There has been a culture shift in the last six or seven years, not in a good sense. Our country used to be one of the most powerful countries in the world. People worldwide wanted to come here because it seemed like a better place to live.

Well, the truth is, our country has changed, and it’s no longer a welcoming retreat for immigrants or a land of opportunity for those from poorer or socioeconomic backgrounds. A select few with great wealth and power have taken over our America and are spreading ignorance and prejudices like soft butter on toast. And the sad thing is that it has unleashed a simmering hatred that has been cooking for a long time. This hatred was created out of fear and still, to this day, is being stoked to hide the truth about one man and his awful plan.

A movie scene came to mind from Back To the Future II when Biff Tannen (Marty McFly’s nemesis) takes over the town and it turns to shit.  Biff’s tower, lit like a tacky Christmas tree, looks eerily similar to another man’s.

There was also a Biff Tannen Museum with a TV screen running a video saying, “Biff Tannen is Hill Valley’s number one citizen and America’s greatest living folk hero!” Meanwhile, the streets look like a war zone with inebriated people shouting cruelly and shooting each other.

Since Back to the Future II was released in 1989, I have to wonder if a certain someone watched it and got some pointers from Biff on how to say whatever you want, even if it’s a lie. And his actions show that the more garbage he puts out there, the more rats come to feast on it.

You can imagine my wow when I learned the screenwriter of Back to the Future II did indeed have him in mind for the character of Biff, and others who posted side-by-side photos on the Internet make the case, too. Amazingly, the guy wrote it before 1989, when the movie came out.

Way back when the Puritans landed on Plymouth Rock in Massachusetts in 1690, the culture was a buttoned-up, religious-led mindset full of fear like we’ve never seen.

You talk in your sleep – you’re a witch! Your cow doesn’t produce milk – witch! Your child can’t speak – definitely a witch! And they burned innocent people like they were ragged hay-filled scarecrows all because of fear. It wasn’t until many years later that someone in power told the people that they were wrong and that everyone, not exactly like them, was not a witch. Oh, then things settled down a bit. But the witch-fearing people kept believing it and spread those beliefs to their families and friends. They just didn’t publically show it. But they seethed about it, I’m sure.

Those same righteous white folks, who thought they were the only worthy human beings on Earth, learned about a dark-skinned group of people who lived on another continent and saw them as a free labor force to earn them tons of money. Those white men (and women who thought the same way) viewed the African people as worthy of less dignity and respect with no right to feel pain or speak up. Those men, mainly from the southern United States, instilled in their kin and friends that people of color were to be used and abused, and there was nothing wrong with that.

When Abraham Lincoln emancipated the enslaved people, it was not over. The hatred and contempt for people of color had only deepened into secret chambers and hush meetings. Those innocent people were not free; they were trapped in a country where a paper set them free, but real life had them living a segregated life sentence of being less valued, feared, and hated. And this was all because of a white person’s lies to the masses because of fear and probably to set up as a smokescreen to hide what they were doing wrong.

Fast forward many years later to the twentieth century when America began its descent into economic bliss. Factories were booming. Machines were oiled up and moved at faster rates than ever before, and they were producing things. They needed workers, and labor didn’t come cheap anymore with slavery abolished. So where did they get a pool of workers cheap? Poor immigrants flocked here, wanting a better life than what they had in their country of origin and the promised American dream. The church, just like with the Puritans, was the safe haven for them, speaking their language and keeping up the old traditions. But the people that were here first still had a problem. They weren’t like them, and something unknown can be scary, and given that we’re all little kids at heart, childish fears overtook adult logic.

So, racial slurs began. My Italian grandmother told me that when she was young the Italians lived on one side of the street and the Irish families on the other. They didn’t speak to each other, went to different churches, and when there was an encounter, usually fueled by alcohol, they fought. The Irish called the Italians “wops,” and the Italians called the Irish “Micks.” It was all to hurt one another, but the reason was fear. Italians thought, you don’t speak my language, and your house smells like cabbage, so you stink. The Irish had their reasons for their hatred, calling Italians dirty dagos. It must have been brutal to live like that.

You would think as time progressed, we’re supposed to be getting smarter and that our country would become the true melting pot it once was called. The only truth in the melting pot phrase is that different cultures came here to live, not in harmony or peace, but to survive. Our nation’s culture has been in survival mode since the time humans began to live. The Native Americans tried to survive the influx of foreigners and lost the battle. The Puritans believed their ideology was pure and righteous (hence the name) and battled to survive change. People brought to this country against their will did their best to survive a horrific existence because a white race deemed them useful. And here we are, hundreds of years later – still in survival mode.

Our culture has shifted once again. Only this time, we’re moving backward into the fear-monger days when a snake oil salesman made a very good living selling water as a cure-all, and people bought it, no questions asked. And it’s happening all over again. Why? I can only believe that the dormant prejudices and hatred have been resurrected by public figures promoting lies and fear once again.

We can stop this cultural shift if we want it. But we have to want to. Understand your neighbor. Come out of yourself and see other people for being flesh and blood human beings like you. Put love in your heart instead of hate and fear. What people fear is the unknown. Take the high road and learn. The easy road leads to anger, frustration, and pain. Don’t let a man with a mission for dominance control your heart.

Thank you for reading this.

To a better culture shift,

Francesca