Congressman Bryon Donalds is on Donald Trump’s shortlist for vice president. As such, he and the others on the list are making the most outrageous comments in order to gain favor among MAGA Republican voters. His latest comment to black Republicans explained how blacks did better under Jim Crow because marriage rates were higher. I decided to write to Bryon Donalds regarding his affinity for Republican policies that supposedly benefit black people.
Dear Representative Bryon Donalds,
June 8, 2024
I watched your attempt to clarify your unfortunate comment regarding the black family being together during the era of Jim Crow on CNN. To be honest, I find your attempt to attribute Republican policies to the black progress we see today not only ingenuous but lacking credibility. I’ve lived long enough to experience the many roadblocks’ conservatives have placed in our way since the Civil Rights Movement. It takes an extraordinary amount of tenacity, courage, and intelligence to overcome them. I’m one of the lucky ones.
I am a black female senior citizen and a democrat. I am also a Christian. I attribute my excellent progress with obtaining an education, getting married, raising three law-abiding financially successful children, and retiring comfortably to policies enacted by the Democrats and to my Christian values of love, kindness, and hard work. My grandparents fled the Jim Crow south for safety and economic opportunities to the Motor City, Detroit. My parents later moved us to California where red lining curtailed our progress. However, when the Democrats passed the Fair Housing Act, my parents had the courage and foresight to move us into a white neighborhood where housing values appreciated, the schools were better funded, the groceries were cheaper and healthier, the police were not omnipresent, and the air and water were clean. I followed suit with my own family.
The reality is that since the passing of the Civil Rights laws, Republicans have sought ways to curtail the progress of black people, women, religious minorities and LGBTQ folks. In my experience, even though I was an excellent student and state identified as gifted, my mother had to demand I had access to college preparatory courses at the predominately white high school I attended. It was Affirmative Action that opened the doors to colleges and universities for me to attend. I lacked guidance from the college counselor who refused to assist me in choosing any college at all, so I chose the University of Southern California where my brother was already a student. I later learned that I could have attended an Ivy League school with my academic credentials, but I was never afforded the knowledge that some universities were more prestigious than others.
The Political Party that encourages continued discrimination against women, people of color, religious minorities, and LGBTQ folks is consistently the Republican Party. Your Party does not open doors for people of diverse backgrounds in this country; it closes them at every opportunity. Your Party has managed to make “diversity”, “equity”, and “inclusion” bad words and continually bans books designed to teach tolerance and reduce bullying among children. I will argue that the progress you see among black people is the result of reproductive choice, access to education, Obamacare, demands for criminal justice reform, and the ability to choose who and when to marry. The ability is begin building generational wealth is despite the Republican policies, not because of them. Your Party deserves no credit!
Your Party seeks to “Make America Great Again” when the only ones who experienced nirvana were white Protestant males. The rest of us were second class citizens, locked out of schools, neighborhoods, healthcare, job opportunities, and some were locked in closets. There was no liberty and justice for all. There was no realized aspiration of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for every American. There was no equal justice under the law for everyone. Those things were reserved for white males. That was your great America!
Everything your Party is currently doing tells me, and many other Americans, that you want to return to those days. Your Party’s unreasonable stance on abortion and contraception tells us how much you despise the intellect and aspirations of women. Your attacks on the LGBTQ community tells us how you want to push them back into the closet and re-subject them to bullying so they will kill themselves. Your attack on the justice system tells us that you want to return to a two-tiered criminal justice system where wealthy white men (like Donald Trump) are immune from prosecution and all others are over-policed and strongly prosecuted. Your attack on immigrants tells me you value white Christian people over all others. And your attack on teachers and science, tells me you want a nation of ignorant workers who are easily exploited and expendable cheap labor. Your attack on regulations means the maintenance of toxic air and water in poor neighborhoods, leaving folks sick and their children stunted.
My family is building generational wealth. But it has been through the policies of the Democrats that opened doors that were previously closed, giving us access to better education, better jobs, decent healthcare, bank accounts, capital, and allowed us to control our reproductive choices.
I truly have no idea why you are a Republican. They think men who look like you are criminals and belong in prison, not in professional careers. Our country does need workers, but your Party can’t stand the idea of immigration when the pool of available workers are brown and black people. It speaks to their inherent belief that all men are NOT created equal. And that is the problem I have with MAGA and now with you.