Since the beginning of 2026, I’ve been thinking about the “good ole boy system.” I did a little bit of research on Google and found that the “good ole boy system” started in the late 1800s when slavery had ended for all intents and purposes—but not really—and rich white men wanted to make sure that they stayed in control.
So, they developed this “unofficial” official system to ensure that their businesses and their business dealings, which includes politics, stayed in their lineage. They only wanted white men to have positions of power and control, and they only wanted white men in their businesses. And 250 years later, we are still seeing the effects of this “good ole boy system.”
I know that in Springfield, it has been happening for a very long time—blatantly. Nepotism in our school system, in city hall and city departments, as well as with a lot of businesses that came here and made deals with people in control and power to make sure that only their family members or friends got into some of these positions.
So, when we had the first black female President of the City Council come before us and at her second or third City Council meeting that she presided over and she made a mistake by not recusing herself before a matter that involved her family, I was shocked at the backlash of it. It was a mistake. I think she got caught up in the emotion of seeing her son, and she forgot to recuse herself. And because of that, things were brought out from 2021 that she had done as a new City Councilor when she had just been elected and no one had said anything until 2026 when she made that crucial mistake.
This makes me feel like the “good ole boy system” is still in play and if you are not one of the “boys,” you have no expectation of grace or anything else. When Barack Obama was elected, they got scared and now we have a racist, rapist starting wars to distract from being held accountable because “good ole boys” aren’t held accountable. We (people of color) have to be 10 times better than the average white boy to be considered as almost equal.
We are in the very initial stages of dismantling this system and just like people don’t like boundaries, they don’t like this. But we cannot stop, we won’t stop! ■