TRUE BUILD – A Short Story

***Greenwood District, Tulsa, Oklahoma, 1906***

Principal Newman wasn’t happy. His pale face was ashen behind a set of rosy cheeks, and a clear sheen of sweat covered his balding head and brow. Winston sat directly in front of him, on the other side of the mahogany desk, his hands clasped together in his lap. Julia Ball, the district’s legal counsel, sat in a chair to the right of Winston, listening, leaning ever so close to him as not to miss his retorts to Principal Newman’s line of questioning.

“Why would you say such a thing?” Principal Newman asked from a seated position behind his desk. “To a classroom full of impressionable ninth graders? Are you even paying attention to the news reports, what their parents are saying about us?”

Winston leaned back in his chair, undeniably confounded by the forcefulness of Principal Newman’s assertion. Winston was fully aware of the heated exchanges that had been occurring between school board members and the parents of Loudoun County students. But he had also surmised that conservative Republican operatives had embedded themselves into these audiences and were largely responsible for turning the monthly school board meetings into circuses, bastions for the dissemination of half-truths, lies and disinformation.

Winston only had one year of teaching under his belt. And that first year went by without a hitch. But the more the Republican presidential incumbent used his public rallies to rail against teachers like him, the more he realized he had to stop being so loose with his words. In 2020, the incumbent Republican president was running for a second term, against the Democratic Party’s nominee, and the incumbent Republican president had shown that he would remain undeterred in openly berating public school administrators and their faculty for teaching K-12 students what he and so many other conservative Republicans considered wrong lessons about race.

“I am,” Winston replied. “But I stand by my statement. Black Americans are the true builders of opportunity and sustainable success.”

“But that’s not true, Winston, and you know it. Don’t get me wrong. You Blacks have had a lot to overcome. But for a highly intelligent Black man like you to tell a room full of White kids that. That’s a bit much, don’t you think?”

Winston immediately countered, at least in his mind, with, “That’s rich.” Better to think it than say it out loud.

“Winston,” Julia interjected, using her right hand to brush a few strands of her blonde hair off her face. “We’re not here to be overly critical of you, as a teacher. Your students love you. Your colleagues love you. But our parents are questioning what their children are being taught in your class about race. And while the claim that Critical Race Theory is being taught in K through twelve classrooms is ridiculous, the fact remains that there are elected officials – all conservative Republicans, mind you – on the local, state, and national levels who are legitimizing it in hopes of peeling away a few votes from the Dems during the upcoming elections.”

“And I get that,” Winston said, a hint of exasperation in his voice. “But the only critical thing I’m trying to teach my students is to think critically about American history. They don’t have to take what I say at face value. But my hope is they fully process what I am trying to communicate to them. I want them to leave class wanting to do their own research. I want them to have an appreciation for the complete historical record, paying attention to all its blemishes.”

“And we respect that,” said Principal Newman. He stood and walked around to the front of his desk. He was now a mere six feet from Winston, three from Julia. He sat on the edge of his desk to look down at Winston.

“It’s a Friday, Winston,” Principal Newman exclaimed, his right eye twitching once, maybe twice, as he spoke. “Having to talk with you about this bullshit is the last thing I wanted to do today.” He stood, stepped to his right. “But go home. Use the weekend to think about how uncomfortable your words made the White students in your class feel.”

Winston raked his hand across the full length of his face before leaning back once more, thumbing the sides of the wooden chair. He had not become an educator – more specifically a history teacher – to make his White students feel comfortable. He knew, like so many other educators, that if one is to teach true American history, the hearers of what is being taught must have the capacity to deal with its undertones.

However, the fact that his boss got up out of his chair to remove the barrier between them, let him know that he sincerely wanted Winston to remain on staff. But that would require that he toe any line Principal Newman set for him moving forward. Therefore, Winston stood, extended his hand. Principal Newman met and clamped down on it in midair, holding it steady in the space between them.

“I will,” Winston said as he shook his hand free. Then, backing away toward the exit door, he added, “See you on Monday?”

Principal Newman replied, “Yes. See you on Monday.”

That night, sometime between eight and nine, Winston found himself stretched out on his living room sofa, feet propped up on the coffee table, as he flipped through the pages of a book titled The 1619 Project. The last slice of a pizza grew cold in a box on the dining room table, basking under the glow of chandelier lights. The seven other slices had been good enough for Winston, at least for now. The sound of an explosion made him look over at the wall-mounted television across the room, increasing the anxiety he was feeling about the real possibility of losing his teaching job.

He already had a sense of who ratted him out. It could have only been one of two suspects – Johnny Richards or Pamela Towns. Johnny didn’t say much in class, but when he did, his classmates seemed to hang on his every word. Pamela, on the other hand, was very outspoken in class, and Winston could tell she was a “my way or no way” kind of girl. But he also knew Johnny’s parents’ politics ran counter to his own. Therefore, if he were a betting man, he would put all his chips on Suspect Number One.

And for good reason. When Johnny, a new student, stepped into his classroom during the middle of the 2021-22 school year, after the school’s Winter break, he proudly announced to everyone within earshot that in 2016 his parents had voted for the Republican presidential incumbent, who was then the Republican presidential nominee. It didn’t matter that the man bragged about how the women he knew loved it when he grabbed them by their pussies. And it didn’t matter that he told reporters that there are good people on “both sides” after one of those “good” White supremacists ended a White BLM protestor’s life by running her over with his car. All that seemed to matter to Johnny’s parents, and Johnny as their child, was the belief that the Republican presidential incumbent could do no wrong because all he wanted to do was “make America great again.”

Winston chuckled to himself at the intended cockiness of this statement. He knew no one president, or political party for that matter, could truly make America great again. All he, or she, or even they, could hope to do is do what their predecessors had committed themselves to doing, which was to create a more perfect union. The last time Winston checked, creating a more perfect union was the corporate vision laid out in both the U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence. Now, he wondered how this truth had become lost on the Republican presidential incumbent, Congressional Republican legislators, and the six Republican Supreme Court justices.

Winston had a more difficult time reading Pamela. She considered the Second Amendment, the right to bear arms, sacred, and she was an outspoken critic of abortion rights. She believed that persons kill people, not the arms they bear. Consequently, she felt all the United States government, in collaboration with the Christian church, had to do was win the hearts and minds of gun purchasers, keep guns out of the hands of citizens with psychological problems. Pamela also believed that life begins at conception. But when it came to same-sex marriage, her views seemingly became more liberal and less conservative.

When her gay and lesbian classmates reminisced aloud during classroom discussions about the 2016 Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida, in which 49 people were killed, another 53 injured, Pamela defended them. These classmates talked about how they are now scared to openly display any type of affection toward their same-sex partners. Pamela now believed that people should be able to love whomever they wanted to love, whether male, female, or nonbinary. But Winston had heard from Issac, another Black man who just happened to be the school’s Physical Plant director, that Pamela had extra motivation for her defense. He divulged that a female member of his janitorial staff caught Pamela and another White girl, Leslie Cooper, French kissing and feeling each other up under the gymnasium bleachers about a month before Winston was called into Principal Newman’s office.

Winston peered over at the wall clock on the far side of the room. Nine fifteen. He opened The 1619 Project book once more, with every intention of reading Nikole Hannah-Jones’ piece on Justice. However, as his eyes soaked in the words on the chapter’s first page, he could feel them getting heavier. Not long after that, they were completely shut, his nostrils flaring from the forcefulness of his snores. When his eyes opened, he was…

…sitting in a barber’s chair, his upper body covered by a barber’s cape from the neck down.

“They know Dick didn’t do nothing wrong,” said Sammy, the establishment’s proprietor. Sammy, his round belly fighting to stay under his waist-length barber’s smock, took great care in using a pair of scissors to put the finishing touches on Winston’s cut. There were about five other Black men sitting in chairs in front of and around Winston. Others sat patiently in the two rows of chairs positioned in front of the plate-glass window with Sammy’s Barbershop painted on it on the outside. “But Hubert and his boys down at the courthouse now. Making sure those crackers don’t take Dick out back to hang his ass.”

A light-skinned brother getting his hair cut to Winston’s right shifted in his chair, causing his barber Damon to take a momentary pause.

“I told him not to go down there,” the light-skinned brother exclaimed. “At least not armed. Told him some of the White folks around here don’t take too kindly to what we have going on over here, in Greenwood. I been hearing rumblings around town, how they scheming to take all this away from us.”

Another man sitting in a chair on the front left row of the chairs interjected, asking, “How they going to do that O.W.?” He uncrossed his legs and spread them wide. “You and J.D. purchased Greenwood outright,” he continued, gesturing with his hands for emphasis. “All of us working together is what turned it into a thriving community. So, I’m sorry. We built this, not them.”

“We did, Clive,” O.W. replied. “But some of us are getting caught up, drawing too much attention to what we built. That White girl down at the Drexel Building done come out and said Dick stumbled and accidentally stepped on her foot. But them White boys still lying about the whole thing, saying he attacked her. Makes you wonder what they plan on doing to the rest of us.”

Just as O.W. mouthed these words, the plate glass window to his right imploded, causing shards of glass to rain down on the row of seated patrons. All eyes followed the trajectory of a large brick as it flew over their heads and bounced across the floor. Seconds later, they watched again as a Coke bottle with a flaming makeshift wick flew through the open space to splatter trails of kerosene and flame across the room.

Winston ripped the kerosene-soaked cape from around his neck and tossed it toward the billowing flames. It became ash before it could hit the floor. He then hastily followed Sammy, O.W. and the others to the back storeroom. Once there, they all exited through a door that led to the back alley. But once he was outside, Winston froze.

O.W. briefly stood with Winston before trotting away. Before getting too far, he peered back at Winston. He motioned to Winston. O.W. watched as Winston seemed to recognize the urgency of now. So, when Winston caught up to O.W., they wasted little time retreating down the shadowed alleyway.

Night had fallen on the Greenwood District, and all Greater Tulsa for that matter, but the full moon and the flames rifting from the burning buildings provided enough lighting for them to get around. But when O.W. and Winston reached one of the main streets, they found themselves walking past the dead bodies of Black, and a few White and Native American, Greenwood residents. A mix of splatters and pools of dark, red blood surrounded the bodies, many of them riddled with gunshot wounds. Overwhelmed by it all, Winston froze again, almost falling to his knees.

“Come on, young buck,” O.W. pleaded, as he prepared to take a left onto an adjoining street. “They still out there. Hunting.”

But before Winston could get back to his feet, a tall White man dressed in denim overalls, carrying a shotgun, rounded the corner of a brick building. When he spotted Winston, he raised his shotgun, finger on the trigger, taking aim. Fortunately for Winston, O.W. got him first. A single shot to the back of the White man’s head from O.W.’s revolver sent the White man reeling face first onto the dirt turf.

“Let’s go,” said O.W., slipping the revolver back into the shoulder holster hidden under the confines of his suit jacket. “They’re waiting.”

The further they walked away from Greenwood, the darker it became. A thin line of sunlight peeked over the horizon to the east. Moonlight allowed Winston to make out the trees, bushes and vines that stood between them and their destination. But those darn thorn bushes caused him to wince as they tore into the exposed skin around his hands and forearms. Winston kept telling himself that he was born for conditions like this. Frolicking around the woods as a child with his friends used to be an everyday occurrence during the summer months.

Of course, he knew the armed White mob was rumbling through Greenwood’s dusty streets, frothing from their mouths at the mere thought of destroying everyone and everything that had a connection to Greenwood. It was then that Winston realized he was indeed a man out of place, out of time.

“You’re O.W. Gurley, aren’t you?” asked Winston when they stopped briefly to catch their breaths.

O.W. replied, “I am. And you are?”

“Winston. Winston James.”

“Pleasure meeting you, Winston James.

Winston flopped to his bottom and allowed his back to rest against a large oak tree. “Seems like we been running for hours, sir. Where we going?”

O.W. joined Winston under the tree but opted to remain standing. He pulled a handkerchief from his inside pocket, using it to dab at his brow. “Somewhere safe, Winston. A gathering place.”

Winston peered at O.W., admiring how O.W.’s pale face was shrouded in light and darkness. As a student of Black American history, Winston knew a little about the role gathering places played in helping his enslaved ancestors develop a sense of identity and purpose. And while these gathering places were used mostly to practice their version of Christianity beyond the oversight of White overseers, the frustrated and anxious Black men of that bygone era used them to plan, coordinate and execute a somewhat radical form of activism that would one day win them their freedom.

Moments later, Winston, once again, found himself falling in lockstep with O.W. for what Winston hoped was the final leg of their journey. However, the sound of barking dogs and the sight of lit torches caused them to take refuge behind a row of bushes. When the dogs’ barks became growls mixed with the slopping sounds of flesh being ripped from bone, Winston knew one of this White crews had caught up to some Greenwood residents. And by the sound of things, the dogs wasted very little time making mincemeat of their captives, buoyed by the urgings of their White owners. Then, five thunderous claps from a shotgun rang out.

With the White crew and their dogs moving further down the road, Winston and O.W. emerged from their hiding place. They were headed in the same direction as the crime scene, so there was no avoiding the carnage wrought by the rabid dogs and their White owners. As they drew closer, O.W. turned slightly away from the piles of ripped flesh and exposed bone, looking instead toward the heavens, seeking comfort wherever any could be found. Winston could tell O.W. recognized the four lifeless bodies – A Black man and woman, their two elementary school-aged children. Tragically reduced to nothing more than empty vessels.

“Dem bastards,” muttered O.W. Then, from a squatting position, inches from what appeared to be the Black father, he extended his right hand, and with his thumb and index finger, he forced the Black father’s eyes shut. If only he could have done the same for the others. But how could he? Deep, bloody holes and indentions now occupied the spaces where the mother and children’s faces had been.

Winston surmised that two members of the White crew had probably forced the Black father to his knees as they shot his wife and children in their faces with their shotguns. Images of them standing the Black father up and then riddling his battered but not broken body with bullets played in Winston’s mind. All to show the Black father that they were the one’s wielding absolute power absolutely, he thought.

O.W. rose from his stooping position to stand tall with his head tilted toward the full moon. Down but not beaten. Then, without saying a word, he took a single glance at Winston, seemingly to see if he was still engaged.

Winston found himself following O.W. as he crawled into what appeared to be a large hole on the side of a rolling hill. The hole was covered with foliage with a thick row of bushes to its left, so one had to know what he was looking for to find it. O.W. was definitely in the know. Winston entered behind O.W. Once inside, he stood upright, his eyes widening at the spectacle before him. They were now in a spacious cavern, the only lighting coming from fiery flames atop torches that had been secured high in the crevices of the cavern’s stony walls.

Winston spotted O.W. greeting, tightly embracing and then releasing a dark-skinned brother to his right. Several feet to his left, the eyes of what appeared to be some of Greenwood’s displaced residents looked back at him. The displaced sat three or four rows deep in multiple huddles throughout the cavern. Winston surmised that their numbers included more Black bodies than others. But as he surveyed their downcast faces, Winston was pleased to see Greenwood residents of Native American, Asian and Caucasian descent sitting among the displaced. This was the Greenwood that the history books didn’t tell you about, Winston thought. A coalition as colorful as the rainbow, built by Black entrepreneurs to uplift the Black race while simultaneously being open to conducting business with anyone willing to sufficiently compensate hardworking Greenwood residents for their labor.

O.W. motioned to Winston as he and the dark-skinned brother solemnly walked toward a stony enclave situated in the right-hand corner of the cavern. Winston spotted Sammy and two other Black men that he had seen earlier at the barbershop sitting inside, around a blazing fire.

O.W. and Winston sat with the others around the fire. The dark-skinned brother did the same. “This here J.D. J.D. Stradford.”

Winston nodded at J.D. as he settled in around the fire.

“He the one that helped me do all this,” O.W. continued. J.D.’s gaze shifted from Winston to the logs burning in the fire. “Amazing what we were able to accomplish.”

Winston sat patiently, waiting for J.D. to say something, anything, to him. But J.D. remained silent as the tears mounted in his eyelids to roll down the sides of his ebony cheeks.

“All we ever wanted to do was create a better life for ourselves,” he said, “for our people. We didn’t ask them for nothing; just wanted to be left alone. But they couldn’t even allow us to have that. What we built with our own blood, our own sweat, our own tears.” He locked eyes with O.W. “They done took it from us, O.W. What we going to do now?”

O.W.’s gaze retreated from J.D. to the faces of the other Black men seated around the fire. Then, while gazing into the fire, he replied, “We rebuild. And we keep rebuilding until they stop coming at us, after us. Sooner or later, they’re going to get the message – that we’re not going anywhere, that we’re here to stay.”

Winston closed his eyes to whisper a silent prayer. When they opened, he found himself…

…back in his living room, reclining on the sofa, The 1619 Project book lying open with the pages pressing into his chest.

Winston tilted The 1619 Project book up so he could pick up where he left off. His eyes immediately fell on the bolded words “Freed people” in the middle of the page. His interest piqued, he continued, reading, “…tried to compel the government to provide restitution for slavery, to provide at the very least a pension for those who, along with generations of their ancestors, had spent their entire lives toiling for no pay. They filed lawsuits. They organized to lobby politicians. And every effort failed.”

Winston shifted his gaze from the page to the talking heads on the television across the room. Even though he was looking at them, he really was looking past them, at the faces of O.W. Gurley and J.D. Stradford staring back at him.

It saddened him that these two Black, self-made, American men had their dream of a self-sufficient Black American community scuttled by a White American populace that didn’t have an appetite for Black people pursuing and achieving life, liberty and happiness, excellence even. His own analysis of what had transpired in Greenwood revealed that its Black American residents weren’t filing lawsuits or lobbying politicians to get what they wanted, what they were entitled too. Hell, they could have cared less about receiving handouts from the Federal government. Again, they had legally purchased Midwestern land. Now, or least then, they wanted to be left alone so they could lead lives that were free of turmoil and strife.

Winston watched quietly as his students packed up their belongings and made a hasty exit through the door at the back of the classroom. After most of them had cleared out, he used the remote to power off the smart board. But when he looked up, he spotted Johnny approaching.

“Hey, Mr. Winston,” Johnny began, nervously tugging on the bookbag dangling from his shoulder. “Can we talk?”

“Sure,” said Winston, dropping to the rolling ergonomic chair between his desk and the smart board.

“I owe you an apology, sir.”

“An apology?” Winston said, feigning surprise. “For what?”

“For telling my parents about what you said in class last week.”

“No worries, Johnny. No harm, no foul. I just hope your parents understand that I wasn’t trying to be mean-spirited by saying what I said.”

Johnny allowed his bookbag to slide off his back and drop to the floor. “That’s the problem,” he said, slipping into the desk chair directly in front of Winston’s. “They act like they don’t, but they do. They plan to make an issue out of it anyway. The school board has agreed to allow my mother to speak out against you at Wednesday’s meeting.” Winston swallowed hard. “I just want you to know, I do. I understand exactly what you were saying.”

Johnny shifted his body and legs to lean sideways in the desk chair, his left elbow on his thigh, his right on the desktop. “I did my own research, sir. Like you always encourage us to do. Came up with my own conclusions. Black people have always been about the business of showing the rest of us what it truly means to be, well, American. Because of the way people that look like me used to treat Black people, America has never been great; it has always been a country in search of greatness. These MAGA people – my parents included – are trying to confuse the issue by referring to history that focuses on Black enslavement, oppression, and disenfranchisement as Critical Race Theory. They want to make White people think we have done enough to right our ancestors’ wrongs. But we haven’t. If anything, we have only been making things worse for everyone by ignoring the wrong things that we have done and keep doing to Black people.” Johnny sat upright. “I just think too many of us are tone deaf, sir.”

Winston allowed his backside to come into alignment with the contours of his ergonomic chair, his elbows on the right and left armrests, his hands coming together to form a bridge, inches from his face.

Johnny glanced up at Winston and then quickly looked away.

Winston stood, walked to the front of his desk. Once there, he offered his right hand to Johnny. When Johnny reached up and accepted it with his own, Winston pulled him up from the chair. The two stood there, for two or three ticks, eyeing each other in silence.

“You see,” Winston began, “this here is what I’m talking about. Connection. You now see what I see, what I and my people experience or have experienced. And that, young buck, is the first step to building community, together.”

Johnny nodded, smirking, as Winston patted him on the back.

Johnny felt fortunate to be in this number.

An Open Letter to Teachers Everywhere

Dear Teachers Everywhere,

We enlightened Americans owe you an apology. We have stood idly by while a small group of unenlightened Americans (conservative Republican operatives really) have implemented schemes to make it more difficult for you to teach our children how to be critical thinkers and responsible civic leaders.

The voices of these unenlightened Americans are being heard in local school board meetings all across the country, and just recently, I learned that a small contingent of unenlightened truckers used their 18-wheelers to block traffic on a major thoroughfare between the United States and Canada, all to express their opposition to COVID-19 mask mandates. But we enlightened Americans know what is really going on. Conservative Republican operatives have initiated a campaign on both the micro and macro levels to make us all less enlightened about inconvenient truths.

But long before these conservative Republican operatives started displaying bullish behaviors at our school board meetings and on major thoroughfares, they were railing against the multi-racial and multi-ethnic groups of enlightened Americans peacefully exercising their First Amendment right to march through our streets to loudly proclaim, “Black Lives Matter!” And even though over 90 percent of the Black Lives Matter protests and rallies were peaceful, then president Donald Trump used his high position to falsely designate the Black Lives Matter organization as a hate group. He cited incidents where shady characters embedded within the BLM protests sparked violent outrage from a few of the peaceful protestors by breaking out windows and looting neighborhood retail stores. But when he encouraged his MAGA cult followers to march on the United States Capitol to “stop the steal,” he called these same MAGA cult followers true patriots even after the world watched them break windows, doors, and damage historical artifacts, before illegally entering the U. S. Capitol vestibule and ultimately the House and Senate chamber floors. Unenlightened Americans consider this ballsy on the former president’s part. I consider such behavior unpatriotic, and a permanent stain on our democracy. Why? Because property was damaged, innocent lives were lost.

Conservative Republican operatives railing against CRT
in public K-12 schools

Teachers everywhere, I know you recognize that Donald Trump used his presidency to make it right for White Americans to push back on Black Americans’ ongoing struggle for equity, justice and fairness. When you hear conservative Republican operatives stand before school boards to rail against Critical Race Theory, something that is not even taught in public K-12 schools, you realize that the conservative Republican movement’s play is to generate support for conservative Republican candidates by appealing to White fears and resentments.

White conservative Republicans want White parents to believe that you teachers teaching their White children about all the bad things their White ancestors did to black, brown, red and yellow Americans is another bad thing because it makes their White children (and them) feel uncomfortable. They want White parents to believe that you teachers engaging their White children in discussions about ongoing racism, prejudice and discrimination makes their White children feel guilty about something they’re not responsible for (and have no responsibility for undoing). They want White parents to believe White children being exposed to books by Black writers like the late Toni Morrison and her contemporary Ta-Nehisi Coates causes their White children to be ashamed of their own racial/ethnic identity. Heck, they want White parents to believe that they did not inherit any privileges from their White ancestors systemically trying to crush the hopes, aspirations and dreams of Black Americans and other Americans of color.

Most, if not all of you, have opted to enter a profession that doesn’t pay well, but has the greatest impact on young minds. You are the professionals who set the tone for how our children will think and feel about their obligations to each other as members of the human race. And ever since the 1954 ruling in the Brown versus the Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas case, which stated that racial segregation in public schools is unconstitutional, you have gone out of your way to encourage our children and adolescents to work together to create a more perfect union, not make America great again.

Let’s be clear: the GOP slogan “Make America Great Again” is nothing more than a dog whistle to White Americans from conservative Republicans that now is the time to make America White again. In short, it is a nod to individuals who falsely believe that White people are the ruling class, and White people more fully exercising their power, influence and control over the masses is the key to keeping America great. But this just isn’t true. Yes, numerous White people have made positive contributions to our country’s greatness, but similar, and sometimes more significant, contributions have also been made by numerous Black Americans and other persons of color, despite the obstacles that the racist Whites have tried to put in our way.

Teachers everywhere, we, the enlightened Americans of this great nation, the United States of America, are depending on you to continue teaching our children how to think critically and lead responsibly. As you well know, critical thinking is the ability to use acquired knowledge and shared experiences to make decisions that positively impact individuals and collectives. Responsible leadership, on the other hand, is the ability to use these same critical thinking skills to work with other patriotic Americans to develop and implement strategies that promote peace not chaos, justice not criminality, truth not lies, unity not division.

We enlightened Americans know that conservative Republican operatives are not making it any easier for you to teach our children critical thinking and responsible leadership skills. That is why more of us are starting to become more committed to countering their false claims about Critical Race Theory with real stories about how White racism, prejudice and discrimination adversely impacts the lives of children of color. That is why more of us are starting to remind school board members and school administrators that representation matters. Our children and adolescents of color must see themselves and their racial/ethnic groups’ contributions reflected accurately in textbooks and supplemental material, which help them establish good habits for lifelong learning.

Teachers everywhere, I implore you to not allow these conservative Republican operatives to normalize ignorance in our society. Enlightenment is what we need, and you are the patriots we’re depending on to help our children become enlightened in the face of the Conservative Movement’s coup to confound their common sensibilities.

Why Authentic Relationships Matter

Black Americans have been trying to tell White Americans that Black lives matter since 1619, when the first Black Africans were forcibly removed from their native land to work America’s cotton and tobacco fields with no promise of compensation. Back in 1619, and the decades that followed, the enslavement of Black bodies was a common practice, and had the full support of the British Empire at first and the United States government beginning in 1776. My Black American ancestors did not secure freedom for themselves, and generations to come, until January 1, 1863, when Republican President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. But the date that most Black Americans celebrate as their emancipation date is June 19, 1865, for this was when enslaved Blacks in Texas learned that they had been freed.

We know our bold “Black Lives Matter” proclamation is not falling on deaf ears. More than ever before, we see progressive-minded White Americans marching in the streets alongside us, chanting, “Black lives matter!” as well as singing old time favorites like We Shall Overcome. Seeing these images, experiencing these events, gives people like me hope for a brighter future. But, truth be told, I still can’t shake this sinking feeling that White American conservatives are trying to sink these efforts “by any means necessary.”

White American conservatives are seemingly trying to reverse Black American progress by using our own weapons against us. Exhibit A is their Million MAGA (Make America Great Again) March, which was held on November 14, 2020. Their use of the words “million” and “march” harkens back to Black Americans’ October 16, 1995 Million Man March.

What these White American conservatives fail to realize is the Nation of Islam’s Louis Farrakhan and other prominent, Black American Civil Rights icons called Black men to Washington, DC for the purpose of motivating Black men to stand in the gap for their women and children, become leaders in their neighborhoods, communities. The Million MAGA March was more symbolic, lacking any real substance. Donald Trump loyalists, which included White supremacists and far-right extremists, seemingly wanted to send a message to the former president that they support him, his missteps, his misdeeds.

Big difference.

Black lives do matter, and more people accept this fact when we cultivate more authentic trans-racial relationships. Progressive White Americans, when they march alongside us Black, Indigenous and Persons of Color, show us that they are tired of judging others by the colors of our skins, preferring instead to congregate with us in our spaces so they can get to know what the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. called the contents of our characters. As a result, they are rewarded for boldly taking these steps, for they are now seen as compatriots, or what I like to call White siblings in the struggle. And the more they endeavor to love on us, the more we endeavor to return the gesture.

Today’s conservatism has nothing to do with conservative ideology. Conservative ideology used to be about smaller government, less government regulation, and fewer handouts to the poor and downtrodden. But this platform only came into focus for Republican conservatives after former Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater articulated it after his presidential nomination at the 1964 Republican National Convention. When Goldwater decried Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson’s newly signed Civil Rights Act of 1964, and unashamedly said he didn’t want to “give handouts to Blacks,” he was appealing to a White American resentment that falsely claimed Black Americans were taking things from them.

If you’re White and you resent us Black Americans because you think we’re taking things from you, you don’t know what it means to be in relationship with others. You also lack the emotional intelligence to display empathy for racial/ethnic groups that have been terrorized, marginalized, murdered and disenfranchised, all to preserve and expand White Rule. Granted, you may think your relationships with the White Americans who share the same flawed, conservative ideology are authentic, but they’re not. Shoot, you may even have a few Black American conservatives telling you that you’re not racist for standing before the school board to rail against the teaching of Critical Race Theory in public K-12 schools. Buyer beware. These Black American conservatives are nothing more than opportunists trying to gain a semblance of relevancy in your world. These aren’t authentic, trans-racial relationships; these are inauthentic, transactional ones.

These inauthentic, transactional relationships run counter to authentic, trans-racial ones because they are temporary, and their sole purpose is to deter Black Americans from developing a more definitive identity through the learning of their history. These insincere efforts also prevent White Americans from learning more about their ancestors’ mistreatment of Black Americans. In their minds, if White Americans learn the truth about this history, they will undoubtedly want to make amends in the here and now to their Black American siblings. They will begin to understand that Black Americans have never attempted to goad White American’s into feeling guilty and uncomfortable. That’s a piece of coal handed down through the ages by their White American ancestors. Their White American ancestors established protocols that allowed them to commit crimes against other human beings and then avoid the penalties associated with their commission.

The May 17, 1954 U. S. Supreme Court ruling in Brown vs. the Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas is what allows non-White American students to learn alongside White American students in public school classrooms. Yes, there was resistance then and there continues to be resistance now, as an increasing number of White American parents are enrolling their children in all-White private schools. But our primary and secondary school children, adolescents and young adults are now allowed to truly see each other, and then make their own determinations on whether they will be racist or anti-racist.

White American conservatives believe giving White Americans’ license to be racist toward non-White Americans is a winning strategy. Making false claims about President Barack Obama not being an American citizen paved the way for Donald Trump being elected U. S. president in 2016. And falsely claiming public school teachers are using Critical Race Theory to make White American students feel uncomfortable is pitting White American parents against Black American ones. The latter example shows that White American conservatives continue to systematically condition the White American populace to show a lack of empathy toward our grievances. But in reality, they are forcing all of us to focus on racial differences rather than human similarities.

It has been said a kingdom divided cannot stand. White American conservatives are exploiting our racial differences because they want to keep us divided. They increase the stakes when they assert that White Americans are predestined to rule over the subjects in this kingdom, and that they shouldn’t be ashamed of what their White ancestors had to do to become America’s ruling caste. But we live in a different era now, one governed by our collective need for fairness, equity and justice for all. And the most definitive dividing line is the one that separates those enlightened about the issues of race and those unenlightened about the issues of race. Once more of us become enlightened about the issue of race, we can continue to address our common problems together.

And let’s face it. All we Black Americans have ever wanted to do is claim a seat at the table and engage in honest dialogue with you, our White American siblings, consuming the meal that we all had a hand in preparing.

We want to be close to you.

We want to laugh with you.

More than anything, we want to wrap our arms around you, tell you how much you’re loved.

You just have to summon the will to love us back by being fully present in the moment and then working with us to continue the movement for fairness, equity and justice for all.

When You Know Better, Do Better

The late Maya Angelou once said, “Do the best you can until you know better. Then, when you know better, do better.” That’s a profound statement from one of the United States’ most prolific Black writers, but the more I mulled Dr. Angelou’s statement over in my head, the more I found myself questioning our collective ability to get there, to do better.

I have no doubt that most, if not all, of us are doing our best in our personal endeavors. We’re working 9-5 jobs to keep food on our tables, clothes on our backs, roofs over our heads. However, as we struggle to survive and thrive in a world that at times can be so unkind, we find ourselves succumbing to forces that cause us to feel sad, angry and even depressed. The key to overcoming this sadness, anger and depression is to take stock of the thoughts, feelings and events that cause us to feel sad, angry and depressed. But we also must develop routines that decrease our susceptibility, and, more importantly, counter the big lies that make us feel sad, angry and depressed.

And that leads me to the question that is on most citizens’ minds these days: Why don’t Republicans want us to do better, to feel less sad, less angry and less depressed? They don’t want us feeling less of anything negative relative to the state of our union because these feelings fuel cynicism about government operations under Democratic administrations. And as their persistent CRT dog whistle foretells, Republicans don’t want us to do better, to feel less sad, less angry and less depressed, because it makes it easier for them to appeal to White fears and resentments. These unenlightened Republicans goal here is to make White people believe that they have to vote for their Republican candidates because their Republican candidates will prevent non-Whites from taking things from them. But in the final analysis, non-Whites have never endeavored to take things from White people; we non-Whites have only demanded that this country, the United States of America, give us the things that were withheld from us because of White racism, prejudice and discrimination.

Trump supporters participate in a rally Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021 in Washington. As Congress prepares to affirm President-elect Joe Biden’s victory, thousands of people have gathered to show their support for President Donald Trump and his baseless claims of election fraud. The president is expected to address a rally on the Ellipse, just south of the White House. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

There are some who believe Donald Trump was good for the country because he got things done. That’s a common refrain within Republican circles. But it is easy to make it appear you’re “getting things done” when your party controls the Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches with large majorities, and your cult of personality causes you to be surrounded by a bunch of Yes men. The questions we must ask ourselves about what Donald Trump’s administration got done should center around what Donald Trump did to make all of our lives better, not just the lives of the people who voted for him. When we elect individuals to public office, they should be leading efforts to help the country and its people become a more perfect union. Donald Trump and members of the Republican Party did neither. Now, far too many of our neighbors are willing to give them another pass rather than hold them accountable for further enriching the rich off the backs of middle- and working class Americans.

I don’t know about you, but after four years of Donald Trump’s lunacy, I grew tired of being sad, angry and depressed about the state of our union. That’s why I was one of the 81 million plus citizens who voted for Joe Biden to become the nation’s 46th president. And it wasn’t a difficult choice. Donald Trump and Republican legislators showed us through their concerted rhetoric and deeds that building a wall to keep immigrants and refugees out was far more important than building back better for current and future generations. They even balked at the fact that many states were allowing their citizens to vote by mail during the global coronavirus pandemic. Even now, we see Republican governors like Florida’s Ron DeSantis making fallacious statements and signing legislation that undermines efforts to get more citizens vaccinated. Who does that? And when they engage in these types of bad behaviors, why are they getting rewarded?

January 6th Select Committee Co-Chairs
Benny Thompson (D) and Liz Cheney (R).

They’re getting rewarded because some segments of our society are all for owning the liberal Democrats, running against any bipartisan bills and legislation they put forth that improve peoples’ lives. That’s what saddens, angers and depresses me the most.

But I pray that these Trump-friendly people segments come to their senses by getting vaccinated so we can finally claim victory over COVID-19.

I pray that these Trump-friendly people segments come to their senses, and start applauding the truth-finding efforts of the Select Committee on the January 6th, 2021 Insurrection.

More than anything, I pray these Trump-friendly people segments come to their senses to gain a better appreciation for the big lies that the Republican Party is spreading about the 2020 Presidential Election results, Critical Race Theory and, most importantly, President Biden’s Build Back Better Plan.

There are a number of things we can do to do better to be better. First, and foremost, we have to counter Donald Trump and Republican legislators’ big lies with shared inconvenient truths. Next, we have to get the vote out (and vote) against the irresponsible Republicans (and Democrats) that are preventing us from doing better as a citizenry. Lastly, we have to treat others the way we want to be treated. If and when we do these things and more, we will restore the admiration and respect that the United States of America previously had in the eyes of other sovereign nations before Donald Trump and his domestic and foreign loyalists stole the 2016 presidential election from Hillary Rodham Clinton.

A Word on Racial Consciousness

The CRT Dog Whistle

For most Black Americans, the ongoing attack on Critical Race Theory, or CRT, is something that makes you go, “Huh?” Individuals who are more educated than you and me tell us that CRT is not being taught in K-12 schools, but this truth falls on deaf ears. It seems to fall on deaf ears because so many White parents want to exonerate some of their White ancestors from the crimes they committed against Black citizens and other citizens of color. And they don’t want their White children feeling uncomfortable about the advantages these crimes give them in the here and now. In short, they want to maintain the status quo by convincing the general population that non-White citizens are similarly criminal when they make White children and adults feel uncomfortable with all this talk about White racism, prejudice and discrimination.

But truth be told, America’s non-White citizens have not, and never will be, the perpetuators in this scenario. That’s a dishonor reserved solely for unenlightened, White children, adolescents and adults. Black parents have been complaining for decades about the suppression of Black American history. Study the history curriculum of any public school in America, and you will discover that integration has done nothing to expose White children to the excellence within the Black community. Instead, these public schools present a whitewashed version of this excellence by trying to make it look as if even founding fathers like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson did right by their enslaved African Blacks. This historical suppression is what produces generations of White children who lack the compassion to reconcile with Black and other non-White citizens.

If you can’t see through these attacks against CRT, you’re a fool. This constant railing against CRT is nothing but another dog whistle that stirs up White people’s fears and resentments. The fact that it is being blown by conservative Republicans is telling, for it shows the Republican Party lacks plans for the country’s governance.

Like so many in the Commonwealth of Virginia, I shook my head when Republican Glenn Youngkin defeated Democrat Terry McAuliffe in the 2021 gubernatorial election. We must wait and see if Youngkin and members of his administration plan on leading responsibly, for we had just experienced four years of Donald Trump’s irresponsible leadership and were hopeful that another responsible Democrat would succeed Ralph Northam. But it wasn’t to be.

I give Youngkin credit for stiff arming Donald Trump when Donald Trump offered to campaign for him in Virginia. But if the Youngkin administration proves to be as disastrous to the Commonwealth of Virginia as Trump was to the country, the unenlightened, White voters who voted for him must ask themselves why it was so easy for them to fall for the big lies surrounding who won the presidential election and whether Critical Race Theory is being taught in public schools.

Truth be told, the CRT dog whistle was first blown in Southlake, Texas. Based on the information I read, it was a way to derail efforts to promote talks about racial diversity, equity and inclusion in the public schools there. It didn’t matter that these talks were initiated because Black students complained about being the victims of outright racism and microaggressions. By ignoring these complaints, the White parents attending school board meetings to blow the CRT dog whistle have proven to us that they believe their fears and resentments about a manufactured CRT controversy are more valid than Black students’ actual grievances.

We Black people have had to endure this country’s worst, and we’re still standing. Part of me wonders why unenlightened members of the White majority still look down on us with disdain, even after some of us have become similarly situated. I believe it has everything to do with their refusal to get to know us, our daily struggles, as if the closer they get to us, the more we take from them. But the Black people I interact with aren’t trying to take anything from White Americans. We just want to be treated fairly, and not used as proverbial punching bags. And that’s what today’s Republican Party is doing to us, all in its quest to acquire executive, legislative and judicial power. But we have to fight back. And we have to accept the support received from our White allies along the way. We have to acknowledge when some members of the White majority are working with us Black people to get it right. We have to keep believing that true racial reconciliation is possible within our lifetimes.