Recent attacks on Asians a sign of deeper problems
I had a grade-school teacher — a nun, Sister Hilary — who passed along great advice to her sixth-grade class: “There is no sin in an unexpressed thought,” she’d often say.
I wasn’t sure that her advice adhered strictly to church teachings at the time but it was a message loaded with common sense and advice that — if followed — promoted civility and insured that the basest human tendencies could remain where they belong: unexpressed.
The killing of eight people in Atlanta in mid-March 2021 — six of them women of Asian descent — is the most recent in the emergence of an ugly, American brand of white supremacy.
Vile notions that used to be relegated to the very fringes of American thought now find voice at the center of our daily discussions, treated as though they are normal and acceptable parts of the public dialogue. They are not acceptable nor are they normal.
The country has had longrunning threads of ugliness over its history.
Beginning with the original “compromise” over slavery, shameful moments of our past have seen the creation of a political party in the 1840s — the Know-Nothings — that explicitly advocated against immigrants, Congressional action in the late 1880s to limit Asian immigration, the longstanding existence of Jim Crow laws that affected generations of Black Americans, and the past and recent demonization of Mexican and other immigrants who “didn’t look American.”
This ugliness — every so often — has been fought by the better angels of our American nature. Reconstruction, the Civil Rights and Voting Rights laws of the 1960s and efforts to offer health care to more Americans are just some examples of the substantial evidence of goodness we can muster when we put our minds to it.
Each of us witnessed last summer’s public debate, demonstrations and reactions to the senseless murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Those demonstrations were fueled by long-boiling anger based on the treatment of Black Americans due to the difference in this group’s skin tone.
The last several years have also seen the demonization of immigrants — many from Mexico and Central America — who, again, “don’t look like us,” in the minds of several white supremacist groups. As an American of Mexican descent, this breaks my heart.
We are fortunate at Connecticut Public to have many talented journalists, photographers, videographers and producers who can powerfully and truthfully tell stories that help lift the voices of people who fall victim to this very foul and powerful pox coursing through the body politic of Connecticut and the country.
In March 2021, we were proud of a group of these very talented people — led by John Henry Smith — who created our show “Cutline: Everyday White Supremacy,” which highlighted the continued ugliness of white supremacy here in Connecticut.
Yes, Connecticut. The very American territory whose Fundamental Orders, crafted in 1639, helped inform and shape the U.S. Constitution that we became fifth state to ratify on Jan. 9, 1788. Not a state that you’d think white supremacy could comfortably exist.
I’d highly recommend you stream this program at https://ctpublic.org/programs/everydaywhite-supremacywith-john-henry-smith/ .
America was founded on a simple principle: All men are created equal … and entitled … to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Unless we deliver — truly deliver — on each of these, we won’t fulfill our nation’s founding principles.
The work of Connecticut Public’s many talented journalists and storytellers can shine light into the darkest recesses of malice to amplify our nation’s ideals, bring us closer toward being a more perfect union and push the ugliness of public discourse back to where it belongs — unexpressed.