BLM Is Gaining Awareness--Thank You, Pandemic!

By

Paul Thomas

Chuck's Note: Paul Thomas is an educator and a self-described "geek" and  "mutt." On his personal blog, A Reston Kid Rambles (restonkid.blogspot.com), he writes about race, music, politics, economics, and many other topics. An education consultant who does business as Docent Learning (www.docentlearning.com), Paul also blogs about educational topics at Driven to Learn (blog.docentlearning.com). Paul lives in Reston, VA with his wife and two kids. Paul originally posted this piece on Facebook; it is reprinted here with his permission. 

So... I have seen articles about why Black Lives Matter is gaining such traction now. Why didn't it gain this sustained attention after the deaths of Trayvon Martin or the Charleston Nine or Philando Castile? I know that the movement has been building in strength for years, and that the current political climate helps shine a light on the issues. But I think we have something else to thank for the current focus: The Pandemic.

Thanks to the pandemic, the normally short news cycle is lengthened. There are no playoffs or movie premiers or new seasons or political rallies to distract us. We aren't splitting our time between conference rooms and gyms and brutal commutes and Little League and band concerts and parties. Instead, we're sitting in our homes and focusing on the problems around us. We're worried about the heroes caring for the sick and the underpaid workers who are barely hanging on. We're worried about widening opportunity gaps for students who are falling farther behind. We're worried about how small businesses will recover. We're worried about how we are all going to move forward!

In this sea of worry, we see this horrific video, and there is nothing to distract us from it. Now we have something for which we can stand up and fight. We can't do much about many of the things we worry about, but we can stand up and protest the systemic racism of which police brutality is a symptom.

Thanks, pandemic!

You've made us a captive audience that can't turn away from the structural racial issues in our society that we haven't made the time to focus on before. They aren't new, but now we are giving them the attention for which they have been screaming for years!

Copyright: Paul Thomas; all rights reserved.

>>>Want to share your thoughts? Send them to chuckwrites@yahoo.com

    Occasionally an artistic endeavor—whether a movie, painting, book, poem, or something more complex or even more simple—will drive itself deep into our minds, conjuring memories of what was, or thoughts of what could be, or questions about why things were as they were or are as they are. The movie Green Book, which is now in theaters around the country, is one such powerful endeavor. Here’s why:

    Those of us of a certain age remember the 1950s and '60s. For me, those were transformative decades, moving me from childhood through my teen years. Living in Virginia for most of that time, and visiting my birthplace of New York City regularly, I distinctly recall a cloud over society, something that became more clear as I grew older, something I could eventually identify as racism.  

     To get a sense of what those times were like, or to remind yourself of them, see Green Book, starring Mahershala Ali and Viggo Mortensen. Brace yourself for an emotional ride through America as it was in 1962. And as you watch and laugh and perhaps cry, ask yourself the following: 

     When it comes to understanding those we consider "different," is there any substitute for interacting with them, listening to them, putting ourselves in their place, understanding their circumstances, beliefs, values? 

     And at the same time, ask: 

     How did we ever tolerate this in the United States...and would we ever accept this as the norm again?

     Green Book is the true story of an incredibly unlikely relationship between a master African American musician—the wealthy and well-educated Dr. Don Shirley—and his protector/driver Tony "Lip" Vallelonga, a classic tough guy from the Bronx streets. In a nutshell: Shirley is about to embark on a concert tour in the deep South in 1962. He hires tough Tony to drive him to gigs in racially charged cities throughout Jim Crow Country.

     During their eight weeks of travel, the two men gain insights into one another, society, and themselves. 

     Billed most often as a "dramedy," the movie is muchmore than that. The events in it, such as the acceptance of Dr. Shirley as a highly regarded entertainer performing in ritzy white venues where he is nonetheless barred from eating in their restaurants or using their restrooms, are not over-dramatized. They are portrayed instead as the reality of that era: This is how things were. 

     The men react to those realities sometimes with anger, other times with laughter, often with deep-rooted pain, and almost always with new insights brought about, in part, by the extremes of their relationship and by the fact that they must spend hours together in a car.

     What kept running through my head as I watched, and what lingers still, were recollections of what I had seen, but did not always react to, while growing up in Virginia: The "Colored Only" restrooms and water fountains; the "Colored Only" schools; the off-the-cuff inappropriate references to African Americans tossed about by many adults and kids. 

     I remembered the time my mother was accosted by another white woman who was appalled that I, a white child of five years old or so, was about to drink from a water fountain labeled "Colored Only." The woman yanked me away. My mother asked her what she was doing. 

     The woman said, "Your son is about to drink from a Colored's fountain. That's disgusting." 

     To which my mother said, "My son doesn't know about black and white; he only knows that he's thirsty." Mom then turned to me and said, "Go ahead and drink, honey. Don't listen to her." 

    Years later, at age 16, I worked away from home in the summer at a folk club in Virginia Beach that featured performers from all over the country. Part of my job was to reserve hotel rooms for visiting performers and then to escort them to the hotel when they arrived. For one performer, an African American, I rode with him to the hotel where I had reserved his room. When we approached the check-in counter, the clerk quickly glanced at us and then at the reservation list and told us that no reservation had been made. I said I had booked it myself and reminded him of all the other acts I had booked there. The clerk just kept shaking his head, saying, "No, no reservation and no rooms available anyway, so you'd better go somewhere else." 

     The performer pulled me aside and said softly, "I know what's going on. Let’s go. I’ll find a place where I can stay." We drove about 30 minutes inland, where we eventually found a rundown motel with a big sign that said, "Coloreds Welcome." The performer said, "See, this is where I get to stay." He wasn't complaining; he was resigned to the fact that this is how life was. 

     However, I did something then that I am sure was part of my mother channeling through me. I said, "We have room in our house. Come and stay with us." 

     I drove off with him and he stayed with me and my three roommates. Whenever he entered the house with us, any neighbors around stared, shook their heads, and muttered. 

     Green Book brought back so many other disturbing memories: The fact that some restaurants had two menus, one for whites and another much more expensive one for blacks, so the managers could say that they did not refuse to serve African Americans, they just had to charge more to make the kinds of food “those people” liked...if they weren't already "sold out" of that food. 

     Or the time that an African American friend and I waited to be seated at a nearly empty restaurant. The host glanced at us and said, "We are expecting a very big crowd, so hold on for a few minutes so I can see if any seats will be available." After waiting several minutes, I noted to the host that the restaurant was virtually empty. He grudgingly seated us, but we never received a menu, never had a server stop by our table, and when we finally walked out, not a single staff member acknowledged us.

    Green Book reminded me of a part of society that should be buried in the past...but I know it is not. 

     See the movie for yourself. See what memories it brings. And if you would like to share those memories with me, please email me at chuckwrites@yahoo.com. I will not publish anything you send without first discussing it with you and getting your permission. However, though I am interested in hearing your thoughts, mostly I hope you will go see the powerful Green Book and think about where society was then, how to keep that as part of our past, and how people can change. 

Copyright Chuck Cascio; all rights reserved.

It has been present all of our lives. We can look around and still see it. But it hits us hardest when something spurs our awareness and reminds us: Racism is real...it has been real...we have seen it ourselves, personally.   

Donal Leace (no "d" at the end of his first name) was a Washington, DC-based Black singer, songwriter, entertainer, scholar, and teacher whom I met many years ago when I was 16 years old and working one memorable summer at my cousin's folk music club, the Shadows, in Virginia Beach. (Note: That club is not related to any club or restaurant that may have the same or similar name in Virginia Beach today.) I learned recently that Donal died of Covid in December 2020, and though I had not seen Donal in many years, hearing of his death brought back many memories...memories made all the more significant to me as the country engages in heated discussions about race. 

One of my many jobs at the Shadows was to book hotel reservations for performers and then to greet them at the designated hotel when they arrived. Donal was scheduled to sing at the Shadows for a couple of weeks as the opening act. He drove down from DC (he lived in an apartment above the famous Cellar Door club in Georgetown), and I met him at the hotel where I had reserved his room. As we walked into the hotel together, a noticeable silence overtook the lobby. 

When I reminded the man behind the desk, whom I had interacted with before, that I worked at the Shadows and that I had made a reservation for Donal, the man looked confused. He browsed a ledger intensely, flipped some pages, then finally looked up and said, "Sorry, got no reservation for him and no rooms are available. Fully booked." He scribbled something on a piece of paper and shoved it at me, saying, "But here is the address of a place where he can stay."

Donal Leace: Singer, songwriter, teacher...

I started to argue since I knew I had made the reservation and even had a confirmation number. But Donal tapped my shoulder and said, "I know what's going on here. Let's go." 

We went outside into the beach sunlight and I started to blurt, "Donal, I'm sorry, I..."

"It's not you, Chuck. This is what it is. You see what it is, right?"

Of course I did--everywhere in Virginia overt racism was evident daily: The "Colored" restrooms and water fountains separate from "Whites Only" ones. The swimming pools with signage stating boldly, "No Coloreds." The segregated schools and neighborhoods. But in that moment with Donal, it all hit me hard, personally.

We rode about 20 miles inland to the address the hotel clerk had given us, finally coming upon a dilapidated, sad building with a sign in front that read "Colored Motel." 

"Guess I'll be making the trip from here to the club and back every night," Donal said matter-of-factly.

Something swelled from inside me, and I said, "We have room at our house, Donal. Come stay with us!"

Donal hesitated, then asked, "Are you sure? Will your roommates be okay with me?"

"Yes," I said without hesitation, and we climbed into his car and rode back to the house I shared with three guys all in their early twenties. When we arrived, I explained to my roommates what had happened, and there was no hesitancy. Donal was given a room and throughout his stay, we all laughs and music together…but we shared other things, too, such as:

After Donal's first night performing at the club, we all finished our closing chores, and I asked Donal if he wanted to join us at a local diner where we always went for our late-night/early-morning food and laughs. He came with us, and as we all entered the familiar diner on the main beach drag, I immediately recognized the evil quiet that blanketed us. We were quickly seated in a far corner booth by a waiter who knew us all, except for Donal, by name. 

We introduced the White waiter to Donal, but the waiter simply turned away, refusing to shake Donal's extended hand. A minute or two later, the waiter returned and handed menus to each of us. Hungry, filled with the nightly relief of pulling off another successful club experience, we all started enthusiastically blurting out what we were going to order...except for Donal. He quietly perused his menu and, once the rest of us had quieted down, said, "Um, this place seems a little pricey, doesn't it?"

In those days, you could get a club sandwich or scrambled eggs or fried chicken pieces for a dollar or two, so we were all surprised at Donal's comment. He smiled sadly, knowingly, and flipped over his menu so we could all see. Every item on his menu was at least 10 times the price shown on the rest of ours'! 

One of my roommates angrily waved Donal's menu at the waiter.

"What the hell is this?" the roommate said.

"What do you mean?" the waiter said with a shrug.

"You know damn well what I mean! You gave him a different menu than ours! Everything on his is much more expensive! Give him the right menu!"

"That is the right menu...for him," the waiter said matter-of-factly. "So what can I get you guys?"

With that, we all climbed out of the booth, and one of the guys got in the waiter's face and said, "We won't be back here. Ever."

"Suit yourself," the waiter said, "but don't you go around saying we wouldn't serve him...and his kind. If he wants to pay, we'll serve him. If not, that's his choice."

Yes, some things have changed since those days on Virginia Beach. But not enough. Racism still exists. It is, and has been, all around us. Think about what you have seen personally. Think about how it hit you. Think about how it hits others, daily.

Racism is real. It is systemic. It must be addressed. 

Thank you, Donal—for your music, laughter, friendship..and for the difficult lessons I learned from you during that brief stretch of summer.

Copyright: Chuck Cascio, all rights reserved.

(Readers: Tell me your story, if you like. Nothing will be reprinted without your permission, and you will retain all rights of anything that is printed: chuckwrites@yahoo.com.)

RACE IN AMERICA,

FEATURING THE THOUGHTS AND EXPERIENCES OF BRIAN ALLEN

FROM BRIAN: I am an ambassador of positive energy...people connector...mortgage advisor..former college athlete...casual triathlete.  I’ve lived a very fortunate life, growing up all over the country…Joliet, IL, the home of The Blues Brothers; New Jersey; Dallas; Houston; and Northern Virginia/DC.  It allowed me to nurture healthy relationships with a multitude of people and cultures.  I played college basketball for Penn State, and I currently work as a mortgage advisor.  More than the issue of race being a crucial topic today, the way it is being used to threaten our democracy is what is of utmost concern to me.  That is my reason for sharing my thoughts.

NOTE:   I will often use “Black” and “White” not because either term is a real human distinction, but because it is a real construct in our country. I personally prefer to be referred to as Black rather than African American because it is one syllable and simple.

“ME! WE!”

Why I Think Democracy Will Win

By

Brian Allen

Muhammad Ali, when speaking to Harvard’s graduating Class of 1975, was asked from the audience to recite a poem, and “Me. We.” is what he came up with.   This is known as the world’s shortest poem, but it does pack a punch.  (See what I did there?)

In explaining it, Ali said, “… what I gained was the ability to see the world in something like the way God must see it. To understand that there are no distinctions of any real importance in the affairs of men, that there is only one time and one place and one person and one truth. And that we are all contained in that time and place and person, and that the truth contains us all.”

Who represented “One World” more than Ali?  It is the message of community and togetherness, what Ali stood for, that inspired me to share my thoughts on where we are as a country in the two years that have passed  since George Floyd lost his life to police violence.  This was a time, like 9/11/2001, when this country was “We.”

From that tragedy, I learned that I had numerous allies (members of the dominant caste), who with sincere intentions, wanted to know how to do better.  COVID took away people’s ability to look away, to ignore, and to rationalize what happened to Mr. Floyd, and it is important that we stay vigilant toward anti-racism.  It is no longer acceptable to stay silent, or even neutral.  My message to the multitude of friends looking for guidance was to improve their racial intelligence, because it creates empathetic ears, which leads to ally behavior.  

In order to manage this overwhelming demand, I actually started a private Facebook group called “My Allies” to provide a safe space to ask questions and discuss things without judgment, and to share ideas on how to fight racism.  If we can’t talk about it, we cannot eradicate it.

The more sinister form of racism is the unseen, which produces outcomes detrimental to people of color.  That ranges from written policy/laws to silence in the face of racism…when good people do nothing.

The most disappointing or disheartening exercise for me, especially during the previous administration, has been with people who I know love me and would probably take a bullet for me.  It has been their inability or unwillingness to try to figure out why, on a daily basis, I was not only more aware of my Blackness, but also more afraid because of my Blackness for the first time in my adult life.  They know my even temper, empathetic nature, and open-mindedness.  Why, when I would suggest ways to understand it more, would I just experience radio silence?  Is it shame, embarrassment, or denial?  Whatever it is, I’m not going to give up on them, because they are me, and I’m trying to get them to “we.”

Understanding Racism and Institutional Racism

Whether it’s people I know, or talking heads on TV, one of my pet peeves is a lack of true understanding of racism, which is a subset of institutional racism.  The often-used definition of racism revolves around intent and looks like the person wearing a hood, burning a cross, terrorizing people of color.  That is the easy-to-see definition, popular until the decade I was born when it became quite distasteful to suburban America.  It made it easier for people to absolve themselves of “that” disease or to deny they are taking part.  It had to evolve and become less obvious.

ACTION ITEM: PLEASE EDUCATE YOURSELF ON INSTITUIONAL RACISM, RACISM, AND ANTI-RACISM 

The FBI Criminal Behavioral Analysis

Within the FBI, there is a position called a Supervisory Special Agent in the Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU), agents who are trained in deception detection.  In layman’s terms, they are human lie detectors.  They use training, verbal, and nonverbal cues to determine whether a suspect is telling the truth.  They are a vital and very respected profession within the organization.  It is a process that takes 7-15 years to even apply.  

Think about all the knowledge you gained between 1^st and 10^th grade.  Then, take those 7-15 years of experience, and add 20, 30, or 50 years to it.  But, instead of using that talent to fight crime, you use that talent to avoid professional roadblocks, micro-aggressions, physical harm, or even death. That is the Black experience when it comes to detecting racism.  It’s not 100% foolproof, but you get the point.  By instinct, I can walk into a room and pretty much pick out the allies as well as the others  who may not have my best interest at heart.  Thankfully, in most cases the latter are few.  

Getting back to the FBI Profilers.  Yes, I have some basic knowledge on whether someone is being truthful, but I would not sit in a room, with see-through glass and tell a Deception Detector if the subject is lying.  So, it is probably best to leave racism detection to those who have the years of knowledge and experience.

Let me expound.  From American history, personal-lived experiences, and statistics, my every day latent fear of terrorism has a White face, not a Brown, or Middle Eastern one.  But that same lived experience precludes me from assigning a negative stereotype to all White faces.  

Those White teenagers who threw firecrackers at me in elementary school were offset by the big Texans with the cowboy boots, and big belt buckle, cursing out other adults with White faces who said something derogatory to me in a Dallas hotel lobby.  Before that I was trembling inside because I had heard “How they are in Texas,” and learned a lifelong lesson at age 11. 

The White teenagers who chased me down the street in their car in Houston, TX, when I was 14, were undone by the Taylor family, a White family who took me and my brother in as if we were their own, when my single father had business trips. The Taylors taught me how to water ski and to love Austin.

The White teenagers during my senior year in high school, who called me the N word, and told me to go back to Africa, and threatened my well-being, were immediately negated by the White faces of my high school friends, who without a word, waited on a bus stop bench with me, letting me know they had my back and were ready to rumble if those guys returned.  These lived experiences have given me a heightened ability to be able to recognize allies and enemies adeptly.

I try to explain it to my friends of the dominant caste by starting with my favorite definition of White Supremacy.   What I say goes something like this…  

“You could go your whole life without meeting a Black person and be very successful.  The same is not true for me; I could not go my whole life without ever meeting a White person and thrive.  In fact, any successful person of color has had to interact on a “10,000 hour” level to succeed in a White world.  Until I was 14, I went to all White schools all over the country, but still had to endure the N word, threats to my life, firecrackers thrown at me as a child, and multiple driving-while-Black incidents, so my life experiences have made me “racially bilingual.”  Because there has been no need for you to live in my Black world, there is a natural blind spot for you.”

Then I follow that up with…

“When George Floyd died, so many of my good friends came to me for answers, I had to go back to school to get my ‘Race Masters Degree.’  I was almost embarrassed at how much I did not know about race in this country…how much was intentionally left out.  So, if we all went to the same schools, and I, as a Black man, was embarrassed about how much we didn’t learn in high school, is it possible that there might be room for you to become more informed?”

ACTION ITEM: INSTEAD OF TRYING TO PROJECT YOUR IDEAL OF WHAT RACISM IS OR ISN’T, RECEIVE THE PERSPECTIVE OF THOSE WHO HAVE THE LIVED EXPERIENCE

 Who Is “Us,” and Who is “Them?”

“Explaining racism to a White person is like trying to explain water to fish.” – Tim Wise

“Race” is such a complex word because, as it applies to DNA, it is a manmade construct created in this country in the 1600’s, when the plantation owners realized they were far outnumbered by the enslaved.  They had to create a social construct to engineer a “White” majority with those who, before then, were no better off than the enslaved and only categorized by their country of origin…English, Irish, German, Italian.  

These indentured servants were given horses and guns and were motivated by fear that the Black and Brown people (“them” from earlier) were the threat, not the power elites.  The reality was that the slaves and the White indentured servants had more in common (economic insecurity) than the indentured servants had with the plantation owners.  

Tim Wise, author of White Like Me, is considered to be one of the foremost intellectuals on anti-racism.  If you listen to any of his lectures, he usually discusses “the greatest hustle” the wealthy used on the others who looked like them. My favorite heartfelt lecture from Tim can be found on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_IBE94hh9s

This hustle is still alive and well today. The plantation owners and power elites have been replaced by politicians and power elites, who seem to maintain a caste system motivated by power and White supremacy.  I’m talking about the 1% of the one-percenters.  Think Trump, McConnell, Graham, DeSantis, Gaetz, Holly, Cruz, and those that support their supremist agendas.  It’s business suits instead of the “Colonel Sanders” outfits.

If we had a better grasp of our history, those people who stormed the Capitol on January 6^th would see that they were being used by the power elites, just as those who stormed the Capitol in Wilmington, NC in the 1890s, and those who fought in the Civil War to maintain the slave states for those power elites who benefitted most.

People of color, like me, and pretty much anyone not of color I know would be the “us,” even though the economic net is much wider than it was in the early stages of our country’s founding.  I have no one in that highest tax bracket that I break bread with.

ACTION ITEM: INSTEAD OF LABELING SOMEONE A REPUBLICAN OR DEMOCRAT…CONSERVATIVE OR LIBERAL, START DISTINGUISHING BETWEEN THE 1% OF THE 1% VERSUS THE REST OF US.  VOTING RIGHTS. GUN LAWS. HIGH GAS PRICES.  ABORTION BANS.  WHO BENEFITS AND WHO DOESN’T?

Zero Sum Gain

The generations-long practice of divide and conquer as it applies to race is getting those of the dominant caste to believe that if consideration is given to the subordinate caste, then those in the dominant caste give up something, or a lot of something. To those fighting diversity or social programs, giving to the marginalized makes the piece of the pie smaller for those who are advantaged.  Diversity, in my opinion, would produce a bigger pie.  Of course, my opinion is based on studies on economics (larger tax base), neighborhoods (multi-cultural enrichment), and education (better test scores and social awareness) that have all shown that diversity produces positive outcomes.

I contend that the piece of the pie does not get smaller with diversity.  I contend the pie gets bigger.

ACTION ITEM:  START ACKNOWLEDGING THE MEGA-WEALTHY IS WHERE PEOPLE’S IRE SHOULD FOCUS, NOT INTERETHNICALLY. 

 Living With Grace – What if We (dominant caste) become Them (subordinate caste)?

I’ve been under the tent long enough to know one of the major motivating factors of the extreme right movement is the fear of becoming the “minority” in this country.  Knowing exactly what the sentiment is about, I give the simple answer first: 

That would make those who fear being a minority, actually be one of “us” and we would all be in it together. 

Or is it… “I don’t want to become the minority because I know how I’ve treated them, or at the very least, how many have treated them”?  

Throwing away the obvious unintended self-admission, it tells me they have no one significant in their lives who has been marginalized.  

For the sake of this blog, I’m going to stick with what I feel about it.  To endure all that we have endured, and still thrive, it cannot have been done without grace.

                  Macro level – All of those kids who desegregated public schools showed grace in the face of rocks, spit, and racial epithets thrown at them.  Even as adults in hindsight, they reek of grace. 

              Micro level – My high school friend, whose parents disinvited me to his birthday party, is a current Facebook friend of mine and we correspond periodically.   To explicitly disinvite me because of ethnicity takes a special kind of racism.  They could have come up with 10 other excuses.  But even in the moment, I knew it wasn’t his decision.  If my ethnicity was an issue with him, I never would have been invited.  I’m sure the hurt and embarrassment of that stung him like it did me because it was perhaps the first time someone in his life did something he knew was not right.

So grace has been imbedded in our DNA since that first ship hit Jamestown in 1619.  Once the dominant caste becomes the minority, no one is going to start following you around in stores, or stopping you in your car for doing nothing, as we have endured.

Why Can’t We Just Move On And Stop Talking About The Past?

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it” is not just a quote from philosopher George Santayana when referencing the horrors of The Holocaust.  Those in the dominant caste, who are uncomfortable acknowledging our country’s past, conveniently want to celebrate the 4^th of July, and enjoy time off on “Columbus Day,” but talking about the dark side of our history often becomes taboo.  

That’s like buying a business because of its assets, but totally ignoring the debts.  

In my line of work people pay thousands of dollars for title insurance and hundreds of dollars for an appraisal to make sure there is nothing catastrophically wrong with a home.  But our country has had a shaky foundation since before it was a country, and many prefer not to talk about it, or just choose to ignore it like it’s going to go away.

ACTION ITEM:  LEARN YOUR REAL AMERICAN HISTORY BECAUSE IT IS DIRECTLY AFFECTING OUR TODAY AND OUR TOMORROW.

THERE ARE NO ABSOLUTES

The human condition seems to be, for things to make sense, that we have to pigeonhole people…put them in neat categories…prejudices.  The goal should be to acknowledge those prejudices, address them, and grow.  The world does not operate in the Black and White.  It operates in the gray.

My father’s favorite saying growing up was, “Racism should be a pebble in your shoe, not an albatross around your neck.”

CONSERVATIVES AND “STOP BLAMING THE WHITE MAN”

One of my problems with conservatives of any ethnicity are tropes like “You can’t blame the White man for your problems…you have to pull yourself up by your bootstraps…you have to strive for Black excellence.”

I contend that the two are not mutually exclusive.  Any person of color who has excelled has not only acknowledged institutional racism but has adeptly circumnavigated it.  Any person of color in my immediate circle provides living examples that  racism is real, but it isn’t going to stop them from thriving.  

My basketball analogy is of my 6’ 10” teammate saying, “Stop blaming the tall people for your struggles in basketball!”

There was absolutely nothing physically I could do about it, so I used my physical “deficiencies” to my advantage…to blow by the taller players…to increase the arc…to make eye contact. my shorter stature could help him…get him the ball in the paint because he can’t dribble.  T-E-A-M!

The Southern Strategy and Its Grip on Society Today

As a country, we have had a history of White backlash with the progress of the Blacks.  Reconstruction brought The Black Codes, record lynchings, and the construction of statues and memorials to The Confederacy to demonstrate White supremacy.  The Civil Rights Movement brought about The Southern Strategy in the decade when I was born.  

As I have mentioned, blatant racism became unsavory to American sensibilities.   The triumvirate of George Wallace, Barry Goldwater, and Richard Nixon were the transition from bullhorn racism to dog-whistle racism, moving it into the gray palatable areas.  The politicians started using code words to appeal to that segment of the population who did not in favor the strides Blacks were making, especially with the Civil Rights Acts of 1964/1965.  That is the inflection point when Democrats (Dixiecrats) started moving over to the Republican Party.  Even candidates for governor, like Ronald Reagan, were the “early implementers,” using words like crime…tough on crime…law and order…young bucks…jungle paths…welfare queens…individual property rights…forced busing…states’ rights…immigration…illegal aliens…liberal.  

The backlash was in the form of the largest campaign of mass incarceration of people of color our country has ever seen, which continues today.

Please do not take my word for it.  Lee Atwater, a political consultant to Reagan, and Bush 41’s campaign manager 1988, spilled the beans in this interview he thought was off the record.:  https://youtu.be/X_8E3ENrKrQ

A protégé of Lee Atwater was Stuart Stevens, a Republican Political Consultant, and Media Advisor for Bush 43’s 2000 Campaign.  Showtime is currently running a 5 episode series that shows the through line of 50 years of dog-whistle politics.  Stevens, had a mea culpa, when faced with the presidency of Donald Trump, and created The Lincoln Project, a group of former Republican strategists whose sole purpose became to insure 45 wasn’t re-elected.  They definitely had an impact on the result of the 2020 election, but it was his introspection that was so revealing:

The Lincoln Project Episode 1/Minute 24 - “It’s all about race.  But, the whole Republican Party is all about race.  They seem to have given up pretending otherwise…The Republican Party has become a white grievance party.  There’s always been this element in the party.  I don’t think Trump made people more racist.  I think he made it ok to be racist.”

The Lincoln Project Episode 1/Minute 53 - “[Lee Atwater] He would hire somebody like me to really do the racism.  My first lesson in racial politics was in The Southern Strategy.  All politics is, at least certainly in the south, is played in the key of race.  So, our path to victory is to maximize White vote…It was playing the race card if I’m honest about it.  But, you’re able to convince yourself, that the danger of the other side, is greater than the flaws of the side that you’re for…I think that in many ways, we [The Lincoln Project] feel a sense of personal responsibility.  Who would believe this party, like this thing that you worked in, turned out to be, to some not insignificant degree, a force for evil?  I can’t say it’s not my fault.  The firm that I started was the most successful firm. I helped elect more than anybody else.”

What we are witnessing today is a direct result of the third major event of Black progress…the election of Barack Obama.  Pushback that brought about the Tea Party, the MAGA Movement, and all of the other far-right groups we are seeing today.  The lexicon of the dog whistle has been expanded with more “boogie man” terms like…”liberal media…radical left…build that wall…Black Lives Matter…woke…critical race theory.”  The last three were positive terms, and movements, in the Black community that were appropriated and weaponized by politicians.   

Critical Race Theory was the political response to the inarguable facts of George Floyd’s murder.  As a side note, anyone demonizing The 1619 Project hasn’t read it, because it discusses the heroes of all races fighting for freedom and equality.  When has critical thinking ever been a bad thing?  Why does adding “race” create hysteria?  When has banning books or not telling the truth ever been a good thing?  Answer: When elites who wanted to maintain power decided it was.

The hands of the Democratic Party are definitely not clean, but there is only one party that is a clear and present danger TODAY to this experiment called Democracy.  There is a segment of the population that will be unmoved by this blog post, but there is the majority of the population, I believe, who fear for the democracy, and the rights that are being taken away.  They/we just need to be empowered and encouraged to do something about it. 

By those charged with election security, 2020 was the most secure election ever. In four particular cases of voter fraud that I heard of, all voted for 45.  One of the four was a woman of color, a former felon, who was told she could vote by the election board, but then had it rescinded.  Which one of the four was put in jail? 

VOTE the election deniers out!  DON’T VOTE for the election deniers currently in office!  It’s never been about Democracy for them.  It has been about power.  We as citizens have the power to save this country from autocracy, and if Kansas is a bellwether, I truly have hope that we will do the right thing…be on the right side of history.

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What has been most enlightening to me in these last 2+ years is the readily available facts about our history, that were suppressed in my public education.  It is a history that scholars have been documenting since the ‘60’s.  Here is a list of the books I have read since the murder of George Floyd, and the multi-cultural authors who have reinforced things I knew, and confirmed certain things I felt:

White Like Me – Tim Wise

Caste – Isabel Wilkerson

The 1619 Project – Nikole Hannah-Jones

The 1619 Project Born in The Water – Nikole Hannah-Jones

Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man – Emmanuel Acho

Dog Whistle Politics – Ian Haney Lopez

The Sum of Us – Heather McGhee

The New Jim Crow – Michelle Alexander

White Fragility – Robin DiAngelo

White Rage – Carol Anderson

Between the World and Me – Ta-Nehisi Coates

The Myth of Race – Robert Wald Sussman

What Unites Us – Dan Rather

A People’s History of the United States – Howard Zen

Everything Trump Touches Dies – Rick Wilson

The End of Policing – Alex Vitale

The Warmth of Other Suns – Isabel Wilkerson

Critical Race Theory: An Introduction – Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic

Critical Race Theory – Caldwell Wagner

Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? – Beverly Daniel Tatum

The Essential Kerner Commission Report – Jelani Cobb

Born A Crime – Trevor Noah

Copyright: Brian Allen, all rights reserved.

Contact Brian at Brian.Allen30@gmail.com

Prof. Staunton Speaks on the Day of the MLK Assassination-April 4, 1968:

An Excerpt from my novel, THE FIRE ESCAPE BELONGS IN BROOKLYN 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B074V8CRGX

     “Langston Hughes asks us if dreams deferred dry up like raisins in the sun or if they stink like fetid meat and, of course, he must know the answer is yes to both—we know both are true because we see those truths in people every day, people who dry up with their dried up dreams, shrivel with their emaciated love affairs—and yet Hughes tries to convince us that it is wrong to give up on dreams because if we do, as he puts it in another poem, ‘Life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly.’

     “So the same man who poses the question in one poem, ‘What happens to a dream deferred?’ warns us in another that without dreams our lives will not fly. If you are writers, you are dreamers by definition, so you must wrestle with Mr. Hughes’s thoughts—some of you will, some won’t, some will be haunted by dreams deferred, some will forget about dreams altogether, some will look around and dream of outrageously ostentatious houses—the measure of opulence today being size and amount whether in square footage of homes or horse power or number of cars—and exotic vacations and perhaps beachfront mansions and cabin cruisers.

    “So many of you will be fickle to the dreams and words and passions that move you now, and by letting it all dry up or trading it all in, you will become vulnerable repeatedly to what we should have seen coming:

    “The squeezing of the trigger of the rifle whose scope was focused on Martin’s round black head, the assassin waiting, holding steady, calm, a horrifying distortion of Hemingway’s grace under pressure, slowly focusing on the hairs that covered the epithelial cells drawn tight across the cranium that stored one man’s extravagant and bold dreams—the perverted assassin turning his perverted dream into reality as he fired and felt the powerful kick of the rifle butt warm against his shoulder, and in the instant that he blinked from the explosion and smelled the acrid odor of gunpowder, he watched through his scope Martin’s exploding head, while inside that broken head confused and gasping dreams now spun madly in milliseconds into blackness and then hurtled out the exit wound or dripped out of the entry wound.

     “The assassin ended those dreams, betting that all of us will let them all dry up along with our own dreams, which we will trade in for comfort; in so doing, the assassin hopes to turn you all into assassins, murderers, killers, hypocrites. After all, he had the courage to act on his perverted dream and to gamble that we are not as courageous about pursuing dreams as he is. So what happens, I ask you, to a dream deferred and deferred and deferred and deferred…” 

     Staunton repeated the word, banging his fists on the podium while we sat in a silence only death itself could duplicate, until, finally, after screaming the word “deferred” one more time, his voice cracked into falsetto, and the blue veins in his neck bulged like tree roots, and his face shone like a beacon, and he looked up, panting, into the face of the tall woman with the long hair, who was noiselessly crying, and extended his arms to her. She embraced him, his white hair touching just below her mouth.

See. Think. Act.

by

Chuck Cascio

     If you have not yet seen the movie Just Mercy, you should put it on your "must do" list, especially during Black History Month. It is a true story that provides viewers with reminders of past injustices, the realization that injustices still exist, and the sense of how much must be done to eliminate those injustices in the future. 

     Be prepared to feel uncomfortable but in a meaningful, important way when viewing Just Mercy. And the movie will also make you aware that there are people who truly commit their lives to eliminating injustice...and those people are the real, little-known heroes of history.

     Just Mercy is the story of African American Bryan Stevenson (played powerfully by Michael A. Jordan), a young, Harvard-educated attorney, who in the late 1980s goes to Alabama to defend prisoners wrongly imprisoned and those not provided proper representation. The movie focuses on one case in particular--that of Walter McMillian (played by Jamie Foxx, in a moving performance), an African American in Alabama sentenced to die for the murder of an 18-year-old girl despite abundant evidence proving his innocence. The movie captures the racism and the legal and political obstacles Stevenson encounters while fighting for McMillian's life and the lives of many other prisoners.  

   The film is produced by Participant, a media company committed to developing entertainment that inspires positive social change, and the story succeeds in encouraging viewers to recognize the inequalities that existed in the era of this movie and those that still exist today. For me, a Boomer who moved from Brooklyn to Northern Virginia as a kid in the 1950s, the movie brought back uncomfortable memories from my youth. And it reminded me that, 30 years later during the years in which Just Mercy takes place, those injustices were still evident...and that too many still exist today albeit in less immediately obvious ways. Some of the realities the film brought back to me from my childhood:

     >>> Seeing signs above restrooms and water fountains and elsewhere that said, "Coloreds" and others that said, "Whites."

     >>> The street signs on motels that specified, "Coloreds not allowed."

     >>> Raw anger rippling through some classmates as Northern Virginia started to integrate schools.

     >>> The time an African American musician friend of mine was given a different menu at a restaurant from the one I was given, the prices on his menu several times more expensive than the prices on mine. We walked out, and as we were leaving someone behind us said, "Well, you can't say that we refused to serve him."

     And, sadly, there are many more from my 1950s-60s childhood. Incidents that confused me, incidents that my parents made sure I recognized as wrong, incidents that still run through my head. They are especially vivid when I see a movie like Just Mercy, so much so that I believe the movie should be shown to high school students and discussed in depth with them. The story is ideal for a conversation around racial injustice, where it has been, where it exists today, and what needs to be done about it in the future.

     As Just Mercy reveals, Bryan Stevenson did more than commit himself to a couple of years worth of work for the unjustly incarcerated. He formed the Equal Justice Initiative in 1989, a nonprofit organization that, as stated on its website (www.eji.org),

“…provides legal representation to people who have been illegally convicted, unfairly sentenced, or abused in state jails and prisons. We challenge the death penalty and excessive punishment and we provide re-entry assistance to formerly incarcerated people.” 

     There is much work to be done. According to the Pew Research Center, African Americans represent only 12% of the U.S. adult population but 33% of the sentenced prison population. Hispanics make up 16% of the adult population and account for 23% of inmates. Whites comprise 64% of adults and 30% of prisoners.  

     In these swirling, fast-paced times it is important to remind ourselves of the realities of past injustices, to take time to look closely at the current lives of minorities, and to take steps for a more equitable future. So here are three things to consider doing, any one of which will stimulate thinking and expand the much-needed conversation:

1) Just see the movie.

2) Think about, document, and/or discuss your own experiences regarding racism.

3) Go to the Equal Justice Initiative website (www.eji.org) and explore it, looking especially at the various materials developed for classroom use, which can also be used  in less-formal discussions with today's youths.

   Doing any of these will stimulate thoughts about where we were, where we are, and where we are headed. Sometimes mercy emerges from discomfort.

Copyright Chuck Cascio; all rights reserved.