Collective memory of racial sins functions as a safeguard against national hubris.

Evidence

Remembering that fact—our inheritance, as Wendell Berry said—does not amount to beating ourselves over the head, or wallowing in guilt, or trading in race cards. Remembering our national sins serves as a check and balance against national hubris. We’re reminded of what we are capable of, and our eyes are trained to see that ugliness when it rears its head. But when we disremember—when we forget about the horrors of lynching, lose sight of how African Americans were locked into a dual labor market because of explicit racism, or ignore how we exported our racism around the world—we free ourselves from any sense of accountability. Concern for others and a sense of responsibility for the whole no longer matter. Cruelty and indifference become our calling cards. — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Democracy in Black, 514

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the rubric of historical memory in ‘The Frankfurt School’ reading on how postwar Germany disremembered its own Nazi sins. Also resonates with Wendell Berry’s concept of inheritance.