The more I watch what’s happening to the Detroit ghetto, in the Gaza strip, at college campuses and on the street, the more obvious it is that the so-called “culture war” between red and blue is just a charade to distract us from the slow-moving civil war ripping the population apart.
On one side, there’s an establishment clinging to power and wealth. It is disproportionately white, tokenizes people who are not, and justifies using violence - here and abroad - to preserve the mythology of America and its material advantages. It is well-armed and corporate-sponsored.
On the other side, there’s a movement demanding truth and justice. It is darker, younger, queerer, deeper, far more creative, inherently nonviolent and unwilling to give a pass to America’s many sins. It is building a beloved community by transcending the establishment’s two-party monopoly.
Those of us with a little bit of privilege have a choice to make. Will we seek safety and security in the familiar confines of the establishment, or will we break rank and grow our souls in the movement?
This decision, every single day, has everything to do with little things like where we get our news, who we seek approval from, how we pray and invest, what we teach our children and when we should go out of our way to show up in solidarity with oppressed people.
In a civil war, these little things reveal where our true allegiance lies.
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