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A wish that people would stop personifying "2020," as if a year had agency, instead of being the unfortunate apotheosis of decades of policy and collective ignorance. In fact, this rhetorical framing is a dangerous and flippant abdication of our responsibility for these events.
"2020" didn& #39;t kill George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, or Jacob Blake, but many of you not caring about police violence until like five minutes ago might have played a role in their deaths. Why not take responsibility for inaction and ignorance, instead of blaming "this hell year."
COVID happened across the world, but 180k Americans are dead because, in part, we have the worst and most unequal healthcare system in the developed world. Your votes and limited policy imagination killed some of those people. They didn& #39;t have to die, and "2020" didn& #39;t do it.
Americans struggle with collective action and collective responsibility in a crisis in part because our educational outcomes are among the worst in the developed world. Americans are as likely to believe in QAnon as they are in mask wearing. This is a policy failure. We did this.
Americans face eviction and terrifying financial anxiety ... wait for it ... not because of "2020 being a hell year" but because we have the most unequal society in the developed world, and we would rather funnel money to banks and corporations than freeze rent. We& #39;re doing that.
And this isn& #39;t just a 45 thing either, which is another artful dodge from the center left. GWB and BHO both moved to stabilize banks, not homeowners, in the last crisis. This moment isn& #39;t a shocking departure from who we are and what we do -- it& #39;s the culmination of it.
So here we are, Americans in 2020, too racist, too selfish, too dumb, too sick, and too poor. This is who we are, a failed state without the imagination to use our incredible resources and potential to forge a better and brighter future. 2020 didn& #39;t do that; each of us did.
After the 2016 election, I expressed my disappointment and sadness to a Black friend of mine. I mention his race because he wasn& #39;t shocked -- he knew all along. He expected us to do the worst possible thing in every moment. Why had I been optimistic, he laughed? This is America.
Whiteness here provided me with the blinkered perspective that the nation was capable of something better than it was. Black Americans knew the terrible truth that some White Americans, myself included, are just now waking up to. That was 2016 or 2020. I did that.
