Either America will destroy ignorance or ignorance will destroy the United States. W. E. B. Dubois
Pretend slavery and other dark secrets never happened in America so that White children can be happy and sightless of the past
John Wilkes Booth, an actor, assassinated President Abraham
Lincoln as he watched a play in Washington, DC at Ford’s Theater, April 14,
1865. History noted the Booth was a racist, who did not approve of Lincoln talking
about freeing slaves. He did not believe manumitted slaves should score rights strictly
reserved for White folks. Supposedly, Booth was a patriot, who believed that
the superiority of Whites would be depleted if slavery were abolished.
One hundred fifty-seven years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed, Americans are battling the same stupidity, foolishness, racism, and so-called patriots, who proclaim publicly: “Give me liberty or give me death”! So far, they have opted to stay alive when push comes to dodging bullets and jail time. It appears that White folks have an irrational fear of losing their “superiority” status, somewhat predicted by Booth.
They cannot accept living in an
America in which they have to interact with folks who do not resemble them.
They cannot handle an America that they can no longer control. They refuse to
learn about history as is, exposing all its warts, all its ugliness; an
ugliness that is brutal and dehumanizing. It is no surprise that a campaign has
popped up among folks who want to sugarcoat America’s history, deleting the
history African Americans, who were victims of deliberate brutality and
dehumanization.
Books about African American history, civil rights activist Rosa
Parks, civil rights leader Rev Martin Luther King, Jr., former first lady and
author Michelle Obama, author Harper Lee (To Kill A Mockingbird), author/actress
Maya Angelou (I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings) have been banned. Toni Morrison (The
Bluest Eye), Richard Wright, Alice Walker (Color Purple), Nora Neale Hurston,
and other “controversial” authors are also banned from use in school libraries
and classrooms. Over 50 Black writers are on the list of banned books. So far,
the Bible has not been added to the list. Folks cannot claim to be Christians and
ban God’s words.
The motivation to erase African American history is akin to
instances of hate and racism some 108 years ago. The United Daughters of the
Confederate (UDC) so loved the South that the organization lobbied to ban
textbooks that were critical of their beloved South. Laura Martin Rose, historian
and author of a book titled “Origins of the Ku Klux Klan”, was the division
president of the UDC headquarters in Mississippi. The book was used as a fundraiser to erect a
confederate monument at Thomas Jeffersons’s home.
Encouraged by the success of the book, Rose hoped it would
inspire Southern males to commit acts violently against Black men. She
proclaimed that Black men were threats to White women. "Origins of the Ku Klux
Klan” was endorsed by the United Daughters of the Confederacy at their 1913
convention in New Orleans, and later by the Sons of Confederate Veterans in
Jacksonville in 1914. The goal was to promote use of the book in schools
throughout the South. (Wikipedia)
National threats of violence against Blacks and others who are
not White, have always been the first choice of action when change to the
social order is on the table. Once again promises of a “civil war” are getting
strong support from Republican wannabe tough guys, all of whom are determined
to send Donald Trump back to the White House. Trump has refused to publicly
concede his loss to Joe Biden, unlike Hillary Clinton, who conceded when she
lost her presidential bid to him.
Trump supporters are demanding that the two-time impeached ex-president be reinstalled to his former position. His re-election bid was supposed to be an automatic victory. Trump’s worshipers swear by the Bible that he legally won the 2020 contest, the reason they hatched an insurrection scheme for January 6, 2021, to stop the official Electoral College count to certify that Joe Biden had beat Trump.
The wannabes intended to kill or kidnap politicians
at the Capitol that January day. If the clash of minds cannot come together, reaching
an amiable agreement, forcing compliance among disagreeing Americans, the wannabe
tough guys had pledged to turn America into a hailstone of death, blood and violence.
The participating White males and females felt it was their patriotic duty to
replace Biden with Trump. Republicans called the insurrectionists "tourists" and then attempted to blame Black Lives Matter for what happened. Apparently, the thousands of White faces were thousands of Black faces in disguise.
During an online panel discussion on Critical Race Theory (CRT)
at the University of Connecticut, Mary Beeman, campaign manager for five Republicans
running for the Guilford Board of Education, was part of a Zoom chat, October
7, 2021. The panel argued the cons of CRT, and the side effects of teaching it
in public schools. No pros were discussed.
Mary Beeman said, “Helping kids of color to feel that they
belong has a negative effect on White, Christian, or conservative kids”. The
candidate’s number one focus was to stop the so-called indoctrination hidden
somewhere in CRT. Ironically, none of these folks examined their White Privilege
status, bestowed on them at the expense of slaves and emancipated slaves, as told in the history they prefer to deny.
Beeman, in essence, affirmed that African American children
have no right to feel that they belong in a White Christian
America if it makes White children feel guilty about being privileged. If White
Christian children are uncomfortable with the past as it connects to the savagery
of slavery, and the atrocities that Africans endured during those horrible centuries,
then their history should be washed clean, double rinsed in bleach, leaving no
traceable evidence of their past.
Gov. Greg Abbot of Texas directed the Texas State Board of
Education to make a controversial change in history. The proposal, though not communicated
verbally, suggests that Black Africans voluntarily left their homes and families in Africa to come America to work for White farmers from sunup ‘til sundown without pay,
or simple benefits such as adequate housing, decent food, freedom to learn how to read and
write.
“An advisory group of Texas educators has proposed changing
the word “slavery” to “involuntary relocation” after the Texas State Board of
Education directed them to examine how to implement a new law, to be signed by
Gov. Greg Abbott, banning the teaching of topics that would make students ‘feel
uncomfortable’. The group, comprised of nine educators, made the proposal for second-grade
social studies instruction, but ‘board members have asked them to consider the
phrasing, according to the state board’s chair’”. (The Texas Tribune, June 2022)
Like Beeman, Abbott and
the Texas State Board of Education are concerned about Critical Race Theory,
and how it will negatively influence White children enrolled in elementary
schools. Abbott wants to prohibit teaching the topic because it will make White
students “feel discomfort”. Elementary students do not know what academic “discomfort”
is! Nor can they participate in high level discussions about CRT, culture and
racism.
Gov. Abbott does not want CRT taught in elementary schools
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| Texas Gov. Greg Abbott |
The committee was instructed to tell how on June 19,
1865, Major General Gordon Granger and a significant number of Confederate
troops galloped into Galveston, Texas to inform slave owners and slaves that
they were free. I think this little tidbit of historical information is supposed
to show that Texas cared about Black slaves and their eventual freedom. Abbott wants everyone to know this is the reason Black folks celebrate Juneteenth.
Abbott’s “1836 Project” initiated June 2021, is supposed to be
a slap at Nikole Hannah-Jones, whose historical document “The 1619 Project” shines
a light on the slave trade. On Twitter Hannah-Jones noted that she “feared that
the 1836 Project was another attempt to veil this nation’s history of slavery”.
She further posted, “When it comes to slavery, some people have never
wanted open debate and honesty. They seek to bury and prohibit it instead”.
Former president Donald Trump was unhappy with Hannah-Jones Pulitzer
Prize winning project. Through an executive order September 2020, Trump created
his own version of “The 1619 Project”, calling it “The 1776 Commission.” He said,
“The 1776 Commission” will promote a “patriotic education”. He wants it taught
in classrooms. He called for the cancellation of Critical Race Theory in
classrooms, and in training sessions among federal employees. He outlawed racial
sensitivity training that discussed White Privilege. “The 1619 Project”, that Trump
called “revisionist history”, is not taught in elementary or high school classrooms.
Another form of racism that gives Whites an advantage is termed structural racism. It is the “overarching system of racial bias across institutions and society. These systems give privileges to White people resulting in disadvantages to people of color. The notion of race is a social construct designed to divide people into groups ranked as superior and inferior”. (National Museum of African American History and Culture)
Textbook publisher McGraw-Hill was approached by astute
students and parents to reverse and reprint a geography photo and caption that
referred to enslaved Africans as “immigrants” and “workers”. The inaccurate
depiction had gotten the attention of a high school freshman from Texas named Coby
Burren. He phoned his mother, reading
the caption to her. Roni Dean-Burren, an English teacher at a Pearland, Texas
public school, posted the picture to Facebook. The detailed graphic was listed
under McGraw-Hill World Geography in textbooks dispensed throughout
America.
Dean-Burren said in an interview with The Washington Post,
“This is revisionist history-retelling the story however the winners would like
it told”.
According to The Los Angeles Times, 2015, “The picture shows a
graphic about immigration patterns with the text, The Atlantic Slave Trade between
the 1500s and 1800s brought millions of workers from Africa to the southern
United States to work on agricultural plantations”.
McGraw-Hill apologized in a post on Facebook. “We believe we
can do better. To communicate these facts more clearly, we will update this
caption to describe the arrival of African slaves in the U.S. as a forced
migration and emphasize that their work was done as slave labor”.
Newsweek, 9/17/22, wrote: “Slaves were gifted, deeded and
mortgaged the same way we sell houses today. They were itemized and insured the
same way we manager our assets and protect out valuables. Enslaved people were
valued at every stage of their lives, from before birth until after death.
Slaveholders examined women for their fertility and projected the value of
their ‘future increase’. As the slaves grew up, enslavers assessed their value
through a rating system that quantified their work. Their value decreased on a
quarter scale from three-fourths hands to one-fourth hands, to a rate of zero,
which was typically reserved for elderly or differently able bond people”.
“Voluntary
relocation” suggests that Africans came to the America on their own free will
in crowded, unsanitary ships
“Guilt is heavy in America, and the only way to throw off this
burden is by changing the conditions that created it. But first there must be
acknowledgement. Since the eighties, acknowledgement has diminished. Black
people are told: ‘We gave you your chance and you failed’. The truth is, we did
not fail. They never lived up to anything they wrote down. America has never
repented for what it’s done to our people. Or shall we talk of the Indians and
broken treaties? Our society has never lived up anything they’ve said to
anybody of color. So it’s not a matter of ‘We gave you’. They haven’t given us
nothin’. You cannot rob me and give me anything. If I rob you on the corner and
then say, ‘Here’s five dollars’”, it’s absurd”. (The Wisdom of The Elders by
Robert Fleming)
Restless Caucasians have found another bogeyman to feed their
boredom and need for public attention. In 2009 it was newly elected president, Barack
Obama, a Black man, was the bogeyman. Millions of Whites lost their minds! Collectively! How dare
a Black man think he is equal to White people! Today its Critical Race Theory. A few self-lobotomized Blacks have signed onto the absurdity,
unaware of their history in America. Whites have accused Blacks of wanting to stigmatize
White children, making them feel guilty for enjoying the American dream. Whites
say African Americans have always had the same opportunities and freedoms
afforded Whites, but Blacks were just too lazy to take advantage of the
opportunities.
When Republican Michele Bachmann was running for president in
2011, she said, “A Black child born into slavery in 1860 was more likely to be
raised by his mother and father in a two-parents household than was an African
American baby born after the election of USA’s first African American
president”.
As usual, folks are repeating the myth that Blacks have always
been on equal footing with Whites. They did not own slaves, they say. They are
not responsible for what their fore-parents did. They overlook the fact that President
Abe Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation did not include equal rights for manumitted
slaves. They could not pursue the American Dream. Privileged Whites stole land
that freed Africans scrimped and saved to buy.
Whites burned down small towns that Blacks built, such as Rosewood. One of the most noted in history is the complete destruction of Black Wall Street in Oklahoma in 1921. Jealous Whites did not like that Blacks were living better than they were. They looted businesses and homes and killed hundreds of Blacks, leaving many homeless and broken. The law was not on their side, and no one was ever prosecuted for the crimes.
Slaves learned from their captors that land ownership is
power. Centuries later African Americans have begun to reclaim the land that
was taken from their ancestors.
Critical Race Theory is taught at law schools and some universities, not grade schools. It is much too complicated to quickly skim in Social Studies or history. For instance: Jackson, Mississippi, a southern state, rocked and rolled a history of violence and racism against freed slaves. It was founded 210 years ago and named in honor of a wealthy plantation owner named Andrew Jackson. He made his fortune using free African labor. As seventh president he was instrumental in the ethnic cleansing of the South’s Indigenous population, resulting in the Trail of Tears.
“Later Jackson suffered some of the worst racist violence as
Jim Crow laws disenfranchised African Americans across the South and White
supremacist terrorism waged by the KKK and others drove millions of Blacks
North in the Great Migration. Edgar Evers, political activist, and NAACP
secretary was assassinated outside his Jackson, Mississippi home”. (Democracy
Now)
No Black can escape an angry White mob
Violence against Blacks for the sake of violence was the norm in
the good ol’ days. Not even an unborn baby could escape a horrific death at the
hands of a malicious mob. Mary Turner was eight months pregnant when it
happened to her. Turner’s baby was cut from her stomach as she hung upside down
from a tree. Without mercy, a male took a knife and cut the unborn child from
Turner’s stomach. He stomped the baby to death when it fell to the ground. Turner
was doused with gasoline and set on fire. She was lynched by a mob from Brooks
County, Georgia. The year was 1918.
Turner was a free citizen of the United States. Her husband
had been accused of murdering a White plantation owner. After his murder 13
Blacks were lynched. No Black person was safe from White terrorists armed with
ropes, rifles, guns, ammunition, and trees. Turner, a mother of three, was
rendered guilty because she had the gall to speak out against the mob that lynched
her husband, Hayes Turner, for a murder he did not commit. A book was
eventually written about Mary Turner, but her story will not be required
reading in public school rooms, nor will it be stacked on library shelves.
A study conducted by the Equal Justice Initiative found that 4,084
Black men, women and children were lynched in 12 southern states. Of that
number 3,265 were African Americans. No one was prosecuted for the lynchings.
This is what White parents and politicians want to hide. What happened in 1918
and centuries earlier is not their fault. It is easier to whitewash history,
double rinse it in bleach, eliminating all evidence.
In Texas, according to the late Barry Crouch, historian of the
Reconstruction era in Texas, said Whites in the state murdered about one of
every hundred African American men between the ages of 15 and 49 from 1865 to
1868. They murdered newly enfranchised voters, and there a story of one enraged
White man with a sword chopping an African American woman in Huntsville in half
when she dared celebrate her emancipation. (The Texas Monthly)
Employee told not to drive his new car to work
Years ago, a friend of mine worked at a large high-tech
company in Austin, Texas. He and his wife worked hard to build a middle-class
life for themselves and their children. They had two cars. He drove the old car;
his wife drove the new one. One day he drove the new car to work, parking in
the employee’s space. At some point during the day his supervisor pulled him
aside, asking him if the car was his.
His supervisor, who was White, read him the riot act, scolding
him about spending his income on fancy cars. He told my friend that he was
buying a home, had a boat and a car! He did not see the boat and car as a waste
of money. My friend was told not to drive the car to work again. The supervisor
likened his car to my friend’s car, saying it looked better than his! He sealed
the conversation with a threat to terminate my friend if he disobeyed his
order.
My friend was not the only Black employee this supervisor had
approached. They said he was jealous and did not want to see Black employees
progress at the company. They knew that he was not above creating problems to get them fired.
The White supervisor had the power to smother the financial lifelines of Black
employees whenever he wanted, without fear of reprisal from the top.
On the TV show “Black-ish” an episode caught my attention. The story line was related to enrolling in college. When it was time for his oldest son to enroll in college, his parents
reluctantly let him go to the college of his choice. He was supposed to live on
campus. Within a week he returned home to their surprise. He wanted a “gap
year” before seriously committing to college.
One day at work, Andre Dre Johnson, played by actor Anthony Anderson, a successful advertising executive, told his fellow employees about his son’s decision to take off a year before enrolling in college. He was reminded by the two White males sitting around conference table that Black kids—unlike White kids—could not take off a year before enrolling in college.
The
boss of the company reminded Johnson that each day his son was not attending
college, he was getting farther behind, giving reason for White employers not
to hire him. He said White employers are key to his son’s succeeding. Albeit
comedy imitating real life, the company’s CEO let Johnson know that no matter
how his son succeeds, White employers will decide what financial road he will
travel.
When Dre revealed that he had attended Howard University, his
boss, Mr. Stevens, said he thought Dre attended Harvard, not Howard. He said he
would not have hired Dre had he known he attended a “school for Blacks”.
Those words evoked the notion that Johnson could not realize success after
graduating from an all-Black university. Like my friend who was told not drive
his new car to work, or risk getting fired, Mr. Stevens controlled Dre
Johnson’s destiny and his success at his company. This amounted Dre Johnson and
my friend metaphorically, walking around with a White man’s foot on their necks
every day they reported to work.
Critical Race Theory was riding the backs of African Americans long before it became a recent issue for White folks to politicize. Republicans are using fear about CRT to get elected. And it’s working.
CRT: The boogeyman is coming for your children
