Healing that which ails America

Not since the eve of the Civil War has America been this polarized. There have been other moments of severe division — in 1968, anti-Vietnam war protests, the Black Power movement, Women’s Liberation, gay rights activism, and angry "Middle-Americans " fragmented the country. But today’s division is more severe. We cannot survive without confronting this polarization — and if possible, finding a way to overcome it.

Race, class and gender have been at the heart of what divides us. Since 1619, racism has been fundamental in tearing us apart. Whether it be slavery, Jim Crow segregation, or the ongoing devaluation of Black lives (Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd), attitudes toward race have shaped our national economy, behavior and ethics. While many white Americans believe racial injustice was solved with the Civil Rights Acts of the 1960s, racism remains a central reality of American life.

Class is a central component of racial inequality. People of color are disproportionately represented in the ranks of the poor. Throughout our history, Black Americans have systemically been denied access to the wealth they helped to create. Even during periods of economic prosperity — World War II through the 1970s — Black Americans lagged behind whites in the gains they achieved. Even with growth in the ranks of the college-educated, Black Americans have failed to match the incomes of whites. In 2017, the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston estimated that the average net worth of Boston’s Black families was $8, while that of whites was $247,500.

We need to confront racism, explore the way it infiltrates our lives, talk to each other about it, and — together — find a course of action to eliminate it.

South Africa provided one example. Backed by President Nelson Mandela and championed by other civic leaders, South Africa implemented a Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Throughout the country, whites who had oppressed Black Africans, and Blacks who had experienced that oppression, engaged with each other. Africans on both sides of the racial divide confronted their histories and opened the door for resolving injustices. While there was inadequate follow-through and rampant inequality persists, the exercise was a starting point for confronting the pervasive history of racial inequality.

Nothing is more needed in America today than a series of similar truth, justice and reconciliation commissions.

One such effort occurred in Greensboro, North Carolina — the birthplace of the Black student sit-in movement — where a coalition of American Nazi and Ku Klux Klan members killed five labor and community organizers in 1979, while terrorizing countless others preparing for an anti-Klan march. That truth commission, inaugurated by the Rev. Nelson Johnson and his wife, Joyce, eventually produced positive results as Blacks, whites and Latinx built enduring alliances, and together, won impressive community and labor victories. Now, after nearly 41 years, the City of Greensboro has finally apologized, acknowledging that some city officials and police knew in advance of the planned attack by Klansmen and American Nazis, but failed to protect the marchers and the community.

Confronting racism is the first, indispensable step toward coming to grips with our long history of race and class inequality. If we can begin honest conversations and confront institutions that enable oppression, we can begin to create a society committed to justice and equality.

William H. Chafe is professor of history, emeritus, at Duke University. A former president of the Organization of American Historians, he also serves as a member of a working group dedicated to creating Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commissions.