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In the movie “The Shawshank Redemption,” Andy Dufresne went to the warden after listening to a story from a prisoner who got transferred into Shawshank and had been a cellmate with the man who committed the murders that got Dufresne sent to prison. Dufresne repeated the story to the Warden. After listening, Warden Norton knew that Dufresne was telling the truth. Instead of letting Dufresne get a new trial, the Warden started making excuses for why he could not do it. The denials were because Warden Norton was being paid under the table as he ran a contracting scam that included laundering money using Dufresne as an accountant. After listening to the many excuses from Norton, Dufresne asked the question, “Are you always so obtuse?”
This is a perfect analogy to describe the relationship between many in the white community and us as black people.
Why Did Racial Progress Stall in America?
The answer may show us the path out of our fractured and polarized present.In terms of material well-being, Black Americans were moving toward parity with white Americans well before the victories of the civil rights era. What’s more, after the passage of civil rights legislation, those trends toward racial parity slowed, stopped and even reversed. Understanding how and why not only reveals why America is so fractured today, but illuminates the path forward, toward a more perfect union.
In the last half-century, however, that collective progress has halted, and many who fought so hard for this progress have now lived to see it reversed.
But if Black Americans’ advance toward parity with whites in many dimensions had been underway for decades before the Civil Rights revolution, why then, when the dam of legal exclusion finally broke, didn’t those trends accelerate toward full equality? Why was the last third of the 20th century characterized by a marked deceleration of progress, and in some cases even a reversal?
We have two answers to these questions.
The first is simple and familiar: White backlash. Substantial progress toward white support for Black equality was made in the first half of the 20th century, but when push came to shove, many white Americans were reluctant to live up to those principles.
The moment America took its foot off the gas in rectifying racial inequalities largely coincides with the moment America’s “we” decades gave way to the era of “I.”
A central feature of America’s “I” decades has been a shift away from shared responsibilities toward individual rights and a culture of narcissism.
Opinion | Why Did Racial Progress Stall in America? (Published 2020)
The answer may show us the path out of our fractured and polarized present.
www.nytimes.com