Nigger Book

How Long, Lord? How Long?

America is evil. It is more evil now than it was over a half century ago when Dick Gregory wrote Nigger, his first autobiography. Back then the racists were mostly Southern, Democratic, ignorant and at least a little ashamed. Now they are Central, Republican, just as ignorant, but firmly in charge, and proud of it.

Gregory's commitment to the 1960's Civil Rights struggle was supported by an ideal that he could use against the bigots of the day: "I told them that they weren't just dealing with Dick Gregory when they threatened to take all the Negroes off relief, they were dealing with America. They weren't big enough to threaten the whole country." He felt confident that this ideal incorporated justice in itself so that one could say, "Thank the United States Supreme Court," instead of "Thank God." And he was confident of practical help, "...the police [in Birmingham, Alabama] were on their best behavior that day because there were FBI agents in town with movie cameras."

No longer. The racists are in charge now. Whatever ideal of America as a representative of progressive and inclusionary politics there may have been before Trump now can be seen as a sham. The establishment has embraced the values of George Wallace, a figure few seem to remember but whose legacy has endured and spread throughout the country like an infectious bacterium. The Supreme Court is increasingly unlikely to provide anything but ideological claptrap. And the Justice Department, including the FBI, is run by a man who campaigned for a strict segregationist candidate for Alabama governor. Little chance for civil rights protection there.

If it were only the racist Republican political establishment that were the problem, there might be hope of the sort Gregory drew from his ideal. But the problem is not Trump and Sessions and their pals. The problem is America, its people. Roughly half of them endorse the racism of their leaders, substantially more than 50 years ago. America fears the Black Man, the Brown Man, the Yellow Man, the Gay Man, and even the Red Man as never before simply because each of these has demonstrated his equality in ability, creativeness, and drive. Gregory implies this when he,
"... felt the poisonous hate in an American city, a nice-looking little town that had a Confederate flag flying just as high as the American flag on the US Post Office. And I saw the southern white man who has nothing between him and the lowest Negro except a segregated toilet."
With that segregated toilet gone, even in the White House, a lot more white folk feel like there aren't a lot of people they can look down on.

I was born and lived half my life in America. And I know what James Baldwin said is true,
"I think that it is a spiritual disaster to pretend that one doesn't love one's country. You may disapprove of it, you may be forced to leave it, you may live your whole life as a battle, yet I don't think you can escape it … If you try to pretend you don't see the immediate reality that formed you I think you'll go blind."
So I feel shame and despair for what has happened to America. Shame because I share whatever genetic defect afflicts the country and should have done more to overcome it; despair because it wouldn't have made the least bit of difference.