Like so many in our country and around the world, my family and I found the events of Inauguration Day 2021 profoundly uplifting, relieving, inspiring and hopeful. It is clear President Biden and Vice President Harris are working hard to steer us back in the right direction -- but they are counting on each of us to provide the momentum to actually move forward.
One of the things they most need from us now is radical honesty.
In the wake of the Jan. 6 white supremacist insurrection, many leaders used the refrain we’ve heard so many times over the last 4 years, “This is not who we are.” I’m sure I too have used those words to try to distance myself from things I found to be in violation of the stated values of this country. But the truth is, almost every time we are tempted to declare this is "not who we are," an honest look in the mirror reveals that the situation actually does reflect who we are, and who we have always been. We need to be willing to move beyond “this is not who we are” and instead declare, “This is not who we aspire to become.” We need to embrace radical honesty.
Even a very cursory, but honest, look at the history of this country reveals that white men seeking to gain advantage by violently oppressing the voices and lives of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color is actually one of our most constant and defining narratives. It is of course among the ugliest, most tragic, and most shameful aspects of our society. But it is nonetheless an unmistakable and central feature, from the moment white newcomers stole land from Native Americans and imported enslaved Africans to work it.
If we are being honest, who we are is a country that began based on the premise that white people, and specifically landowning white men, were superior, and uniquely deserving of freedom and democratic governance. This premise is white supremacy. It is a fallacy. It is a lie.
Who we are is a country that continues to be primarily led by white men, and that has actively resisted including those who are not white men from full participation in society at nearly every turn.
Who we are is a country where this myth of the superiority of white people is so deeply encoded into how we operate that sometimes we don’t recognize it as a threat even when it’s staring us in the face, such as when we failed to ward off a well-publicized violent insurrection planned and led by self-professed white supremacists.
We are of course so much more than this and we have much to be proud of. With a few important exceptions, we are a country that has largely stewarded peaceful transfers of power. We are a country where generations and generations of immigrants have sought refuge from tyranny, war and deadly political violence. We are the country that prevented Nazi Germany from conquering Europe. We are a country that has made major global contributions to science, technology, music, and culture. We are the country who just elected our first vice president who identifies as a woman, a proud Black woman, a proud South Asian woman, and a proud child of immigrants. It is important to celebrate the things we’ve gotten right and that make this country great.
But to confuse who we are with who we profess to be in our founding documents is to confuse the present with the future. It’s to disregard, diminish and erase the experiences of millions of people in this country who have been oppressed for generations, and who continue to be oppressed by laws, policies and cultural norms that were based on the fallacy of white supremacy. In many cases these are laws that were explicitly crafted to maintain a racial and gender hierarchy.
If we are unwilling to look at ourselves in the mirror, and speak honestly with one another about who we actually are today, we have little hope of advancing racial equity and becoming the country we all aspire to be in the future.
Of course, honesty in word but not in deed would not be radical at all. It would actually not even be honest. It’s essential that we translate radical honesty in our discourse into daily actions that ensure we are each meaningfully contributing to the dismantling of white supremacy and systemic racism.
Although this is societal work, and requires participation from all, it is most important for white people to commit to radical honesty, since white people, like me, are the most likely to avoid honest dialogue, benefit the most from the status quo, and hold disproportionate power in society.
Let us all courageously commit ourselves to radical honesty in word and deed, so that we can move with much greater speed together along our journey to become the country we set out to be so many years ago.
