Not Implied, Private Speech

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What's Behind the Door

Seeking the Truth; What’s Behind the Door

Diversity, inclusion, acceptance, racial and ethnic harmony. Interesting terms; usually desirable concepts. Then there’s the opposites such as implied (as well as blatant) racial hate / bias. Basically, they’re a lot of talking points.

Starting with “implied bias,” they’re usually not actually discussed in polite public arenas but they (as well as the remainder of the list) actually exist, endure, are taught to new generations, and grow. They actually thrive because the necessary elements to avert stepping into the dumphole are missing. Those tools of rising above lack of understanding are exposure, having an open mind, and education, and overcoming myths fed by fear.

Is the Golden Emperor the first [purported] sitting president to harbor such hate and racist ideas? Nope. We need look no farther back in history than the Reagan or the Nixon Administrations. And if we look even further back in history (now more than 50 years), we have the examples of WWII detention camps for Japanese as well as Wilson who insisted on certain programs and protocols that tended toward a bigoted stance during the time when women strove to gain suffrage.

The difference between the Golden Emperor and the four cited above is that they were somewhat diplomatic and held their ideas in check and in private while abstaining from speaking from the dais and promoting their private ideas as public policy, thereby deepening the roots of Jim Crow that endured for the time.

The news account of the racist views and exchanges of Nixon and Reagan points out the difference between the first two examples and the current speaker but overlooks previous administrations. Unfortunate, that. Yet the Civil Rights Era emerged, succeeded (in many respects), and has grown to embrace open speech and advocacy of the stakeholders of that legislation plus the benefits that accrue to society because of it.

We also see that those previous administrations appreciated the importance of a positive leadership stance. They used tact and diplomacy. They sought to build national cohesion in spite of their divisive ideologies. Nixon’s practices and lack of good ethics seems to have been part of his political DNA because his track record is replete with various tactics to demean, disparage, and defame his opponents. And then there’s All the President’s Men to bolster even more of how those who were part of his inner circle were used as pawns for his attaining his personal and political goals.

Still, outright racist ideas and hate speech from the purported leader of the supposedly strongest nation in the world is troublesome. The import of what type of path is being followed is troubling, to say the least. Yet, like the sheep of Animal Farm and the mindless following of rules as was the practice in the 1984, that seems to be the course being paved. However, Winston found a way to escape the doom. Perhaps that was an Orwell’s author lifebouy for us. The important thing about that lifebuoy’s effectiveness is our learning the lessons before we stand teetering on the precipice.

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