A Post-Racial America: It’s Better, and Worse, Than You Think
It is easier to destroy a myth than to replace it.
It is easier to destroy a myth than to replace it.
As we try to escape the distorting influence of a founding mythology built on racism, it might be helpful to review how these subconscious biases operate.
You can lie, cheat and steal and still win a reputation as a bold truth-teller by lying in ways that reinforce a cherished mythological value.
White supremacy, as a mythology, defines the “us” on which sacrifice, collaboration and trust can be built.
Up to about 1760, the greatest fears of powerful English at home and in the colonies came from Europe’s powerful Catholic monarchies and those states’ overseas empires.
Powerful people in the Antebellum South feared landless whites almost as much as they feared their slaves.
How did the proponents of a white supremacist mythology prevail in the struggle to define America’s future? What can we learn from their success?
In politics, who you admire may be less important than who you fear.