There has been forever a fight for equality and justice against power and greed. One of the most overriding factors in the outcome of this struggle is leadership. Then there are the prevailing belief systems and the types of government that reflect the way society operates. The current American societal fight is between racial equity and white supremacy. In confronting this dilemma one is comforted by Martin Luther King’s observation that, “The arc of the moral universe is long but it bends towards justice”.
As morality advances the remaining inequities and injustices stand out even more. Those that oppose change in turn become more and more desperate as they confront the reality of losing power. Finally, in spite of King’s hopeful prognostication there is no guarantee that the arc of the moral universe will continue to bend towards justice and whether any of those attempts to forestall progress will succeed. It is with this as a background Jay H. Ell will examine where America stands in 2021in relation to the future of true racial equality. In this regard it would be apt to compare the apartheid racialism manifested in South Africa, (RSA), with that of Jim Crow of the United States of America, (USA).
WHAT SOUTH AFRICA AND AMERICA HAVE IN COMMON
Both the USA and RSA were settled by Europeans in the seventeenth century who then assumed ownership of the respective countries without any thought of the indigenous peoples. The settlers both fought wars of independence against the British who had incorporated the two countries into their Empire. Two of the four provinces in RSA at the time of their war of independence at the turn of the twentieth century had already put into provision some form of voting rights for those who were of color. However in the amalgamation of the four Provinces of South Africa following the losing of their war of independence each Province continued with their franchise policies.
The USA all but eliminated the indigenous peoples but had provided voting rights for the freed African slaves in1869 following their war of Independence and a Civil War to liberate the slaves. The geographical division of those who supported the franchise of the slaves and those who didn’t were in the South.
So much like in South Africa there was a split among the white enfranchised for the rights of those citizens of color. Both in the RSA and the USA determined efforts were made either to nullify the franchise or not allow it to expand. In the 1948 RSA General Election the United Party led by General Smuts, who had been the only architect both of the League of Nations and the United Nations, was poised to expand the voting rights of those of color, was surprisingly defeated by those who strongly opposed this move and were in favor of apartheid. However Smuts handled the whole issue politically ineptly and South Africa was under the cloud of apartheid for the next fifty years), (BLOG:SMUTS: THE MAN WHO MIGHT HAVE PREVENTED APARTHEID)
The rationale used by the Apartheid segregationists was the same that underlies the American Jim Crow 1 and is unashamedly being used by the Republican Party in attempting Jim Crow 11. The motive for those wanting to limit the voting rights of their non white compatriots was the fear that the coalition of the white liberal elements and those of color would drive them out of power and hamper their way of life of privilege and domination. The objective was the same - whites only vote RSA by not allowing to expand and evolve in the first place and USA preventing its execution via Jim Crow.
THE ENDING OF APARTHEID AND JIM CROW 1
RSA saw the ending of the racist apartheid laws as a result of a number of factors including the growing influence of Nelson Mandela’s African National Congress. Protracted negotiations took place between them, liberal white leaders and eventually members of the apartheid government who recognized that apartheid had failed. Incidentally a little recognized fact is the role big business played in the planning. Spearheading the Nationalist Apartheid initiative was President de Klerk who recognized that the only solution was for a unified non racial South Africa. He successfully obtained a mandate via a referendum from the whites to go ahead and negotiate a constitution which in effect would give franchise for all. Mandela’s statesmanship has become legend. He and de Klerk shared the Nobel Prize for peace. It must be emphasized that nobody but not nobody had the empathy, gaged the fear of the whites and exhibited the Statesmanship in the Twentieth Century like Mandela. Not short of principle he sat in jail for twenty - eight years, having told the Judge that he was not only prepared to live for his principles he was prepared to die for them. He also recognized that Rome was not built in a day as his autobiography title indicated - “The Long Walk to Freedom”.
The USA got rid of Jim Crow 1 as a result of the Civil Rights Protest movement lead by Martin Luther King. Legislation was enacted by a the Johnson Presidency which was helped by the Republicans led by their Senate Minority Leader Hugh Scott. Since the 1960’s till now the political advancement of the African Americans has been significant reaching a zenith in the 2020 elections where their intervention was decisive in securing the Presidency for Biden and the Senate to the Democrats. Their political strength can dictate which party will be the Government.
JIM CROW 11, LEAD BY DONALD TRUMP, EMERGED FOLLOWED BY GROWING INFLUENCE OF THE AFRICAN AMERICANS.
The Republican Party recognized in 2012, with the changing demographics in America and the re election of Barack Obama that they needed to become more inclusive of citizens of color as well as the youth. Donald Trump who hijacked the Republican Party in 2016 made it quite clear that he wanted to return to white America. His euphemism for his mission was entitled Make America Great Again. He changed the direction of the GOP heralding a return of the Jim Crow era.
The African American growing influence firmly established the desire of the Republicans to reintroduce Jim Crow 11. Trump and his motley crew attempted to do this retrospectively in the 2020 election which he lost. Then following the failure of Trump to stage a coup and hang onto the Presidency including his inciting of an insurrection in the Capitol, the Republicans proceeded to introduce widespread voter suppression laws that would impede the ability of African Americans to nullify the influence of Jim Crow forever. The very outrageous allegations used by Trump and his co conspirators alleging fraud conducted in the 2020 elections have been introduced as laws. The legislation to limit African American voting is so blatant that in Georgia the Governor signed it behind closed doors.
Jim Crow 11 is the last ditch stand to return to retain white supremacy. Can the moral arc of history be stopped? There are vast sums of money to assist those with racist authoritarian intent. The question is whether they will succeed.
THE FORCES ARRAIGNED AGAINST JIM CROW 11 - IS BIDEN A TRANSFORMATIVE LEADER?
Jay H. Ell has time and again argued that leadership matters. America would never have been in the mess that Biden inherited if there had been no Donald J. Trump who demolished the Republican Party establishment. However as Jay H. Ell has blogged for as long as he can remember Biden was the only candidate that could beat Trump in 2020. (At one stage he was terrified that, Biden, desperately short of money was not going to win the Democratic nomination when another statesman of history Jim Clyburn whipped the African American electorate behind him). However the fact that Biden beat Trump and the Democrats won the Senate via Georgia is illustrative of the fact that the Jim Crow 11 crowd have an up hill fight and the landscape of America has changed.
Biden has his pulse on the American electorate as well as being unafraid to lead. Those who believed he was nothing but a political hack and functionary have been proved wrong. His first go at legislation which he passed with only Democratic support in a fifty - fifty Senate plus the tie breaker Vice President Kamala Harris was universally popular, seventy percent of Americans supporting it. Seventy percent of the public supported the nearly two trillion dollar Coronavirus relief bill. The fact that Mitch McConnell let it almost sail through and is relying on court challenges is indicative of the fact that his Republican constituency backs it.
What could end the survival of Trump’s and McConnell’s white supremacy state are two pieces of legislation, HR 1 and HR 4, that ensure voting integrity across the nation which would negate the over two hundred efforts by State Republicans to ensure white minority rule. The New Yorker magazine ran a sensational piece which was backed by a recording that the Republican big money funders had come to the conclusion that the Democratic legislation keeping dark money out of elections as well as making it easier to vote had Conservative electorate support. The report also revealed why McConnell is powerful enough to challenge Trump’s leadership. The Republican billionaires have relied on him to protect white supremacy and their money.
So it is obvious that Biden’s bold moves with the help of Speaker Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Schumer is leading America to a more equitable society. Biden’s subsequent two trillion stimulus legislation for jobs, infrastructure and climate change has rocked Republicans. All this combined with an attack on white supremacy has unleashed a fight to the death by the conservative billionaires that control the Republican Party and the Trump militia,
What else is happening in America to challenge the return to Jim Crow?
THREE VIDEO(S) THAT ARE EDUCATING AMERICA AS TO THE IMPACT OF JIM CROW RACIALISM
There are three iconic video(s) that represent the racism that exists in America today that are being played again and again on television and receiving millions of hits on social media. They are so profound and send a clear message of the current racially slanted American society. The circumstances that these video(s) represent have shocked and stunned the majority of the electorate,
The video(s) of the alleged murder of George Floyd which are being played again and again in the trial of a police officer have shattered the nation as to the sheer clinical brutality of the police officer towards an African Americans suspect. Implicit in the presentation is that it is unimaginable that a white man could have succumbed in similar fashion at the hands of a black officer with the public looking on. In addition the lengths that the prosecution feel they have to go to prove that Floyd isn’t the bad guy is indicative of their fear that still lingering not far below consciousness in the American society is that if Floyd was a thug the homicide would be justified.
Regardless of the legal outcome of the trial the incident which precipitated the national and international Black Lives Matter movement, was akin to a lynching of a black man. The consequences of white supremacy of Jim Crow and apartheid is violence. This was demonstrated in the trial of the police officer and his apparent disregard for a black life. The whole sordid alleged murder, with the heartbreaking evidence from bystanders including children has become a metaphor for racial supremacy in America. The fact that the whole incident has been met with horror and disgust across the nation is hardly fertile soil for Jim Crow 11 to thrive.
The storming of the Capitol by tens of thousands of white supremacists who were regarded by Trump and his crowd as peace loving patriots provides material for the second video(s). Trump claimed that the rioters embraced the police and took selfies with them. None of this jives with the visual facts as the police had their heads cracked open, one dying and four hundred injured to a lesser or greater extent. One of the civil litigation complaints by an African American policeman includes that he and his colleagues were subject to racial slurs to an extent they had never experienced the whole of their lives.
The failure to send the National Guard to protect the legislature and allow this crowd to run amuck without the means to immediately arrest them has been the subject of endless debate. The Capitol videos are juxtaposed with the video of an elected African American lawmaker, Park Cannon, being arrested for knocking on the door where the Governor of Georgia was signing into law their Jim Crow 11 voter restriction legislation The woman was seized bodily by several patrolmen and dragged out of the building in handcuffs and locked up. She was immediately charged with two felonies. In this video there was a split screen. On the other side there were six white men, hiding from the public, behind a locked door with a painting of former slave plantation in the background signing the voter suppression legislation into law. You couldn’t make these things up.
All these videos have not made their full impact although several versions of the near ten minute incident where the accused police officer is seen putting his full weight on a handcuffed victim’s neck has already been played again and again as the Floyd trial is televised live. With the criminal and civil litigation still to play out of the insurrection of the Capitol with one of the defendants being Donald J Trump where there were also racial slurs hurled at the African American Capitol police the public will once again be exposed to white supremacists attempting a coup. Like in the Floyd trial there will be even more video angles. Finally the litigation that will follow as a result of a State Representative dragged out in handcuffs from the people’s place to which she was elected and was legitimately entitled to be has not begun to play out will allow for more visual confirmation of racial inequity in America.
JOE BIDEN THE UNLIKELY TRANSFORMATIVE LEADER
Joe Biden had been lampooned as an inarticulate, bumbling, anti intellectual party even demented apparatchnick. He has articulated a vision which aims to further the ark of the moral universe. Not only has he detailed legislation to pull the country out of its health and economic mess he has set about to make his administration more reflective of all the people’s of this country. He started off by appointing a woman of color as his running mate, appointing a cabinet from all sectors of American society and is about to nominate a whole host of African American women Federal Judges.
He has vowed that if there is a Supreme Court vacancy his nominee will be a qualified African American woman jurist. In addition, his bold infrastructure, climate, health and welfare initiatives, which have been detailed to the last comma, seek to equalize the yawning wealth gap that exists in the country. He has added in increasing numbers to his coalition Republican voters and is regaining the support of the “workers”. For those who believe he has no philosophical basis to his policies and just flies by the seat of his pants they will be surprised at the rave reviews of the group of historians and constitutionalists he assembled to discuss where America is now and the directions it can go.
Indeed history will reflect that Joseph Biden Jnr. not only prevented Jim Crow 11 he bent “The Arc of the Moral Universe” towards justice. It is worth reminding that the powerful business community in RSA played a crucial role in the South African transformation. American business needs to take note and follow the lead of Coca Cola and Delta airlines.
AT THE END OF THE DAY
The attitude of the prosecution witnesses in the murder trial of George Floyd has been depressing, heartening and striking. All of them exhibited frustration, anger, sorrow and horror at what they witnessed. From a nine year old to a martial arts expert, from the cashier who reported the alleged counterfeit note to an old man passing boy, from an EMS trained firefighter to a young girl who videod the whole scene and who now lies sleepless at night at not helping more, they all expressed their pain. In spite of the efforts that they were able to effect they all felt guilt at not being able to stop the passing of George Floyd. They acted as a moral community. The only one who could have, in that court room, avoided this senseless tragedy, Derek Chauvin, has shown no such remorse.
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