "birtherism,"
was championed by Trump.
Yet, a day after the election, I heard a journalist on the radio
speak of the vitriol between Obama and Trump. No, the vitriol
was Trump's. Now is the time to burn false equivalencies
forever.
Pretending that both sides of an
issue are equal when they are not is not "balanced" journalism;
it is a fairy tale - and, unlike most fairy tales, a
disingenuous one.
Now is the time to refuse the blurring of memory.
Each mention of "gridlock" under
Obama must be wrought in truth: that "gridlock" was a deliberate
and systematic refusal of the Republican Congress to work with
him.
Now is the time to call things what
they actually are, because language can illuminate truth as much
as it can obfuscate it.
Now is the time to forge new words.
"Alt-right" is benign.
"White-supremacist right" is more accurate.
Now is the time to talk about what
we are actually talking about.
"Climate contrarian" obfuscates.
"Climate-change denier" does not.
And because climate change is
scientific fact, not opinion, this matters.
Now is the time to discard that carefulness that too closely
resembles a lack of conviction. The election is not a "simple
racism story," because no racism story is ever a "simple" racism
story, in which grinning evil people wearing white burn crosses
in yards.
A racism story is complicated, but
it is still a racism story, and it is worth parsing.
Now is not the time to tiptoe around
historical references. Recalling Nazism is not extreme; it is
the astute response of those who know that history gives both
context and warning.
Now is the time to recalibrate the default assumptions of
American political discourse. Identity politics is not the sole
preserve of minority voters. This election is a reminder that
identity politics in America is a white invention: it was the
basis of segregation.
The denial of civil rights to black
Americans had at its core the idea that a black American should
not be allowed to vote because that black American was not
white. The endless questioning, before the election of Obama,
about America's "readiness" for a black President was a reaction
to white identity politics.
Yet "identity politics" has come to
be associated with minorities, and often with a patronizing
undercurrent, as though to refer to nonwhite people motivated by
an irrational herd instinct.
White Americans have practiced
identity politics since the inception of America, but it is now
laid bare, impossible to evade.
Now is the time for the media, on the left and right, to educate
and inform. To be nimble and alert, clear-eyed and skeptical,
active rather than reactive. To make clear choices about what
truly matters.
Now is the time to put the idea of the "liberal bubble" to rest.
The reality of American tribalism is
that different groups all live in bubbles. Now is the time to
acknowledge the ways in which Democrats have condescended to the
white working class - and to acknowledge that Trump condescends
to it by selling it fantasies.
Now is the time to remember that
there are working-class Americans who are not white and who have
suffered the same deprivations and are equally worthy of news
profiles. Now is the time to remember that "women" does not
equal white women.
"Women" must mean all women.
Now is the time to elevate the art of questioning.
-
Is the only valid resentment
in America that of white males?
-
If we are to be sympathetic
to the idea that economic anxieties lead to questionable
decisions, does this apply to all groups?
-
Who exactly are the élite?
Now is the time to frame the
questions differently.
If everything remained the same, and
Hillary Clinton were a man, would she still engender an
overheated, outsized hostility? Would a woman who behaved
exactly like Trump be elected?
Now is the time to stop suggesting
that sexism was absent in the election because white women did
not overwhelmingly vote for Clinton.
Misogyny is not the sole preserve of
men.
The case for women is not that they are inherently better or
more moral. It is that they are half of humanity and should have
the same opportunities - and be judged according to the same
standards - as the other half.
Clinton was expected to be
perfect, according to contradictory standards, in an election
that became a referendum on her likability.
Now is the time to ask why America is far behind many other
countries (see: Rwanda) in its representation of women in
politics. Now is the time to explore mainstream attitudes toward
women's ambition, to ponder to what extent the ordinary
political calculations that all politicians make translate as
moral failures when we see them in women.
Clinton's careful calibration was
read as deviousness. But would a male politician who is
carefully calibrated - Mitt Romney, for example - merely
read as carefully calibrated?
Now is the time to be precise about the meanings of words.
Trump saying "They let you do it"
about assaulting women does not imply consent, because consent
is what happens before an act.
Now is the time to remember that, in a wave of dark populism
sweeping the West, there are alternative forms. Bernie Sanders's
message did not scapegoat the vulnerable.
Obama rode a populist wave before
his first election, one marked by a remarkable inclusiveness.
Now is the time to counter lies with facts, repeatedly and
unflaggingly, while also proclaiming the greater truths: of our
equal humanity, of decency, of compassion.
Every precious ideal must be
reiterated, every obvious argument made, because an ugly idea
left unchallenged begins to turn the color of normal.
It does not have to be like this.
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