Knowledge as virtue

By Deauwand Myers

My maternal grandmother had a sharp wit. At age eight, we were watching a nature program on PBS, where I learned that ants are so complex, they actually display altruism, have universal healthcare and can even sense when it will rain. I exclaimed to her, "I didn't know that." She replied, "What you don't know could make a world."

That stuck with me for the rest of my life. Don't worry. The solution to ignorance is fairly simple. Read. Unfortunately, willful ignorance has become all the rage, particularly in America, brought on by President George W. Bush, who famously derided his Democratic opponent, U.S. Senator (and later Secretary of State under President Obama) John Kerry, for speaking fluent French. The caricature: the left are latte drinking, book-reading, effeminate, weak Americans overburdened with knowledge.

This morphed into deriding people being "woke." In the American vernacular, this is someone educated on the sociopolitical, socioeconomic and historical parameters of the American experience, particularly on the intersectionality of race, class, sexuality and gender. For the American right, being woke is problematic.

Bereft of any real policy objectives, or morality for that matter, Republicans and conservatives have set their focus on classic culture war issues. Trans youth and sports, restricting voting access and of course and always, the biggest hit, race and white supremacy.

We can thank failed Republican presidential candidate U.S. Senator Barry Goldwater for this unvarnished embrace of white angst and racism, and the party has inexorably spiraled into a cadre for low knowledge, poor working white people and their ought-to-know-better wealthy, white counterparts.

The lack of basic civics knowledge and intellectual curiosity is not limited to the American Right, however. Many anti-vaccination advocates are progressives.

This absence of knowledge has dire implications. Conspiracy theories with no empirical evidence flourish in America. Black people aren't immune. I've had to inform Black people, usually men, on their assertions when it comes to Obama and the Biden-Harris administration.

The abbreviated argument is that President Obama, and now President Biden and Vice President Harris, haven't done enough for the African American community, or worse, they've done nothing for said community.

Here are some receipts.

The Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) disproportionately affected the Black community in gaining broader access to healthcare, particularly preventative healthcare. Prison sentencing was decreased and police consent decrees were increased under Obama. Federal contracts were structured so that smaller firms, owned and operated by people of color, were eligible to bid and be awarded said contracts. The Biden-Harris administration has continued that policy, one that was discontinued under Trump.

The list of policies and legislation the Biden-Harris administration has implemented that have a positive and disproportionate impact on the lives of Black people is long, but in just over four months, here are a few highlights:

Executive actions were implemented on climate change (of which environmental justice is a part, wherein far too often, communities of color have waste facilities, power plants and poor water quality located near/in said communities); studying maternal birth death rates and infant mortality rates amongst Black women and publishing solutions to it and medical racism in general; and a fully funded taskforce in the Justice Department to investigate hate crimes, white domestic terrorism, employment discrimination and police misconduct.

The COVID relief package passed in Congress will lift nearly half of poor children out of poverty, of which Black children are over-represented. It also earmarked $3 billion to $5 billion in grants/forgivable loans towards farmers of color, most of whom are Black and brown people. Black and brown farmers have been historically underserved by the Agriculture Department in the generous, forgivable loan and direct cash injections their white counterparts enjoy.

The U.S. military, under the first Black defense secretary, Lloyd Austin, is implementing policies to root out white supremacy and better adjudicate sexual misconduct within the ranks, as well as promoting a more diverse coterie of senior, commissioned officers throughout the armed forces. Soon, Black women will be able to wear their natural hair in all branches of the military.

Judges who care about civil and voting rights are being appointed to the federal judiciary. Juneteenth was made a national holiday, which, at the very least, will spark more conversation about America's violent, genocidal history of Indigenous land theft and chattel slavery.

By law and Supreme Court precedence, there will never be a bill entitled "Black People Get Your Money Act." Except for Native Americans, no bill passed by Congress can be race-specific in its title. This doesn't mean that policies and legislation aren't targeted towards Black people and other people of color.

People aren't smart because of some magical gift (though there are genetic traits that certainly increase the likelihood of heightened intelligence). But I know all the aforementioned information for a simple reason: I read. Again, I read. And I see knowledge as a virtue.

Deauwand Myers (deauwand@hotmail.com) holds a master's degree in English literature and literary theory, and is an English professor outside Seoul.