“WHERE COMMON MEMORY IS LACKING, WHERE PEOPLE DO NOT SHARE IN THE SAME PAST, THERE CAN BE NO REAL COMMUNITY. WHERE COMMUNITY IS TO BE FORMED, COMMON MEMORY MUST BE CREATED.”
-George Erasmus, Native American Elder
Compared to most nations around the world, in the United States we have an incredibly short memory regarding our history. And that is particularly true when that history is unpleasant or uncomfortable. It’s much easier to buy into simple, nice, triumphal narratives that make us feel better about the past. But as George Erasmus’ quote points out, if you bury that ugly, nasty past, you can never truly forge real community. That is why truth-telling, particularly the form of truth-telling that comes through “Truth and Reconciliation Commission“-type projects, is such a crucial tool for correcting past injustices. The most famous TRCs have been in Rwanda and South Africa, but truth-telling tactics were used in Germany, Canada, Australia, and in a host of other countries.
In recent weeks, my tiny town of Carlisle, PA has made local headlines after a proposal for Truth and Reconciliation Commission was introduced by the Borough Council, as a key way to address systemic racism in this community (here’s the seventh, hopefully final version of the proposal). I am supportive of this Truth and Reconciliation Commission for a number of reasons, which I will explain below.
First, I think this proposal starts in the right place by first focusing on examining, illustrating, and documenting the problem of racial injustice.
According to the wording of the proposal, this TRC’s main work will involve: “(1) examining and documenting policies, practices, and actions by the Borough of Carlisle and the Carlisle Borough Council that have contributed to racial inequity and systemic racism; (2) providing opportunities for individuals impacted and traumatized by systemic racism to share their stories and experiences, relating to polices, practices, and actions by the Borough of Carlisle and the Carlisle Borough Council; (3) facilitating conversations among and between community members from various backgrounds; (4) collaborating with existing businesses, institutions, nonprofits, agencies, boards, and commissions; and (5) identifying, analyzing, and recommending to the Carlisle Borough Council institutional and policy reforms meant to mend the wounds caused by and combat systemic racism.”
These activities are all part of establishing a “common memory,” rather than one that selectively remembers the past. While merely documenting the past and proposing reforms is not the only thing that needs to be done, it is an important first step. I also appreciate that the TRC has an end date of December 2022, meaning that it is not some ambiguous, eternal project, but one with a clear timeframe and goals.
A second thing I like about the proposed Carlisle Truth and Reconciliation Commission is the collaborative way it has come about. According to conversations with Council members, the proposal came about after the recent town hall panel on racial equity in January, that featured a variety of local leaders and activists. An initial draft was put together, then sent to those same panelists, who offered feedback and revisions. A subsequent Zoom session generated some more revisions, and then more have come up after the proposal was introduced at the February Borough Council meeting. Next, the proposal will be voted on in March. What I really appreciate about this is how truly collaborative this process has been. Too often, government bodies create proposals that sound nice rather than being actually meaningful to the community (or on the flip side, activists create proposals that have no chance of governmental implementation). To have a truly collaborative approach between the Borough Council and community members is a very encouraging start.
Thirdly, I appreciate that in this proposal the Borough is taking ownership for the legacies of racism have been passed down from the previous generations. While of course there is still active racism happening in Carlisle, a large part of the economic and social disparities between different ethnic groups is due to governmental policies that existed in the past and have left a long legacy. For example, I have a friend who owns a house on Parker Street, and the original deed from ~1920 states that the house is not allowed to be sold to “Negroes” and members of other non-white races. While housing discrimination based on race is now technically illegal, for how many decades were whites allowed to build up wealth and real estate in Carlisle while Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color (BIPOC) kept out of this wealth generator? Real estate is just one topic; there’s tons of local issues like this.
Now, it would be easy for the Borough of Carlisle to say, “Well, all that injustice all happened in the past, and we condemn it – but it wasn’t our fault!” That is the common deflection of so many people in our society, refusing to take responsibility for anything and instead finding someone else to blame. But instead, by choosing to take responsibility for the past, present, and future of this town, the Borough Council is showing real leadership – a leadership that is all too lacking in our country. (In a different world, Carlisle wouldn’t need to be doing its own TRC because there would have been a national or state-wide TRC decades ago…but that’s another topic.)
Potential Objections to the TRC
Let me address a few concerns that others have brought up about the proposal for the TRC, and a share few concerns of my own.
Firstly, there have been a few (white) Carlisle residents who have voiced their opposition to the proposed TRC by saying that such a commission is a waste of time, because there is no systemic racism in Carlisle. To me, that’s an easy claim to put to the test. If there truly is no widespread, systemic racism in Carlisle, then the TRC will be truly unable to collect any stories, experiences, or evidence of it! But, if the TRC does indeed up with significant evidence about racism, wouldn’t that be something worth getting out in the open? As a Christian, I firmly believe that all evil gets worse when it is covered up. So instead of covering it up, we should be exposing it to the bright, disinfecting light of truth, where it can be properly dealt with.
Moreover, after just 7 years of living here I can tell numerous stories of racism in Carlisle that I have either personally witnessed or heard firsthand, not to mention very public displays like the KKK flyers in 2019, or the drivers who cursed out and mimed shooting Black Lives Matter protesters downtown this fall. One quick story: on my street this past June during the George Floyd protests, an elderly white landlord told me unprompted that he used to rent to Dickinson College students but stopped in recent years because “it’s been going downhill ever since they started letting all the minorities in,” saying something about it being a jungle down there. I called him out saying something to the effect of “Hey you can’t say that” but wish I had a better response in the moment. Looking back, I’ve only seen him rent his house to white folks in the 5 years I’ve lived on this street. Coincidence? Or … ? And if he doesn’t rent to non-white folks…is it any reason that those folks struggle to find affordable housing in Carlisle? How many landlords, businesses, etc. are racist like this man? And if he felt safe being blatantly racist to me, someone he had never met….who else is he influencing with his views? Anyway… I could tell dozens of anecdotes like this…and the fact that some people deny racism exists shows just how necessary the TRC really is!
Secondly, there are some who would argue that we need to simply move on and forget the past. Can’t we all just have unity? But trying to impose unity and historical amnesia without justice is a false peace, built on a foundation of violence and lies. It is only in a study of our past mistakes that we can begin to make amends and avoid repeating similar mistakes. As one anecdote: after their defeat in World War II, German soldiers civilians were forced by the Allied armies to watch graphic videos about the concentration camps. For most of these people, it was their first time seeing the full extent of the evil perpetrated in their name, and they were horrified. To this day, 75 years later, Germany still pays financial reparations to the descendants of Holocaust victims as well as to the nation of Israel. Moreover, anti-Semitic speech such as denying the Holocaust is illegal in Germany and carries criminal penalties. This does not fix the past, but it is a sign of contrition. In contrast, when there is no study of past mistakes and no redress of wrongs, it opens the door for the same or even worse mistakes to be made. Imagine if the Union troops had required Confederate civilians to actually come face to face with the horrors of slavery after the Civil War–would white Southerners have been so quick to turn to the KKK, to lynch mobs, and to Jim Crow laws?
A third objection to the Carlisle TRC might be that there are more urgent things to focus on in Carlisle, such as COVID-19, mental health, crime, affordable housing, food deserts, infrastructure, sustainability, etc. A few quick responses: a. It’s possible to do multiple things at once. b. The TRC will operate semi-independently from the Borough Council and not necessarily distract from day-to-day activities. c. Nearly every problem in Carlisle also has a racial component to it. Minority residents have less of an access to affordable housing, affordable healthcare, healthy food within walking distance, smooth roads, healthy trees to provide shade, etc…I could go on and on. Some of these problems might be too big to fully solve in our tiny town, but isn’t it better to at least try to solve them for the people who need the most help? For example, hypothetically, if the Carlisle TRC discovers that in the past the Carlisle Parks and Recreation department avoided planting trees in minority neighborhoods, one possible avenue of redress could be to set aside a lump of money to deliberately plant extra trees in those neighborhoods. Why would that be a bad thing?
Those are a few of the major objections to the Carlisle TRC that I’m aware of. I have a few concerns of my own, which I will briefly share:
First, I’m afraid that the TRC will do lots of meaningful research but that nothing will be done with that info. Thus it is incumbent for us as residents to hold each other and our leaders accountable to act on the things that are revealed by the TRC.
Secondly, there is a concern I have that the TRC will not fully address the genocide and ethnic cleansing of the Native Americans that used to live in this area (not to mention those who were forcibly acculturated into White American culture at the Carlisle Indian School, the first example of such “Indian Boarding Schools”). Partially that’s due to the fact that there’s virtually no Carlisle Natives left here to share their stories and to offer redress to…but that doesn’t mean it’s not important. Carlisle first started off as a frontier/pioneer town on the western border of the original US colonies, with frequent confrontations with Natives, and we must not skip that piece of history.
A third fear I have is that many white residents are not actually interested in learning the truth about racism in Carlisle nor doing anything about it. A one-sided TRC that exposes unsettling truths about racism but doesn’t involve white residents could cause these residents to double down on the status quo, or worse lead to a reactionary “whitelash“. There are probably a number of ways to try to address this concern, but one way is for white allies to bring as many of our fellow white neighbors and family members into this process of learning history. The truth may be painful, but it must be known.
Overall, despite my concerns I think that this proposal for a Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Carlisle to address racial injustice is a good idea, and long overdue. I look forward to seeing what this TRC brings to light.