America is a nation of designed contradictions.

We are a country that is, ostensibly, founded on an idea rather than a religion, ethnicity, or identity. However, it remains a country where one’s religion, ethnicity, or identity can and will be used to justify a denial of rights, access, or fair treatment. While Americans champion the virtues of liberty and freedom, we also know, intrinsically, that some people have more liberty and freedom than others—by design.

One of the virtues, however, of this country is its ability to evolve and adapt to a given moment. The problem is that these changes yield unpredictable outcomes.

Each wave of social progress has been greeted by a backlash of one kind or another. Because that’s the thing about progress; for one side to “win,” the other side has to “lose” power, control, and dominance. The pendulum swings. Every action has a reaction. No good deed goes unpunished.

For the better part of the past 60 years, America has attempted a radical change. The overwhelming majority of people has witnessed an expansion of representation and democracy, enjoying something that looks like equality. We’ve seen a durable shift to redefine justice as inclusive of all people. The progress comes thanks to a Civil Rights Movement that, while focused on the struggles of African Americans, created a blueprint for change that other marginalized communities could follow.

Here is where we need to make something abundantly clear: the goal of the Civil Rights Movement was never to change the people in power, but to change how power was wielded. Civil Rights wasn’t about making white people better or Black people more tolerable. It was about creating a system where biases and prejudices could be identified, called out, and rectified by a government acting as a social-racial umpire.

Were the outcomes perfect? No.

Were there unforeseen consequences? Yes.

Did we get it right more than we got it wrong? Perhaps.

From the mid-1960′s until about two Tuesdays ago, the nation  engaged in a real effort to become a multiracial, multiethnic, multicultural democracy. It undertook the work of making the founding documents mean something to everyone.

But, remember that thing I said earlier about for one side to win another side had to lose? Well, eventually that other side gets their lick back. Progress is welcomed, but it’s not guaranteed. Eventually, the pendulum swings back.

And that’s what happened on Election Day.

While historians will debate the different vectors of history that Donald Trump’s reelection represents, the one clear conclusion is that his ascendency marks definitive proof that the Civil Rights Era in America is over.

We thought we overcame. Turns out, we just got overrun.

America has decided to end its experiment with addressing past wrongs of race, gender, and orientation through legislative action with a retrenchment of white male supremacy under the guise of liberty and merit.

In what may be its last great show of generational strength, white supremacy has reasserted itself in the driver’s seat of American society. Maybe for its death throes, or maybe forever. And this gamble was predicated on cheaper eggs.

Say it with me, The Civil Rights Era in America: 1964-2024.

It’s over. America has chosen a government led by people who have openly and clearly voiced their hostility to anything that looks diverse or inclusive while signaling plans for deprioritizing, if not punishing, efforts to create equitable outcomes. And this isn’t just about race.THis impact extends to gender, orientation, identity, and ability. The apartheid-raised plutocratic class funded the candidate, the methods and means of communication, and supplied the kindling of mis and disinformation to create this specific outcome.

White America’s racial consciousness vanished as quickly as it appeared. Pew Research captures the retreat: workplace DEI support dropped from 56% to 52% in just one year, while opposition jumped to 21%. By November 2024, 42% of Fortune 500 companies had eliminated or significantly reduced their DEI programs, according to the Society for Human Resource Management. The evidence mounted: DEI job postings plummeted 43% between 2022 and 2024, and nearly two-thirds of DEI directors from 2020 had left their roles. Tech giants like Google, Meta, and Zoom led the exodus, dismantling their diversity departments with barely a whisper of protest.

Here’s what comes next:

Schools will, slowly, become segregated again as diversity initiatives will run into legal challenges. They are already reverting to segregation patterns. A 2023 UCLA Civil Rights Project study found that the percentage of intensely segregated minority schools (90-100% non-white) has tripled since 1988.

Companies that have embraced diversity, equity, and inclusion wo;; shutter or curtail their efforts to avoid the ire and public outrage from an ascendant right wing that wishes to collect trophies in the name of denying opportunities.

The math reveals a calculated trade: Companies are willing to absorb billions in lost innovation revenue, talent recruitment costs, and productivity disruptions to appease an ideological agenda. Each mid-level diversity position eliminated costs approximately $1.5 million to replace according to Deloitte – a price tag multiplied across thousands of positions in 2024 alone. Yet this appears to be a cost corporate America now deems acceptable to pay, even as 67% of the emerging workforce prioritizes diversity in their job searches. The message is clear: When forced to choose between profits and preserving white dominance, corporate leadership has made its priorities known.

Society will grow less welcoming, less tolerant, and less open. Expect a stratification where success is capped for many while undeserved favor is heaped on the already fortunate.

It won’t be as if the Civil Rights Era never happened. Even worse, it will be treated a mistake foisted upon us by liberal elites.

Some will cling to this past and continue the old missions, but they will face a hostile judiciary and a political system that prioritizes vengeance.

The path forward requires the daunting but doable task of shoring up our own institutions and creations. The uncomfortable reality is that no cavalry is coming over to save us. The protections put into place changed the conditions, but not the people. The same biases, prejudices, and straight up hate that bedeviled our grandparents and great-grandparents persist.

Trying to run from this reality will not save us.

Becoming despondent or attempting to opt out is useless.

For marginalized communities, the tools of self-determination remain essential. Our freedom has never been dictated by circumstances as much as circumstances have taught new ways to be free. Our love for this country has always been more custodial than patriotic. We are it’s inconvenient conscience, not its unrequited love.

We will return now to the wilderness of sorts. From this moment will emerge the art and culture of a people who have always known generational struggle. Suffering remains a simple part of the Black experience in America, but we’ve never defined ourselves by that. We’ve always been so much more than others refuse to see.

As the nation moves toward this new era, we must not be overcome by fear. Fear brought us here. Fear motivates others to ban history and regulate our presence. Instead, Americans must challenge ourselves to embrace this uncomfortable knowledge, that our rights and freedoms are conditional to the price of bacon, and act accordingly.

The reality is we’re never going to make better people, and can only shape the contours of the rules of engagement but so much. The task ahead is to learn a new form of coexistence in America  not defined by a dream or based on some soaring ideal of what could be. No, we tried that. Now it’s time for us to recognize that the system hasn’t failed us, it simply reverted to the norm.

Civil Rights was the aberration, and now that time has ended. Where America stands now is part of the designed contradiction that is the United States. It’s up to us to decide how and when the pendulum swings next.

Corey Richardson is originally from Newport News, Va. currently living in Chicago, Ill. Ad guy by trade, Dad guy in life, and grilled meat enthusiast, Corey spends his time crafting words, cheering on beleaguered Washington DC sports franchises, and yelling obscenities at himself on golf courses. He’s penned work in the past for VerySmartBrothas and The Root.