America has never been united. So how do we move forward together?

Consider this another report from the inverted other, or those relegated to existing underneath the folded fabric of the American consciousness.

However, to get to the breadth of this reported narrative, we must begin with the poet Reginald Shepherd and his book "Orpheus in the Bronx: Essays on Identity, Politics, and the Freedom of Poetry," Shepard makes an interesting theoretical observation regarding race, and its impact on American society, when he asserts Whiteness and Blackness are social constructs, i.e. manmade; yet, Blackness has been designated or assigned as the “marked construct” within our national consciousness while whiteness has been allowed to fade into a privileged invisibly, insulated from the ramifications of race and racial matters. Note: we can also insert any group relegated to "other" status in Shepherd’s statement. Perhaps through my own set of constructions and analyzing those as a poet, I am compelled to see what others cannot, to create a reportage of what I know to be true, an unknown but true narrative hidden from public view.

I must report that democracy is eroding quick, fast, and now really fast.

Our judicial and criminal justice systems are laughable jokes while morality is dangling at the edge of a crumbling cliff, and the gentlest of breezes is prepared to exhale that final breath, flailing morality backward into a state of nonexistence. This current political climate we inhabit has exposed a not-so-secret racial wound within this country that has never healed. The news media constantly reminds its denizens of this so-called division through political polling that reveals there are no consequences for trying to destroy America in the eyes of those privileged to live within its invisibility. People, jurors of the common body, the state: I would like to correct one thing here. America has never been whole, so saying it is now divided is misleading, false and inaccurate.

It is, as it has always been: Divided we stand.

This outgoing year of 2023 has exposed the severe racial wounds of this country through a continued mockery of the judicial system and a confluence of lies from those who play on the construction of whiteness, and those who truly believe whiteness is the pure blood of America. The problem with this school of thought is, as James Baldwin so eloquently writes in his essay, “On Being White and Other Lies,” that not one person came to America in the early days of its conception thinking they were white, and let me advance this a step further, not one slave considered themselves black in the beginning — this was a forced construct that cannot be taken back in terms of identity. The damage is irreversible on either side. This duality of construct is the genesis of the never-ending problem of race in America. Blackness or otherness, as a marked construct, shaped a twisted white-driven ideology, thereby creating a false sense of superiority that has placed this country in grave danger, a danger not seen since perhaps the Civil War; and yet, in that military conflict, the racial wound was never addressed, only given a bandage and kicked down the road like an aluminum can whose destination is to be recycled, over and over.

At the crux of this dilemma is how power, influence or wealth can skirt or bypass laws heavily enforced on those without economic means, social status and/or grace within the public sphere. Let us not forget this country originally created a system in which being associated with the criminal justice system — and yes, being charged with a crime without a conviction — has caused and continues to cause irreparable harm while influencing employment, where one can live, as well as how one can live. There have been generations affected by this practice as old as convict leasing and the Black Codes, which swelled prisons with convict labor after the Civil War. Because I break bread with and claim to be part of this marked construct, this otherness, complete with jail time within the carceral state, allow me to enlighten you.

The hypocrisy of America is on full tilt display.

Let me bring you into the intimate conversations between the common denizens of the state that may never be made public. They are often held when family and friends gather, get animated and talk smack amid a spades or bid whist card game where jokers and deuces are always wild. They occur at the barbeque cookout while eating pork ribs, baked beans and potato salad, and the conversations almost always speak of an eroding confidence, that was at best suspect, of their station in American society. They can also be heard on Christmas Eve while wrapping gifts in red wrapping paper in the living room. In all these conversations there is no unyielding belief everyone is equal, especially under the law. These sublime figures that walk among the living do not believe they fit in this deranged construct that uses its people as pawns in a game of political chess with race as the sublime. In this perverse narrative of hypocrisy that has been normalized through misinformation, blatant lying and mistruths, we must ask ourselves, when did a lie become the truth? Where they do that at?

Let’s dig a bit deeper. For example, the former president of the United States of America is running for president again, with more criminal charges than Van Camp got pork and beans.

Want a daily wrap-up of all the news and commentary Salon has to offer? Subscribe to our morning newsletter, Crash Course.

The hypocrisy—Oh, the hypocrisy. With that said, allow me to transport you through a portal of moving corridors to January 6, 2021. There are those in powerful stations with influence that would have you believe we did not witness what we witnessed on national television, as if it were a fabrication, or worse, necessary to save the United States of America. While watching this insurrection in real time, I remember making the comment on social media: look at all the non-melanin not get shot dead on the spot. To be clear and direct, there is not one person in my diverse group of friends that span the spectrum of color who believes if that had been any other cultural group than a white mob, they would not have all been sprayed like Raid on roaches and announced dead at the scene.

Of this, the marked construct is certain, and those who live within this construct understand, as presently constructed, that they do not have an amplified voice that can pierce the idea of privilege to the point it changes the current trajectory of democratic destruction through power. They see the dwindling and ever-fragile concept of democracy about to be dismantled, and the future is petrifying as it hints at the possibility of another divisive conflict from the erodible residue of the Civil War. Listen, a divided America is telling you who it is. And as we know, when someone tells you who they are, please believe them. Ask the poet, Maya Angelou.

If that is the case, what is the answer? How do we prevent a twisted narrative based on falsehoods from becoming reality? To be honest, it requires heavy lifting on the part of humanity.

This is the hard truth: There is no such thing as pure blood, and no cultural group or human being has the right to oppress another. We must acknowledge we are all different and, perhaps here within lies the answer. Each one of us, as a living thinking organism, contributes to the totality of humankind. If only we could love unconditionally, then violence and hatred would be eradicated from this nation’s lexicon. Maybe it begins in the new year with telling someone you vehemently disagree with: “I love you, my fellow human being; we are one and the same. I embrace your difference.” The only way we as a nation can begin to think about being whole and undivided is to accept the fundamental truth that universality or the universal or one cohesive group resides in the differences we have as people, as human beings. Maybe this is the blueprint to the grace needed to sustain a new and practical reality. This does not have to be the end.