American Whitelash

I clearly remember the night when the 2008 election results were announced. I was in a restaurant transformed for the night into a watch party for volunteers. We were excitedly and anxiously watching the numbers come in. When Obama was announced the winner the room erupted in cheers. We were ecstatic, sure that a wonderful post racial America was dawning. I mean we'd just elected a Black man to the nation's highest office. We were forgetting that the mood in other watch parties was far from jubilant. Many people were seeing Obama's win as an end to the world, or at least the nation, as they knew it and determined to remedy this wrong turn by all means necessary—legal or otherwise.
That's the premise behind Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Wesley Lowery's American Whitelash: A Changing Nation and The Cost of Progress. Lowery claims that the wave of racist violence following Obama's election was not a temporary aberration. Rather this reaction to change by people deeply threatened by it, which probably helped set the stage for a Trump presidency, was totally predictable and as American as apple pie. As he explains their fears and grievances he contextualizes them within the history of a nation in which any rights gained by Black have triggered waves of violence on the part of white supremacists.
He also takes a deep, compassionate look at several of these acts that didn't make national new or go viral on the internet, showing their devastating impact on victims and their families and communities These were the chapters I found most compelling.
Lowery warns us there will be serious consequences if America doesn't change this brutal pattern. He knows no one book can make this happen. But he hopes American Whitelash can be the spark to kindle many overdue and very necessary conversations.
On a purrrsonal note, last Thursday we had another blizzard. This time the UMaine mood was much more jubilant because the prez declared a SNOW DAY!!!
A great big shout out goes out to Wesley Lowery for speaking truth to power.
Jules Hathaway