Happy Black History Month!
Normally I write during BHM, but this has been the strangest BHM I've ever lived through so I'm not feeling steady in my thoughts. And much of my thoughts are just expletives. anyway....
Yesterday was W.E.B. DuBois' birthday. And I continue to be amazed at how few white people have ever read DuBois, even though he is the father of American sociology and wrote on many subjects. Part 2 will be more about DuBois specifically, but since this thought is inspired by DuBois, it is good to keep the same title for them. (if these posts were going in a different direction, I would talk about double consciousness and canons, but that's for another time)
As some of you may know, I am fascinated about how people are talking about-and looking at-this historical moment.
Why is most of the comparison to another historical moment that of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy?
Why are most people looking to Europe to make the comparison and not to our own history?
So...here's a one question quiz...
What do the following time periods in American history have in common?
1877-1929 [I could have made this a longer period of time, but cut it off here]
1968-2000
2016-?
If you can figure out the big commonality, you will understand why I think looking to and comparing Trump to Hitler is misguided. Because I think it is really misguided. Don't mis-hear me; I think there are some interesting parallels between the two, but I think there are some characters in American history that Trump is the direct descendant of.
I have no idea when I will post part 2. but part 2 is coming and there are some other things I want to write about. Thank you for your patience.
