“Like a Butterfly on a Pin”

Penetrating words written by the one I regard as America’s greatest author, James Baldwin. To complete his statement, he informed us that “(white people) are impaled on their history like a butterfly on a pin.” An extant white writer, Malcolm Scott MacPhater, has written, building on Mr. Baldwin’s theme: “We are dried, static creatures of what our full potential is, in what could otherwise be — socially and economically — a much brighter existence, a fully collaborative coexistence with people of color.” America was built on the backs and of the blood of black people, African Americans, while white America built the social and economic edifices, structures and systems that constricted Blacks, but these same also caged our own spirits and minds. The result, grown over 450 years, is that we Whites have locked ourselves into the trap of myopia and dystopia, unable to even see, by in large, the failure of our humanity and the cruel reality Blacks confront daily.

Right now the wall that we are pinned to is being shaken and is cracking under the force of events a long time in the making. All things crumble in time. Black people have had enough. We Whites now have the opportunity as never before in our history, to flutter our dried wings and break free of our pins, to fly with the better angels that hover around us, anxiously waiting. We can squander this chance to free our souls now, or we can join in building the America we sing about. My wings are moving, are yours?