Democracy in Black: How Race Still Enslaves the American Soul

by Eddie S. Glaude Jr.

Remaking American democracy is going to require a revolution of value to transform our habits. This isn’t a call, as President Obama made during the press conference after the George Zimmerman trial, “to widen the circle of compassion and understanding in our communities.” Something more expansive has to happen. It has to occur at many levels: in government, in communities, among individuals. Besides, calls to “widen circles of compassion and understanding” only reinforce the belief that durable racial inequality is, at its root, a problem of racial reconciliation: that if we could all just get along, our racial problems would disappear. This is one dimension of the illusion that protects American innocence. “Getting along” does not measure up to a more fundamental concern about racial justice or get at how we are all complicit in racial injustice. The illusion hides the rot.