Facing Our Past
Recent events have me thinking about how Americans are now facing our past in ways that we have not before.
As realtors we are strictly forbidden from treating people differently based on their race. We can lose our licenses, be fined, etc.
For us, this is an issue that is important enough to talk about, even on our real estate pages. After all, there is a huge disparity in inter-generational wealth and home ownership, which is a direct result of racists laws from our past.
We cannot, as realtors, ignore that. We have to educate ourselves and do better.
And as reasonable human beings, Michelle and I support the Black Lives Matter movement.
For us, the movement is asking Americans to reject simply having laws on the books that only pretend to protect all people, while still allowing a pervasive disparity in how different races are treated in the United States.
While I will leave it to you to decide how you want to address this in your own lives, I want to share a podcast that I think will help explain why America has never dealt with its past adequately.
It is worth 51 minutes and 31 seconds of your day to listen to this. Please, trust me. Listen while you’re taking a walk or puttering around in the garden.
This is not a podcast that covers the basics that you see in the news, or the list of needed police reforms. Although that is good to know.
No, this podcast from WNYC Studios asks what happened in the last 150 years that prevented us as a nation from truly facing our history, opting instead for an idealized telling of it.
The podcast covers how Germany dealt with its past, but we never did.
Having lived in Germany during high school, I know that Germans did confront their historic crimes in a way that the US never has.
This reporting gives me hope for the future. There is a proven way that America can confront and heal by acknowledging its past.
We’d love to hear your thoughts on this.
