First Thoughts on Black History Month

Not long ago I wrote about how it was disappointing to me how there were so many things that had not come out of the feminist movement. Yes, you can find women in pretty much any type of job, but there is not pay equality, there is not even close to equal representation in terms of positions of power, and there’s still plenty of chauvinism going around.

There is some wrongheadedness that doesn’t help, like the woman who writes about realizing that she can’t have it all, without apparently realizing that no one can have it all, or that she has a lot more than most.

I had blamed some of the lack of progress on competition among women, where instead of being mutually supportive of each other, women occupying different spheres inside or outside of the workforce seemed to be judging each other, and resenting each other, possibly due to some jealousy of each other, which would really show insecurity about themselves.

Sadly, one thing you find when studying the history of racial minorities is that progress is often lacking there too. Slavery ends and Jim Crow starts. The Civil Rights Act officially ends Jim Crow, but then the War on Drugs starts, and also human attitudes remain the same. It’s not that there isn’t any progress, but the progress written down in the law books doesn’t seem to translate to real life quite how it should. Some of it is possible because those who benefit from the status quo also benefit from infighting among those who don’t.

These are the sort of things that could make it a very discouraging world. Actually, I had been getting very discourages with things, though I am going to get into that more when I start writing about Danger Days, eventually.

There are other things, though, that are kind of inspiring, and it generally happens with individuals. No matter how often society will accept something wrong, there will still come times when there is someone who will not turn away, and has the opportunity to make a difference.

For example, one of the key figures in King Leopold’s Ghost is E.D. Morel. He was a man of great moral conviction and opposition to slavery, but he also ended up as a shipping agent in a position to see and have proof that Congo was a slave state, despite Leopold gaining support for his presence in the region through his anti-slavery stance. (Well, there was a lot of manipulation going on in that, but also deep hypocrisy.) In addition, Morel was a remarkably capable person who could produce a great deal of literature in a short time, which was necessary for the work before him. He also found helpful friends and he had a supportive wife.

It doesn’t necessarily work to make these people your heroes. Morel was blind to the similar problems of British colonialism. Another figure who was kind of amazing was George Washington Williams, who was very capable and the first to even begin reporting the atrocities, but also somewhat of a habitual liar, which weakened his case. However, it can be very inspiring to see just what a single person or a few people working together can do. And then you see that it didn’t do very much, but there are still things that help you go on.

There will be more on that tomorrow, and later.