TO MY MORE TIMID ASSOCIATES
“If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation are men who want crops without plowing up the ground; they want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters.” – Frederick Douglass
CRYIN’ AIN’T STRUGGLE
All of the crying I hear coming from Springfield’s Black community about casino jobs, economic development opportunities, support from city hall is so muffled that the people who should be hearing it don’t hear it and the Black community continues to be marginalized. Even if those who should be hearing it do hear it, as Frederick Douglass might have said, “Cryin’ ain’t struggle.” He definitely said, “Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.” So if you aren’t getting anything out of Springfield’s economic boom, it’s because you haven’t demanded anything. We should all know by now that crying will get us nothing. Crying without demanding is just another way of choosing to be powerless.
“THE HEARTBEAT OF RACISM IS DENIAL”
“Because we (White folks) naturally want to look away from our ugliness. We paint over racist reality to make a beautiful delusion of self, of society. We defend this beautiful self and society from our racist reality with weapons of denial…. Denial is fueled by the stigma associated with being a racist. Feeding the stigma is how “racist” is considered almost like an identity, a brand….But a racist is not who a person is. A racist is what a person is, what a person is saying, what a person is doing.” (Ibam X Kendi, The New York Times, January 13, 2018) A White friend brought this article to my attention and I read it in its entirety and was impressed.
BOSTON GLOBE SERIES ON RACISM RINGS TRUE IN TODAY’S SPRINGFIELD
One thing is true about Springfield. If you are an African American resident who wants to grow, your chances are enhanced by leaving Springfield just as remaining in this city will likely stifle your growth. The blessed irony of it all is that so many who remain are oblivious to the extent of the damage that racism has wrought even as African Americans’ influence in the politics and economics of Springfield wanes. The recent Boston Globe series on racism in Boston was refreshingly honest. Too bad it wasn’t extended to Springfield where so many of all races are so well trained to treat racism as though it doesn’t exist. The focal point of such a study should be on City Hall and its slogan should be “follow the money.”
FAKE NEWS
Washington Post’s Erik Wemple wrote: (According to a Gallup-Knight Foundation survey) “Four in 10 (42 percent of) Republicans consider accurate news stories that cast a politician or political group in a negative light to always be ‘fake news.’ (The corresponding figure for Democrats is 17 percent.) “…fake news” has performed a jack-of-all-trades role for Trump champions. A negative story with flimsy-appearing sources? “Fake news.” A story that is challenged by Trump appointees. “Fake news.” A story that ends up being corrected? “Fake news” all day long! A true but unflattering story.” Heck, that’s “fake news,” too. “…fake news is essentially anything that portrays the president in a negative light.”
WELL, HOW DO YOU THINK HE GOT TO BE PRESIDENT?
The Wall Street Journal’s William Galston, citing a recent Gallup poll, wrote: “There is evidence to support my confidence in the American people’s common sense. In a recent Quinnipiac survey, only 34% say President Trump is honest, compared with 63% who do not. Only 38% think he cares about average Americans, and 32% think he shares their values. Fifty-nine percent deny he has good leadership skills. Only 28% consider him levelheaded, the same as the percentage who believe he has accomplished more than most presidents during his first year in office…. Not surprisingly, 56% of Americans give his first-year performance a grade of D or F. They do not regard his performance as an accident or bad luck: 57% say he is unfit to serve as president.” The real question – which is my own – that arises from these statistics is “How did this deplorable man come to be president if not by the votes of these people with “common sense?”
A FEW OBSERVATIONS
First of all, to blame Donald Trump for Donald Trump’s ascension to the most important leadership position in government is nonsense. Like it or not, he was placed in the position by a substantial part of the American electorate, mostly White, many Republican, but also, many Democrats and many Independents, all of whom seemed to be chasing a dream that began after the apparent success of the Civil Rights Movement after which Republican politicians, beginning with Richard Nixon, began the Republican focus on enticing racist, Jim Crow-loving Southern “Dixicrats” over to the Republican side with racist bait. Nixon was followed by the smooth-talking Ronald Reagan who, among other cues, made Philadelphia, Mississippi (where three Civil Rights workers were viciously lynched by White residents) one of his first campaign stops. George W. Bush, with his Willie Horton strategy against Michael Dukakis in which he portrayed the Black criminal as the face of the Black community, continued the Republicans’ racial strategy. Ironically, even Barack Obama added to the progression by simply being the nation’s first Black president. It was not only the reaction of overt racists to his presidency but also the subliminal racist reaction of many who claimed to be nonracist but who disingenuously castigated Obama’s every move. They laid the final stepping stone for the emergence of the overtly racist Donald Trump. In Biblical terms, you reap what you sow. In a play on the words of James Baldwin in his book, The Fire Next Time ―play with fire and you get burned. In the words of Malcolm X, Donald Trump is simply a case of “the chickens coming home to roost.” And I must say that what the chickens came home with is as ugly as it gets and the soul of White America is being tested as never before for its restorative ability (if such exists), which is a good thing. The “good thing” is that one of the most unpredictable results of “Trumpism” is that White America is engaging in frank and open discussions about its racism problem, the outcome of which will determine whether we grow as a people in harmony or in conflict.
CHARACTER?
“…it’s worth pausing to consider that the president of the United States backed the candidacy of (Alabama’s) Roy Moore, a credibly accused child molester, a fulsome liar, an intolerant religious zealot and a trafficker in racist symbolism, not the least of them being a repellent nostalgia for the antebellum South, slavery included. He got the president’s endorsement.” (The Republican, December 20, 2017)
“RACISTS DON’T CARE ABOUT YOUR RESUME”
I was pleased to read The Boston Globe writer Renee Graham’s article titled “Racists don’t care about your resume” (January 17, 2018). She was commenting on some of the responses of Haitians and others to President Trump’s negative comments. She was concerned that too many of Trump’s victims felt a need to flaunt their life accomplishments. She wrote: “…racists like Trump and those who applaud his ugly comments won’t be swayed by an impressive resume….Pushing against Trump’s prejudices in this way also unintentionally smacks of respectability politics. That’s the idea that acceptance for certain groups is predicated on behaving in a manner that meshes with white mainstream values….In short it’s a way of saying, “Behave like this, and white people will like you,” an empty idea as old as America….In other words, be perfect to be treated half as good as white people.”. . .
“RACISTS DON’T CARE ABOUT YOUR RESUME”
“Trump does not care about the accomplishments of people of color. He does not care about their academic degrees. He does not care about lives risked and medals won in defense of this country – something he steadfastly avoided. He cares only that they aren’t white. Any other attempt at reasonable debate is wasted on this unreasonable man, and there is no one more immune to reason than a racist.” (Renee Graham, The Boston Globe, January 17, 2018) Amen!
THE PARTIES
I wish I had the writing talent of a Leonard Pitts, a Black writer for the Miami Herald. He is so precise. The headline for one of his recent articles (Miami Herald as reprinted in The Republican, January 16, 2018) is “Voting while black is hard.” He wrote: “Neither party covers itself with glory where African Americans are concerned. To the contrary, African-American issues – police reform, job discrimination, mass incarceration – routinely go unaddressed by both.” And his description was so on point. He said: “Imagine you have two suitors. One of them tends to ignore you, often seems ashamed to be seen with you, but occasionally brings you flowers. The other beats you. If you must date one, is it any wonder you’d choose the former?” And he follows up with a tirade on Republican duplicity. “So Republicans, who pioneered the Southern strategy, opened the 1980 election praising state’s rights, demonized Willie Horton, gutted the Voting Rights Act, issued coded appeals to white racial resentment, demeaned the first African-American president, and were hit just last year by federal judges for a photo I.D. law designed with “surgical precision” to stop black North Carolinians from voting, have no standing to ask black people, “Why don’t you like us.” And then, he hits the proverbial nail on the head when he wrote: “Unfortunately, the GOP’s resort to these “conniving methods” has left Democrats no meaningful competition for the black vote – and where competition is absent, neglect invariably flourishes.” And he embellishes his point writing, “Democrats are far too likely to ignore black issues or, at best pay lip service to them. And they are forever stepping over black voters while giving the high sign to white ones, like a married man winking and mouthing “call me” to some other woman while his wife is standing there.” I just love the writing style of this Leonard Pitts. He concludes his article with even more wisdom writing: “But one gets used to being shoved aside when voting while black….Indeed, it says something that presidential candidates routinely spend more time discussing the concerns of 50,000 coal miners than those of 43 million black people. What it says is that African-American votes, like African-American lives, count for less.” What it also says is that African Americans should vote more strategically and less out of loyalty to a party. ■
