Short answer: “No.”
America has always played nice with racists. Freeing the slaves for the civil war was just a tactic. One learned from the French-Indian War (where slaves were freed to fight against the British). And while history books (within civilization) are constantly revised, I’m drawn towards a more nuanced reading of history. Which means the scholars do not reject evidence. Especially evidence that, on the face of it, has been excised in the past due to a “heroic narrative”.
For example, the broad strokes paint the North as anti-slavery and the South as pro-slavery. But there was brutal legislation up in a number of Northern states to restrict the rights of people of color. And, even more telling, laws to return “property” (i.e. slaves) back to their southern masters. The nuance here being that “anti-slavery” meant “pro-black.”
Why should I care about this?
Overt racists are easy. Uncle Joe and his belief in the superiority of the white race can be cancelled, defunded, and pushed into a corner. His kids can be educated with a much broader pallete that Uncle Joe could provide. Over the course of a few generations, you can wipe out overt racism.
However…
I come from a line of “tolerant racists”. And I can tell you “tolerant racists” will lecture you at length about “good POC” and “bad POC”. “Good POC” act as they should within the “legal and moral and ethical and social standards set by Society(tm).” What this means is that they speak the white language, dress like whites (with some ‘ethnic flourish’ allowed), and don’t ever get accused of a crime, ever. Oh… and they support “society’s agenda” of course.
Tolerant racists claim they have zero problems with “good POC”. And they will use that justification–scratch that; under Trump they USED that justification–to deal with the “Bad POC”. By doing things like put kids in cages and force hysterectomies on BIPOC and shoot black people. There is no appeal to better nature there. They claim that they already are expressing their better nature by accepting the “good POC”.
So what’s the solution?
Lose your tolerance for all of it. Call it out. Slam people who think they are the most tolerant people ever, but obviously aren’t. Let the up and coming generations see that the concept of racism needs to end up on the trashpile of history.
Look, the idea of locking kids up didn’t start with 44. It’s baked into the fabric of America. It’s been that way since 1492. Racism will continue to exist as long as the concept of “white” — which is a ridiculous invention when you dig into it — is supported as a concept. I’ve been one of those people for years has been screaming at the Parties-in-Charge to stop their march towards appropriating power. Mainly because it can be reappropriated by a racist in a heartbeat. For instance, post 9-11, they could have let the Patriot Act lapse. But it was just too tempting to keep it around. There’s a zillion other examples to pull from.
The purpose of the original post is to signal that I’m not going down the road of forgiveness. Because when these folks have a chance, they -hurt- people openly, cruelly, and with abandon. I’ve stood in an auditorium, shouting at the top of my lungs for justice. All while other folks gleefully and maliciously promoted the expulsion and abuse of the homeless. I’ve seen the terror ICE patrols caused in my city. And I’ve stood between cops wanting and liberals standing against. Nazis who wanted to disrupt a series of social justice meetings.
People do not get a pass for doing that.
But because this is the internet, I need to be clear. I’m not against people with a label slapped on them. I’m not a Democrat, so I don’t hold either party is an ‘esteemed position’. Hells, I don’t hold civilization in a ‘esteemed position’ either. I do however believe someone if they say they are going to trash the LGBTQIA+ or BIPOC or any other category they think are weak enough to bully around. These last 4 years have shown us that when they get to be in charge, they will seize it and do real things to real people.
That’s a category of folks that don’t fall under the labels ‘republican’ or ‘conservative’ or ‘liberal’ or ‘democrat’.
They fall under ‘racist motherfuckers’.