The Reckoning (Mary Trump)

 

This is a book that makes you sit back and think. While Donald Trump is a big player in the story, it isn't really about him. It's about American racism. It looks at the big picture, rather than the close day by stories we see on the news. It's well re-searched (100 books/articles are listed in the references section in case you are looking for a bit more reading on the topic) and well-written.

She says that Donald is someone with a gaping wound where his soul should be (p. 87). Because of that, the whole world has been affected.

The first chapter of this book is a brutal look at the history of racism in the US. It surmises that racism is the basis of the problem. It starts off with a terrible story about a community that lynched a man who had killed his owner. They didn't just hang this man though. They hunted him and his wife down for hours, finally capturing him, and then tore his body apart, first his fingers, then his ears, then his legs and arms and threw the bits to the crowd as souvenirs. I think her purpose starting off with this terrible story is to shock the reader. It works. Later in the chapter, she quotes a man named Ezra Klein in 2017: "I actually think the great evil of American slavery wasn't involuntary servitude and forced labor. The true evil of American slavery was the narrative we created to justify it. They made up this ideology of white supremacy that cannot be reconciled with our Constitution, that cannot be reconciled with a commitment to fair and just treatment of all people. They made it up so they could feel comfortable."

In the chapter on covid, I never did get an answer to my question though about why he was so afraid to admit the dangers of the pandemic, of wearing masks and especially the importance of getting vaccinated, especially since he was. She talks about the terrorist attacks of September 11 and how it created a great moment of unity around the world. Covid killed more people each and every day than the September 11 attacks and yet it has become one of the most divisive tragedies in American history. It's bizarre and I don't understand why he'd be so reticent to show integrity on this issue.

So what's the answer? The racism must be addressed. It can't be swept under the carpet. It can no longer be ignored. Dismissing the pain of this racism only postpones the freedom from it. She further hypothesizes that we are in the midst of a mental health crises and we still treat it as an after thought or a moral failing. "The impact of COVID on our nation's psychological and emotional well-being underscores how dangerous it is to keep making that mistake." (p. 165) The other important issue is connection with each other.

The epilogue begins by discussing the Derek Chauvin verdict. Great quote: What this say to me is that in order to get a nominal degree of justice in this country, that a Black man has to be murdered, on air, viewed by the entire world. There would have to be a year's worth of protests, and a phalanx of other white police officers to tell one white officer he was wrong, in order to get on scintilla of justice." (Jason Johnson, a political scientist and commentator)

"In this country, American means white. Everybody else has to hyphenate." - Toni Morrison

Until that changes, sadly, the problem will persist.

Goodreads says:

The instant New York Times and USA Today bestseller

America is suffering from PTSD—The Reckoning diagnoses its core causes and helps us begin the healing process.

For four years, Donald J. Trump inflicted an onslaught of overlapping and interconnected traumas upon the American people, targeting anyone he perceived as being an “other” or an enemy. Women were discounted and derided, the sick were dismissed as weak and unworthy of help, immigrants and minorities were demonized and discriminated against, and money was elevated above all else. In short, he transformed our country into a macro version of his malignantly dysfunctional family.

How can we make sense of the degree to which our institutions and leaders have let us down? How can we negotiate a world in which all sense of safety and justice seems to have been destroyed? How can we—as individuals and as a nation—confront, process, and overcome this loss of trust and the ways we have been forever altered by chaos, division, and cruelty? And when the dust finally settles, how can we begin to heal, in the midst of ongoing health and economic crises and the greatest political divide since the Civil War?

Mary L. Trump is uniquely positioned to answer these difficult questions. She holds a Ph.D. in clinical psychology specializing in trauma, has herself been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, and happens to be Donald J. Trump’s only niece. In The Reckoning, she applies her unique expertise to the task of helping us confront an all-encompassing trauma, one that has taken an immense toll on our nation’s health and well-being.

A new leader alone cannot fix us. Donald J. Trump is only the latest symptom of a disease that has existed within the body politic since America’s inception—from the original sin of slavery through our unceasing, organized commitment to inequality. Our failure to acknowledge this, let alone root it out, has allowed it to metastasize. Now, we are confronted with the limits of our own agency on a daily basis. Whether it manifests itself in rising levels of rage and hatred, or hopelessness and apathy, the unspeakable stress of living in a country we no longer recognize has affected all of us for a long time, in ways we may not fully understand. An enormous amount of healing must be done to rebuild our lives, our faith in leadership, and our hope for this nation. It starts with The Reckoning.