Diminishment

 On Monday night in Atlanta, Marcus Freeman will become the first black head coach to take part in a football national championship game, although it's no longer politically correct to bring that up. It's Just Not Relevant anymore, don't you see.

This is the new zeitgeist in America, this diminishment of achievement by traditionally under-represented minorities. It's never framed that way, of course. Rather, it's framed as something we don't need to hear anymore, because we're now a color-blind nation that regards recognition by class or race as passe, if not racist itself.

Which, to borrow from Steely Dan, is pretzel logic of a particularly devious variety. Or so it says here.

Understand, it's not that we shouldn't be a nation in which achievement is color-blind; Freeman himself has taken that position on his historical significance. And to be clear, Coach is absolutely right when he says this.  

However.

However, to paint it as bad form even to mention that significance takes us in the opposite direction of the diminishers' alleged ideal. Whether that's by design, or just a lack of awareness, depends on who we're talking about.

For instance: There is a certain species of American who clearly uses this kumbaya vision  as cover to reset whatever hegemony it thinks it's lost. We all know who these people are; they rarely try to hide it anymore. They're the point of the spear in the current effort to Protect Our Children (because so many societal muzzlings are justified that way) from "pornography", if not the insidiousness of the written word itself.

The written word, surprise, surprise, often being the word written by minority authors or those who explore minority themes. Your Toni Morrisons, your James Baldwins, your Maya Angleous, even your Mark Twains or Harper Lees.

The people who want to keep these authors away from their kids often cite "woke indoctrination" as their justification. In so doing. of course, they're practicing their own de facto indoctrination, an obvious hypocrisy they always miss.

And, yeah, OK, before you say anything, I know it seems I've strayed a good ways from my original point. Perhaps. But even if no one else does, I see a thread running from "Why do we always have to mention it when a black person does something for the first time?" to  "Why do we need to expose our children to authors who explore 'divisive' themes? Give 'em books about Columbus instead."

Presumably only the "In 1492, Columbus sailed the blue" version, of course.