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You cannot know that which you have never been taught.
And in this country — a place where reciting the pledge of allegiance and setting off fireworks every July 4th is what passes for historical memory — it goes without saying there is a lot we haven’t learned.
Or perhaps we were taught it but conveniently pushed it aside to the deepest recesses of our mind, having elevated amnesia to the level of a religious sacrament.
Either way, whether from genuine ignorance or selective memory, there is much about our nation which does not currently register with the vast majority of white Americans.
The truth of this statement is inarguable. And we know it because whenever another black body lies dead at the hands of a police officer — whether by gunshot, chokehold or a knee to the neck for eight minutes — their families are met by white assurances that it was tragic but ultimately an isolated event. Bad apples, we insist.
This is something we reflexively say while studiously ignoring the other apples standing around watching and doing nothing to intervene against the actions of the bad one.
