A Lesson In Empathy

In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird, Atticus Finch famously tells his daughter Scout, "You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view … until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.”

That statement, that call for empathy, may sound obvious, but far too many of us have a hard time seeing, really seeing, what others see, and feeling, really feeling, what others feel.

I find the following quite powerful; although I have watched it more than once, it continues to break my heart. People, especially those who are parents, will find a hard time not being moved by the painful reality that black children must learn about far, far too early in their lives.

Repost: The Blood of Emmett Till

Almost two years ago I wrote a series of posts on racism, starting with the 1955 murder of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old Black boy horribly tortured before his death. Here is that post, and if you would like to read the entire series, you can click here



From this tragedy large, diverse groups of people organized a movement that grew to transform a nation, not sufficiently but certainly meaningfully. What matters most is what we have and what we will do with what we do know. We must look at the facts squarely ... The bloody and unjust arc of our history will not bend upward if we merely pretend that history did not happen here.
- Timothy B. Tyson, author of The Blood of Emmett Till

As a species, we are terrible students of history. Although its tools have become much more refined over the years, its lessons seem all too frequently lost on many, either because we prefer comforting illusions or we see them through narrow ideological lenses. Refusing to confront ugly truths ensures their longevity.

One of the most emotionally difficult books I have read in a long time is The Blood of Emmett Till. This excerpt from a NYT review sums up the murder of Till, the 14-year-old black lad from Chicago who, in the summer of 1955, was visiting relatives in Mississippi:

On a Wednesday evening in August, Till allegedly flirted with and grabbed the hand of Carolyn Bryant, a white woman who worked as the cashier at a local market. According to recovered court transcripts released by the F.B.I. in 2007, he let out a “wolf whistle” as she exited the store to get a gun from her car. Bryant later informed her husband and his half brother, who proceeded to uphold a grim tradition: Till was abducted, beaten, shot in the head and thrown into the Tallahatchie River. A 74-pound gin fan was tied to his neck with barbed wire, with the hope that he would never be found.

Despite overwhelming evidence of their guilt, his murderers were, in the Southern tradition of the time, found not guilty. Despite the absence of justice, Till's mother, an indefatigable woman, changed the course of civil rights history by insisting that the horribly mutilated body of her son rest in an open coffin, of which photographs were published in prominent magazines, while an estimated 240,000 filed by his casket.

The purpose of this post, however, is not to revisit the horrific details explored in the book that go well beyond the murder of a young teen. Rather, it is to draw parallels between the language and justifications of the racists of Till's time with those of the contemporary white supremacist movement. While over 60 years separate the two eras, the echoes of history are evident for all who care to look.

The most obvious parallel evolves around efforts to discredit the veracity of events. Examples of this 'strategy' abound in the book:

The editor of the Picayune Item snarled that a "prejudiced communistic inspired NAACP" could not "not blacken the name of the great sovereign state of Mississippi, regardless of their claims of Negro Haters, lynching, or whatever [emphasis mine].

Sherriff Strider, a racist who was friends with the accused, sought to constantly undermine the evidence and question whether or not the body was, in fact, that of Till's, telling reporters the following:

"The body we took from the river looked more like that of a grown man instead of a young boy. It was also more decomposed than it should have been after that short a stay in the water."

Soon after, Strider told reporters, "This whole thing looks like a deal made up by the NAACP."

During the trial, Strider was happy to share his racist view with reporters, disguised as questioning the evidence:

"It just seems to me that the evidence is getting slimmer and slimmer. I'm chasing down some evidence now that the killing might have been planned and plotted by the NAACP."

Of course, there was no such evidence. Just as there was no evidence to support a convenient claim that Till had been spirited out of Mississippi and was now living in Detroit, again part of the larger effort to cast doubt on the evidence and the integrity of the NAACP.

Why the attacks on the NAACP? Besides trying to sow doubts about the murder, it was part of a pattern of extreme resistance to school integration and voting rights that Hodding Carter wrote about in The Saturday Evening Post:

Whites considered the NAACP "the fountainhead of all evil and woe," and the factual nature of most of the NAACP's bills of particulars ... doesn't help make its accusations any more acceptable. "The hatred that is concentrated upon the NAACP surpasses in its intensity any emotional reaction that I have witnessed in my southern lifetime." This reflected the NAACP's demands for voting rights and school integration as much as it did their protests over the Till case.

Any fair-minded person who reads The Blood of Emmett Till cannot emerge from the experience without a deep sense of outrage over the horrible injustices meted out to Black people over the years, as well as a profound admiration for those extraordinary souls who, countless times, braved both physical and economic reprisal in their long battle to be treated exactly as they were: American citizens demanding their full rights.

And the battle continues today. In Part 11 of this post, I will look at the tactics employed by white supremacists today, tactics that eerily echo those of a much earlier time as the racists among us seek to turn back the clock and once more subjugate those they deem their inferiors.

A More Apt Comparison

I'm sure you have heard about White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany's utterly shameless extolment of Donald Trump's prop walk with The Bible the other day.

McEnany claimed during a White House briefing Wednesday that Trump had “wanted to send a very powerful message that we will not be overcome by looting, by rioting, by burning, this is not what defines America” and that the stunt was “a very important moment” to show “resilience,” as other presidents and world leaders have previously done.

“Like Churchill, we saw him inspecting the bombing damage, it sent a powerful message of leadership to the British people,” she boasted.

This was all too much for Anderson Cooper who, I think most people would agree, draws a far more apt comparison/contrast between the Moron-in-Chief and Winston Churchill:

"Burned out church, a Bible in his hand, the country divided, and he couldn't think of anything to say except to ask a bunch of other white guys…to stand around him and just take a picture," says @andersoncooper, on the WH comparison of Pres. Trump to Winston Churchill. pic.twitter.com/I4JVRqEfkR

— Anderson Cooper 360° (@AC360) June 4, 2020

And the beat goes on.

A Modern-Day Prophet

If you know anything about Old Testament traditions (and I confess to knowing only a little about them), you may be aware of the role played by the prophets. Contrary to popular belief, their main function was not to predict the future but rather to serve as a conduit for God's messages. And those messages were often rebukes of the people of Israel.

As with the prophets of old, people like Cornel West and Chris Hedges today offer up critical mirrors to society; their messages are harsh, unsparing, and uncompromising. The following indictment of the U.S. by West, the link to which was sent to me by my dear friend Dom, amply demonstrates this:

As thousands across the country and around the world took to the streets this weekend to protest the state-sanctioned killing of Black community members, professor Cornel West says it signals the implosion of U.S. empire, "its foundations being shaken with uprising from below." He says the U.S. is a “predatory capitalist civilization obsessed with money, money, money,” and says the uprisings are a direct result of a system that prioritizes profits over people both domestically and abroad. While the nation faces its largest public health crisis in generations and the highest unemployment rate since the Great Depression, protesters came out in droves to verbalize their discontent. "What we need is … a fundamental transformation of this American Empire," says West.

As in days of old, modern-day prophets are often ignored, ridiculed and despised. Now more than ever, however, we ignore them at our collective peril.

Obvious? Perhaps

But apt nonetheless.

H/t Theo Moudakis

A Plague Nation

I wonder if Americans realize that is how their country is seen by the rest of the world, in no small measure thanks to their having elected a raging racist psychopath as their president.

The following video takes a few seconds before beginning to play:

"The System Can't Reform Itself"

So says the always fearless and indefatigable Cornel West. As I watched the following, I couldn't help but think that if one feels dismissive of, threatened or outraged by what he has to say, a long and unsparing look in the mirror is likely in order.