Ben Carson et Donald Trump abusent de l'histoire américaine

Petit retour sur la déclaration controversée de Ben Carson plus tôt cette semaine. J'avais déjà souligné l'association grossière entre les esclaves et les immigrants, mais j'aime bien le contexte plus large dans lequel l'auteur, lui-même noir, place des déclarations de l'administration Trump ou la récupération de certains événements.

 "The American capacity for tragedy is much broader and far more robust than Americans—most of us, anyway—recognize. Our sense of ourselves as exceptional, of our country as a place where we habitually avert the worst-case scenario, is therefore a profound liability in times like the present. The result is a failure to recognize the parameters of human behavior and, consequently, the signs of danger as they become apparent to others who are not crippled by such optimism. A belief that we are exempt from the true horrors of human behavior and the accompanying false sense of security have led to nearly risible responses to Trumpism.

It has become a cliché of each February to present the argument that “black history is American history,” yet that shopworn ideal has new relevance. A society with a fuller sense of history and its own capacity for tragedy would have spotted Trump’s zero-sum hustle from many miles in the distance. Without it, though, it’s easy to mistake the overblown tribulations he sold his followers for candor, not a con. The sense of history as a chart of increasing bounties enabled tremendous progress but has left Americans—most of us, anyway—uniquely unsuited to look at ourselves as we truly are and at history for what it is. Our failure to reckon with this past and the centrality of race within it has led us to broadly mistake the clichés of history for novelties of current events."

http://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/ben-carson-donald-trump-and-the-misuse-of-american-history