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On April 23rd, the results of a study were published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. It suggested that the reason an ill-equipped celebrity was elected to be our 45th president was due to the large turnout by those afraid of losing their status at the top of America’s racial pyramid—my white tribe.
During the election, the Trumpian promise of a return to American greatness was presented like a return to a John Wayne, cowboy America, where my tribe could rest assured that we were the favored of our God. Many white Christians still speak of our current president as being specifically chosen by our Creator. If this is true, then it is proof that God does, indeed, have a sense of humor.
The fear of my tribe’s losing our majority status and privilege, and therefore our political clout, is based on our country’s changing complexion. White-faced Baby Boomers and their children are becoming the minority and are slated to slip below that fifty-one percentile somewhere around 2045. This is happening, regardless of our feelings and opinions about it.
In the past, especially in the years before that earlier celebrity president, Ronald Reagan, we could always find safety in our numbers and even a sense of empowerment, feeling entitled to a larger piece of the American pie. It was good to be a part of the popular race that was in charge of things. America was our tribal land, and many of us were pretty sure we were the people referred to in our Constitution’s Preamble.
But somewhere in the Eighties and Nineties, things started to feel different. The world began intruding. There were more of those others walking about, the ones with the different skin pigmentation and peculiar customs, ways of speaking, and dress. More were shopping at the local grocery and sharing our sidewalks.
Those numbers continued increasing as we got closer to the 21st Century. And we became a little more anxious and a little more angry at the cultural imposition of those different others.
Early on in this new millennium, our society experienced a devastating blow. We were victims of the first successful large-scale attack within our borders since Pearl Harbor. And our anxiety ramped up several notches, moving well into outright fear. And that cultural imposition started feeling more like a threat to our way of life.
It is now clear that many of us would like to go back to a simpler time with a simpler story where the top-most status of our tribe was certain. Many of us still want to believe that we are the chosen tribe of American Exceptionalism. We wish only for the fulfillment of the Trumpian promise of a time machine to take us back to a romanticized notion of the good old days.
But, deep in the shadowed layers of our white tribal psyche, we know it is impossible to go back. It’s difficult to admit that we are not living on a pyramid with its apex reserved exclusively for us—that we are actually living on a sphere—all of us. It’s difficult to acknowledge that the first word in the first sentence of the Preamble of our Constitution, is much larger and more colorful than any cowboy vision of America. But it’s time we do. This can be seen as truly wonderful news if we can let go of our fear of the inevitable change.
We could become such a strong nation by discovering a greater openness instead of clinging to the current societal contraction that is splitting us apart.
In truth, we are all God’s chosen, regardless of how we look, speak, dress, or worship. We all share in God’s mysterious, creative purpose. Our whitewashing of history will not change this indelible fact of life.
Despite the resistance from some in my tribe, we are racing away from a white, Eurocentric worldview and towards a more global, beige worldview. And we now have an opportunity to learn to navigate the lightning-fast currents of this societal change in a more skillful way. We now have an opportunity to transcend our fear and become a wiser people. This is what our children want from us. And it would make all our lives greater.
So, what do we do? How can we improve our lot in life and ease our fears? Can we redefine American greatness in a way that reflects our modern, colorful landscape? Can we still work towards that greatness in some fashion—one that invites everyone to have a seat at the table of societal visioning?
We are seeing the results of our current choice for president. And it is now clear that our job is to find leaders who are more interested in bridge building than wall building, and creating a greater society for all instead of just greater wealth for the few, while dividing the rest of us. If there is one profound lesson from the Trump presidency it’s this: fear only begets more fear.
Us versus Them is an archaic construct that needs to go if we want to create something wonderful for our children. We used to build things in this country and there is an urgent need for that ingenuity to rise again. And some of those doing the building will look different from us of the white tribe. And that will only make our American construct that much more powerful. We need our diversity to create our new greatness if it is to triumph and be a beneficial force for our world.
Can those of my white tribe, who wish for a stagnant and pyramid-shaped society, succeed in accepting the new reality of our country? Can we form those partnerships with all invested parties that share in our democracy? For our children, and theirs, my tribe has no choice but to succeed in this.
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Photo credit: Getty Images
Very good and thoughtful article Tod.
Elwood Watson, Ph.D.
Fellow Contributor
Good Men Project
This article is one of many reasons why I enjoy being a part of The Good Men Project community. There are so many writers willing to take on the difficult issues so we can engage in necessary conversations. Thank you for being a voice of inspiration.
I just joined the Good Men Project to have conversations no one else is having & this is the first article I read. This narrative is the exact conversation everyone else is having. So here’s what no one else talks about: There’s nothing wrong with ethnocentrism. It’s a healthy social dynamic where similar individuals associate with those of similar characteristics. It’s from that social construct that individuals can branch out to interact with others who aren’t aren’t immediately similar. We’re a nation of immigrants blended together in America’s Melting Pot. That blending supports a strong Nationalism & it’s that Nationalism… Read more »
Hello Greg and thank you for taking the time to comment. I do respectfully disagree with your idea that there is nothing wrong with ethnocentrism. My understanding of the concept is the judging of other races, nationalities, and cultures based on the values and standards of one’s own race, nationality and culture. It can be a myopic view of things. Our human history is filled with examples of justified genocide as the result of extreme manifestations of ethnocentrism—look at how we justified the slaughter of countless indigenous people because they were merely “Godless savages”, based on our view of things,… Read more »