The Future Beyond the Darkness is Bright

By W. F. Twyman, Jr.

“I think the mixed-race tennis player, Madison Keys, has the perfect perspective. When asked if she identifies as white or African American, she says, I’m me. I’m Madison.” — Comment by “Ca” on New York Times story about Dr. Ibram X. Kendi and Anti-racism, October 5, 2023

The American Revolution was followed by the Era of Good Feeling. The American Civil War was followed by the Gilded Age. The Depression of 1919 was followed by the Roaring Twenties. And the Great Depression and World War II were both followed by the times of comfort in the 1950s and 1960s. Now, we are drawn forward through a decade of anger and division and polarization, the 2020s.

To every thing, there is a season.

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In the world of financial markets, there is an idea that the trend is your friend. A Bull market where prices are going up suggests one should be bullish on the future. A bear market where prices are going down suggests one should be positioned to short or profit from a decline in stock and commodity prices. The idea is good as far as it goes until the trend ends. Then, one must change one’s position or exit the market. The way to ruin is to buck the trend.

There is also a complementary notion that market psychology unfolds in a ceaseless undulating pattern of two steps forward, one step back. Some will recognize the concept as the Elliott Wave theory. In a Bull Market, an impulsive move up in price is followed by a correction or reaction. The completed reaction is followed by a powerful third wave thrust upward. This significant move is followed by a reaction or correction before a final fifth move up. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elliott_wave_principle

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Racial psychology is simply a subset of human psychology. For every advance in consciousness, there is a discernible stall or correction. One might think of racial identity as forming one powerful wave upward from the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to the inauguration of Barack Obama in 2009 as the first black American president. These were good times, an Era of Good Feeling, which followed Massive Resistance in the 1950s after the Brown decision. So, one can perceive the period from the 1954 Brown decision to the 1964 Civil Rights Act as a time of correction, reaction or pause in racial consciousness. Let’s call it Wave II (1954 to 1964).

I would label the genesis of impulsive Wave I as the selection of Mordecai Johnson for President at Howard University in 1926. President Johnson brought a genius level of perceptive vision to Howard leadership which directly led to the legal team, including Law School Dean Charles H. Houston and NAACP Legal Defense Fund litigator Thurgood Marshall, resulting in the unanimous ruling against public school segregation by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1954. Let’s call this time period Wave I (1926 to 1954).

For some reason, the positive wave in racial consciousness and identity stalled out around 2009 and really took a nose dive around 2014. Otherwise privileged black Americans were now claiming Blackness is Oppression. Nothing Else Matters. This shift in self-consciousness and identity occurred as a black American as U.S. President was in the rear view mirror. Doesn’t make sense to me as someone whose life spanned the positive Wave III (1964 to 2009).

Now that we are polluted by various slogan words in the public square, it is clear we have been living in a reaction wave of bearish race psychology since 2009. We are in Wave IV (2009 - 2029).

Things will become more delusional as we live through this decade. This is the nature of corrective waves in race psychology.

However, the headlock of racial dogma is setting the stage for rebellion and non-conformity among those born in the 2030s and the 2040s. These children yet to be born will reject racial dogma devoid of nuance and complexity. Far-sighted movements like transracialism will attract the non-conformers. We will see the public sentiment shift from fear of being different to self-pride in being different.

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Conclusion: The future will be a new Wave V beginning in roughly 2030. The young will be drawn to racial non-conformity. And millions of Madison Keys will declare their independence from racial dogma. The future is bright beyond the darkness of the 2020s.

Madison Keys