Confronting an Ugly Past

Abstract

Attempts to cope with unwanted memories have been central to debates over the relevance of the Nazi Holocaust for German national identity, to concerns for the implications of the apartheid system for a new national identity in South Africa, and to the recurrent debates among Americans over the proper way to give recognition to the atrocities associated with the institution of slavery and the maltreatment of Native Americans. This article seeks to develop a conceptual framework for studies of the dynamics of social systems as they selectively confront the ugliness of the past. Its central analytical concepts will focus on collective memory, crises of authority, and perceptions of society as moral community. The doctrine of human rights as elaborated by the United Nations following the end of World War II necessarily called for a look at the past and the unspeakable forms of violence that were carried out with approval and endorsement by the agents of state authority. The doctrine held that certain human rights are universal and inalienable. In the judiciary of world opinion, policies of ethnic cleansing or genocide can no longer be tolerated (Fein 92-104). With the emerging emphasis on civil society and the growth of democracy, it becomes imperative for the nations of the world to examine the ugliness of their own past. Being a part of the modern world calls for a clear awareness of those practices that can no longer be justified by drawing upon older notions of relativism and national sovereignty (Glendon 221-41). Without some form of reconciliation or resolution, the collective traumas of the past will continue to have enduring effects that are undesirable and unwanted. For example, the effects of the American institution of slavery are still with us today in racist attitudes and behavior patterns (Robinson 29-58). While some maintain that the injustices of past discrimination were eliminated with the enactment of civil rights legislation, this is far from being the case. The high rates of homicide, suicide, and other forms of personal pathology provide evidence for the enduring effects of the legacy of the past on African Americans as a disadvantaged minority (Wilson 51-86). The disproportionate representation of African Americans in our prison populations supports the conclusion that efforts are still directed toward subjugating a feared and despised minority. Cultural Amnesia The concept of cultural amnesia was developed by Stephen Bertman (5-17) to refer to the crisis of memory growing out of selectively forgetting about the past. Certain violations of the moral order are so terrible that there is a tendency for them to be banned from consciousness. They become unspeakable because talking about them engenders a sense of discomfort for the speaker, the listener, or both. Traumas from the past, however, refuse to remain buried in the back reaches of human memories. Just as traumas at the individual level appear recurrently in nightmares, sleeplessness, loss of appetite, and flashbacks during waking hours, collective traumas from the past continue to have a living influence upon the contemporary present. The historical effects of collective trauma show up in a sense of malaise and despair, and in sporadic and disruptive acts of violence. The persistence of traumatic effects was revealed in the recent attention given to the horrors that transpired in the Greenwood neighborhood of Tulsa, Oklahoma, on May 31, 1921. Scott Ellsworth reported that estimates vary on the number of African Americans killed in what may be the worst race not in American history. Officials recorded three dozen deaths, while historians agree that closer to 300 lives may have been lost. Many Americans were shocked to hear about the racial atrocities that had occurred in Oklahoma. It had been extinguished from the collective memories of the nation. After 78 years, historians, public officials, and family members of the victims met in an attempt to establish the truth about what really happened. …