by Kay Curry
Northwest Asia Weekly
Naomi Ishisaka (left) moderates a conversation with Peniel E. Joseph.
“I’m a big advocate for talking about difficult history…we have to talk about pain and beauty. The only way you can love your country is when your country loves you too…Part of this reciprocal relationship is finding out the truth about this country, and Why these unpleasant patterns of discrimination and inequality persist, for all of us,” said Peniel E. Joseph, author of “Third Reconstruction: America’s Struggle for Racial Justice in the Twenty-First Century,” at 9 Just released September 15th with a guest at Seattle City Hall.
Joseph is the author and editor of several books related to black history, is a frequent contributor to CNN, and writes for national newspapers. In his recently published book, which he describes as “a mixture of memoir, history, and cultural and political criticism,” he discusses the power of narrative and his conception of three reconstruction periods in American history, The Reconstructionist and redemptionists in the meantime for winning this story.
The first reconstruction we read about in history class. It took place after the Civil War and was fueled by “years of pain and hope from “racial slavery, the Reconstruction Amendment, birthright citizenship, the end of slavery, the right to vote for blacks, and the hope and promise of true multiracial democracy” composition, Reconstructionism,” Joseph explained. These efforts were “pushed down” by redemptionists who advocated white supremacy.
The second reconstruction included the Civil Rights Movement, when “the world was on fire in America with institutional and structural racism.”There are highlights, namely Freedom Summer and the formation of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, which Pernier considers “the most important grassroots civil rights organization of the 20th century,” and events like the lynching of Emmett Thiel and the assassination of Martin Luther. wait for the tragic little king
The third reconstruction is underway today. It’s the election of Barack Obama and the election of Donald Trump. This is Black Lives Matter (BLM), making America great again. This is the murder of George Floyd and Trayvon Martin.
“Everything that happened in 2020, all the way up to now…when it happened, people were talking about the 1960s…we should look at the 1860s…so we can really understand what’s going on,” Joseph told event host Ishisaka Naomi, a Seattle Times columnist, known for her social justice angle.
All events on this timeline are part of our narrative, part of the story we tell. We want to tell ourselves a story about democracy, but the truth is that democracy in America “has always been an aspirational idea,” Joseph said. This is a democracy where anyone who is not a white male is told: “You don’t deserve to be at the center of our American story.”
For Joseph, the prerequisite for citizenship is dignity. “We all have to believe we matter,” but “not everyone’s family recognizes their dignity.”
Joseph’s democracy includes the dignity and citizenship of women of all colors, disabled, queer and trans. “We must remember that every person born, whether they are American or not, has dignity.”
In response to Ishisaka’s carefully curated questions and those from the audience, Joseph elaborated on race not necessarily being a factor in whether a person is a redemptionist or a Reconstructionist.
“Some of the most staunch Reconstructionists are white. Some of the most staunch redemptionists are black, including one on the Supreme Court!” Each group has its own spectrum. Barack Obama, Joseph considered a Reconstructionist with redemptive tendencies. Yes, his presidency finally showed the rest of the world an American face, and a non-white first family, but at the same time, Obama “erased our history at the expense of our history. The hard part, needing to truly be the country we always wanted to be…without racial injustice, economic injustice, discrimination and violence.”
Joseph talked about the difference between the BLM movement and Obama — who, according to Joseph, couldn’t imagine Trump being the president, but the BLM could — “they know the country better than the president.”
For Joseph, achieving equal dignity and equal citizenship required the courage of faith he bestowed, especially on black women. It needs to expand our universal story to include the stories of Indigenous groups, Asian and Pacific Islander, Latino and LGBTQ communities. For him, white supremacy is “a story we tell ourselves, like black liberation … the Chicano movement, the Asian American Pacific Islander liberation … you can tell a story that begins with Dolores Huerta American Story centered” or Fanny Lou Hamer, who famously said: “Until I am free, you are not free either.”
When asked how to combat the “fragmentation” of social media and everyone “reliant on their own”, Joseph advocated for more public broadcasting and a return to the principle of equal time, “so if you hear from a progressive, you’re going to have to Listen to conservatives.” He advocated that political campaigns should be 100 percent publicly funded and that senators and Supreme Court justices should be term-limited. Today we are like the Gilded Age, he said, when the rich exploited Chinese and black laborers to build railroads, and he insisted that we “must think about stopping monopoly capital and oligarchy.”
Joseph acknowledges that local activism can be challenging when people of color may see liberal whites as show allies and “don’t necessarily think about it” [them] Solidarity. He noted that in Austin, Texas, where he lives and teaches, and Seattle, what we should be doing is elevating and leveraging “Black leadership and women’s leadership, Asian and Latino leadership, Indigenous leadership, nonprofits, anti-racism.” and social justice organizations. “We should make everyone feel visible and valued. “Men should do this to women.” Heterosexuals should do the same to gays and transgenders. We should all do a lot if we really want to build a beloved community. “
Ronald Reagan called America “the shining city on the hill,” but we’re not there yet, not in everyone’s narrative, but only in some’s. “If we could tell a different story, where we’re not as obsessed with ego and vanity as Americans are,” Joseph said, then maybe we could achieve true multiracial democracy. “People want a story in which they see themselves.”
Kay can reach info@nwasianweekly.com.
