I recently wrote about Lincoln and Trump and what motivated each of them. America has never fully addressed the issue of racism. The Civil War resulted in 655,000 military deaths, which was the deadliest war in American history. By comparison, the next deadliest was WWII. That resulted in 405,000 American military deaths.

Another tragic reality was the percentage of the US population that died. The Civil War killed 2% of the American population, while the WWII death toll was .3% of Americans. One would have thought that we would have addressed the issue of racism in the past century and a half.

For a decade after the Civil War, the Reconstruction period, Congress began to readmit the Southern states back into America. The South, however, saw that period as a means to refight the Civil War. While the North won the war, they lost the peace. Jim Crow laws, the KKK, and separate and unequal education, housing, medical care, voting, and opportunity in general became the new reality.

A century after the Civil War ended, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

The signing of the Voting Rights Act

A half-century later, we have the white supremacists and those who buy into the great replacement theory. According to those groups, this country should return to how it was at its beginning, meaning all white. Aside from the fact that Native Americans predated white Europeans, they wanted to go back to an all-white society.

Several issues need to be corrected. Read about The 1619 Project, where a slave ship sold slaves at Point Comfort, the British colony of Virginia. When I attended high school, college, or graduate school, I wasn’t aware that America had slaves even before Plymouth Rock and the Pilgrims.

In addition, over our history as a nation, the all-white society that many whites desire, we have discriminated against some white immigrants. Ironically, whites who immigrated to America for religious freedom were discriminated against, like Roger Williams. He was banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1631.

George Santayana wrote, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” We haven’t learned how to live in harmony with a multiracial society. For example, whites have discriminated against Italians, Germans, or other European nationalities at various times. Over the years, Asians, Africans, and groups from the Middle East have also. Racism is the elephant in the room filled with whites.

That is the backstory. I have written many essays about having to memorize poetry or prose in high school. I never read or memorized any of Maya Angelou’s writings. Why? None of her poems were in our American literature textbook. I still have Mrs. Davis’ textbook. She was my English teacher in my senior year. She gave me her book before she died. Angelou isn’t one of the poets. I just checked Mrs. Davis’ book, and there were no black authors. I did notice that Gen. Robert E. Lee’s Farewell to his Army was listed. Textbooks will reflect who writes them.

If you are younger than 81, I wonder how many of you have read anything Angelou wrote in a high school or college literature class. I happened to read one of her poems recently, Still I Rise.

What is my takeaway from Angelou’s poem? Beyond my white society’s guilt for centuries of slavery, segregation, and racism, I admire her writing ability. She was able to turn her suffering into making her a great writer. Angelou entered the world with two strikes against her; she was black and a female. Her greatness was derived from an old adage: no pain, no gain. Angelou speaks to many whites in a defiant but poetic manner.

Additionally, dealing with racism made Angelou stronger than her oppressors. She did what a white male couldn’t have done. She spoke truth to power...oppressive power. As whites, we need to learn how to treat others.

Interestingly, all humans came from around Kenya 200,000+/- years ago. Most of our time as Homo sapiens was spent in Africa. It was 60-100,000+/- years ago that some of our predecessors migrated out of Africa. It is a myth that there are different races, like the white, black, and Asian races. Since we evolved in the last 200,000 years, all people had their roots in Africa. The change in our skin’s pigmentation relates to how far above or below the equator humans live. Norwegians have lighter skin due to needing more sun to assist in making vitamin D. Living near the equator means one doesn’t need much exposure to the sun.

The migration out of Africa

Finally, I would like to end my essay with another poem that Maya Angelou wrote, Caged Bird.

This is Oprah’s interview with Maya Angelou.

This link is to the Maya Angelou Foundation website.

https://www.drmayaangeloufoundation.org/