Long ago, in the kingdom of denial, there was a ruler who resented the belief in gravity. “Don’t believe in gravity anymore!” he commanded, and his princes grew afraid to throw their hats in the air because it would reveal their belief that what goes up must come down. Other facts also made it impossible not to believe in gravity. Yes, the king could sit on his throne and believe it wasn’t holding him up, but there were things all around the kingdom that still needed to be lifted up or kept from falling down, and belief in gravity was most helpful to the improved prosperity, health, and safety of the land.
In today’s domains of denial, kingly powers resent the belief in systemic racism. “Don’t believe in systemic racism,” they command, their loyal subjects hardly noticing how white the cheering audiences tend to be. But facts make it impossible not to believe in systemic racism. While kingly powers may pretend that systemic racism is not vital to their experience of prosperity or power, the land around them is rife with disparate conditions that cry to be abolished, such as racial gaps in wealth, health, or cultural opportunity.
When Texas-educated US President Lyndon Baines Johnson signed executive order 11246 on Equal Employment Opportunity in 1965, the term “affirmative action” indicated that systemic racism—like a field of gravity—required some kind of healthy activity to resist it. Just as inertia is another word for gravity telling you where to go, if there is no affirmative action, systemic racism will exert its manifest tugs and shoves on peoples and properties alike.
On Monday—keeping his promise to act like a dictator on day one of his second term in office—President Donald John Trump commanded a kingdom of denial by revoking LBJ’s 1965 executive order and eliminating forms of affirmative action that today are known as diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility. The action of the 47th president—on Martin Luther King Jr’s national holiday no less—is the moral equivalent of yelling at racial justice to stop trying to balance her scales.
Next time you are commanded to stop talking about diversity, equity, inclusion, or accessibility, please ask your dear ruler how exactly you are supposed to improve prosperity, health, and opportunity in a world pervaded by systemic racism. If your dear ruler informs you that we don’t believe in systemic racism anymore, then you will know that you are visiting the occupied territories of denialism.
BTW if you are looking for a way out of the land of denial, a good first step will be to consider the meaning of “three fifths” as found in the National Archives transcript of the Constitution of the United States. The Russell Sage Foundation also offers a compelling visualization of systemic racism at work in two animations by inequality researchers. You can view the animations here. But you better visit the archives while they are still available, and grab the data while you can, because history and science are strangers to the kingdom of denial, their deportations pending.