The Fruits of Racism Ripen in Russia as in Los Angeles : Inequality: Like the former Soviet minorities, U.S. blacks were never made whole.

As I reflected on the outpouring of violence and hatred that ravaged Los Angeles, I could not help but think about my former country that is no more, the Soviet Union, and what brought it down.

Granted, it was an empire, a somewhat improved version of the czarist Russian Empire but an empire nonetheless, and as we all know, empires ultimately fall apart. Now it is a commonwealth--or is it? How long will it preserve that status? Not very long, I think. The force that brought the empire down, the force that continues to pull the former Soviet republics apart and defies attempts to create any lasting bonds between them is nationalism. Let that not be confused with the pride that comes from the discovery of self-identity: Those who respect themselves invariably respect others. This is the ugly nationalism that is born from fear, hatred, prejudice, all coming in turn from age-old persecution.

I realize the danger of mentioning Lenin in any positive context, but let me toss caution to the winds. Well before the Bolshevik revolution, Lenin referred to the Russian Empire as a dungeon of nations in which all ethnicities, including the Russians, were oppressed by the czarist system--but in addition to that, the Russians oppressed all the others. In a new society, said Lenin, the Russians would have to sacrifice so as to make up for their wrongs and see to it that the other minorities achieved social, economic and political equality. Had Lenin’s view been heeded, I believe, there would have emerged a true union, one that would have lasted. Instead, the legacy of Russian domination was preserved and the complex issues of racism, nationalism and prejudice were ignored while the “final” victory of “the friendship of the people” was proclaimed, along with the birth of “a new historic entity: the Soviet people.” The results of that policy are evident today in the shambles of what once seemed a monolithic entity, in the strife and bloodshed of Nagorno-Karabakh, Moldova and others.

As I watched the Los Angeles riots and what followed in their wake, I thought of all these things and also marveled at the level of discussion. It all has seemed to be about blame and finding the culprit(s): Lyndon Johnson and his Great Society programs; eight years of Reagan and four of Bush; Murphy Brown and single mothers; the lack of family values. Good thing the Cold War is over. Otherwise, someone would have blamed it all on the Russians. Seriously, aren’t the reasons for these and for previous riots obvious?

The only ethnic group that did not come to America of its own free will is African-Americans. All of the others came to turn a new page, start a new life; they were hardy, adventuresome, entrepreneurial. They came with their culture, their education. The blacks were brought over in irons, their roots destroyed. They were slaves and remained slaves for generations. When they were set free, nothing was done (with the short-lived exception of Reconstruction) to raise them to the general level. The gap between them and others has never been closed. They were never given the opportunity to cook in the melting pot, be part of the American dream. The Declaration of Independence did not and still does not apply to them.

Therein lie the reasons for riots past, riots present and the inevitable riots of the future.

“When . . . you have succeeded in dehumanizing the Negro; when you have put him down and made it impossible for him to be but as the beasts of the field; when you have extinguished his soul in this world and placed him where the ray of hope was blown out as in the darkness of the damned, are you quite sure that the demon you have roused will not turn and rend you?” Thus spoke Abraham Lincoln in 1858. Do those words not apply today?

Neither the White House “Weed and Seed” program nor sums of money can solve the problem. There must be a national recognition of the crime that has been perpetrated against an entire race, for it is only on the basis of such a recognition that the sustained effort of righting a historic wrong can be achieved. Should that not happen, the explosions of black rage will continue to rock America’s very foundations until they finally crumble.

For those who doubt that possibility, I say: Look to the experience of a country that is no more, the Soviet Union.