Using election data to save us, not divide us

I have been focused on one piece of the statistical data from our presidential election. The preponderance of votes for Donald Trump have the highest cases of COVID-19 and are in the whitest communities. What does this mean for our country as we try to become more consolidated for its survival?

My interpretation of this data is that white folks, particularly those in non-urban settings, are more afraid of progress than they are of dying. White fear overrides mortal fear. They will stand strongly against progress out of a fear of it.

They do not want a society where others can move up because of this fear. They fear this more than their deaths as evidenced by their votes. This fear has been endorsed in all aspects of our society. Those of us who believe in progress must figure out ways to change this.

To change this, those of us who want to improve our country, need to be mindful and figure out ways to address these fearful attitudes and beliefs.

For years, I facilitated diversity trainings at community settings in Michigan. We would put a Black engineer and a white engineer in a room together for 90 minutes once a week and it changed their relationships from barely acknowledging each other to the point where their children would become friends.

We taught teachers how racial stressors affected children and encouraged a wider understanding of the impact of this factor alone on their learning. Some teachers would initially sit with their backs to me, frustrated with their principal’s mandate that they meet with me and in an academic year, requested my return services so that they went from pro bono to being generously reimbursed.

I now ask myself; did we waste our time with such trainings as policies were becoming law that countered what we were trying to do? When I try to reconcile the dishonesties of the Trump Republicans with those in our prisons, how long do we have to remain here?

Mitch McConnell is re-elected when his “finest moment” in his own words, is refusing to allow a vote for a Supreme Court Justice by President Obama. Where in our educational system is this taught for what it is: obstruction of justice. Where is he held accountable for this?

I have lived long enough to see some good in our country and some of the worst of this country and I try to tell myself that I am living through a history that will be taught to future generations. That has led me to one area we, as a country, have the capacity to change rather easily.

The number of required courses in a master of social work degree program that emphasize at risk populations, transcultural, multisystem context, empowerment, social and economic justice, social change, how social systems promote and deter human development and the influence of diversity on human development, promotion of macro change and social and economic justice for oppressed populations, skills of empowerment to achieve individual and collective social and economic justice, an expanded view of recognizing biculturalism and a dual perspective of specific minorities (e.g., Arabs, Asians, Blacks, Hispanics, Native Americans and other subcultures) is strong. How to make this a part of our fabric?

My stepdaughter, now 30, came home after track when in high school and relayed an experience she had that day.

The coach has been particularly tough on them and as he turned his back, the group of young high schoolers joked with a Heil Hitler signal. One young girl, an exchange student from Germany, retorted that that was not funny.

My own epiphany that day in 2005, was that we do not teach in our schools, in the U.S., the true history of our country, as is now generally accepted by many others who have been promoting this for 15 years, I have blamed both Republicans and Democrats for not putting enough resources into a fair, equitable, honest education for each and every student in this country that is frank, candid, reveals our defects and flaws, past mistakes, horrors that we have celebrated and honored and instead held as signs of our power and dominance.

As a therapist, this would minimally improve empathy between us and as an ex-teacher, would exponentially enhance this country, possibly even improve the future of this country in ways that would secure our strength as one of the leaders in the world.

We need to figure out ways to take what we have seen and learned and embed it into a mandated educational curriculum that can have far-reaching effects for all our children in this country. This is something that has never been attempted in this country, so cannot be dismissed as a failure before we make efforts.

Let me quote the opening narration of the movie, Mercury 13: “Most harmful behavior is based in fear. Protecting one’s perceived position in society, protecting one’s territory or one’s physical well-being. Bur progress is inevitable. “

Let us hope that at this critical juncture in our efforts to “heal” that we also include concrete ways for the future to improve the lives of those to come after us.

We need to figure out how to use our knowledge to make actual change and avoid remaining in our academic, theoretical, or experiential knowledge of the problems.

Bernie “got it.” We can have socialist programs, like our educational system or the governmental medical system that serves veterans and the president when he needed it and not become a socialist country.