The Risks of Racism
To all of us
Racism has always threatened the health and well-being of black America — and jeopardized the moral authority of our democracy — but now it’s becoming a dangerous weapon in the war to destabilize our country and undermine our national security.
NBC News recently reported that Russians with links to the Kremlin identified our country’s fractures and racial stresses under Trump, and actively worked to increase racial tension, and spread disinformation designed to fan the flames of race hatred. Their goal was to exploit the systemic inequalities in our country and harness the resulting anger until it boiled over into violence.
They believe that America — too powerful to be invaded, too indispensable to be isolated — can be defeated instead by its own internal strife.
And they may be right.
It may be that the enemies of democracy will accomplish with America’s own cognitive dissonance what they they could never achieve with missiles and bombs.
As black Americans, we have been inoculated to the curious hypocrisy on which our country is founded — the proud American ideals of independence, freedom and equality, side by side with centuries of genocide, slavery, and brutal oppression. Whether our global enemies can distinguish the difference or not, black patriotism —…
