“Progress”
Following the non-indictments of the killers of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, President Barack Obama told BET’s Jeff Johnson that, “We can’t equate what is happening now to what was happening 50 years ago. … We have made progress.” For once, a chorus of white people agree with Obama and cite his temporary residence in the White House as proof.
Fifty years after his assassination, Malcolm X’s analysis remains prescient: “If you stick a knife nine inches into my back and pull it out three inches, that is not progress. Even if you pull it all the way out, that is not progress. Progress is healing the wound, and America hasn’t even begun to pull out the knife.”
To the contrary, Black people continue to be stabbed.
The Pew Research Center recently reported that the median net worth for white households is 13 times than that of Black households. As opposed to progress, it’s getting worse. The New Republic’s Dean Starkman writes, “The bulk of the black-white wealth gap can be traced to current policies and structures that have made the wealth divide grow at an accelerating pace over the past 25 years.” Use of the term “progress” when addressing racism implies that congratulations are in order for a job well done on a task nearly completed. It belies the unabated continuum of deliberate Black desecration.
