Reconstruction and Creating Good
A big part of SCL’s work, and arguably our most important work, is the examination and exploration of goodness. This may seem like an abstract idea with not much practical application, but this false presumption actually reinforces the significance of the problem we are trying to address.
When most people talk about “good” or “goodness” they frequently have their own definition and understanding of goodness. Doing “good” is more often than not viewed as a subjective, individualistic understanding of “good,” and the hope or belief is that other people have the same definition of “good.” This understanding of “good” is not a collective good, but in fact, an individualistic good, and the myopia of individualism makes it very easy to project one’s ideas upon another and imagine that other people are “good” because they have the same ideas. Likewise, the myopia of individualism makes it easy to imagine that people are bad because they have different ideas.
In an unsustainable, individualistic society like the United States, “good” has become an abstract concept because “good” has been reduced to a battle between competing delusions and not a collective understanding of actions and practices that can evolve and change with time to help people live sustainable, nurturing lives.
At SCL, we want to help people break free from their abstract understanding of goodness, and start proactively engaging in a lived, experiential understanding of goodness.
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Ironically, this journey towards a lived goodness started with my focus on the word ethnocide. When I first started talking to people about ethnocide, many people at first understood it as an abstract concept, and they needed many examples to believe that ethnocide was both more than merely abstract and still shaped our society today. Once they understood that the horrors of ethnocide still shaped our lives in the present, they desperately needed a new concept of goodness because many things that they previously thought were good, they now realized were bad.
This focus on goodness includes micro and macro applications, and SCL’s creation of the word Eǔtopia, meaning “good place” helps us articulate and cultivate the good society we want to live in. We need both practical applications at a personal level and also at a societal level. This week two events occurred that have helped our work regarding the societal goodness that America needs.
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Ketanji Brown Jackson, Reconstruction, and American Goodness
This week, new Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson made it abundantly clear that she will be a force on this court regardless of whether the liberal justices are in the minority, and she did so by articulating a belief in a lived goodness that American society has long ignored.
When I started researching an attempt at a lived goodness that applied to all Americans, my work led me to the era of Reconstruction from 1865-1877 after the Civil War. This era was America’s first attempt to right the wrongs created by America’s slave owning Founding Fathers, and through the creation of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments the United States pursued the creation of an equitable society that extended to people of color. Yet America’s relationship with Reconstruction is very perplexing because despite the fact that much of what we know to be good about America derives from this era, it remains a subject that is hardly taught and often demonized.
Reconstruction also represents America’s first attempt at creating what we at SCL define as culture, and America’s ethnocidal society has systematically worked to destroy the culture and history of this era. The destruction of the American goodness that was birthed during Reconstruction also contributes to turning goodness into an abstract concept that may exist in our minds, and not as the practical application of a philosophy created by a community of people.
Last week SCOTUS heard Merrill v. Milligan, which pertains to Alabama’s racially gerrymandered congressional redistricting plan. In this plan, Alabama has packed a large section of the state’s Black voters into one congressional district to limit the influence of Black voters in the state. Prior to this case arriving at SCOTUS, a three-judge panel in Alabama found that this gerrymander violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, but the conservative majority of SCOTUS has consistently undermined the Voting Rights Act of 1965, so it is entirely possible that they could overturn the ruling of the lower court.
A key component of Alabama’s argument in favor of the gerrymander is the belief in a “race-neutral” application of the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment because according to this theory, the creation of policies or laws that benefit one race would be “unequal” for another race.
For far too long, America has legitimized this absurd argument, but Judge Jackson completely changed the status quo for all to hear. During her questioning, she referenced reports that articulated the thought process behind the Fourteenth Amendment and how the framers of the Constitution during Reconstruction intentionally and explicitly incorporated race in order to create equality and combat America’s systemic racial inequality.
Reconstruction was the first time in American history when Black and white Americans could equitably co-exist, and this era created progress that transcended the limitations of America’s Founding Fathers.
The creation of a multi-racial United States where Black Americans could be citizens also radically changed what it meant to be an American. Being an American was no longer an identity or essence that exclusively belonged to white Americans. This might not seem like a radical shift, but the Supreme Court’s 1857 decision in Dred Scott proclaimed that Black Americans could not exercise the rights of an American citizen because America’s Founding Fathers never intended for them to be citizens. Yet eleven years later, in 1868 when the Fourteenth Amendment was adopted all Black Americans became citizens, and the ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment in 1870 gave all of them voting rights protections. I write extensively about the impact of Dred Scott and related decisions in Chapters 10-11 of my book A Crime Without a Name.
In the 1860s, white and Black Americans had the capacity to articulate and sustain a goodness that redefined what it meant to be an American, yet today we still struggle to sustain DACA and the granting of citizenship to DACA recipients has never been up for a serious discussion.
Our society has lost the ability to cultivate the goodness of Reconstruction, but Judge Jackson has started to bring it back.
The progress of Reconstruction inspired the Black community for a century, and the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s consisted of Black Americans demanding a return of the rights they had won and created during Reconstruction that had been taken away from them during Jim Crow.
The belief in the reclaiming of the multi-racial goodness of Reconstruction impacted not only Black Americans in the 1960s, but also inspired Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society and the Supreme Court, which legalized interracial marriage with Loving v. Virginia and abortion with Roe v. Wade.
When the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in their Dobbs decision, their originalist interpretation of goodness falsely asserts that America’s goodness derives from our Founding Fathers who condoned slavery and systemic oppression. Their idea of “good” is very individualistic and myopic, and it exists to unravel the multi-racial, experiential goodness created during Reconstruction.
It is an open secret that originalism emerged within conservative legal circles as a direct response to the progressive legal theories expressed by lawyers of color including Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, together with their white allies on the Warren Supreme Court and across the nation.
Originalism exists to undo America’s goodness whose origins can be found in Reconstruction. Judge Jackson understands where America’s goodness resides.
An Example of Cultivating Goodness
Judge Jackson’s questions prompted much discussion within the Pitner household, and as I discussed this topic with friends and family, it became clear that much of America’s liberal, progressive and civil rights work consists of what SCL defines as anti-bad. It is work that focuses on preventing conservatives from passing laws that progressives consider to be bad.
Anti-bad work is important, but it also must be balanced with pro-good work too.
Justice Jackson’s questions used the pro-good philosophy of Reconstruction to combat the bad ideas of Alabama, but her questions are not the norm. Prior to Jackson’s questions, Justice Kagan also spoke and many of her words focused on chastising the conservative justices for their bad ideas and actions, but she lacked the pro-good rebuttal of Jackson.
As the Pitner household discussed the distinction between anti-bad and pro-good laws, we agreed that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) were examples of pro-good laws and policies.
Unfortunately, this week a federal appeals court ruled that DACA was unconstitutional and sent it down to a lower court to decide the legality of the program.
If America interprets the U.S. constitution according to the intent of the Founding Fathers then expanding American citizenship and identity to non-white people will inevitably be considered unconstitutional. However, if we apply the pro-good philosophy of Reconstruction that remade the constitution, it becomes very easy to understand the necessity of evolving our laws to ensure that the people who call this nation home regardless of the legal status can live sustainable, nurturing lives.
In the 1860s, the United States redefined American identity and citizenship, and provided citizenship to nearly 5 million Black Americans. In 2022, the same country refuses to grant citizenship to the 600,000 DACA holders, and may conclude that it is illegal for them to live and work in this country.
We need to invoke the language of Reconstruction to aid DACA holders and countless other Americans so that we can cultivate a diverse, pro-good society.
My book THE CRIME WITHOUT A NAME was released on October 12, 2021 and NPR has picked it as one of the top books of the year!
You can order the book—including the audiobook—and watch recordings of my book tour discussions at Eaton and the New York Public Library at thecrimewithoutaname.com
