A Double Standard of Violence
Everybody has blood on their hands, everybody. We all do. The clothes we wear, the air we breathe, everything we do is built on the backs of suffering people and dying animals. We wallow in blood. - Anthony Bourdain
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what it means to enjoy the life I have as a natural born American citizen.
My parents came here as immigrants. It seemed clear to them in the 1970’s that this was the best place on earth to live. Unparalleled infrastructure. Wide open spaces. Good paying jobs (if you were fortunate enough to have the right credentials.). The chance to create your own identity. All of which were near impossible where they were coming from at that time.
And it’s worked out pretty well for us.
I can move around the country at whim on a magnificent interstate highway system - eating, drinking, experiencing what I want. I got a world class education in a prestigious, historically white public university. That education enables me to earn a living using my brain. I invest in property with the comfort of knowing that my title is insured and safe. I can call 911 if I ever have an emergency and trust that people will show up to help me. I can pretty much do as I please in my pursuit of happiness.
But what’s also been clear from day one is that this has not, nor will be, the American experience for many others. For most of my life, I couldn’t figure out why my family was able to thrive while so many other communities struggled so deeply.
The stage that drew my immigrant family to this place was built on stolen land, genocide of native people, and forced labor of stolen people. The more I think about it, the more unsettling it feels that we came here and took advantage of the opportunity that this history afforded us.
We don’t talk about this history, and we certainly aren’t taught it accurately in our schools. But for real, even if we knew it well from the start, would it have changed our opportunistic ambition to come here and partake?
When we recall the American colonists' destruction of inventory and property at the Boston Tea Party, we admire their actions as courageous revolt.
When black Americans and indigenous people struggle for centuries to be seen and heard for their basic humanity, they are forced to resort to the same - taking to the streets to draw attention to their cause. How can we reasonably expect change to benefit them through any different means?
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It will take some effort to recalibrate to a correct understanding of our country’s history. Here’s a 12 hour start that I found helpful: https://www.sceneonradio.org/the-land-that-never-has-been-yet/
And this is a body of work led by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, UNC Chapel Hill alum Nikole Hannah-Jones: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/14/magazine/1619-america-slavery.html
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As a family business, we have been straddling generational and ideological divides. Our challenge now is to better understand the broader impact of our choices, and rethink how we do our work. This will be a lifelong journey in examining our past choices and undoing what has been problematically at odds with the way we want to coexist with the world around us.