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For those unaware, I teach at an international school in the Arabian Gulf. When the protests and police riots began, my colleagues from Venezuela reached out and basically said "We're sorry about what's happening; we know how it feels."
That has stuck with me for months...
That has stuck with me for months...
Someone once said the biggest difference between the US and the countries we're taught to despise is marketing. I think that's reductive. It's more complicated than that. But what we're seeing in Portland today looks like what we've seen in Tehran and Caracas for years.
The United States was an slave empire followed by an apartheid state for most of its history. Black Americans gained legal equality when my mother was 28 years-old. So when we talk about rising authoritarianism, we should frame it as a regression. An old threat, not a new one.
The Jim Crow South was a violent authoritarian state with the racial caste system. A significant number of people in that region and frankly across the country would like to see that re-established. That's what the Confederate flags are all about, restoration.
These are the type of thoughts I have while sitting in the lobby of a mechanic. Thanks for indulging them.
The End.
The End.
