Beginning again requires confronting national trauma honestly, not idealizing American goodness.

Evidence

What we need is a third American founding, to begin again without this insidious idea of the value gap that continues to get in the way of a New America. We need an America where “becoming white” is no longer the price of the ticket. Instead, we should set out to imagine the country in the full light of its diversity and with an honest recognition of our sins. As the Lynching Memorial seeks to do, we have to confront our national trauma honestly if we are to shake loose from the political frame of Reaganism and Trumpism with its racial dog whistles and foghorns, its greed and selfishness, and its idealized version of America as the shining city on the hill, where the country’s sins are transformed into examples of its inherent goodness. This will demand of us a new American story, different symbols, and robust policies to repair what we have done. I don’t yet know what this will look like in its details—and my understanding of our history suggests that we will probably fail trying—but I do know that each element is important to any effort toward beginning again. And as Samuel Beckett wrote in his 1983 novella Worstward Ho, “Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Begin Again, 582

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the third American founding as the rejection of the value gap, requiring story, symbols, and policies.
• XREF: Connects to the reader’s project of defending late Baldwin: ‘Try again. Fail again. Fail better.’ echoes Baldwin’s after-times pessimism-tinged resolve.