This week I do not have a clever opening. America is in pain and especially our black brothers and sisters. This is an understandable pain, especially when seen through the lens of American history. Their pain goes back over the past four centuries, but if we focus on just the last one, maybe we can learn a lesson from the past and also try to understand the reaction.
When I teach my classes on the Middle East, I spend a great deal of time explaining to my students that there is no justification for terrorism. However, if we spend some time trying to understand the history of these countries, perhaps we can understand why so many feel the need to commit such acts. Once we understand, we can work towards a solution. The same holds true with the current protests in our cities. First, I want to note that I believe most of the violence is from a small group of people who are not trying to make a difference but simply want violence for violence’s sake. Yet, even among the majority, there is enough anger to cause harm.
The history of the 20th and 21st centuries is one of violence
Literally hundreds of such incidents occurred decade after decade, but the worst of the violence occurred in the years just after WWI. The Great War led to a shift in America as men left to fight the war. Most know that in WW II women jumped in to fill men’s jobs during the war. What is less known is that in WWI black men filled that role. In what became known as the Great Migration, thousands of black families tried to escape the racist conditions of the South and moved to northern industrial cities for work. The problem was that, when whites returned home from the War, they found blacks had taken their jobs. What we find is that the majority of the race riots that occurred in the years after the war were now in northern cities instead of the south where black/white race issues were more traditional.
Some of the soldiers returning home were black soldiers. They too had fought and bled for their nation. They had earned some respect, at least from the French, and had returned home now as soldiers who felt they deserved the same respect from their own nation. Of course, the respect never came, and instead ...
