Black History Month provides our society the important opportunity to reflect on our greatest national sin. That reflection should lead us to two very obvious conclusions. First, that we are not as bad as we used to be.[1] Second, that progress is not the same as attainment. In fact, the removal of the most obvious issues and concerns around race in this country only makes the insidiousness of the problem clearer.[2] Once we remove consideration of things like slavery and legalized discrimination, we can train our eyes to see how pervasive racism and its consequences are in our culture. We cannot be lulled into complacency simply because it used to be worse or some people of color managed to reach a level of success, overcoming the impediments that hindered others in our communities.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://spectrummagazine.org/views/2023/avoiding-complacency