I would like to see Wright, or anyone, do that but keep it contemporary. Talk about today. Leave out the history and all the old wounds.
It is impossible to simply "leave out the history and all the old wounds." They still exist. Have they been mitigated and eased? Sure. Has there been a good deal of progress since the 60s and early 70s, when not only were there race riots and politicians openly running on racial hatred, and even the military--which today is sometimes held to be a model of how integration can work--had a great deal of racism in it (which even today is often brushed over as though it didn't exist)? Sure. But there are still plenty of wounds and de facto ghettos, and not just on Sunday mornings in churches.
To say that it is impossible to leave it out isn't the same as saying either that people should be flogged with it or that the progress of the last 30 years should be overlooked. What makes it so difficult, part of what makes it so difficult is that there is no one "black experience," and that individuals don't "feel" racist but the effects of past racism still exist. You can point to as many "success stories" as you like, and say things like, "XXX made it out, why can't YYY?" Of course some people "make" it, and of course most people don't. I will repeat something I referred to a number of months ago, and point to the Harlem Children's Zone as an example of a way to confront the problem of demoralized urban communities, which is, IMHO, one of the central legacies of past racism in this country. |
