Hoping For Beloved Community

I recently returned from our annual meeting of the Association of Holocaust Organizations at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

I will honor Dr. King today by admitting that my post for today needed to be re-written in favor of his vision of Beloved Community. We had an honest, open, and thoughtful discussion dealing with anger, isolation, fear, and sense of powerless given the current polarization and violence. I mistakenly thought I should try to “explain” some of it and the misuse of labels. Instead, I was reminded to engage first. “Conflict loves speed” Adar reminded us. I will slow down. I have taught that labeling people sets up a dangerous dynamic. Yes, we want to identify unjust actions but how we do so, helps us look to a better future.  Rather than attempting to justify or articulate my position I instinctively like to listen. Listening, in respectful humility, will allow me to grow and also hear why others are doing what they do. Really, I have found that listening (not judging or evaluating) creates a common space for growth and discussion. Not everyone is like me (thankfully) and although I may disagree with them or their actions a better future – let alone present – cannot be built without respect. AS a Holocaust educator I am listening to stories and experiences that are not mine – nor would I dare to position myself as understanding. Instead, I grow. This will be a focus of the book I am currently working on. I remember being at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem with an angry colleague seeking answers to justify his emotions. We were talking to Anne Frank’s friend Hannah Pick (“Lies Goosens” in Anne’s diary). As I listened to his query to her about “how did you get your revenge” I saw someone in need of answers and an answer given that I did not expect. Hannah responded, kindly, calmly, and with a smile, “I had children”. This assertion that revenge is to choose life and love still shapes my life today. Admittedly, I do enjoy it when my hidden child friend Kati Preston put it a little differently, “Every time I had a child it was like giving the finger to Hitler.” That sense of a having a heart of a dove but a mind like a (choose your favorite animal who does not give in and plans) keeps helping me. I have often talked about the student who tried to silence my presentation by yelling “Proud Boys Rule” and my instinctive response (helped by listening to an FBI hostage negotiator the night before) to listen, rather than to label and condemn. He was angry, fearful, and wondering about his future. And yet, he and I, because of mutual respect that developed by listening to each other, came to a different and better place. We must listen first, connect to things that are outside of our comfort zone, and trust that we have more in common than that which obviously separates us. Often, the common things are about safety, dignity, and the ability to express oneself to someone who will listen. We must work tirelessly on the things we can control or have influence over. If we get distraught or overwhelmed by things outside that circle, it will undermine the very work we can do. If we here statements as questions, we can pause, think, and reflect on the possibilities that question opened up. The Civil Rights movement succeeded because it choose nonviolence as both a tactical and strategic approach. One cannot fight hate and power with either. In our democratic life we must choose dignity. It is not, as Adar stated, simply about smiling or giving out flowers. However nice that may be, we need to do more and act strategically with our convictions. If we listen, engage eye to eye with curiosity, and accept that the work is not easy, then we can build a common ground, a space where education, not self-defensiveness, can happen. Teachers instinctively know this. We must be reminded that it is true. Rather than ask, why are you doing this? We can ask, what is important to you? What is one thing you’d like to tell me about yourself? In one conversation with a student, he prefaced his comments by saying, “Are you going to cancel me” if I speak. I reassured him that I don’t do that. My response was defensive, but it was also curious. I asked him why he felt that way rather than trying to convince him he was wrong. We had a wonderful talk. If we want to build Dr, King’s vision of a “Beloved Community” we have to listen more and judge less. Nonviolence is not just being nice, it is a strategy to illuminate how destructive and self-destructive violence is. There was a diversity of people who brought all their wonderful human concerns and emotions to breakfast this morning. We all heard each other and kept learning from each other. To build something better we must take care of ourselves. We do that by finding groups where we can belong. I rewrote today’s blog because these people helped me get over myself – yet again. Today’s burden was not to explain ICE or the power deployed against civil rights. I decided to rewrite today’s blog because of some wonderful people at this morning’s MLK Jr. Day Civic Leaders Breakfast hosted by the Community Kitchen in Keene and in honor of Keene’s martyred son, Jonathan Daniels. Our speaker was the remarkable Adar Cohen, originally from Keene. Hate looks the same  but takes on its own cultural expressions. Fro the Nazis, it was the swastika, for our self-destructive  supremacists it is am Confederate battel flag. Although their expression seems similar, each expresses its own cultural “grievance” that allows for the hater to stew in their concocotion of self-loathing and hate. Although their actions are similar we cannot blur away distinctiveness. ICE ICE is clearly being deployed as an extra-legal paramilitary force. Poorly trained and recruited, in part, through white nationalist slogans and songs, their purpose is meant to border patrol. Their violence and brutality is meant to trigger a similar response in order to justify more national action and eventually, the Insurrection Act. None of this is news to those reading this blog. But comparisons to Nazis may hide our necessary realization that we are not looking at something from Nazi Germany, but from our American past. The Justice Department was created by President Grant to destroy the KKK that had emerged after the Civil War. The “ghosts of the Confederacy” were meant to terrorize blacks and those who support blacks. As antisemites target Jews and anyone associated with Jews, our racists target minorities and those who would support them.   White supremacy and violence have a long history in the United States. More than 20% of Southern males perished in a war for white supremacy. Both the “Lost Cause” myth and NAZI IDEOLOGY CAME FROM SOCITIES OF DEFEAT. Memory as false nostalgia after defeat in war. Mythical reconstruction of the past rooted in racial constructs. Ongoing victimization by outside forces. Religious aspect: Pollard: The South “must wear the crown of thorns before she                                                               can assume that of victory.” Fixated on undermining influence of Blacks. (“Rhineland bastards”) White supremacist internationalists share victimization as identity, racism, and military violence                                                                                      (promoted specifically by targeted AR-15 gun advertisements - CT Supreme Court ruling, March 14, 2019) 1910:  Black heavyweight boxer Jack Johnson (wealthy, successful, married in Paris                                          to a white woman) defeats white boxer Jim Jeffries (“the Great White Hope”). Riots ensue across the nation. In NYC, 2 lynchings almost happen. 1912:  Americans gravitate to the new stories of Tarzan of the Apes. “Tarzan” literally means “white skin” in the language of the apes who raised him. In addition to the great adventure stories, Tarzan soothed racist egos as the hero becomes the king of the jungle. He eventually protects Jane, a white woman, from the ravages of black Africa. 1915:  President Wilson screens “The Birth of a Nation” in the White House.            Highest grossing film in the North and the South resurrects the KKK.  Caption in the movie: “The former enemies of North and South are united again in defense of their Aryan birthright.” Slavery as the vehicle for white Southern “freedom”. Booth as hero and victim. His determination to may Lincoln pay became evidence of “self-sacrifice”, “patriotism”, and resistance to federal authority. Booth had never served as a soldier. Violence in public places (theaters, schools, voting booths) evidence of commitment to the cause and justified as “heroic”. Violence is at the core of post civil war resistance and is designed to intimidate and raise the cost of attempting to implement a multi-racial democracy. 1866: The KKK is established in Pulaski, TN, invoked the dead martyrs of the Confederacy (thus, the white ghostly hoods) and targeted and slaughtered blacks and Reconstructionist Republicans. The Civil Rights Act did not criminalize private or local discriminatory laws. Racial language, not racial initiatives, was the threshold proof of racism. Racists quickly learned that if they avoided racist language, they could hide intent and responded to assimilation initiatives with violence. Blacks were intimidated, murdered, threatened, and harassed until they were disenfranchised through poll taxes, literacy tests, and other tactics (that effected poor whites as well) that included murder and rape. Reconstruction Acts of 1867 divides south into 5 military districts under coordination of General Grant. President Johnson had been appointing governors. No other institution will protect black Americans more than the US Army. Grant initially cautious as he seek reconciliation. Memphis riots (1866) and slaughter in New Orleans shifts him fundamentally. Lee refuses Grant’s request to speak out in favor of federal authority. May 1866 | Memphis, TN:  at least 48 Black Americans were killed and at least 5 raped. 2 whites were killed by the white mob. Federal authorities, siding with white Southerners, blamed the small contingent of Black troops stationed there for provoking white rage. Democratic newspapers published stories about alleged black violence and crime waves that they argued, without evidence, were the result of the lack of a masters’ control. Ironically, using these lies, the black troops were redeployed to the West where they became the “Buffalo soldiers” used by white settlers to displace indigenous Americans from their land. It took 3 days for the US Army to gain control from white mobs (and Irish police) who were on Black hunts. All Black schools and churches had been razed. Army of occupation cannot remake a society, but it did give black Americans a chance. South sees a rise in diverse, competent leaders – including much black agency – while also facing the growing violence of exclusion at the same time. Grant knew importance of self-respect in moments of failure. He also knew how to wage a campaign. What Department did President Grant create to fight the KKK? Dept. of Justice. (1870) 1870: Enforcement Act prohibits 2 or more people from conspiring to deprive anyone of their Constitutional rights.1871: Grant issues General Order #48 authorizing U.S. Armed Forces to arrest violators of the KKK Act.   April 14, 1873 (Easter) | Colfax, LA: William Ward, a black Republican, summoned                                                                          his black supporters to Colfax warning them of an attempt by Democrats to seize                                                                         the county seat. They entrenched themselves around the courthouse and were                                                                    attacked by a white mob armed with artillery. Those who survived and surrendered                                                            under a white flag (and a promise of safety) were massacred on the public square.                                                                 Federal troops arrested some of the perpetrators. Unable to prosecute the                                                                      murderers under local laws, the federal government handed down 72 indictments… 1876: United States v. Cruikshank. Convictions of 3 Colfax murderers (Enforcement Act) overturned by the Supreme Court.  Court ruled that individuals have the right to assemble and bear arms and that the 14th amendment only applies to state actions. 1876 | Hamburg, SC: White supremacist “rifle club” mob (“Red Shirts”), slaughter a Black militia. Red Shirts leader Benjamin Tillman became a U.S. Senator for the next 24 years. (Months before R. B. Hayes elected president when Republicans get southern Democrat support by agreeing to withdraw federal troops from the south.) President Grant sends troops to Hamburg. Death threats to Grant “to save the country”.   July 4, 1877 | Hamburg, SC: Black militiamen massacred by former Confederate general Mathew Butler, the area’s most powerful Democrat. Butler, newly elected to the Senate blamed the massacres on the black victims by claiming they had “little regard for human life.” Much of the post-Civil War violence in the South had been white against white violence (against the many deserters from the Confederate Army, those loyal to the Union, those opposed to the KKK…). From 1882-1901, 1,132 of those who were lynched (murdered) were white. In 2018, there are about 2.3 million people behind bars in the U.S. There are more U.S. citizens with a criminal record than the combined populations of the world’s largest city, Tokyo and the most populated state, California. 1 in every 37 adults, or 2.7% of the adult population, is under some form of correctional supervision. The U.S. makes up about 5% of the world’s population and has 21% of the world’s prisoners. Black and white Americans use drugs at similar rates, but the black imprisonment rate is almost six times that of whites. Black and Hispanic Americans make up approximately 32% of the population, yet comprise 56% of the people incarcerated in 2015. Imprisonment rate for Black Americans has fallen one third for men (height 2001) and 57% for women (height 1999) since 2001. Overall, all incarcerations down 10% over the past decade. The gap between white and black inmates is narrowing as the opioid and heroin epidemic is hitting white communities the hardest. Racists condemn public discussion and anyone who raises the issue of discrimination is accused                              of being a racist trying to divide Americans. Nov. 2018: First Step Act: Bipartisan legislation to overhaul the nation’s criminal justice system and                       cut the prison population. ____________________________  Feb. 22, 1933: Göring deputizes SA and SS to unleash violence during elections. Communist HQ raided. Specifically targeted political opponents march 1933:  SA violence erupts. People who “look Jewish”    are attacked and tortured (including foreigners). SA torture chambers are meant to cause suffering, not death. Town halls, political opponents’ HQ occupied. Growing crowds appear and either look on, sometimes applaud, or even help the SA fight the “November criminals.” Windows smashed and then SA go to church. Synagogue destroyed. Will not challenge legitimacy of regime as long as it followed legal forms. Göring wary of Röhm, who is encouraging “individual actions” by SA (attacking Jewish-owned department stores, Jewish lawyers and judges  and dragging them into the streets). Röhm is calling for his SA to replace the Army (SA is 30x larger).         Hitler has given him a cabinet position: Minister without portfolio. Göring orders his “Research Bureau” to also go after Röhm. April 1934: Göring gives Himmler control of the Gestapo if he helps take down Röhm. Himmler and Heydrich (SS) conspire with Göring to try to persuade Hitler to eliminate Röhm. Himmler also wants the SS to be the only paramilitary organization. Complaints coming in from German citizens (“No more Jews vacationing here…”). Concerns grow about economic impact of antisemitism and impact on Olympic planning. Frick orders the state to intervene and stop actions against Jews.