![]() IF YOU UNDERSTAND HOW WIMPISH AND INEPT THE WHITE PRESS IS TODAY CALLING OUT donald trump and his incompetence and his Racism, imagine what the press was like back in the day, during the Civil Rights Movement? White reporters did not have a clue about issues that affected the Black community and were not interested in “fairly covering” issues that affected the Black community. They somehow felt that being White and a "news" reporter gave them the wherewithal and the "creds" to legitimately understand those political and those Moral issues. White reporters NEVER had the insight and the empathy and the sensitivity to cover the Civil Rights Movement. They were just there, and those of us in the movement did not trust the White press. As Blacks fought the hatred of White American Racism during the Movement through court cases and sit-ins and picketing and marches and demonstrations and registering to vote and then voting...and ALL under Threats of Violence...if it were not for the Black press, great and informed stories about the Civil Rights Movement would not have been told. Black journalists put themselves on the front lines of these stories before and during the Civil Rights Movement, while also putting their bodies in danger, so the sacrifices of activists would not go unnoticed. White skin, contrary to popular belief, did not then, and does not now, make you an expert on Blackness. Does Not make you Understand the issues that affect a Black person's Life, Daily. You cannot learn that in a Journalism school. You cannot learn that by reading some news story off the Internet. Today, the White press is still woefully inadequate covering the Pathology of obvious Racism, and the Pathological Core Racist Attitudes of a White Racist president and his White Racist administration. Nothing Has Changed. WE Still have to Tell The Story. The Struggle Continues!
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AS WE APPROACH THE 51st ANNIVERSARY OF DR. KING'S ASSASSINATION APRIL 4, 2019, WHEN WILL WE STOP TALKING ABOUT RACISM... WHEN WILL I STOP TALKING ABOUT RACISM...AND WHEN WILL AMERICA STOP KILLING ME BECAUSE I AM BLACK?
I WILL STOP TALKING ABOUT RACISM when you admit White America, the pathology of your White Privilege and your White Supremacy are real. I WILL STOP TALKING ABOUT RACISM when you admit White America, it is impossible for JUSTICE to coexist with INEQUALITY. Justice is a constant—either it is or it isn’t. Inequality is a by-product of Racism and is also a constant. I WILL STOP TALKING ABOUT RACISM when you admit White America that you are not concerned about my well being as a person whose hue of skin is Black. WHEN WILL AMERICA STOP KILLING ME BECAUSE I AM BLACK? TRY NEVER! If you are Black and you stand still, like Eric Garner, America will KILL you. If you are Black and you run, like Stephon Clark, America will Kill you. If you are Black and you run away, like Walter Scott, America will KILL you. If you are Black and drive away, like Sam Dubose, America will KILL you. If you are Black and you walk away slowly, like Terence Crutcher, America will KILL you. If you are Black child playing in a park like Tamir Rice, America will KILL you. If you are a Black teenager not bothering anyone, like Trayvon Martin, America will KILL you. If you are a Black teenager and simply playing your music like Jordan Davis, America will KILL you. If you are Black and get on your hands and knees like Kenneth Walker, America will KILL you. If you are Black and you comply with every word that you are told...even if you pose no threat...like Brendan Hester and Philando Castile...and even if there is absolutely no reason for Police to be afraid, “America’s Occupation Troops” will pump bullets into your Black body, and never miss a minute of sleep. If you are Black 23-year-old Richard Collins, a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army ready to graduate from Bowie State and defend this Racist country, America will KILL you. If you are Black and White and you help Blacks register to Vote, like Andrew Goodman, James Chaney, Michael Schwerner, and Viola Liuzzo, America will KILL you. If you fight Racism, like Harriette and Harry T. Moore, like Vernon Dahmer, like Medgar Evers, like Dr. Martin Luther King, like Rev. George Lee, like Herbert Lee, like James Reeb, like Samuel Leamon Younge Jr., like Wharlest Jackson ---and the list goes on and on and on---America will KILL you. If you are a Black youngster visiting your relatives in Mississippi like Emmett Till, America will KILL you. If you are Black children and attending church in Birmingham Alabama, like Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson and Cynthia Wesley America will KILL you. If you are Black and attending church in Charleston South Carolina, like Cynthia Hurd, Daniel Simmons Sr., Rev. Clementa Pinckney, Rev. Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, Ethel Lance, Tywanza Sanders, Myra Thompson, Susie Jackson, and Depayne Middleton Doctor. America will KILL you. (Simmons died later in the hospital.) The Only Reason a White person could walk into a Black church ...sit for an hour in that church...and then shoot and KILL 9 Black persons praying, is Deep Rooted Racism and Even Deeper Hatred. Racism and Hatred is the order of the day in Racist America. When Racism is the 800-pound gorilla in every room, What do you do? You fight the hatred of racism with every fiber of your being even when the Racism is perpetrated by the president of the United States and his appointed Attorney General ---who to remind you-- was confirmed by the United States Senate. Don’t Talk About Me Until You Have Talked To Me… Don’t Underestimate Me Until You Have Challenged Me… Don’t Judge Me Until You Know Me. The Struggle Continues! I have been blessed to meet ...to learn from ...and to have been taught by ... some of America's best and brightest determined Black minds. They taught me about Civil Rights and Black History because I wanted to learn about Civil Rights and Black History, and I have never taken those learning experiences lightly.
When you have learned from and “rubbed elbows with" Civil Rights and Black History Royalty" such as ...Rutledge Pearson and Thurgood Marshall and A. Philip Randolph and Constance Baker Motley and Ruby Hurley and Arnett Girardeau and Robert Hayling and Bayard Rustin and Roy Wilkins and Earl Johnson and Clanzel T. Brown Sr. and Leander Shaw and Robert “Bob “Saunders, and more recently, Charlie Cobb (to name a few)...you know you have learned, and you know you have learned well. Remember I started my journey at age 11 in Mr. Pearson’s American History classroom, and then to the "classroom" of the Jacksonville Youth Council NAACP. There is an Ethiopian proverb which says, “He who learns, teaches.” It might sound corny to some, but it resonates with me. You teach about Racism...and you speak about Racism, and you teach that disrespect and hatred and disdain and insolence are the traits which lead Racist White America to support ...idolize...and vote for a Racist president like donald trump. A Reprehensible and a Despicable racist. And you want to make sure you “teach” and teach Blacks well who get daily get caught up and smothered in this, “Racist Integration Generation.” Not that my words are the end all to be all, but some words and comments and reflections, which might get them to think and even reconsider the dangerous Non-Civil Rights and Non-Black History path they are traveling. When someone tells you and shows you they are a Racist, then believe them. It was most unfortunate to have Black presidents of HBCU and Black preachers visit the White House and “kneel” before the throne of donald trump. They appeared to have no problems doing just that. Many of them could not spell Civil Rights Movement, let alone lead a phase of it. Yet they came to the office of an Avowed Racist and for what? What part of Racist and Racism did they NOT understand? And what have they gotten for their alleged toil and trouble? Nothing! Nada! Zilch! A group of young Black Republicants visited donald trump in the White House today, and before you ask Why...let me say it was a patronizing and a condescending photo op. Just as donald trump used the Black college presidents and the Black preachers earlier, he used these Black students. You expect that those who should know better would stand for decency and principles and integrity. Apparently not and for whatever reason, these young Blacks are headed down that same path of Nothingness, even betraying who they are, to put a few dollars in their pockets. Can you say Clarence Thomas and Ben Carson and Rev. Darrell Scott and Kanye West? donald trump has a presidential platform. And as an egomaniacal narcissistic Degenerate Racist, he shows you daily who and what he is...and he did again this week, when he proudly proclaimed he was “A Nationalist”...as in White Nationalist/Supremacist/Racist. I would love to teach some Young Blacks about that Black image looking back at them in the mirror... what IT means and correspondingly, what THEY Mean. And many of us try. Every moment is not a teachable moment. Sometimes you must leave some Blacks and some Young Blacks where you find them and move on. And as tragic as that sounds, I am reminded everyday that you cannot make a Race horse out of a Jackass. Many Young Blacks and Not So Young Blacks still cannot realize or internalize when they are being used by THE MAN. It is ALWAYS obvious, but they must take the blinders off their eyes. It might sound easier said than done, but if they don’t, then they become that Black person with No Place To Go! VOTE!!! The Struggle Continues! |
AuthorRodney. L. Hurst, Sr. Archives
June 2024
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