Liberty and Justice for All

“Dark and difficult times lie ahead. Soon, we must all face the choice between what is right and what is easy."  - Dumbledore, in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (based on the book by JK Rowling)

"Here's one delusion: that we can escape slavery. We can't. It's scars will never fade. When you saw your mother sold off, your father beaten, your sister abused by some boss or master, did you ever think you would sit here today, without chains, without the yoke, among a new family?" Everything you ever knew told you that freedom was a trick - yet here you are."

- Colson Whitehead, The Underground Railroad, Character of Lander 

There's a scar on my leg where I cut it on a rusty nail as an 8-year-old. It's faded now, but showed up ridged and narrow for decades. Because of the rust, the cut didn't heal cleanly, thus the scar.  In contrast, the deep divots in my hands caused by a mountain bike crash took a few weeks to mend but, due to frequent and liberal applications of Neosporin and soapy water, they're healing without a trace of injury.

In the United States of America, where generations benefited from the abduction and enslavement of people from another continent, slavery is marked by sore scars over wounds that have never healed. Slavery has never been reviewed under the light of truth or cleansed by admissions of guilt - just poorly bandaged by three hundred and fifty years of lies about the superiority of white people, the limitations of black people, the inevitability of social injustices. 

The scars of slavery, Jim Crow, segregation, imprisonment of black men, voting restrictions and generational poverty of inner-city families still hurt everyone in this country, and in reading about the protests this week, it seems that the majority of Americans now feel the pain. Maybe, if we can hear the truth from our black brothers and sisters about racism, if we can bow our heads under the weight of the guilt and then be cleansed by our confession and desire to change, the scar can finally heal.

Scars signify not only injury but triumph over the pain, healing over the original damage. Can we overcome the legacy of slavery and speak more to healing and unity than to woundedness?

We're a long way from triumph at the moment, more like dealing with fresh wounds every day. If white people can do the hard work of admitting privilege and preparing to give up the unearned "edge" that our white skin provides, perhaps we can move forward. Our Pledge of Allegiance ends with "One Nation, Under God, Indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for all." That has never been a valid description of our country, only an aspiration. Perhaps, some day, the words will ring true.