I first heard the term “institutional racism” in 2010 or so in my second round of graduate studies, pursuing a degree in Public History. (I earned my first post-graduate degree in 1995 in an unrelated field.) I’ve also spent considerable effort studying psychology, my undergraduate program and lifelong interest.

The concept was frankly idiotic, as racism arises from personal ignorance, an advanced case of a set of attitudes and prejudices born of stereotypical constructs implanted in various ways. All the empirical psychological studies – ALL of them that I’d seen up to that point – showed that racist behaviors and processes are overcome when individuals have a chance to see themselves in the humanity of the “other.” Indeed, the findings echoed my own personal exposure to the phenomenon, limited as it was. It’s not exclusive to any one branch of the human family; it’s a weakness we’re all susceptible to. World history proves it over and over and over. There can be no academically honest disagreement on this.

At the time, I had no explanation what would lead presumably intelligent people in academia to espouse such non-productive nonsense. Now I know, of course, that it comes from the experience of people who, no matter what they did to try to rectify their daily adversities, never heard alternative explanations for what they saw. By now, generations have grown up with this myth. It’s taught at every level of schooling, giving it the air of authority. It seems plausible on the surface, seems to explain what they observe, and the people they know, love, and trust believe it wholeheartedly. That’s been the nature of human learning for 10,000 years. The problem is that institutions have no consciousness of their own. Despite the common idiom, they have no culture that exists in a vacuum independently of the individuals who comprise it. “Culture” is merely an easy metaphor to grasp, so we use the term. What God creates has consciousness and free will and perspective and the capacity for ignorance. What Man creates does not. It’s that simple.

Some of my beloved American brothers and sisters will hear in my view an inability to grasp the reality of life on the other side of the imaginary fence mis-named “race.” Well, to the extent that that’s true, I confess… I’m as utterly incapable of living someone else’s life as every single one of you is. Not one of you knows me or can know me in the sense you decry of me. But if that meant that we can’t learn to appreciate each other and come together despite the supposed super-max prisons of our own unique perspectives… our one and only one race would still be swinging from trees and living in caves. There must be more to the human condition. Agreed?

The real causes of what’s perceived as “institutional racism” can’t be attributed to any one factor. Minneapolis citizens are by all accounts so fed up with their local police force that they’d rather have none at all. If we take those accounts at face value, then the barest human responsibility demands that we examine what went wrong. Did they feel that way a year ago? Two? Ten? Has this feeling been building for all that time, or did it spring up out of the sleepy bliss of Lake Woebegone overnight? That’s rhetorical of course…

Who has been in charge of the Minneapolis Police Department in all those years? (Did you know there hasn’t been a Republican mayor or City Council there since 1961 – unless you count the mayor who resigned after one day in 1973?) Who’s been in charge of the NYPD while racial inequity there has been clawing at the people’s throats for so many years that they just can’t take it anymore? Who has denied the residents of Ferguson and St. Louis and Baltimore and Chicago and Skid Row the educational and employment opportunities every human being longs for, while at the same time has controlled police departments so infamously hostile to civil rights, consistently impeding the very Pursuit of Happiness we all regard as one of the three most basic Rights endowed by our Creator?

This is getting to be a confluence of rather large coincidences the Democrat Party expects us not to question. After all, who else besides the Democrat Party has promised communities of color since the 60s that only it, and no one else, would provide education, jobs, fairness, justice, and equality? The armchair psychologist in me is compelled to point out that one doesn’t need a doctorate in Behavioral Science to recognize the human capacity to deflect blame for one’s own failings by pointing fingers at others (like “institutional racism” for example). No solution can succeed without a full and honest definition of the problem.

But the “why” of where we are is moot; the time for solutions has run out. Neither side wants to hear it from the other, and both with good reason. Each side has its own unshakable perception of the Truth, and they are diametrically incompatible.  

What’s new in American history is that, starting with the rise of the Tea Party, we’ve been casting each other out of our lives because of it. Exponentially exacerbated by social media, multiple generations at once have lost the vastly-undervalued skill of getting along with each other. Psychological studies again have highlighted the isolating effects these anti-social platforms have on so many of us, with correlating rapid rises in suicide rates and hosts of other impairments.

America is so bitterly divided because neither side thinks the other respects them… probably because many of us say point blank on video tape and social media that we despise our countrymen as human beings. Too many have learned the hard way that lifelong friends and even family will disown us before listening to us. If family isn’t safe, what is? (Hmmm… suddenly the armchair citizen in me recalls that since my childhood in the 70s, one political party has championed divorce, the abortion of black babies especially, and expanding the definition of “family” until nothing special about it is meant to remain…  oh. And it’s no longer satisfied with mocking religious faith and stripping public spaces of religious expression that would counter the push. Now they’re arresting people for attending services while emptying the jails of hardened criminals. But I’m sure that’s all a big coincidence too.)

The critical message in all of this is not why we’re here, but where this is going.

The circumstances are ours to own for all time, but the societal arc is as old as the human race. This has all happened before.

The President was roundly ridiculed for asking what would come after the Confederate statues we started tearing down in public spaces. Would Jefferson and the Founders be next? And now that memorials to those very men, plus others who abolished slavery and advanced the cause of racial equality, are being defaced and destroyed regularly… those loathsome, snide hecklers are cheering the mobs with their hands on the ropes. What was previously unthinkable is now normal. So it’s time to turn to what else was unthinkable last week.

Allowing the destruction of history to continue only strengthens the notion that it’s not worth caring about. And if it isn’t worth caring about, why should we not arrest anyone celebrating Independence Day? Why should we show the slightest respect for military veterans or thank uniformed volunteers for their service? If the Constitution isn’t worth the paper it’s written on, why give those who gave their lives to defend it even a passing glance? Why should we care what obstacles they had to overcome (like the Confederacy) or what hardships they endured in order to preserve it? Bravery in service to evil isn’t really bravery at all, is it? Real bravery wears a mask, hoodie, and sunglasses now. Memorial Day and Veterans Day will join Columbus Day in the “Good Riddance” column. 

And if the millions of people who died to make and keep us free mean nothing… then why should their stuff mean anything? Why not burn down museums and archives too? Everyone loves a good bonfire, right?

The slippery slope is behind us. We’re at the edge of the cliff and still moving. What no one’s talking about is that it won’t stop after what they say they want now is achieved. It’s an ever-moving target. They’ll never be satisfied because they can never change America’s history. It is what it is. Since in their minds it will always be poison, the only solution is to scrap America in its entirety. No half-measure will do.

Those of you who love the Constitution, be warned.

America is not and never was merely a place or a flag. It’s an idea. That idea is laid out in the Constitution, the Declaration, the Articles of Confederation, Madison’s Notes on the Convention, the Federalist Papers, the letters between Jefferson and Madison, and all the personal papers of every eyewitness to its birth. They are the true treasure and the hopes of free people all over the world. If America fails now, it fails for all time. Forget the monuments and statues; they can be replaced. The real treasure must be preserved and protected at all costs, collected and relocated to Cheyenne Mountain or Camp David or somewhere ahead of the pitchforks and torches. You must be ready for that even before they start murdering us for spectacle. It’ll happen sooner than you think!

Those of you who would dance on America’s grave, be warned.

Your victory will bring you no lasting joy and no reprieve from social injustice because you’ve misdiagnosed its source. The Leaders dancing with you – they aren’t dancing for the same reason you are. Your elected officials will still be in charge once the Constitution is unmade, and with no further pretense of opposition from the spineless Republican Party, their oppression will target you in full force. Your Rights – the ones you’ve spent the last decades gleefully denying to conservatives – will disappear in a heartbeat. You’ll be denounced as quickly, loudly, and without recourse as the targets of your Twitter rampages now, even if you never stray from the dogma of the moment. This, too, has happened before. What became of all the academic geniuses who thought Communism would be a great idea and helped Lenin establish it by bloodshed? Oh, right. A bullet in each of their heads the moment Lenin died, declared Enemies of the State.  What replaced absolute monarchy in the aftermath of the French mobs who dragged the upper classes out of their houses and guillotined them in the name of social justice in the middle of the night in 1789? Oh, right. Napoleon declared himself Emperor because even though the revolutionaries were inspired by our success, they didn’t grasp the concept any more than you do. So much for getting rid of absolute monarchy. You can’t replace the Constitution with a better system because there is no better system. You may think yours will be better because you’re morally pure on all the issues that matter… but two hundred years from now, you’ll all be individually equally guilty of the murder of hundreds of millions of babies of all colors while doing absolutely NOTHING about the institution of slavery alive and well in your own day, the worst kind of hypocrites for demonizing your forebears on grounds of their moral shortfalls. No one will care if the actual situation in your viewpoint is more nuanced than that. It won’t make the slightest difference that you personally would draw the line at 12 weeks before birth versus three months after, like some of your contemporaries, or that you placed your trust in the United Nations to take care of human trafficking. Having your life’s work and the best ideas you ever had judged for all time against moral standards you can’t fathom is a bitch – isn’t it?