Part II: Race In America, Where We At?

BY LOUIE OVERSTREET

To gain greater appreciation of how my Facebook friends see the state of race in America, I asked them to respond to a question: “Which will prevail in America: Whiteness or Rightness?” 

One of the five most principled friends I have, Bill Campagna, noted, “Many Americans of all races are afraid of each other because of the lack of contact or interactions. Yes, there are bad people in every group but most people in every group are good people. MAGA is the exception, they spread hate, they are mostly white supremacists who have built their reasoning on fear and ignorance through many generations … ignorance and fear are the true enemies of civilization.” 

Paul Hill Jr., a friend of 60-plus years (since our days at Ohio University), laid it out in a treatise-length post: “The United States was not organized around rightness — around justice, truth, or moral coherence. It was organized around whiteness as power … Rightness demands truth about origins. It demands accountability where harm was done, foundational, not accidental. It demands repair rather than apology, dignity rather than charity!” 

Will Laws, who followed Paul and me at OU, said (on the run and with little need for research): “Whiteness deems business as usual or as it should be. In fact, there have always been laws or statutes built to protect whiteness.” 

My friend Mabry M. Merv stated: “In my lifetime, there has never been rightness. Whiteness dominates … Give folks a champion for change rather than bitching about ‘the dude,’ giving him all of the attention.” 

A Facebook favorite, Sylvia Billups, believes there is value in the movement to “keep teaching and reaching one at a time!” 

Larry Fleisher succinctly observed, “The rightness. The whiteness will never disappear as it has been active for so long. Power to the people!” 

Dave Ashbrook did a lot of amen-ing to the comments! 

Next month: America’s racial climate!