Cultural Whiplash: the GOP and Poetry

I am being whipsawed by too many conflicting currents driving culture, politics, business, and history in America. What’s enduring? What’s barely a blip? Do I cheer or hide under the covers?

That’s what I asked myself one week after President Joe Biden’s inauguration. It was also three weeks after rioters threatened the lives of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and then-Vice President Mike Pence. Although the riot failed to derail the transition of presidential power, five people were killed, including a Capitol policeman. Here’s a partial list of news and conversations I witnessed at the time, all within just 48 hours:

• The Department of Homeland Security issued a national terrorism bulletin, suggesting that the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol may embolden “homegrown violent extremists” to commit additional anti-government attacks.
• The U.S. Institute of Peace (on whose International Advisory Council I sit) marked the 30th anniversary of the reunification of Germany. Although 380,000 well-trained Soviet troops were stationed in East Germany at the time, not one bullet was shot during the transition. The remarkable, and remarkably fast, final dismantling of the Cold War was driven, on the American side, by a diverse team of smart, compassionate, and effective Republican politicians and diplomats. Chief among them were President George H.W. Bush, Secretary of State James Baker III, national security adviser Brent Scowcroft, and his deputy, future Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
• Leaders of the Lincoln Project, the anti-Trump PAC of former GOP political strategists, predicted a bitter six-to-eight-year war against the so-called sedition caucus for the future of American democracy. During a recent online presentation hosted by 92Y, Reed Galen, a co-founder of the Lincoln Project, said, “Democracy can’t be the kinder, gentler side in this fight. We have to turn away from the darkness together!”
• After a five-year drought, there will again be a Black woman leading a Fortune 100 company. Rosalind Brewer has been named CEO of Walgreens Boots Alliance, the nearly $140 billion retailer and pharmacy ranked №19. When she takes the helm on March 15, Ms. Brewer will be one of only 40 women running a Fortune 500 company, as well as the only Black woman — and only the third in history. The first was Ursula Burns, who stepped down as CEO of Xerox at the end of 2016.
• And the NFL announced that Amanda Gorman, the first National Youth Poet Laureate, would perform an original poem at the Super Bowl!

Of all the news in this 48-hour period, the Gorman-NFL collaboration was the most unexpected. Football holds an outsize place in the largely male American cultural imagination, and the NFL has coped inconsistently, at best, with incidents — on and off the field — involving racism, domestic violence, and police violence. Yet the league chose this 22-year-old, female avatar of Black brilliance to present an original poem at its biggest game of the year.

Setting the tone with a poem

Ms. Gorman is the first to recite a poem at a Super Bowl, and she may also be one of the few Black women to perform there without incident. Remember the 2016 brouhaha over Beyoncé’s halftime performance, which a former Republican congressman complained was “pro-Black Panther and anti-cop.” Before that was the 2003 commotion over Janet Jackson’s “wardrobe malfunction,” which damaged her reputation but not that of her white, male co-star, Justin Timberlake, despite his role in the incident.

From the start, Ms. Gorman’s appearance has been altogether different. The NFL promoted her not as a halftime entertainer but as a pregame tone-setter. And her subject didn’t involve singing and dancing. Instead, she celebrated (on videotape) the ordinary people — a nurse, an educator, and a veteran — chosen by the NFL as honorary Super Bowl captains because of their community service during the pandemic.

In the aftermath of 2020 — with the election of Kamala Harris as vice president, recognition of the pivotal role Black female voters played in sending a Democrat to the White House, and the frightening ramp-up of white supremacist groups — the NFL’s invitation to Ms. Gorman acknowledges the importance and appeal of young, gifted, Black women and their words.

Reading Ms. Gorman’s interview in Vogue, I was reminded of the biblical reference to “a little child” leading. “I have to interweave my poetry with purpose,” she says. “For me, that purpose is to help people, and to shed a light on issues that have far too long been in the darkness.”

With her uplifting, expansive vision and mission, Ms. Gorman represents the best of Gen Z.

Forming alliances across generations

In our book, “A Blessing: Women of Color Teaming Up to Lead, Empower and Thrive,” my co-author, Bonita Stewart, and I describe a new phenomenon: “generational diversity.” Our 2019 proprietary research examined the views of 4,005 American female “desk workers” of four races (Black, Latina, Asian, and white) and four generations (boomers, Gen X, millennials, and Gen Z). Our data found that Black women and Latinas, especially younger Gen Zers and millennials, are more innovative and more likely to be first adopters of new technology. They are mission-driven and say that their work contributes to the social good to a far greater degree than their white and Asian counterparts. They are also supremely confident that they will control their careers. And large majorities, across all four races, say that “sisterhood” will be important to them at work.

These findings tell us that a new era of leadership is, in many cases, already dawning. Perhaps the NFL is a forerunner in the call for more inclusive leaders fueled by their understanding of cultural differences, leaders who are eager to activate diversity — including generational diversity — as a competitive advantage.

I’m also encouraged by the ascendancy of the 58-year-old Ms. Brewer, the incoming Walgreens CEO. Another theme in our book is “generational alliances.” When we team up, younger women can provide energy just as older ones provide wisdom.

Maybe that’s the ultimate message from and for this jangly cultural moment. Find your allies and #TeamUp to save our institutions!

This story originally appeared in The Christian Science Monitor.