Will the twenties roar again?

Sometimes it’s all too evident that the future flows from current trend.

On Friday, a Time Magazine article discussed the chaotic first inauguration of President Lincoln and how it compares to America’s sociopolitical environment today. The author draws an eerie comparison to the division in the United States, rejection of the democratic process and the secession of the Confederate States which largely characterized the 1860s. All a bit too close to what is happening right now South of the border. The pessimistic, fatalist in me tends to agree - the unraveling is “alarmingly similar” and like so many others, has been at the forefront of my existential dread for some time now.

Sometimes it is all too evident that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

When we consider Spanish Influenza hundred years prior, COVID-19 is alarmingly similar. And whether or not there is a clear correlation behind how these epidemics began, there is a trend in how we’ve responded.

In 1918, the Spanish Influenza reportedly killed anywhere between 25-50 Million people. While its name might suggest otherwise, Spanish Flu did not originate in Spain, but France. More so, Spain was one of the only countries during wartime with free-media, able to report on the spread of the virus. In the rest of the world, censored media downplayed the threat, wartime blackouts covered up the realities and poor record-keeping left blank pages in the history books. Ultimately, negligence and the distraction of war, led to one of the worst pandemics in human history.

Spanish Flu took a heavy toll on society. Tens of millions died and hundreds of millions grieved, agrarian economies suffered, basic services failed, political powers shifted, trade and international relations suffered. And while immunity to Spanish Flu was achieved in 1919, the mixture of inadequate infrastructure and weakened immune systems due to bacterial pneumonia, led to other illnesses. All of this only furthered by four years of brutal warfare.

Yet, at the tail end of a global pandemic and a global war, emerged the 1920s – affectionately referred to as Roaring.

1920s

The 1920s ushered in the new modern age of political, social and technological innovation.

Spanish Flu had ended, the First World War was over. Women were involved in society for the first time. Invention, not for the sake of war but for the sake of life, was at an absolute high. In the United States, the 20s was also characterized by Prohibition which led to night life ingenuity, speakeasies, the rejection of traditional moral standards by youth, a rise in gangsterism and the not-so-quiet trade of alcohol through Canadian borders.

Technology boomed in the 1920s. It was a new decade for invention and saw the birth of the radio, the silent film, the television, Band-Aid and the vacuum cleaner among thousands of other inventions that still exist today. People had expanded access to information and entertainment but also improved health care, transportation, clothing and more. It led to new consumer behaviour and consumption patterns. Mass marketing and cheap credit was introduced, and the American Dream was put in reach.

At this time, black populations of the United States moved from rural communities to major urban centres. It was the birth of “The American Renaissance Movement” or the “Harlem Renaissance”, initiated by black artists of this diasporic demographic. An era that defined blues, jazz, poetry and visual arts effectively retooling popular culture as we know it today. Names like Arna Bontemps, Aaron Douglas, Ma Rainey and Louis Armstrong.

While It was a time of great racial hatred toward black Americans and mass support of groups like the Ku Klux Klan, it was also a decade when groups like the NAACP started to fight back. For the first time there was a politicized voice speaking out against hate, violence, segregation and disenfranchisement of black people. The era saw the birth of the Negro Movement and the earliest framework for a major political push that focused on abolishing state-led violence, residential segregation and inequalities in public education. This was an early shift in the balance of power, even hatred and violence toward black lives was at an all time high.

As was the brutality and mistreatment of Indigenous peoples. In the 1920s, The Indian Act was amended and became more harmful and restrictive than ever. It further stripped Indigenous peoples of their rights and freedoms, while reinforcing heinous requirements like the blood quantum. Volunteer Indigenous soldiers returned to their homes from war to neglect, brutality, colonizer imposition, residential schools and inhumane treatment.

Yet it was also the first decade that a national Aboriginal political organization formed under Fredrick Ogilvie, a Mohawk war veteran from the Six Nations of the Grande River. The League of Indians was modelled after the League of Nations but like its international model, was unable to attract widespread support and by 1927, the Indian Act prevented First nations people from forming political organizations. Still, The League of Indians, much like the National Indian Brotherhood, made way for groups like The Métis National Council, Native Women’s Association of Canada, The Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami or The Congress of Aboriginal Peoples.

2020s

While we are a much different society than we were one hundred years ago, some things have not changed.

The mistreatment of BIPOC people may no longer be directly state-sanctioned, but by no means has hate and discrimination disappeared in North America. Black Americans experience nearly 10 times the gun homicides, 15 times the gun assaults, and 3 times the fatal police shootings of white Americans. The inaction taken on those who recently stormed the capital is further reminder at just how disproportionate this treatment is.

While the Indian Act was removed in the 60s and the residential school system was abolished in 1996, Indigenous voices are still not heard, thousands of Indigenous women are still missing, First Nations, Inuit and Metis peoples are underrepresented at Government, and basic human rights like access to health care and clean drinking water continue to go unchecked on reserves. The blatant mistreatments and inequities continue. Sadly, many North Americans believe this injustice only exists in Canada – according to the Reclaiming Native Truth project, 40% of American’s are unaware that Native Americans even exist.

Black Lives Matter is not the answers to years of mistreatment pain and suffering - it’s the beginning. It’s the first time in modern history that society has pushed back against racial injustice with such ferocity. It’s the first time that politicians have been moved to take actionable steps against inequity. It has made way for change. 2020 was the first year that a black woman held the Vice Presidency. Black votes drove Biden's campaign much the way black votes drove Roosevelt's landslide election in 1932.

Black arts, culture, celebrities still lead our popular culture, only now credit, rights and funds are flowing to the right pockets.

Immigrant research, intellect and thought leadership, leads our educational institutions. Only this time with credit to and funding for their contributions.

And through these contributions, on the tail of a pandemic that will once again be regarded as one of the worst in human history, perhaps we can once again, expect some lightness:

Perhaps we will learn to truly follow the age old adage and empathize, sympathize and show greater humanity toward others.

Perhaps we will become less distracted by technology. Less enthralled by social media.

Perhaps Conservatives will become more diverse, youth will become more political and we will quell the rise in Populist Dictatorship.

Perhaps culture will be less about tourism and more about knowledge, beauty, history, ancestry and identity. Perhaps we will learn to respect it and not simply appropriate it.

Perhaps there is lightness to look forward to.

Perhaps the twenties will roar again.