This exchange between Chris Wallace and Nikole Hannah-Jones captures the challenge we face in this country right now.
Chris Wallace Goes At Nikole Hannah-Jones for Claim Greatest Generation 'Violently Suppressed' Black Voters in Heated CNN+ Exchange https://t.co/6q1RyKcwzi via @mediaite pic.twitter.com/X95MhXtt7e
— Tommy moderna-vaX-Topher (@tommyxtopher) April 7, 2022
There are several reasons why that exchange is so important. One of them is that Hannah-Jones didn't call Wallace a racist. As a matter of fact, she handled the exchange by providing him with some history and avoided getting personal or hurling insults. Given that so much of the discourse emanating from right wingers these days is nothing more than performance trolling, it is helpful to note that an alternative is still possible.
Secondly, Hannah-Jones provided Wallace with the kind of history lesson that many on the right want to ban from our public schools. It seemed to make him uncomfortable because that is what happens when when the myths we've been taught are exposed.
One of the issues many people have been struggling with lately is how to honor the achievements of our founders while recognizing the racism that was embedded in both their personal lives and the form of government they bequeathed to us. One doesn't negate the other. The same is true for those Tom Brokaw labelled "The Greatest Generation." Yes, they defeated the most evil alliance in our lifetime. But that doesn't absolve them of racism. One doesn't negate the other.
To further the history lesson Hannah-Jones began, perhaps someone should send Wallace the report produced by the Equal Justice Initiative titled, "Lynching in America: Targeting Black Veterans."
No one was more at risk of experiencing violence and targeted racial terror than black veterans who had proven their valor and courage as soldiers during the Civil War, World War I, and World War II. Because of their military service, black veterans were seen as a particular threat to Jim Crow and racial subordination. Thousands of black veterans were assaulted, threatened, abused, or lynched following military service.
The disproportionate abuse and assaults against black veterans have never been fully acknowledged. This report highlights the particular challenges endured by black veterans in the hope that our nation can better confront the legacy of this violence and terror. No community is more deserving of recognition and acknowledgment than those black men and women veterans who bravely risked their lives to defend this country’s freedom only to have their own freedom denied and threatened because of racial bigotry.
That is what Black veterans in this country have faced. When it comes to the racism of the Greatest Generation, Hannah-Jones knows her history well enough to be aware of the fact that J. W. Milam - one of the men who brutally murdered Emmett Till - not only served during World War II, but received combat medals. She's also probably aware of the fact that Medgar Evers, who stormed the beaches at Normandy, was gunned down by Byron De La Beckwith, who’d served at Guadalcanal with the Marine corps.
Wallace also seemed perplexed by the idea that, following World War II, young 20-somethings could be racist. On that one, I tend to agree with Michael Harriot.
Far be it from me to write about the mistreatment of white men, but the notion that old white people are the most virulent kind of white supremacists is problematic in many ways. It’s why every generation seems to believe that their generation of white kids will magically disinherit themselves from the white supremacy perpetrated by their forefathers.
Just take a look at the young faces of those who, a mere 15 years after the end of WWII, brutalized protesters for simply sitting at lunch counter.
I've a guilty admission. At the start of the clip, I wanted to be sympathetic to Wallace. He seemed to be upset that Hannah-Jones was putting words in his mouth, which she was, and cutting him off repeatedly. She also starts the clip by arguing that it took blacks acting alone to move toward democracy. I understand the anger that their role in history has been denied, but still this is the line of the 1619 Project, and I still object. There have been divisions over race within America from the start, and it's not simply blacks vs resistant white America. (The divisions are the theme of Jill Lepore's fine history of the country btw.) She should tell her story to those who fought in the Civil War, argued for abolition, and sent Reconstruction troops before the evil ones still with us took back what they wanted. She should tell that to Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner, and the many who marched in the face of police violence and the lockdown in June 2019. BTW, too, there's a fine video of tear gassing the protests in the new Whitney Biennial by Alfredo Jaar (from Chile). Of course, whites have also fought for progress on democracy that don't extend to race. America has both a great and terrible history and a great and terrible dream.
ReplyDeletePart of me even wants to sympathize with the feeling that it's a generation war. That's wrong, but I was, rather than the Greatest Generation (so called) a boomer who, in the 1960s, was sure that there was a generation gap and we were going to win. We didn't, and turns out lots of boomers weren't on our side.
Still, for all that, once he opens his mouth, the illusion of sanity is gone. He's just another ignorant white, both-siderism journalist, or outright racist, or all of the above. He single-handedly proved her right
"was sure that there was a generation gap and we were going to win. We didn't, and turns out lots of boomers weren't on our side."
DeleteI am Gen X. And I am feeling this deeply right now. I really want to blame the boomers but there are so many Gen Xers who are leading the White Grievance movement. To be fair, we might have been the last generation who asked what a girl was wearing if she deigned to accuse a guy of rape and used the words "fag" and "retard" as insults, so maybe I shouldn't be that surprised. I can't help but wonder if much of the grievance is that guys of my generation were expecting to be Don Draper and are angry that they aren't treated as the demi-gods they think they are.
May I add something on hopes for a younger generation? There's some validity in polls, at least on the culture wars, which means race as well. And Nancy herself argues for it often with her posts about how Texas or Florida or Georgia or whatever are finally in play. That optimism grates on me after so many dashed hopes, but let's agree that well-meaning people can share it.
ReplyDeleteAs a boy growing up in a small Iowa town, I well remember the vets who returned from WWII and Korea "educating" us young ones on how best to deal with "those people," so, that when it was our turn to join the military or anything like it, we would know how to act like proper white men. They weren't preaching hatred so much as a sense of racial superiority. One thing that bothers me about Nikole Hanna-Jones' critics is that they treat her as if she were a professional historian when, really, she is a journalist. I wish those who quibble about some of her alleged historical inaccuracies would quibble among themselves and let us enjoy the sweep of her efforts. Perhaps the big guys who complain about her research are offended over her small-town Iowa roots (Waterloo).
ReplyDelete