Did you know that when I was getting ready to launch Abundance Reconstructed a year ago, my goal was to form an online community where people could discuss many of the topics I bring up in these weekly emails? While a Discord channel from those early days remains, the idea never really took off.

After posting, Make America Dignified, a reader reaction reminded me of this. A friend unsubscribed so I asked for feedback he might offer. He said these topics need exploration in a different format, adding he might be interested in exploring them in a discussion group.

When you combine that with another response to the same post expressing appreciation for the challenging and through-provoking content, I started wondering if there might be interest in a group format? Or resources for you to form an Abundance Reconstructed discussion group? Maybe a book club to delve into some of the recommended resources?

What do you all think? Reply and let me know your thoughts.

Mediating the Culture War

When I think a group like that, in part, I envision people from both sides of an issue learning what the other side believes. This came up in the first response I received on Reparations to Repair a Nation.

While a few hours later another reader just unsubscribed, this one asked, “Are you talking about Critical Race Theory?” I was so thankful for this response. Rather than just canceling me, the reader dared to engage, at least for a moment. I found it a refreshing response in a society increasingly divided by culture war issues.

Dr. Seuss, pronouns, Potato Head, actionless virtue signaling, Critical Race Theory … the list goes on. Topics that divide the masses as the neoliberal ideology of elites on both sides of the aisle lay siege to their dignity. And that is the point of the culture war. After all, it is the longstanding practice of the bourgeois to divide the proletariat. The more we focus on distinctions like Black and White, Right and Left, or urban and rural, the more they can extort the masses.

Of course, there could just as easily be a Left version of the same meme where the guy with all the cookies looks at the Black or Brown person and says, “They refuse to share their cookie with you.”

Critical Race Theory

So what do I think about Critical Race Theory? First, it is important to define what the theory is. The political Right’s culture war understanding of it is very different from the actual theory which is only taught in Law School.

For those who have only heard popular definitions, the theory explores how the law is not neutral and offers disparate outcomes for Black and Brown people. Then it begins to ask the important question, “Why?” This why might be part of what the political Right grabs on to when it comes to how we teach history in our classrooms. This extends to not only American history but much of Western history over the past 500 years.

Have you ever noticed that Western Christianity (1517 with the Protestant Reformation), European colonialism (1500 as discovery and exploration turned to occupation), and the African Slave Trade (beginning approximately 1505 with the establishment of Portuguese India) all grew up together? We would be naive to think that there was not some interplay, especially as Europeans went to Africa with the explicit aim to civilize, Westernize, and Christianize the savages.

Does acknowledging that history does not make all White children vile racists. Nor does it mean Black children are hamstrung by society and incapable of thriving. It does mean that perceptions around race play a significant and lingering role in American history and culture. We should be honest about this because until we are, we can never move beyond it.

But Isn’t Reparations About Black and White?

Another reader, while supportive of reparations, feared that enacting them would divide the country further. I can see the point. After all, we have been taught to think about reparations as taking money from White people and giving it to Black people. It is hard to get more divisive than that, which is why I want to invite you to think about things differently. Specifically, through the lens of economic history.

Following the Civil War, America experienced an economic boom. While it is true that now freed slaves were largely denied the benefits of this movement, so were the vast majority of White people, be it those who’d lived in America for generations or a flood of European immigrants.

Certainly, life improved for many, but improvement is subjective. If you go from starving to living tentatively from paycheck to paycheck, things improved, but life is still rather perilous. It is still not dignified. Rather, much like today, the vast majority of the wealth ended up in the hands of a few industrial leaders. Their greed is ultimately what brought about the Great Depression (and more recently, the Great Recession).

Reparations for White America

When FDR came into office, even though he hailed from one of those wealthy families, he realized that something needed to be done for the benefit of the majority. Thus, the New Deal. A social contract where the government worked to limit corporate exploitation of labor and assure the basic dignity of (White) people. The distribution of those benefits created the predominantly White middle class. This means, in the New Deal, White people received their reparations for the exploitation of the Industrial Revolution. Through the $8.1 trillion in equity found in suburban homes across the country, one generation will ultimately pass it on to the next.

From this perspective, reparations for descendants of chattel slavery who never got their 40 acres and a mule, as well as other Black and Brown people largely denied the benefits of the New Deal, is about finishing the job. Yes, over the past 50 years, corporate interests have reneged on the social contract. Reagan claiming to recreate it, established a sham in its place. This is why we need to make America dignified for all, but in an act of solidarity, we should recognize the disparity of the assault.

It Is Not Just Governmental

As one more reader pointed out, this work happens everyday. Our politics is not bound to the governmental arena. We get to make choices every day that declare how we live life together. Do we get our books from Amazon that exploits predominantly Black and Brown warehouse workers, or do we spend a bit more and support a Black-owned bookstore? When we go out for dinner, do we visit a chain or find a family-owned restaurant? What kinds of volunteer organizations do we partner with and how does our church engage with the local community?

In the end, these are all questions of how we bring heaven to earth. I certainly hope it can be more of a mutually formative conversation. So often, people of faith withdraw from these discussions because they are focused on the “spiritual.” Then again, Abundance Reconstructed readers know that spirituality isn’t spiritual.

Further Exploration

Video: Star Trek vs. The Matrix – What’s Our Future? with Yanis Varoufakis on the Bad Faith Podcast

In this interview, Yanis Varoufakis and Briahna Joy Gray talk about the economic futures before us and the choice we have. Do we want to step further into The Matrix or do we dare seek to make Star Trek a reality?

Action

Do some research on family owned businesses in your area. If you can, focus on those that are minority or woman-owned (like my employer, Xero Shoes).

What’s Next?

While the long awaited post on the environment and creation care is coming, new week I want to delve into the Parable of the Rich Fool as a tool for understanding America today.