Walking with/through a Savage History

Our country has a savage, brutal history. This so-called experiment in democracy—this supposed beacon of freedom to the world—carries the weight of genocidal slaughter of indigenous peoples, along with slavery, oppression, and widespread public lynching of human beings. As I write this sentence, the news has just broken that an African American man died in police custody after a white police officer knelt on his neck, while he pleaded for mercy, until the man was no longer breathing or pleading. And though the officers involved have been fired, no criminal charges have yet been brought, despite the fact that video of the incident has gone viral. These human beings, who happened by historical and genetic accident to be born with the “wrong” skin color—a “pigmentation problem”¹—who often committed no other crime than being born—have been subjected to...