Before you begin, I warn you, this blog is lengthy, but there was simply no way to shorten it.
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. created one of the best historical documentaries I’ve seen in a long time for PBS. “And Still I Rise” aired yesterday to celebrate Martin Luther Kings birthday and although I had seen it before, I decided it was well worth revisiting, especially with what has been and will be occurring in our country if we allow it.
Broken into decades, many of which I grew up in and remember well, I began to see a pattern that I had somehow missed before. I thought back on the other Gates, Jr. documentaries that began prior to the Civil Rights Movement, including his PBS documentary, “The African Americans “Many Rivers to Cross.”
I recalled the many articles I’d read, movies I’ve watched, and like the sun burning off the morning fog, I began to see our turbulent racial history much clearer.
Racism is a disease that has plagued our country for centuries, there is no getting around it other than to face it head on with truth and clarity. History has shown that every single time minorities began to make strides, they were viciously stopped in their tracks.
In 1921 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on the outskirts of town, the large black community built their own city of banks, businesses and shops. Highly successful they no longer needed to go into white communities to buy the necessities they needed. Their success became a financial and racial thorn for white business owners and when a young black teenage boy had the audacity to speak to a white woman on an elevator, it gave them the excuse they were looking for, to not only accuse the teen of attempted sexual assault, but to attack the African American community itself. By land and air, they invaded and destroyed 35 business district blocks, injured over 800 citizens and murdered thirty nine people.
Read:
en.wikipedia.org/...
Even after the Civil Rights Movement racism problems continued. Segregation, district red lining, and even attempts at integration created more barriers. During the 1960’s a new group of activists appeared, they called themselves “The Black Panthers” and I remember them well, but only as they were portrayed by the media.
We were never told that these two California men, Huey Newton and Bobby Seale had a positive ten point plan that fell under their tagline principles of “Undying love for the people.” The more successful they became in making our country aware of the injustices, the harder the Nixon administration fought back by bringing in the FBI to discredit and attack them. They succeeded.
Read:
www.huffingtonpost.com/...
Fast Forward - 2008
Few people believed that a black man would be the President of the United States and regardless of race almost everyone thought it was inconceivable that Barack Hussein Obama would ever be elected, even if every black person in the country voted for him. Much to the astonishment of republicans and racists alike, this young senator had a message that radiated beyond race, one that spoke to everyone regardless of color. He touched everyone and brought us together. When he won the election it was a collective celebration filled with tears and joy.
We were so close to unity, and then…
As history showed us in the past, the first thing the republican legislators did was to meet behind closed doors to stop any bill that the new president would present, no matter how good it was. They even voted against their own bills to make sure nothing passed under this black president. They rejected over 500 bills presented, many that were designed to help middle and lower class families. They didn’t only want to punish African Americans, but whites who voted for him as well.
Republicans shut down the government at a taxpayer cost of billions of dollars.
They refused to vote on a new Supreme Court Justice, invited a foreign leader (Netanyahu) to address foreign policy to Congress in secrecy in their attempt to stop Obamas historical peace treaty with Iran.
When unemployment was still high, they refused to extend unemployment benefits for the people. They attacked the legitimacy of his presidency by questioning his birth place and demanded proof that he was a U.S. Citizen.
They were hell bent on destroying everything they could to make sure this president never succeeded, they were also determined that no other African American would ever be elected again by showing the country how bad things became under his presidency, even though they were directly responsible for creating the problems.
Republicans had a huge problem though, immigration, unity and diversity was a threat. Their solution was obstruction at the polls through discriminatory and unconstitutional voting laws, purging of voter registrations and gerrymandering designed to stop minority voters and silence their voice. Again, they succeeded.
And now we go full circle once again.
This time we have “Black Lives Matter” who like Martin Luther King, Congressman John Lewis, Huey Newton, Bobby Seale and so many more, find themselves fighting for the same ideals - justice and equality. And once again we see the media, republicans and racists using the same strategies to knock them back down. To make things even worse, we are now about to inaugurate a man who’s only solution to racial problems is to create “police states” and verbally attack peaceful protesters by calling them “thugs.” Will Trump succeed too?
There is something seriously wrong with a society that feels a need to diminish, obstruct and demoralize it’s citizens because of the color of their skin. How long will we allow this to continue? How many generations will have to fight the same fight? How many more innocent people will die? How many marches must we have before we stop this for once and for all?
When will we all speak out and say “enough is enough!” Let it be this year, this time.
Black American since Martin Luther King, Jr. “And Still I Rise”
See clips:
www.pbs.org/...
Many Rivers to Cross - You Tube
www.youtube.com/...