How many times…?

Among the questions Bob Dylan asked us many decades ago are…

Photograph of the slave auction block at Green Hill Plantation, Campbell County, Virginia.
Image is in the public domain.

Yes, ‘n’ how many years can some people exist
Before they’re allowed to be free?
Yes, ‘n’ how many times can a man turn his head
Pretending he just doesn’t see?

A people are not really free if, during a prayer meeting in their church, they can be assassinated because they are of the “wrong” color, a color that for centuries has led to dehumanization and the various atrocities that dehumanization allows.

Read the related article in theguardian.

A people are not really free if one by one, two by two, nine by nine, they can be murdered and their murderers, whether they are cops or civilians, can walk free. They are not really free if they are denied equal access to the educational, employment, life opportunities that can help people be free.

Read the related article in Reader Supported News.

A people are not really free when a white American male, Dylann Storm Roof, the recent assassin of innocent black lives in Charleston, South Carolina, has all the hallmarks of a terrorist but the corporate media resist calling him one.

So much easier just to see him as a lone troubled or sick individual, rejected by his girlfriend in favor of a black man.

If the “top story” of recent days concerning the massacre at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church and the countless other stories of racist violence before and since that horrific event are allowed to just blow away in the wind, perhaps murders and war really are the American way. Also see War, Peace, Justice: An Unfinished Tapestry . . ..

Folks generally think of “Blowin’ in the wind” as an anti-war song, which obviously it is, but it is also an anti-racism song. Dylan adapted the melody from an old Negro spiritual called “No More Auction Block,” which originated in Canada and was sung by former slaves who fled there after Britain abolished slavery in 1833. The auction block may be gone but people in our country need to stop looking away and pretending they cannot see the ongoing virulence of racism. It harms us all.

Photograph of the slave auction block at Green Hill Plantation, Campbell County, Virginia.
Image is in the public domain.

Kathie Malley-Morrison, Professor of Psychology