NOVEMBER 12, 2021, KEIZERTIMES, PAGE A17
Regarding racism, turn to
Fredrick Douglass
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The man, the legacy
For more than 14 years he styled the look
of the Keizertimes and its special sections.
Andrew Jackson started his first tour of duty
at this newspaper in early 2005, barely out of
college, but eager to put his learned skills to
work. The Keizertimes may have given Andy
a job but he gave the Keizertimes things
more valuable than that.
At the end of November Andy will close
out his long career as graphic designer and
production manager for the Keizertimes. He
has opened his own design firm in Keizer.
His new clients will soon be ecstatic over
the work he does for them as our advertis-
ing clients here have benefited from his
uber-professional and creative work. The
Keizertimes and its clients were not the only
ones to recognize his talent. The wall behind
Andy’s desk at the newspaper office is filled
with first place awards for his creativity and
graphic work, awarded by members of news-
paper associations in many other states
across the nation.
Normally it would be an embarrassment
of riches, but each one was truly earned.
It is not just his graphic and production
work that means so much to the Keizertimes.
He is a faithful and loyal staff member whose
personality has touched everyone he worked
Editorial
beside at the newspaper. Andy had achieved
as much as he wanted and it is time to stretch
his wings and follow his dream of owning his
own company, &Rew Branding and Design.
The Keizertimes does not harness any-
one. We encourage our team members to
follow their dreams and reach for their goals.
That said, it will be a melancholy day when
Andy leaves the office for the last time. He
leaves a legacy that will be hard to match
plus he leaves with the affection and respect
of his colleagues.
Nothing lasts forever and change is
good. Andy will be the second long-time
Keizertimes employee to leave this year. Yet,
this newspaper has a knack for attracting
quality talent.
Andy may be leaving but he is training
his successor, Logan Turbes, who will find
his own style of success here. Good luck to
all you do, Andrew Jackson.
—Lyndon Zaitz
By MICHAEL GERSON
Among other things, the birth of
America was one of history’s greatest
acts of hypocrisy. A nation dedicated to
the proposition that “all men are created
equal” was at the time also a prison for
hundreds of thousands. Randomly place
a pin on the country’s historical time-
line and you are likely to hit some crisis
related to this founding defect.
In the early days of the republic, it was
not uncommon to ask if the American
form of government was worth saving.
Abolitionists such as William Lloyd
Garrison and a young Frederick Douglass
regarded the U.S. Constitution as a
pro-slavery document. The Constitution,
“dripping as it is with human blood,”
Garrison proclaimed, was the most “heav-
en-daring arrangement ever made by men
for the continuance and protection of a
system of the most atrocious villainy ever
exhibited on earth.”
Clearly, critical race theory was not
required to raise questions about the
systemic nature of American racism.
Garrison condemned any participation in
the constitutional system, including vot-
ing, as a compromise with evil. Some Black
leaders of the time found the American
experiment so fundamentally corrupt that
they advocated Black separatism and the
return of Black people to Africa.
Uncomfortable conversations about
racism are an inbuilt feature of American
life. And they have resulted in certain cat-
egories of modern thought.
First, there are those who believe that,
through the cataclysm of the Civil War and
the triumph of the civil rights movement,
the United States has largely fixed its
structural defects. The 14th Amendment,
15th Amendment, Civil Rights Act of 1964
and Voting Rights Act of 1965, in this view,
now provide a relatively level playing field
for human accomplishment. Racism has
become a matter of individual citizens
holding prejudicial views. Therefore, the
purpose of historical education is to incul-
cate colorblindness.
Second, there are those who believe
that racism has been baked into American
society for hundreds of years and will
not be easily removed. The cumulative
results of bias, in this view, can be seen
in American institutions—housing, jus-
tice, lending, policing, education, wealth
accumulation—that put many minorities
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other
VOICES
at severe disadvantage from the moment
of their birth. Therefore, fighting racism
requires a positive effort to expose and
undo systemic racism. This is not merely
a matter of cultivating certain attitudes; it
dictates positive actions against injustice.
Third, there are those—mainly in aca-
demia but not limited to it—who believe
that American democracy and liberal
individualism more broadly remain a
cover or excuse for racial and economic
exploitation. This is not only a critique
of American institutions but also of
American ideology. A free, equal, demo-
cratic society, in this view, is not an ideal
that the White majority fails to meet; it is
a myth used by the powerful to maintain
power. And only the application of greater
power to overthrow the existing order is
an adequate response.
The first view—which seems to be held
by many conservative parents—strikes me
as badly inadequate. Colorblindness is an
important commitment for individuals.
It is not a sufficient tool for understand-
ing the legacy of racism. I should have
been taught as a child (but was not) that
my monochrome suburban life was not a
natural or neutral condition. It was con-
structed by generations of laws and rules
that surrounded me with working institu-
tions and segregated the community in
which I lived.
The problem comes when the second
and third views get conflated in practice.
There are fringe forms of anti-racism that
engage in a kind of power game. The
purpose is to cultivate guilt and encour-
age ritual self-denunciation leading to
self-disempowerment—a goal that should
override every liberal norm, premise and
institution.
I don’t see much evidence that this
mode of education is widespread in
American public schools. But it would
be a troubling development. This is not
only because it would offend some White
parents. It would make genuine historical
education about our country’s racial past,
and genuine efforts to address ongoing
injustices, more difficult.
Among the most important questions
related to racism were present from the
start: Could the deep defects of this coun-
try be addressed by the more determined
application of American ideals? Or were
those ideals merely excuses for exploita-
tion and bigotry?
The older Douglass answered differ-
ently than his younger self. He eventu-
ally broke with Garrison over the nature
of the Constitution. “Interpreted as it
ought to be interpreted,” Douglass said,
“the Constitution is a glorious liberty
document.” His fight for an anti-slavery
Constitution and his embrace of political
abolitionism shaped his century.
Douglass remains the model for deal-
ing with racism—in his righteous anger
at systemic corruption in the American
experiment, and in his belief in the
redeeming power of American ideals and
institutions. A sound education will culti-
vate both.
(Washington Post)