Welcome back to 1968 “
The reporter became aware of a peculiar emotion in himself, for he had not ever felt it consciously before,” Norman Mailer wrote in 1968, referring to himself in the third person. “It was a simple motion and very unpleasant to him – he was getting tired of Negroes and their rights.”
Half a century later, it seems not much has changed.
White folks are still tired of hearing about oppressed minorities and their rights, the only difference now being they often (but not always) have the common sense and decency to not express that sentiment in public.
This is which makes reading Mark Kurlansky’s book 1968: The Year That Rocked The World like being strapped into the Delorean next to Michael J. Fox.
Kurlanksy recounts Eartha Kitt’s visit to the White House to attend a women’s lunch hosted by Lady Bird Johnson, the First Lady, to discuss urban crime early in 1968. Kitt didn’t let the regal setting or the fancy food stop her from speaking up about racism, poverty, drugs, crime and the war in Vietnam.
“I am sorry. I cannot understand the things that you do,” Johnson honestly replied. “I have not lived with the back you have.”
Then, as now, there was no middle ground on what Kitt had said and done. She was either praised for telling truth to power or she was vilified for being so arrogant and impolite.
“And there it was, America in microcosm,” Kurlansky wrote of the incident.
“The well-intentioned white liberals unable to comprehend black anger.”
Two generations, not only do white Americans seem no closer to understanding racism, they insist that electing Donald Trump to the White House had nothing to do with the race of the previous president.
We are no better here in Canada, of course. Like our American cousins, “oldstock Canadians,” to use Stephen Harper’s expression, have heard enough complaining from ungrateful immigrants and are done with all this business about LBGTQ, sexual harassment and any other woeful tales of oppression. In Canada, depending on location, the racism is reserved for First Nations, blacks or East Asians.
Canada is a great place. Why can’t they just be happy? The same sentiments expressed in the wake of Canada’s centennial in 1967 were heard frequently during the country’s 150th birthday celebrations. Then, as now, the language is in flux. As Kurlansky points out, blacks became the acceptable word in 1968 to describe people of African descent, replacing Negroes. In 2018 in Canada, aboriginal is out and Indigenous is in, not only the word but the capitalization as well, to describe individuals or groups of First Nations descent. In 1968, of course, they were all Indians.
The central theme of 1968 – the year and the book – applies equally to 2018. Dramatic social change has been happening for years, with groups long oppressed claiming their right, not just to be heard but for justice, and now a fierce backlash has mounted from those who just want peace and stability and for America to be great again.
Richard Nixon became the unlikely occupant of the Oval Office in 1968, preceding the equally improbable Trump as the first man who conspired with a foreign power to win a close presidential election. As shown in The Vietnam War documentary this year, Nixon’s campaign team reached out to the North Vietnamese in the final days before the vote, asking for peace talks to be delayed in exchange for a better deal at the bargaining table after the election.
Hopefully, that is the extent of the comparison of 2018 with 1968. Along with the war in Vietnam and the crushing of the uprising in Czechoslovakia by the Soviet Union during 1968, the Palestine Liberation Organization (like blacks, Palestinians was a new word from 1968 that stuck) kept up the fight against Israel and Biafrans starved to death fighting for freedom in Nigeria. Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. were assassinated in 1968. Civil unrest and protests around the world led to more violence and deaths.
The prospect for a 2018 similar to 1968 is high, in Canada, the United States and elsewhere. Like 50 years ago, the fury and outrage over politics, social change, personal rights and racism are overflowing. Individuals on all sides believe they are justified in both asserting their power and repressing anyone who would disagree from doing the same.
They demand to be heard and insist that opposing views be silenced. Winning has become more important than listening and compromise. Maybe we never left 1968. Perhaps there have been agreements made and battles won in the last 50 years but the war itself rages on, the old resentments kept alive with fresh language by profiteers who continue to benefit pitting people and groups against one another.
In that light, we should wish each other a happy new year and do our very best to make it happen, not only for ourselves but for others, particularly those who won’t share our personal beliefs.
If we can’t do even that, tragedy is sure to follow. — Editor-in-chief Neil Godbout