Tim Wise: To understand white denial about American history, consider two photos.

[Sparkly]

78. I was born in 1957 and attended an integrated school

It seemed weird to me that adults kept repeating that we're all the same under our skin, that everyone is equal and should be treated fairly, that Black people are in no way inferior to White people - I wondered why they felt the need to keep repeating it. The answer sounded like, "Well, there used to be a problem. It was really bad, and people want to make sure it never happens again."

I was terribly naive, and thought prejudice was just a problem of a few old people. It caused a stir when I sat with my Black friend at her lunch table in elementary school and had a playdate at the "projects" where she lived; it raised some eyebrows that my high school sweetheart was Black, but we found that hilarious. If we saw people staring, we made them more uncomfortable. (In a bakery where he worked, we asked about an interracial bride-and-groom cake topper to see the woman be flustered coming up with an answer; in a grocery store when there was a gawker, we loudly questioned each other about whether we had enough diapers and baby food at home!)

There were some White people who grew up in the south during the Great Depression, fought/lived through WWII, went to college on the GI Bill, and raised their kids to be the antithesis of blind faith or bigotry of any kind. "You're not less than anyone else, but you're not better than anyone else" was the message.

I can't quite separate the rise in my awareness of racism from the rise in its expression since the Reagan era. Once Newt Gingrich created his image of The Welfare Queen, poverty and Blackness were merged as powerful targets of hate. White racism is played like a fiddle by the GOP, and their base never fails to dance to the music.

Do Republican politicians themselves actually believe anything they say? Do they even think about what they are doing to communities, to families, to children, or have they so distanced themselves from their actions that, like the worst criminals in history, they have had to adjust their thinking to consider Black people other than human.

It's not 1957 anymore, but there is A LOT of work to be done at local levels for voting rights, and fair housing (which relates to business investments and employment, food security, education and healthcare). We ALL need to see what we can do to help in local urban areas.