Month: June 2020

A black man is murdered by a white man.  An entire nation convulses in fury.  A leader arises who changes the course of history.  This can easily describe what will happen this year and how history will remember 2020. It also happens to describe 1968 America and what happened then.

The parallel has already been drawn, notably by the Wall Street Journal and The Economist.   In 1968 the murdered black man was Martin Luther King, Jr.  Soon after he was assassinated protests and riots erupted all over America.  The leader that arose was Richard Nixon.  Using the implicitly racist and infamous “southern strategy” that preyed on racial fears, Nixon won the presidency.  He would also have to resign the presidency six years later, the mire of his corruption finally drowning him.

The description above can also refer to 1993 South Africa.  Chris Hani was a black South African activist who was also murdered by a racist white man.  South Africa also convulsed in fury.  The existing power structure could not do anything to quell the flames since their illegitimacy as a government had been so painfully revealed through years of unrest.  It was only when a former prisoner addressed the country that peace was restored.  Nelson Mandela had been incarcerated for twenty-seven years but had gained enormous moral power and legitimacy that only he could calm South Africa.  One year after his address—the address any legitimately elected president should have been able to make—Mandela actually became President.  It was a proud moment not only in South African history, uniting black and white, but also in human history.

These descriptions of the past offer starkly divergent possibilities.  No matter which path the United States takes, a change is gonna come.  And regardless of change you want, the only action that will bring about your preferred choice is this: vote.