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Ivan G Thompson
a book bubble about
The Making of a Great America Where the Church and the Founding Fathers Fell Short
Religion & Spirituality
Author Insight
Viewing Our Country from the Outside
One of the most striking things about watching President Trump’s impeachment proceedings was the reality that America’s governmental leadership is predominantly white. I am a black man who has spent the last 22 years living in Washington D.C., Los Angeles, New York, and Phoenix. I have lived in neighborhoods with wildly varying demographics. I learned in elementary school that America was the “great melting pot.” And again, my life experience would support this. But every time I see the full gathering of Congress, particularly the Senate, I realize that the pot hasn’t spilled over into the highest levels of American political leadership. I saw the same thing in the Air Force’s leadership and have written three books about it. It’s part of what made Ketanji Brown Jackson’s confirmation so compelling. It seemed that dark forces were gathering together to conjure up anything to keep the highest court of the land from melting further. For perspective, the first Supreme Court Justice was appointed in 1789. “Of the 114 Supreme Court justices in US history, all but 6 have been White men…In the 231-year history of the Supreme Court, less than 5.3% of justices have been women or minorities”- https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/25/politics/supreme-court-justice-minorities-history-trnd/index.html (does not include Justice Barrett) 1967 first black male justice. 1981 First white female justice. 2009 first Latin American/Latin American female.
Book Excerpt
The Making of a Great America Where the Church and the Founding Fathers Fell Short
This is an excerpt from the book's Conclusion:
One of the things that struck me profoundly as I watched the impeachment proceedings was that most of the people involved were white. On both sides of the aisle, Republican and Democrat, and on the witness stand, were white men and women deciding the fate of the leader of the most powerful nation on Earth.
It is in those type moments that I sometimes feel like I am viewing our country from the outside. I know that minorities have come a long way and that the demographic of America has changed dramatically since the time of my parents. But watching the impeachment proceedings made me feel like a minority, outnumbered and possibly without voice in the sense that I was trusting someone who didn’t look like me, to represent me and say the things that I felt.
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