Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night. — Dylan Thomas
An addiction to white supremacy
It is always hard to face the truth of a close family member’s faults and transgressions. We languish in denial when a brother or sister is addicted to narcotics or alcohol. We can’t face it.
We deny they are a terrible human being (while actively addicted). We make excuses. We let them keep wreaking havoc.
So it is with America and its racial legacy, white supremacy, etc. Far too many Americans continue to deny the depraved state of their country’s sordid racial and racist origins and the inability to correct itself.
They keep acting as if white supremacy never existed and does not exist. They act as if white supremacy is a tiny pimple on someone’s back rather than the whole back.
White supremacy is the entire back and too many continue to deny the need to stop drinking from the vat. Stop sipping the whiskey of white supremacy. Get off the bottle. Get clean.
The antidote
The Dylan Thomas poem above is a poem about death. His father is dying and Thomas is telling his father to not go gently. Fight for every bit of this life.
This is like white supremacy and its supporters. It is dying. It can be dead soon if only those who need it for some reason, let it die. Denounce it. Do let go, in other words, of this unholy elixir.
The 1619 Project, Critical Race Theory, and anti-racism efforts are part of the cure for the evil of white supremacy. They won’t end it but they are landing haymakers and staggering it.
That is why the hard core acolytes of white supremacy fight so hard day by day to make these liberating ideas sound ominous. They have even put anti-racists on the defensive in some instances.
Things are so bad in some circles, people are apologizing and saying Critical Race Theory is not taught in K-12 school. They are trying to put white supremacists at ease. Imagine.
The answer to that is, so what if Critical Race Theory is taught in school? That would be a good thing. I teach it. It is what I would describe as a “better idea.”
My students, of all ethnic backgrounds, love to discuss it even though it is new to them. They enjoy intersectionality even more. These ideas counter the narrative that has been circulated forever in America to make everyone feel good.
Those trying to silence Critical Race Theory, the 1619 Project, and anti-racism know why they want to ban it. White supremacy is an anti-human concept not rooted in facts, science, or anything other than a desire to oppress and demean others. They know the entirety of American history is on the chopping block because it is mostly, a lie.
They are likewise addicted to white supremacy like a drug. They are that relative of yours you see strung out on dope and can’t kick, just like collectively America can’t kick the drug either. They are destroying themselves and the country by continuing to use the dope.
Rage
Dylan Thomas, the great Welsh poet, lived a hard life. He died in 1953. His life was short and while he created great art, he also destroyed himself slowly with whiskey and cigarettes before he turned 40. Was he troubled? Surely.
America is like Dylan Thomas. It is raging against the dying of white supremacy and really how things were and will be for not much longer. It is unclear what the goal is to tell the truth.
“Time is moving on,” as the Last Poets once wrote. Maybe “democracy is coming to the U.S.A.,” as Leonard Cohen, the Canadian bard sang. Amiri Baraka once noted that “somebody blew up America…”
Something did. White supremacy is blowing it up slowly. It has kept America from becoming what it claimed it wanted to be in 1776.
As Thomas famously wrote (and said)— “Rage! Rage! Rage against the dying of the light…” The light that never totally came on is dying.
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Previously Published on medium
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Featured image A pro–Hiester Clymer racist political campaign poster from the 1866 Pennsylvania gubernatorial election — (Public Domain)