“Common Sense is Not So Common.”
Voltaire
I am a black woman. I am a weary black woman. I am a scared black woman. Why? Because whites are calling the police on us for everything. It is as if we should not be breathing the same air. As of we have not lived next door to them for the past 55 years. With President Trump leading our nation, racism is back and very much alive. We are losing the battle we fought so long and so hard for: the right to vote. That right is being taken away day by day, right for right. Not so long ago our youth and our elder bled and died for the right to vote and now sneaky though it may be, those voting rights are being yanked away for fear that blacks will vote in favor of those who will fight with us to bring back that major right.
Look at the state of Georgia, a state that many of us thought was the shining example of a of a southern state that had “hate for blacks” as its middle name. We thought those wrongs finally had been made right, that Georgia was the new South. The real Georgia was revealed during the last voting season when Democrats became the majority in the House of Representatives. Yes, voter suppression reared its ugly head once again, especially in Georgia. Recently a non-partisan group rented a bus to take senior citizens in Jefferson County to a voting booth. After the mostly black seniors were on the bus someone called the commissioner’s office who ordered them off the bus stating the bus had been hired by a group that had a Democrat in its ranks. And that constituted “political activity.” Shame on Georgia.
The Georgia Secretary of State, Republican Brian Kemp, and Republican candidate for governor, was instrumental in the suppression of voting rights. Some 53,000 voters’ registrations are being held hostage because they are not “exact matches.” In other words, there might be an extra space or a misplaced comma, or period on the form and that disqualifies the voter from casting a vote. A judge ruled several days before voting that that way of disallowing someone to vote was illegal. It has not been lost on white supremacists that these days politics not protests are the way to get into the mainstream. Their kindred souls are in office and in power.
I feel the stings and rocks thrown at us by the President of the U.S. and others of his ilk. It is frightening to know that the former chief of our Justice Department, Jeff Sessions, was doing all that he could to remove many, many blacks and other minorities from the voting polls. When white supremacist groups show up at various rallies and trouble ensues, none of the Republicans in office utter a word against them. They all kowtow to the President even when they know he is wrong.
America is (or was) the home of democracy. We have never had a president in office who is as boldly racist as Trump. He has insulted most black reporters who have White House passes; there are no blacks or other minorities working at the White House; Trump lies almost every time he opens his mouth, and we have come to realize that those who work for him do the same, especially Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Americans have never been in such a predicament as we are now. We have few friends around the world. They have come to see that President Trump is not a man of his word and changes his opinion as often as he changes. . . well, fill in the dots.
The only black female lawmaker in Vermont resigned last month after four years of constant harassment, insults, break-ins at her home, death threats and more from the many white supremacist groups in 95% white Vermont. It was in Vermont that I was called a “nigger” for the first time in my life. My group of Peace Corps Volunteers spent two months in Vermont at the Institute for International Living due to a coup in Peru. I was walking down the street with several other female volunteers and some young boys on the other side of the street yelled that word at me. We ignored them and continued on our way. I was hurt and angry, and thereafter I limited my walks to country roads where I talked to the cows I encountered.
Also, while we were in Vermont, one of our Peace Corps friends invited me and another black volunteer to her home in New Hampshire for the weekend. Her parents were very welcoming. At dinner that evening my friend asked about a friend of hers. Her mother, who was very animated, said without a thought, “Oh, he works at (some place) and comes home black as a nigger every night.” I looked across the table at Pat, the other black woman, and she was looking at me. We continued eating and not one word was ever mentioned about what the mother had said.
Meanwhile in Maine, Governor Le Paige has not missed a chance to spout racist rhetoric as he does frequently. He accuses blacks and “people of color” of being drug dealers and suggests that they should be shot. A Democrat in the state legislature called LePage a “racist” and LePage was so outraged that he wished they could have a duel so he could shoot his opponent! And this man governs the state of Maine? What does that say about the people of Maine who elected him?
Trump came into office with a chip on his shoulder and it remains. He began by telling us how intelligent he is. Then he aligned with white nationalists. He could not bring himself to call them what they are – avowed racists. With the president as their protector, they along with other racists came out of the shadows and suddenly everyone who ever had a grudge against any person of color felt free to call the police to remove any black person from any place the white person felt blacks had no business being, and for speaking out about what they thought of blacks and other people of color. It has become very unsettling and upsetting.
Whites are calling the police to arrest blacks for:
Gardening while black – two white women saw a black man in Detroit gardening on an empty plot and called the police because he didn’t “belong in the neighborhood.”
Baby-sitting while black – a white woman followed a black man who was baby-sitting two white children. She called the police who contacted the parents who were shocked that the black man was suspected of kidnapping the children. They said the man often babysat their children.
Visiting voters while black – a black lawmaker was visiting neighborhoods in her district and knocking on doors for votes when one of the neighbors called police because she thought the lawmaker was checking to see who was at home before robbing a house.
Existing while black – A restaurant in Alabama refused to allow a Kappa Alpha Psi alumni chapter to host its dinner there claiming, “problems with your kind.” The men were in their 50 - 60 years of age.
Being a doctor while black - Delta Airlines has refused on two occasions to allow two black female doctors to attend to people who became ill while flying. In both cases the attendants asked for their doctors’ licenses and even after being shown the doctors’ licenses, they still questioned the two doctors.
Waiting for AAA help while black – two black women were waiting in a parking lot for AAA help to arrive to service their car when a drunk white woman began yelling at them that she was white, and were they waiting for their “baby daddy to arrive,” and other insulting comments were hurled at the women who fearing for their safety called police.
Swimming while black – there have been several instances where blacks were challenged when attempting to use hotel swimming pools. The challengers were not affiliated with the hotel, but wanted to know if the blacks had showered before getting into the pool, etc. The black people were guests at the hotels.
Entering your home while black – there are more and more instances of whites challenging blacks attempting to enter their condos or apartments where they live. The whites insist that the blacks do not live there. The blacks have keys to their homes and when police are called the whites look like idiots. They can’t know every person who lives in the building and for them to challenge a tenant is outrageous.
Driving while black – all blacks have to be careful while driving. The police have a habit of stopping cars driven by blacks who the police think cannot afford such cars or just want to make an example of them. The blacks must be very careful. One black woman was stopped in a city she was moving to in order to begin her job as a professor at a university. She was stopped for no reason and she said so. She also cursed the officer who arrested her. The next day the woman was found dead in her cell. The police said it was suicide; her family and other blacks know better.
Lawmaking while black - the second black woman to serve in the Vermont Legislature resigned last month after 4 years of harassment. Her home was burglarized; death threats, and constant harassment led to her resignation. Her husband had recent heart surgery and she feared for their lives and the life of her son. Vermont is 95% white.
Voting while black – These past weeks have seen more vitriol stemming from our mid-term elections. Two whites in Southern states who ran against blacks and were perhaps on the verge of losing their positions, struck back with a vengeance. One was the Secretary of State who oversaw the election despite recommendations that he step down until the election was over. He refused until a few days ago. The man is suspect since he oversaw the election and at the same time he also ran for Governor of that state. And in Prairie View, TX some 8000 students were denied the right to vote because election officials said Texas was not their home and they should vote at home. By the time that decision was overthrown, it was too late for most of the students to get to the polls which were not conveniently located nearby.
Existing while black - some fear that it’s open season on blacks. A white man recently shot and killed two blacks at a Walmart store _ one man inside the store and the other one outside - recently. As he passed another white man, the shooter said to him, “I’m not shooting any white people, only blacks.” That is chilling!
Meanwhile in the Virgin Islands a drunk, white American woman went around yelling
that she loves Trump and “hates black people.” She was escorted off the island by police.
A man at a DC airport was told by the white woman behind him that he was in the wrong line and should move to let her through. He showed her his first-class boarding pass. She then mumbled out loud that he must be military and he should still move because she had paid for her tickets. The man then turned to her and said, “Nope, I’m too big for anybody’s military. I’m just a niggah with money!” The entire line applauded him and it went viral. Perhaps then the woman understood!
When I go out I try to keep an eye on my surroundings. I don’t want to be shot and killed for being black. I have no control over the color of my skin. It was given to me by God and I shall die happily with it. In Church I worry that someone will burst in firing and I think of what to do in that event. Should I keep my cell phone in my hand during the services in case I need to call for help?
During grade school days I was bused to school because black children could not attend the school closest to our homes. I was bused to a black school across town. My four years of high school at one of the most prestigious public schools in the city, Shortridge, taught me a lot about life with white people. Senator Richard Lugar graduated from Shortridge five years before I did. I was on the Monday staff of our Daily Echo, our high school newspaper, held a press pass thanks to the Indianapolis Herald – a black weekly newspaper – which allowed me backstage to interview jazz greats and to write about it, and I excelled in my journalism classes. The few black students were basically ignored by most of the white teachers and students alike. I cannot recall a single white student even looking at me, let alone saying “Hi.
And then in the '60s Dr. Martin Luther King came into the news. People marveled at his civil disobedience and his message of non-violence. Finally, blacks were organizing and demanding an end to “whites only” at eating establishments; demanding the right to use the decent bathrooms rather than a stinky and dirty bathroom outside, and the right to drink from water fountains designated for “whites only.” We no longer were content to sit at the back of a bus, or to get up to let a white man have our seat. Were we not human? Hadn’t slavery ended? Our nation rose up and began demanding that blacks have the same rights as whites. Slowly over the years – with much feet dragging – the majority of Americans obeyed the law.
Robert Kennedy, Attorney-General, under the guidance of his brother, President John F. Kennedy, sent Federal troops to the South to protect blacks trying to exercise their right to vote and to protect little black children who ran a gamut of angry, yelling whites while trying to enter schools. It was a disgraceful display of anger of people who refused to share the benefits that both races were entitled to. Watch a little black child protected by Federal troops walking through a raucous, rowdy crowd of whites threatening and yelling. How did they manage to learn or even to study given those circumstances? But they excelled and went on to white colleges and did the same.
I was a Peace Corps volunteer in the mountains of Cuzco, Peru when President Kennedy was assassinated. My first prayer was that he had not been killed by a black person. The same was true when Robert Kennedy was killed. These men had helped black people and I certainly did not want their deaths on our hands. In 2018 alone, white men with guns have killed over 12,000 people. Is anyone alarmed at this? President Trump is appalled when a few illegals have killed some innocent Americans, yet he is not sending troops to ban white men from anything. What would he ban them from – buying guns, working in the public square, from their homes, from breathing?
Following the assignation of President Kennedy, Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. That law allowed the withholding of federal funds from programs that had discriminatory practice; authorized the federal government to step in to safeguard the right of African Americans to register to vote and cast their ballots, and allowed access to public accommodations. Johnson signed the Economic Opportunity Act, to establish the Office of Economic Opportunity to oversee a number of educational, training, and employment programs. Johnson wanted more safeguards for civil and voting rights, money for education, programs for urban renewal, Medicare, crime prevention and consumer protection. One of his most acclaimed accomplishments as president was ensuring the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Which authorized the federal government to step in to safeguard the right of blacks to register to vote and cast their ballots.
We leap to 2016 and Donald Trump, the President of the United States, formerly the role model of a democracy where everyone’s rights are protected by the Federal government. I say “formerly” because that is no longer the case. Before Trump was elected, he often used the wink and nod to assure white racists that he was one of them. He refused to call racist the people who rioted in Charlottesville, VA in 2017. He dug in his heels to get his supporters to act upon the “fake media” and at his rallies, he often called for his people to show others how they felt about reporters and those in the crowd who did not agree with Trump. We continue to see the results of that.
President Trump has been on a roll recently in insulting black women. He began by calling April Ryan, a “loser.” Ms. Ryan of American Urban Radio Networks has covered the White House for 24 years. When she stood to ask a question of the president, he ordered her to sit down and said she “doesn’t know what the hell she is doing.” Black CNN reporter Abby Philips, was told by Trump that she “asks a lot of stupid questions.” He went on to insult PBS NewsHour WH correspondent Yarniche Alcindor, a black female reporter. She asked if Trump was concerned that his rhetoric emboldens white nationalists. He replied, “that is such a racist question … is so insulting to me. It’s a very terrible thing you said.” Trump then walked away. Was it noticed that her question was not answered?
This president had the nerve to say, “When you’re in the White House, this is a very sacred place to me, this is a very special place, you have to treat the White House with respect, you have to treat the presidency with respect.” Maybe when the president treats the presidency with respect - just maybe – others will do the same. Apparently, he does not realize how disrespectful some of his retorhic has been, especially about women. It is doubtful that he cares.
