Talk politics.

I understand many believe there's a new cultural shift sweeping across the US (and UK, by extension), where these two societies are finally now facing their past in an honest way, ready to acknowledge slavery, racism, and the other ills related to social marginalization of entire segments of society, in an attempt to heal and cleanse themselves, and move on after this catharsis.

I'm sorry to rain on this party, but I'd say it's a bit too late for the US to confront its past. It should have been done so in the 20 years after the Civil War, or during the 60s when segregation was repealed.

Problem is, there are just too many Americans at this point who believe there is no racism and that blacks, Latinos, Muslims, and Indians are mostly dumb, lazy, violent, or immoral, with some exceptions that they call the "good ones". That is, they believe that their racism is justified by their stereotypes of the people they denigrate. They've elected an asshole for president whose entire worldview revolves around these notions - while he didn't win the popular vote, it was pretty close anyway, which indicates that his worldview is not exactly fringe. That, in 21st century America. He may or may not be defeated in the upcoming election - but the problem won't go away with him.

So, what exactly about the past needs to be confronted? It has already been proven and established - but so what? Certainly that is Trump's view of the world, Kanye West is one of the "good ones" but the rest are, well... You get the idea. And it's not just a few rotten apples who share this worldview, and whose political decisions are entirely educated by it.

The thing is, there are plenty people who believe the whole racial emancipation process has been done the wrong way. They're convinced the US has done more than enough already, having faced its history long ago, and lavishly compensated the victims thereof. They go even further and assert that black privilege has now grown to ludicrous levels: preferential college admissions and scholarships, preferential hiring by most corporations, and set-aside government contracts for black-owned businesses. Affirmative action gone wild, so to speak. Not even including the extensive government support for what they call the "grievance industry", through awareness and training sessions. And what they perceive as a systematic encouragement of the "outrage industry" being done both through the mass media and social networks. They're convinced that a whole segment of society has now grown accustomed to being entitled to benefits and attitudes they haven't earned, or deserved, but which they now take for granted and demand to keep receiving, based on a past long gone.

Now, myself living in South Africa, a country that knows a thing or two about racial revolution, I'm fully aware that every push for change has its detractors, especially those potentially affected by said change - every revolution inevitably meets with a reactionary push-back. Question is, where's the balance, where's the peace? And, should it even be sought in the first place? Shouldn't everything be first dismantled and destroyed before being built anew, instead? Where's the Nelson Mandela who'd know how to prevent this society from consuming itself? And, is it even possible to heal this society at this point? Would it be able to heal at all, if the more extreme course of action is taken?

Something tells me it isn't, and won't. The divisions have grown only deeper. A tipping point may or may not have been reached, but even if it still hasn't been, the direction these processes are taking, and the rate at which they've been going, give me no reason to believe the trend could be reversed. Each side has dug deeper into its trenches, demonizing the other one to a point where the "enemy" is no longer considered human. Bipartisanship is all but dead. There are two Americas fighting a Cold Civil War with each other along many division lines, including economic, social, cultural, and racial. I'd say America has had plenty of chance to look in the mirror, and heal itself. It has failed. Now it's doomed to follow the fate of every other empire in the history of this planet. Namely, go down in ruins under the weight of its own incurable internal illnesses. And I shudder to think what would emerge from the ashes. Sorry. I hope I'm wrong. I hope you somehow convince me that I am. But I'm not holding my breath about it.