If you haven’t seen the will.i.am video prepared for Barack Obama’s first presidential campaign, it’s highly worth watching.
https://youtu.be/2fZHou18Cdk?is=MCVb_NwglpORgD8
This is a superb and emotionally powerful evocation of what a multicultural and harmonious America can be. It is inspiring.
And here is the key point: it stands as a marvelous, transformative alternative to the hateful “Great Replacement” myth promulgated by Tucker Carlson and the world of white supremacy influencers for the past twenty years. Rather than division, mistrust, and hate, it speaks to living together in community and harmony. And it speaks to a political movement for a kind of democracy that embodies the ideals of freedom and equality for everyone.
An earlier post discussed the question of how a generation acquired its framing ideas and values, and it expresses deep concern about the segment of young Gen Z men who adopted a framework of superiority and antagonism — towards black and brown people, towards immigrants, towards women, and towards gays and lesbians. The Great Replacement myth played an important part in the formation of those framing values, and many observers suggest that the racist backlash that followed Obama’s nomination and election fueled the flames.
Susan Fiske’s theories of social cognition shed a lot of light on the question of how children and young adults adopt political ideas and values. Fiske emphasizes the young person’s quest for meaning and identity and for a set of narratives that “make sense”. The politics of division and hate played into this quest.
If we are to overcome the politics of hate, we must find ways of creating an equally accessible and engaging narrative of how to live together as free and equal citizens. It is deeply important for our democracy for us to create and discover new narratives and new identities that can be the basis for a harmonious multicultural and multiracial America.
It will take songwriters, artists, poets, filmmakers, novelists, and teachers, but it can be done. Musicians like Bruce Springsteen can help — so can Taylor Swift. We need to inspire each other and inspire the young people who come later that justice, equality, and democracy are worth struggling for, and they are within reach.
“yes we can!” offers a superb example of a positive and hopeful creation that can work to inspire young people in a political framework of freedom and equality.
