Aug 21, 2017 Orange County Review
The column for this week is an excerpt from a presentation delivered in Princeton, NJ in May and a full version will be on the schedule for the African American Genealogy Conference at the Library of Virginia Sept. 16. For more information, contact the LVA or use this link: http://edu.lva.virginia.gov/african-american-genealogy-conference/. I offer the first portions in this and next week’s columns in honor of those victimized by the recent Alt-Right rally in Charlottesville.
Found at Dictionary.com is to my mind the definition of revolution that is most applicable: “a pervasive change in society and the social structure.”
Certainly, you join me in understanding that there are all kinds of causes for revolutions and all kinds of tactics utilized including but not limited to: military coups, violent and non-violent resistance and economic overturns.
Historically, the success or failure of a revolution began and ended with one very strong, usually charismatic individual: we might immediately think of Martin Luther King, Jr., Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, Susan B. Anthony and even Adolf Hitler. Despite the availability of such a leader, without the engagement and loyalty of masses of followers the applicable effort is doomed to failure.
The core of The Quiet Revolution hinges on the principal of non-violent action with a unique twist. Most non-violent revolutions typically involved overt action by masses of people; including marches, sit-ins, boycotts, protest rallies and picket lines. This type of strategy requires leadership, organization, supreme communication tools and money, lots of money. But let’s get outside the box of those historical examples.
What if there was another way to cast aside the old and establish a new way of revolutionizing an entire way of thinking with a mechanism that did not require armies (civil or military); a super fund, and/or high-level, God-like leadership?
Before we venture down that path, let’s step back for a moment and explore the relevance and potential mandate for a new revolution in today’s social climate. What is it exactly that demands change? Beyond the obvious, why does the rally cry against racism and bigotry resonate not just with millions of African Americans but with those of varying ethnicities who find themselves seeking a more civilized world?
The short answer is this: the lies, misconceptions and the pervasive eclipsing of identity and humanity that have been perpetrated upon minorities and people of varying cultures, life choices, skin colors, religious background and those economically disparate, must be deposed!
Though a task we should all ascribe to, I am not equipped to suggest practical solutions for every element of this unsettling condition. However, I can share the mechanisms that are useful at dispelling the ignorance as it relates to African American history and heritage. That topic will be the next portion of “The Quiet Revolution” offered in next week’s column.
As to the misrepresentations bestowed upon our fellow Americans of Irish, Hispanic, Italian, Asian (I could go on but you get the message) descent, I will entrust others to correct.
The nation we should be striving for is the idyllic America we place, at least in concept, on a high pedestal. That paradigm is not one of exclusion, but rather the opposite. We have fought and died for the rights of each one of us to be free and independent without fear of any harm, physical or otherwise. That is the America we must protect!
Until next week, be well.