Author: tonihall805@outlook.com

The news this week broadcasted multiple images of groups of young people of color storming into stores and running off with armloads of stolen goods. They’re hitting high end stores, the Target and Walmart stores, as well as small businesses. Not surprisingly, Target announced that it will close seven on its stores due to excessive theft. Others will likely exit these neighborhoods too, leaving residents with fewer places to shop, higher prices, and fewer job opportunities. Actions have consequences and so does inaction.

While I sympathize with this youthful response to a system that has deprived them of a level playing field in which to thrive economically, I think family members and community advocates need to inform the young people in those videos that making away with stolen merchandise to sell on the black market isn’t winning. The system that failed them remains rigged to lock them up for their crime and to further punish their community.

I know all about this rigged system. It became clear to me as a teenager that the system wasn’t built to advance women nor black and brown people. From denying access to the necessities like decent housing and good education, to withholding the building blocks of wealth that come through high-paying jobs and capital investment, to flooding the streets with drugs and alcohol, to the over-policing and harsher sentencing of black and brown people, and to the media images that negatively portray blackness to the extent that the world blames our poverty on our cultural flaws and not on ongoing oppression and lack of opportunity. The reality is that poverty, generational trauma, and lack of opportunity inevitably lead to crime fueled by frustration, anger, desperation, need, drug abuse, and untreated mental health issues.

The Civil Rights Movement was a beacon of hope. However, I can point to how things really turned south after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. I felt that loss to my core. Our collective pain, frustration and hopelessness manifested itself in self-destructive violence and our communities never fully recovered. By the late 70’s, the promises of the Civil Rights Movement met with the reality of an economic and social system unwilling to change.

I observed the bars going up on the windows of homes. Liquor stores owned by Asian immigrants sprung up on most corners instead of grocery stores. I observed kids being beaten up for their tennis shoes. School fights became a daily occurrence. Sports became more important than school for most boys. My brothers had their leather coats stolen off their backs. I observed a woman being tied to a car and dragged down the street by her boyfriend. Drive by shootings and gang violence became commonplace as drugs became a means of mental escape and a major economic driver.

As a tween, I felt like I was stuck in a slow burning community, destined for death if I couldn’t find a way out. My mother knew enough to keep us in church and off the streets, but I eventually realized that the songs at church always pointed to heaven or Jesus’ second coming as the eventual relief from the misery this life seemed to offer. At home, my mother suffered physical abuse from my alcoholic father, and the church folks advised her to bear it as a submissive wife while praying for him. That wasn’t a serious solution. I was terrified of the violence that could end her life. And the police were no help. Every time they eventually showed up, they did nothing. I repeatedly begged my mother to leave. Then, finally, and with the help of her parents, she left my father and moved us away from the city.

That move changed everything. I was thirteen and for the first time in my life, I could see a bright future for myself. It turned out that living away from a community of color meant freedom from the fiery arrows meant to destroy lives and livelihoods. Government policies that sanctioned a lack of educational, health, and infrastructure resources while allowing high prices, drugs, bank discrimination, and excessive police presence were all absent. In the suburbs I discovered access to everything I needed to be successful if I just learned the new rules.

Rule number one was to take advantage of the highly resourced education being offered. Rule number two was to be persistent, brave, and exceptional. Rule number three was to keep my mouth shut and to pay attention to the silent cues. I learned that the way to be successful in a system rigged against women and people of color was to trick the system into believing you are a legitimate part of it. I learned to speak and write in the language of the system. I learned to dress for acceptance (AKA: to “dress for success”). I learned that I had to be doing better, not just as good, as my white counterparts to be recognized. I learned to overlook micro-aggressions, but to make note of the bias and work around it. I learned to value my few white allies who would mentor and later sponsor me. I learned to smile when I felt like screaming. As an adult, I learned to hide cultural indicators like family pictures or black heritage art whenever I wanted to sell a house. I learned to sue when it was warranted. I learned that humility is overrated, and that tactfulness would get me further than being direct. And I learned to always keep receipts and emails because insecure white folks will try to bring you down.

Donald Trump is correct that the system is rigged. He admits to benefitting from that system for many years. That system kept him out of jail despite his sexual assault and fraud. In his mind, “America was great” when women and people of color were oppressed and lacked opportunity and couldn’t do much about it. He now thinks it is “rigged” to give us access, opportunity, and power we shouldn’t have. Obama was his undoing. Not surprisingly, his rhetoric appeals to uneducated white people who failed to take full advantage of that system when it was available to them.

Trump is selling a revised system wherein he feeds his fragile ego by dictating how government is run, picking the winners and losers, and giving these poor white folks the hope that they will be the winners against those immigrants and people of color who are now competing to displace them. The problem is that his promises are empty. He has nothing to offer them when you dig deep enough. All he has is resentment against people like Obama who circumvented the rigged system and are now exposing him for the criminal he actually is. However, that resentment threatens to lead to violence and even genocide if allowed to proliferate.

While it is true that the system continues to be rigged against minorities, and wealth inequality remains a huge problem, there are ways to navigate it. Donald Trump wants to make that navigation more difficult for women and people of color. He certainly isn’t the person to fix this rigged system. If anything, he would like to reinstate and reinforce oppression.

The 2024 election is going to be about the survival of our democratic republic. Our current Constitution and system of government gives us with the opportunity to elect representatives who work towards creating a more equitable and inclusive society that is far easier to navigate to become successful. I’m hopeful that we can create a society where young people no longer feel the need to “mash and grab” to earn a living. To accomplish this, people of good conscience must vote.

Deception, equivocations, fraud, lying, misstatements and omissions amount to forms of rampant misinformation that poisons our ability to make sound decisions surrounding nearly every aspect of our lives. And some wealthy and powerful people are okay with that, especially when they benefit financially and politically from it. A few days ago, I watched a congressional hearing wherein Republican congressmen berated the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) chairwoman for questioning social media companies that permit dangerous misinformation to proliferate on their sites. The MAGA Republicans challenged her authority to determine what constituted misinformation. I thought to myself that this is the root of the problem.

Since Donald Trump brought his distorted relationship with reality, his introduction of “alternative facts”, and his branding of unfavorable journalism as “fake news”, too many in this nation have abandoned the notion that objective truths actually exist. Truth is simply the expression of verifiable facts. We have allowed opinions, feelings, hunches, theories, and unsubstantiated accusations to live on par with truth as if truth no longer exists. Misinformation is simply a broad term to describe any departure from truth. If the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is restricted from regulating fraud and deceptive business practices, then we are in great trouble as consumers. But some people, beyond the wealthy and powerful, don’t find this disturbing.

I have an immigrant son-in-law who can be described as a libertarian. He is against government regulations because he believes that the free market will eventually correct the poor behavior of businesses. He believes that allowing consumers to experience heartache and injuries leads to the eventual demise of those bad businesses. We argue over the merits of government regulations all the time. He thinks they are unnecessary while I think they are. At the heart of both our arguments is survival. He believes that the best businesses will ultimately thrive as customers abandon products that don’t work as advertised or when people are harmed by bad products. That is how markets are designed to work and he is correct. The problem as I see it that real people are injured, killed, and harmed in the process. The damage can be irreparable. I care deeply about the immediate survival of people and damage to the environment that is caused by deception motivated by short-term profiteers. And absent government regulation, the problem can only get worse.

With the introduction of artificial intelligence, the ability to distinguish between what is true and what is misinformation will become more difficult without new government regulations. It’s already difficult to find a reliable source of news and information. This has driven me to watch more congressional hearings in real time and to pay closer attention to people with actual credentials for information. It is evident to me that the credibility of politicians and news stations have been compromised by greed. I’m reminded of that Biblical passage in I Timothy 6;10 that says, “For the love of money is the root of all evil….”

In practice, my son-in-law is correct. Since corporations and billionaires have bought and paid for news outlets and politicians, the marketplace of information has been set free. We as consumers are forced to question everything and to rely on primary sources for information as much as possible. But it’s time consuming and few people have the time to invest in fact-finding. This is why I find it so disappointing that very few people have turned off Fox News, even after a court found them responsible for lying about the 2020 election being stolen and having to pay millions for defamation. Their viewers never even heard about it. I lament that the majority of Americans continue to get their information from unreliable sources and suffering because of it.

However, as an optimist, even given the diminished power of the FTC, I believe that we will reach a tipping point when the pain, damage, deaths, and injuries to people, communities, and the environment caused by misinformation become too much to endure. Only then will the free-market demand truth from the news media and politicians. I predict that greater truth and more reliable sources of truth are in our future. I just hope it isn’t too late for our children, grandchildren, and the planet.

I love music and musical performance, especially dancing. However, since the pandemic and our continued vulnerability, I haven’t attended any concerts in public spaces. These days, my enjoyment of musical performance comes through a screen. So, this past week, I tuned into the MTV Video Music Awards to watch a variety of performances from popular artists.

I got through about an hour of the show when I decided that I’d had enough with watching young black and brown women exposing their bodies while dancing and singing in overtly sexual ways. I get that this is performance art and self-expression, and I don’t begrudge anyone their right to express themselves in this way. I’m fine if this is how someone chooses to present themselves to the world. I just know I didn’t care for it.

During particular acts, I experienced a myriad of emotions as I watched. I’m probably a little bit prudish, but my primary emotion was disgust. As female after female exposed herself and twerked in front of the camera, each more sexually explicit than the other, I found myself downright bored. I turned off the television and went to bed.

The following day, when I learned that Taylor Swift won nine music video awards, I began to unpack my thoughts and feelings about the performances of the black and brown women I saw on the show. First, I am thankful to live in a country that allows for freedom of expression. Second, I’m happy if these young women find a sense of female empowerment by performing sexually explicit lyrics and dance moves. Third, I had this horrifying thought that these young black and brown women were persuaded that their ticket to fame and monetary success in the music industry was granted only if they performed in this way. Too many were downright nasty and I know I didn’t like it.

I don’t know the truth behind their motivation to expose themselves. I do know that the market and the award decision-makers decided to give the more conservative Taylor Swift a nod that night. It is a form of subtle censorship when powerful people behind the scenes actually decide who wins coveted awards for their art. Personally, I’m for letting the viewer, the reader, and the buyer, decide. For example, I engaged in a personal form of censorship by turning off the television and refusing to watch any longer. I engage in it when I refuse to purchase music with lyrics that I find offensive. I don’t watch performances that disgust me. I can be a prude if I choose to, while not denying others the right to enjoy violent or sexually explicit content. My entire adulthood has been an exercise in personal censorship and I’m thankful to live in a country where I get to decide for myself.

As a parent, I’ve exercised censorship regarding my own children, and I want to preserve that right for others. For example, there was a time when I didn’t allow my kids to watch “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air”. They were at an impressionable age, and I later explained to them that I didn’t want to expose them to people constantly insulting each other for laughs as an acceptable way to communicate in our home. I wanted their interactions with one another to be marked with mutual respect and acceptance. I also limited access to content that contained violence, sex, and horror during their formative years. So, as my children were growing up, I didn’t allow violent video games, rap music, or sexually explicit videos in our home. Adult words, adult conversations, and adult books were kept among adults. This is all censorship. In a free society, I’m all for the freedom to censor content to protect my own soul and that of my own children when they are young.

I’m fully in favor or self-censorship; not government censorship. I’m grateful for guides like movie ratings and labeling content as “explicit” to help us consumers know what to expect. It is true that one person’s art is another person’s trash. Some content hurts my soul while other people are completely unscathed by it. And that is okay. We are diverse human beings. I’m not sure why I’m turned off by near-naked women twerking, but I don’t like it, and I don’t have to explain myself. I also hate boxing and MMA matches because I’m repulsed by seeing folks hit each other. I literally become sick to my stomach. But I have a son and daughter who love those matches.

The ability to make these censoring decisions for my own children when they were young was essential to instilling my idea of basic human values within them. It doesn’t mean that they weren’t exposed to content I disapproved of outside our home. I know they were. But making censoring decisions at home empowered, encouraged, and enabled them to question their own values as they grew up in society and were exposed to other content.

It was my own mother who censored my exposure to certain things. As a result, I recall refusing a role in a play at fourteen because the content of the play went against values I adopted from my mother’s early influence. My mother left the choice to me, and I had to ask myself where I stood on the content before moving forward. I credit my mother’s early content censorship for helping shape my values. With that kind of clarity, I had the courage to refuse the role despite peer pressure. I was able to clearly articulate my objection to the content. That particular play was produced without my participation, and I was fine with that.

Essentially, what I’m saying is that the beauty of living in a free society is having the ability to exercise the tools of private censorship for ourselves and our children. We can turn the channel, refuse to purchase, scroll past, opt out, or not read. Living in a free society means everyone has the right to express themselves and consumers have the right to embrace or reject that expression on a personal level or on behalf of their underage children. What we don’t have the right to do is decide for others what they can and cannot see or how they can or cannot express themselves.

Right now, this freedom is being challenged by groups who believe they have the right and moral high ground to censor art, literature, and even history to limit what other people’s children are exposed to. That isn’t freedom. That is a form of religious tyranny that must be fought against at school board meetings, in the courts, and at the ballot box.

I may not like to see young women twerking half-naked, but I will defend their right to express themselves that way. I’ll simply exercise my right to turn the channel.

One of the only things I enjoy about visiting my dentist’s office is the friendly conversations with the staff. In particular, the dental assistant almost always asks to see the newest photos of my grandsons. Of course, I’m happy to share them. This week’s visit was no different until after viewing the pictures she entreated me to ensure they are homeschooled because teachers are teaching kids weird things. I asked what “weird things” were being taught? And of course, it was that whole right-wing propaganda surrounding gender and homosexuality. After I internally rolled my eyes and let out a sigh, I realized that it would be irresponsible to forego the opportunity to share a different perspective with her.

So, I did. I began with my experience as a former teacher, as a person with many teacher friends, and a former educator in a school of education. I calmly explained that teachers aren’t teaching children to question their gender nor are they grooming children to become homosexuals. I explained that teachers may need to explain human differences as a means of creating a learning environment free from bullying and discrimination on the basis of actual differences that children are already encountering. I explained that in the process of normalizing differences, some children might then feel safe and comfortable enough to admit to being “different”.

I relayed my experience with an enraged mother who accused the University of “turning her son gay”. I told her how I patiently explained to the mother that we lack both the ability and the motivation to do that. I continued to relay how I explained to the mother that her son was already gay when he arrived but that he finally felt safe enough to come out of the closet society had shoved him in. I explained how I understood that parents are afraid for their children because they know that being different will make life difficult for that child who identifies as gay or transgender.

After relaying my experience, I assured the dental assistant that teachers understand the hardships as well, which is why they don’t encourage students to question their gender or sexual orientation, but instead work diligently to create a safe learning environment for everyone, especially for those children who are different. I felt a sense of satisfaction when she expressed relief at my explanation. But she is just one of many people poisoned by a right-wing agenda to garner votes by propagating unfounded fears of teachers and books. Since the legalization of gay marriage, the introduction of new gender pronouns, and the popularity of pride parades and drag shows, religious conservatives are seeking ways to shove LGBTQ+ folks back in the closet.

I grew up in a family and a Christian community where we simply didn’t acknowledge the non-binary gender differences nor the non-heterosexual orientation of members of our family or church. The closet was a real thing and those who ventured outside of it were punished severely. It’s accurate to say that we rolled our eyes at the girl who dressed like a guy. We quietly referred to the gay pianist as “different” but didn’t ask any questions. Our belief was that only God had the right to judge, so we better not judge them. Instead, we engaged in this strange “don’t ask, don’t tell” social arrangement that was convenient for the majority, but devastating to those who were different. That tacit ostracization was not only disrespectful in its denial of the full humanity of fellow human beings, but it was hurtful and lead to murder, broken families, and high rates of suicide. It’s sad that in 2023, Black transgender murder rates are increasing and violent attacks on the LGBTQ+ community are also on the rise.

As with any legal and social progress that expands the rights and protections of minorities, there will be those who long for what they perceive as the good old days. As a society in 2023, we find ourselves arguing over whether a spectrum of human gender actually exists even as people who identify as non-binary present themselves publicly. Some people will go to their graves believing that God created only males and females. Period. They become confused when they learn that a few people are born with an indeterminate sex. They become even more confused when they learn that the human brain can be mapped as male or female and that a person’s brain gender may not match their genitals. They become enraged at the thought of these truths coming to light because it not only challenges their religious beliefs but calls upon them to expand their view of humanity itself.

It pains me to watch people I care about look upon a transgender person with disgust. I realize that no amount of reasoning can extricate the disgust they were socially conditioned to feel over a lifetime. And that is frustrating. All I can do is demonstrate my acceptance of that person by treating them with the same dignity and respect I afford all human beings. The same is true when confronted by a gay couple. While others look on with distain, I can model respect, acceptance, and kindness and hopefully bring some sustaining joy, comfort, and hope to people who are different.

As members of the human race and voters, we have a duty to recognize that violence and laws motivated by prejudice, bigotry, and discrimination against the LGBTQ+ community are on the rise. Even social media support for LGBTQ+ is attacked. I was shocked and disheartened by the negative feedback I received when I promoted the idea that better humans are inclusive and utilized a pride flag as an example of expanded inclusion. Laura Ann Carleton, a mother of nine and a storeowner was murdered for displaying a pride flag.

As I write this, there are mean-spirited and extremely vocal religious zealots and social conservatives pressuring politicians and lawmakers to shove people back in the closet. Too many apathetic parents are allowing groups like Moms for Liberty to ban books and to punish teachers when they address the full range of humanity in service to a safe learning environment. These books and conversations not only build awareness and empathy, but they increase the capacity of children to accept differences without resorting to bullying and discrimination. Creating a safe and inclusive environment in our schools increases learning, reduces suicides, and likely will reduce school shootings that are often an angry response to bullying and feeling ostracized.

Let’s not shy away from a fight with a few closed-minded people who are trying to shove our friends, family members, fellow citizens, and human beings who are different, back in the closet. As educated and decent human beings, it is up to us to stick our collective foots in the door and refuse to return to the days of shame, disregard, and discrimination against human beings who just happen to be different. Are there complicated issues to address around sports? Sure, there are. So, let’s address them together using our knowledge of science, a commitment to fairness, and all the compassion we can muster.

In honor of my birthday weekend, my children and their families have come for a visit from Philadelphia, Las Vegas, and Palmdale. So, I’m taking the week off from writing my blog to be fully present to enjoy the company of my three adult children, their three spouses and my three grandsons. Please take this opportunity to read some of my past posts that you missed or reread posts you enjoyed.

As always, thank you for caring enough to read my weekly musings about life. Have a great week.

Most Americans simply want to live their lives in peace, free from the political strife and turmoil that blankets the airways and social media. I admit that I’m one of them and that I’m not very successful at it these days. Each day, I do myself the favor of finding some time to turn away from the frustration caused by what I can only describe as a national identity crisis.

Americans are at war with each other over who we are and who we should become. At one extreme, there are those who long for simpler days when wealthy white men enjoyed the power of a democratic republic, and the fruits of capitalism were reserved for them. These people, including presidential candidates Trump, DeSantis, and Ramaswamy seek a future where poor people of color are essentially stripped of their voting rights, exploited for cheap labor, and women returned to the essential role of wife and mother. In their ideal country, faith in their God supersedes science, actual history is obscure, there are strictly two genders, LGBTQ folks will return to the closet they will build for them, and only wealthy Christian immigrants (preferably white) are welcome. This is Christian Nationalism at its core. On the other extreme, are the WOKE activists, regulators of capitalism, and socialists.

In this country, socialism and communism conjures up all kinds of fears in many people. Extremists among conservatives quickly label those who disagree with them as either a socialist or less commonly, a communist. But few people actually know what socialism and communism are. A quick search reveals that socialism is a system where the means of production and distribution of goods are owned and controlled collectively. Communism is a system of holding all property in common based on Marxism to create a classless society where all economic and social activity is controlled by a totalitarian state.

The reality is that there are very few socialists and even fewer communists among us. However, there are several systems in our country that are socialized. For example, our military, our public schools, our fire and police departments, our bridges and highways, national disaster relief, and public parks. These are systems wherein the production and distribution of goods are owned and controlled collectively. They are paid for by our tax dollars and controlled by elected officials and government agencies on our behalf. There are many people in this country who believe that socialized healthcare, called “Universal Healthcare” should be added to the list beyond Medicare and Medicaid. All these “socialist” systems fit within the preamble to the Constitution which tasks the government to “provide for common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty for ourselves and our posterity.” In our democratic republic, the decision to add universal healthcare to the list would be determined by the representatives that we the people vote into office. It is ultimately up to us to decide. But at this moment, the fight is over the continued existence of democracy itself.

The actual frontline fighters in the current national identity war are the Christian Nationalists and the WOKE activists. WOKE activists believe in making it easier for citizens to vote while Christian Nationalists seek to curtail access to the ballad box and to limit the power of certain votes. WOKE activists embrace the aspiration of the Constitution to provide equal justice under the law, while Christian Nationalists favor some people over others. WOKE activists insist upon the civil liberties found in the Bill of Rights with practical safeguards and limitations while Christian Nationalists believe these rights are absolute even if they harm others. Both WOKE activists and Christian Nationalists view the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness clause found in our Declaration of Independence as their driving force. However, Christian Nationalists interpret it to mean they can freely bully and discriminate against others.

In pursuit of WOKE ideals, we had a civil rights movement which forced legal compliance to end discrimination. That was followed by diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. At their core, these are an effort to capture the hearts and minds of all Americans by building an appreciation for the diversity that exists within the country and to honor the rich histories, contributions, perspectives, and values everyone has to offer. Equity is an attempt to remove remaining systems that hinder the equal access to opportunity for economic and social progress among previously excluded groups. And inclusion is an effort to bring historically excluded people and perspectives into spaces of prominence, power and decision making. These core principles gave birth to the Black Lives Matter Movement to which White Christian Nationalists responded with copycat marches from Nazi-Germany.

I am grateful to live in a democratic republic. In our form of government, power is exercised by the people through their elected representatives. For now, we have the right to protest, to petition our government, and to vote and have our votes counted. Our democracy is characterized by the equality of rights and privileges among citizens. And herein lies the problem for Christian nationalists. Their view of what America should be is increasingly a minority view and they afraid of losing power. The election of Barack Obama and the subsequent backlash represented by Donald Trump signals the beginning of our current struggle.

I see how mentally disruptive it is for a person who believes white people are superior to see people of color excel academically, professionally, politically, and creatively. It must be abhorrent to religious folks to witness gay pride parades, gay marriage, drag shows, and transgender folks in the public square. It must be horrible to imagine women making a frivolous choice to abort a baby when you believe it is murder. It must be hard to have a female boss, especially if she is a woman of color. It must be frustrating to compete for college admission or employment with all these women and people of color when in your mind they aren’t nearly as qualified as you because you are white and male. It must be disgusting to watch females flaunt their bodies in sexually explicit ways and demand sexual fulfillment as an empowered woman who no longer relies on a man. These are societal changes that democracy enabled, and these unsettling changes are why many on the far right are willing to discard democracy.

The exercising of civil liberties among people who do not share their religious values or beliefs is so terrifying to them that in their quest to persuade voters to vote Republican, some are pushing a false narrative that abortion is legal up to the time of birth, that the southern border is wide open and dangerous people are coming in, that teachers are indoctrinating children to become gay or transgender when in fact they are helping to end the bullying caused by bigotry. In their zeal to win voter support, some have gone so far as to push false accusations that democrats are pedophiles, groomers, and baby killers.

The reality is that no one is stopping the religious right from exercising their religion. It is just that WOKE activists contend that others should not be forced to abide by the religious beliefs of others. For example, if a religious person doesn’t believe in gay marriage, they shouldn’t get gay married or attend gay weddings. If someone believes abortion is murder, they don’t have to have abortions. The problem is that these choices aren’t something the far right wants to embrace. A few are seeking to roll back the Constitution and the rule of law to get their way. The road to fascism is before us.

Fascism is a totalitarian governmental system lead by a dictator with an emphasis on nationalism, militarism, and often racism. The warning signs are easy to detect. Look for book bans to limit knowledge and perspectives. Look for an attack on the free press to suppress investigations and factual information. Look for anti-intellectualism. Look for the cult of personality. Look for the amassing of guns to enforce their will through violence. Look for the scapegoating of groups as the cause of problems. Look for the paranoia that says a good way of life is being threatened by outsiders.

This next election will determine whether we will maintain our current freedoms as a democratic republic or slide further down the road toward fascism lead by Christian Nationalists.

I accept that upon watching the brawl on August 5th at the Montgomery dock, many of us felt like a long overdue sweet revenge was exacted upon anti-black white folks in payment for hundreds of years of violence perpetrated against black bodies with impunity. Those white folks who assaulted the black co-captain, Dameion Pickett, for simply doing a job that inconvenienced them were not only beaten down by black spectators who came to his rescue, but they were also arrested and soon charged with third degree assault. It appears that justice is finally being served and I’m very happy about that. And I’m extremely happy that Dameion Pickett survived this particular incident with his life. So many others before him did not. I also want to acknowledge that the viral video of the incident gave birth to incredibly clever memes, t-shirts, songs, poems, reenactments, and a host of other creative and comedic responses.

But I’m not laughing. And I actually worried for my son who is vacationing in Maine with his family. The population of Maine is 98% white. There would be no black calvary to rescue him should he be attacked by anti-black white thugs. While I sympathize with the righteous celebration behind the sentiment that these white folks finally got what they deserved, I’m equally horrified and disheartened that in 2023 some white folks continue to think they have a right to violently attack black people, to call the police on black people for simply existing in certain spaces, and to continuously treat us as inferior human beings who shouldn’t overstep “our place”. The fact that three of these attackers were in their 20s is disturbing because it means that the white supremacist mindset was passed down to yet another generation. And I admit that I’m concerned about it.

Despite our many contributions to the physical and cultural development of this country, black people continue to be targets of insecure white people. If we build something, they try to tear it down. If we succeed, they try to discredit our success. If we gain power, they try to disrupt it. If we speak up, they try to silence us. If we move in, they move out. In truth, it must be exhausting to harbor so much fear and hate towards a group of people because they happen to have darker skin. But I can’t blame them for this destructive mindset. I’m well aware that since the country’s founding, so much time, marketing, and public policy have been devoted to promoting this negative view of blackness to advantage whiteness.

I recognize that there are people who continue to enrich themselves by promoting such nonsense. Shame on them and shame on those gullible individuals who continue to buy into it this low-level ego-manipulation. I’m glad the antics of these haters are being exposed at every turn and that consequences are being served up by employers, the justice system, and the courts. But it is time that we hold the actual purveyors of this fear and hate accountable. This includes certain media outlets, think tanks, wealthy influencers, and political leaders.

For example, we cannot afford to silently allow Governors like Ron DeSantis and his backers to ban books and to distort black history in schools. We also can’t stand by as he arbitrarily suspends a duly elected black female state attorney (Monique Worrell). DeSantis claims she is soft on crime which is code for she isn’t prosecuting enough black and brown people. Despite the fact that crime was actually down in her jurisdiction, he used his power to appoint a conservative judge to replace her. I hope the NAACP and other civil rights organizations stand beside Worrell to challenge this suspension in court, just as they are challenging other attacks on civil liberties designed to curtail the progress of minorities.

As I mentioned before, I’m amazed by the creativity that was on full display following the boat dock brawl. As African Americans and black folks in this country, we should continue to use our creativity, hard work, collective money, and voting power to campaign for respect, fairness, justice, laws, and the common decency we deserve. As a child, I roamed the streets singing James Brown’s song, “Say it Loud, ‘I’m black and I’m proud’.” I gladly donated to and displayed Black Lives Matter stuff. I embraced the concept of being “woke”. I dedicated much of my professional career to diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.

However, I predicted and was right about the eventual attacks from the right on these noble efforts, even though they make no logical sense and can present no rational argument for their opposition. These folks were going to be moved by emotion, not logic, and I knew it, arguing that they just don’t like any of it because they don’t like us. Americans have been programmed to either fear, despise, or at least consider blackness inferior. And sadly, some of us black folks have internalized that programming. So, here we are.

For years, I have argued that it’s going to take a massive marketing effort to change the hearts and minds of the American psyche. We need to foment the sentiment that we are all fully human, that reparations to repair damage is warranted, that equality under the law is constitutional, and that equal opportunity is the ultimate goal. I believe that we are capable of and must create a new narrative for ourselves that spills over into the greater society.

Until we can successfully re-brand ourselves as African Americans, the time for declaring victory and dancing in the streets is premature. As things stand today, with MAGA and white Christian nationalists having a moment, I’m dreading a white backlash to the incident in Montgomery. So, please be careful out there and steer clear of places like Maine where there are no black calvary to rescue you.

t took more than a minute for the Department of Justice (DOJ) to finally indict former President Trump for trying to overturn the 2020 election. Despite the evidence against him, Trump supporters on C-Span Washington Journal cling to claims that Trump is being unjustly persecuted by Democrats, that he did nothing wrong, that the real criminals are the Bidens, and that the DOJ has been weaponized against Trump. Of course, I am more than a little disturbed to hear Trump tell his supporters that the DOJ is really after them and that he is just standing in the way, protecting them from this fictional Bogeyman. However, he never provides a coherent reason why the DOJ is after them. And worse, politicians like Kari Lake have the audacity to threaten MAGA protection of Trump on social media while evoking their NRA connections.

In the thick of things, I’m grateful that C-Span bought on an attorney and law professor, Kimberly Wehle to talk about why the January 6th indictment is important for the preservation of our democracy. She explained in detail each of the schemes Trump is accused of implementing to overturn the election. She explained each of the four counts and his actions associated with them. She then asked the listeners to consider whether they want to continue to live in a country designed to rule from the bottom up where we the people select our political leaders through our vote or to live in a country where political leaders decide who wins elections by subverting the vote and overturning elections at will. Trump tried to deny the will of the people so he could remain in power. When Mike Pence refused to fulfil his role in his unconstitutional scheme, Trump sent thousands of his deceived, fearful, and angry supporters to the Capital to “stop the steal” when in fact he was the one trying to steal the 2020 election.

It was disheartening to hear Republicans call in to C-Span and accuse the Constitutional professor of being a communist and a person who hates the country. I’ve noticed that passionate people often resort to name-calling out of frustration. That’s what is happening today among otherwise decent adults: “Democrats are pedophiles”; “Democrats are communists”; “Democrats are baby killers”; “Democrats are trying to destroy the nation”; “Democrats are indoctrinating our children to be gay or transgender” and “Democrats are brainwashed”.

Of course, I’ve done my own fair share of name calling, however I limit my characterization to small groups within the Republican Party who have shown themselves deserving of the labels I’ve attached to them. I often refer to staunch Trump supporters as “cult members” and white Christian nationalists as the “American Taliban”. Staunch Trump supporters demonstrate the same mindset psychologists find in cult members and white Christian nationalists possess the same desire as the Taliban to install a theocracy, imposing their religious beliefs on everyone and robbing certain members of the society of their rights. In my view, these factions within the Republican Party represent an existential threat to minorities and are clearly in opposition to the “no establishment of religion” clause in the Constitution itself.

Despite all evidence, there are political candidates for president, like Vivek Ramaswamy, who defend the indefensible as though it is more important to give a pass to a political candidate than hold him accountable for breaking the law trying to overturn our election. As often happens these days, Republican accusations turn out to be confessions. For example, the whole “stop the steal” mantra is just one case in point. The only one conspiring to steal the election was Trump and the six unindicted (and unnamed for now) co-conspirators according to the indictment.

The deeper point is that Trump supporters really don’t care that he was trying to steal the election because they believe that Trump is trying to “Make America Great” again. And some continue to believe, despite all evidence to the contrary, that the election was stolen. In their words, they believe that Trump will usher in a White Christian state that will put an end to Black Lives Matter, abortion, LGBTQ rights, and restore some mythical Christian nation run by Trump. It is terrifying to listen to fellow Americans openly and without shame espouse these beliefs. Many are willing to fight another civil war to make this happen and to put Trump back into office. The language of revenge, oppression and violence is scary.

It’s ironic that while they complain that Biden has weaponized the DOJ without actual evidence of interference, Trump openly promises to do just that. If elected, he has promised to use the Justice Department to seek revenge on his political enemies. It isn’t an exaggeration to say that this has become an anti-democratic cult and white supremacist movement that must be stopped at all costs. These are truly dangerous times. It is hard to understand how the polls can be frighteningly close when it comes to a Trump versus Biden election. Some think the economy is pushing people away from Biden and towards Republicans for economic relief. But when have the Republicans ever presided over a great economy?

But this is where we are. We are living in an era when too many Americans can’t find reliable news sources. While I was at the nail salon on the day of the indictment, the owner had Fox News on. After listening for about 15 minutes, a few of us customers railed at the distorted news coverage and I finally asked the owner to turn the channel, explaining to her that Fox wasn’t a reliable source of news. I told her that I would never trust a news broadcast that admitted to lying to its viewers by promoting false stolen election claims and had to pay a large settlement for their lies. Many other Americans stop listening to the news altogether. All it took was for Trump and a few wealthy individuals and corporations to successfully corrupt the news.

Additionally, our current situation can be attributed to Americans failure to understand basic U.S. civics, our Constitution, and history itself. Trump says he loves the uneducated. And that’s because he knows just how easy it is to sow hatred and a fear of others into the hearts and minds of otherwise decent human beings. We are watching how deep rooted that hatred and fear have become and how easily these folks will threaten violence to literally throw away our democratic republic.

The 2024 election will be the most important election of our lifetime. If Trump or even DeSantis wins the office, our country will literally lose the rule of law as well as free and fair elections.

Am I the only person in the country who is tired of people evoking Hunter Biden’s legal problems in defense of the criminal indictments of former president Donald Trump? When I was a child, that “what about?” the wrongdoings of someone else never got me off the hook for my own poor behavior. But today, conservatives repeatedly evoke “what- about” deflections and offer false equivalencies as though they were legitimate reasons to ignore the abhorrent illegal actions of people in their party, especially Trump. The “both sides” argument is a ridiculous fallacy that needs to be rejected because one side is clearly breaking the laws and acting in far more nefarious ways than the other.

I ‘m clear about my own sense of justice. First, and foremost, no one should be above the law if we are to be governed by laws. So, if Hunter Biden broke the law, then he should be prosecuted for his wrongdoing and sentenced accordingly if found guilty. However, Hunter Biden is NOT the president. He is a private citizen and a grown man who made his own life decisions. His prosecution has nothing to do with President Biden and I’m glad President Biden has steered clear of the legal proceedings regarding his son’s offenses. However, the Republicans keep trying to connect father and son to unsubstantiated criminal activities. For the gullible MAGA Republicans who don’t require any evidence, they’ve coined the phrase “Biden crime family” to make it easy evoke their what-about-ism at every turn.

Their House investigation is an actual “witch hunt” led by Representative James Comer and Representative Jim Jordan. Sadly, our taxpayer dollars are funding their charade. It’s comical that they refer to the legitimate indictments of former President Donald Trump as a “witch hunt” when tangible evidence of multiple crimes actually exists. This is the kind of “what-about-ism” and false equivalency that turns the legitimate demand for fairness into a joke.

In a country governed by laws, no person should be allowed to run for the presidency in order to avoid prosecution. That would be the worst thing for the preservation of the rule of law. If former President Trump broke the law, he should also be charged and prosecuted for his wrongdoing. I’m appalled that many Republicans, despite all the evidence of wrongdoing, continue to try to shield Trump from accountability by appealing to our sense of fairness by misusing the “what-about” argument and elevating a false equivalency. They point to the Department of Justice and FBI, accusing them of wrongly ignoring their ridiculous pleas for “fairness”.

The reality is that in this country, people who are white, wealthy, and well-connected are too often given a pass by the criminal justice system. Trump has experienced this pass for his entire adult life, and he fully expected that privilege to continue. The wealthy have the means to hire expensive attorneys to delay trials, fight allocations, file meaningless motions, and negotiate light punishments that often evade any prison time. We’re talking about a man who has repeatedly committed business fraud, evaded taxes, dodged the draft, raped women, and stole highly classified government documents. And we should all remember how Trump as president of the United States, pardoned his loyal criminal partners like Michael Flinn (and others) when their law-breaking was exposed and prosecuted.

Republicans continuously claim that we have a two-tiered criminal justice system, and they are correct. However, the tiers aren’t manifested in how Trump and Hunter Biden are investigated or treated. Nor is it manifested in how the classified documents cases were handled by Trump versus President Biden or Mike Pence. Republicans simply choose to ignore the circumstances, actions, and the numerous broken laws Trump is accused of perpetrating in favor of false equivalency and a ludicrous “what-about-ism”. Yes, both Biden and Pence had classified documents, but they quickly turned them over when they were discovered and voluntarily allowed law enforcement to search their primacies for them without the need for repeated begging and a court ordered subpoena. They didn’t lie, remove, hide, and indiscriminately share classified documents. They had no scheme to use the documents as leverage or to profit from them. There is no equivalency and the “what-about” deflection, is just that, a deflection.

The two-tiered justice system is manifested in the difference in how the poor, the immigrant, and people of color are policed, prosecuted, and sentenced as compared to others in society. We all know the unfairness is happening and it is time for us to demand the equal justice under the law that is provided in our Constitution. I am not saying that poor people, immigrants, or people of color shouldn’t face consequences for their wrongdoing; I am saying that white people. politicians, and the wealthy should face the same consequences when they break the law. This is the kind of “what-about-is” that is justified. It doesn’t allow any wrongdoers off the hook. When I was a child, I agreed that I should be punished for my wrongdoing, but I thought it only fair that others be punished as well.

The time is now for citizens of this country to demand that our criminal justice system lives up to the provisions provided under our Constitution. It is up to us to support civil rights organizations who are fighting for criminal justice reform and to follow their lead to collectively address the unfair plea-bargain agreements, the excessive sentencing, the over-policing/under-policing of certain neighborhoods, and the exploitative fines in poor neighborhoods.

In addition, it is imperative that citizens support the Department of Justice as they seek to hold Donald Trump accountable. It’s always a good idea to express that support in an email to the Department of Justice and to the Attorney General specifically. I can guarantee you that Republicans and MAGA folks are doing their best to intimidate the Department of Justice using “what-about-ism”, false equivalencies, conspiracies, and now threats of violence to make them release Donald Trump from the prosecution he clearly deserves.