Race and the American Novel: Contemporary Connections

Brad Bannon reports, in U.S. News and World Report, that a racial divide is still here. ". . . demography is destiny. The fabric of American society is changing and some people are fighting a doomed rearguard action to stop the inevitable" (Bannon). According to polls, the nation is split when it comes to the question of equality: Do black people get treated the same as white people by police officers? Half of the nation believes the answer is yes and the other half says no. But the racial divide, in reference to the exact same question, is far more dramatic: 63% of whites believe they are treated equally, but only 21% of blacks feel the same. This kind of split is bound to lead to conflict, that which has already been occurring.

Bannon states, "Sadly, everything old is new again in race relations in America." I could not agree more. Everything I have been seeing and hearing on the news, lately, has been related to race in one way or another. The most prevalent is all of the shootings and fatalities of minorities by white officers, which has led to a war on law enforcement, split by a racial divide. But far more than that, as Bannon reveal, is taking place; apparently the Colorado Springs headquarters of the NAACP has been bombed, the mayor of New York City is under pressure after warning his mixed race son of the violence upon minorities by white officers, and so on. What I find interesting is the new movie "Selma" that has just come out is a dramatization of the 1960's civil rights movement-irony? I think not.

This ties into the book, Beloved, more than I initially realized-this war, the war between two races, is not over. Even after the Emancipation Proclamation, so many years and generations later, this divide is still weighing down on the nation. And I think a big part of that problem is what Morrison portrayed in her book: nobody wants to remember the truth and teach this history in light of it. As long as we continue to ignore what happened and try to repress what is real, we will continue to face the same issue, time and time again. I have hope though, as Bannon thinks that most of the backwards, racist ideology is stemming from the older generation. Therefore, as this younger generation steps forward in the spotlight, we should, hopefully, see progress.