Getting the Allegory Right

I was a childhood fan of Dr. Seuss's story "The Sneetches," and in a lot of ways, I still am, despite the parts of his history I know about now that I didn't then. It still has some valuable thoughts, especially about how difference is exploited for money, and communicates them visually in an effective way.

But this single tweet, from a writer I've never heard of named Christina Holland who used to write for Cracked, is hitting me really hard and I'm going to sit with it for a while:

I think a big problem with kids' allegories for racism is it's like "the green people and the purple people hated each other just for being the other color, isn't that silly?" and not "the purple people kidnapped the green people and treated them like livestock for 100s of years"

I've been using the definition of racism as prejudice + power for more than 30 years, rather than thinking that it's just a synonym for bigotry. 

I think I know enough to see the systemic and institutional nature of it, too. Over the past five or 10 years I've recognized white supremacy as something that goes beyond the Klan or similar organizations, but as an endemic part of our country's structure. 

But the harm is layered in strata, in the words of Ebony Elizabeth Thomas. There's always another level to find. 

And these words their truth so clearly. Maybe that's why their message is not said more often and is even denied as having meaning for our present reality.