[Real Clear Politics] In the wake of riots that have spread across America, leaving shattered businesses and wounded communities in their wake, it feels as though our nation is collapsing around us. That's bizarre, considering that virtually all Americans agree with the following two propositions: first, that it is evil for a police officer to place his knee on the neck of a prone suspect struggling to breathe for eight long minutes; second, that breaking store windows; stealing televisions and shoes; beating business owners; and attacking police officers is wrong. That seeming unanimity should mean unity in the face of police brutality and rioting and looting.It doesn't.
It doesn't because members of our political class have decided that instead of rallying against obvious evil, Americans must be categorized as enlightened or benighted based on their answer to one question: Was America and is America rooted in racism and bigotry? If you answer in the negative, you are complicit in racism and bigotry, say our media, academic leaders and high-ranking members of the Democratic Party. If you answer in the affirmative, you may be categorized among the woke, the aware, the sensitive and the decent.
This is a nonsensical and dangerous game. But it's a game pressed forward by the most powerful messaging institutions in our society: our media, who award Pulitzer Prizes to faux history like The 1619 Project, which argues that every American institution has been fatally corrupted by America's original sin, slavery, and that every inequality of today can find its root in inequities of the past; our celebrities, who proudly proclaim that rights to free speech, property ownership and due process are merely facades for the continuing and malign maintenance of structural inequalities; and too many of our politicians, who casually attribute every instance of police brutality to deep-seated American racism.