Notes on the State of Virginia: Charlottesville and the Country at Large

What must it be like...?

What must it be like to be so filled with hate, so filled with anger, so filled with rage that you protest equality; that you gather together, carrying a flag of treason to pronounce your intentions to "take America back"; that you look around at the inequity in the world and your own lot in life and decide to blame those people who have less than you; that you are so cowardly as to drive a vehicle into a group of people just because they have a different viewpoint?

What must it be like to be so filled with ignorance that you cannot see, cannot understand not merely the folly but the self destruction of your ways? What must it be to be so filled with prejudice, to be a bigot, and yet not have the discernment to understand the truth of the matter...?

By now, you should be aware of the tragic events that have occurred in Charlottesville, Virginia over the past few days, and if you're not, you can catch up with this Washington Post article.

Having grown up in Virginia and the DC area and having friends/family in Charlottesville, I have struggled over the past few days to process this. It is easy to condemn, to criticize, to renounce, and they are certainly deserving of it, but it's so much more difficult to understand.  And I want to understand, I need to understand, because I cannot imagine what, short of just being evil, drives a person to feel that much hate and anger that they are willing to act upon it, willfully, strategically and purposefully in this manner.

I need to understand, because I believe therein lies the solution to stopping it.  Understanding why they think the way they do, why they feel so threatened, why they refuse to accept logic, progress or just basic humanity, I believe, will hold the key to exposing those fears, revealing the true source of that pain and anger, and curing the infection of racism that so thoroughly permeates our country that they feel emboldened enough now to act with out fear of consequence; that there exists any elected leader in our country who doesn't condemn these beliefs or acts, hiding behind the mantle of "defending freedom"; that there are enough people to even hold a rally...

It is an infection that has long ravaged the body of our nation, and it well past time that we stopped treating the symptoms and changing the bandages and instead exposed this festering wound, inject a healthy dose of antibiotics in the form of knowledge and action, cut out the cancerous growth and put us on a definitive path to healing. Because the alternative is dying a slow painful death or a sudden and violent one.

Virginia has long danced with the issues of race and racism, from Sally Hemmings and the "white washing" of history that takes place at Monticello to Loving vs. the State of Virginia to the TC Williams integration (memorialized in the movie, Remember the Titans) to this most recent set of events, but peppered throughout its history are incidents large and small, but all connected by this same thread: race.

In 1986, my high school in Reston, Virginia came under investigation for racism and racial double standards (You can read about it here and here). My parents were leaders in the group that petitioned the school district to investigate. I was harassed and assaulted by fellow students who didn't like "troublemakers", force to demonstrate in front of teachers work that I had done at home that they could not believe I had produced, even carried of a lunchroom to applause by other students while the principal watched. I left for a new school in Washington, D.C. for my senior year. And this was in NORTHERN Virginia.  The state had and continues to have, issues.

Part of the issue is that we've never actually dealt with the origins of this country and the root problems that have existed over time.  We've never had a full and fair accounting of Slavery, its impact and its lasting effects that have led to poverty, crime, and marginalization of people of color. We have ignored the earliest signs and symptoms chalking them up to "freedom" or predestination, even that "those people" CHOOSE to live the way they do and if they just weren't lazy, ignorant or  predisposed, they could make something of themselves and achieve. We have allowed these beliefs, these expressions to grow and fester in silos, unchallenged fully, isolated from the rest of the world so that they flourish and are translated not as hatred, oppression or anger but as "alternative beliefs", to the point that any challenge or correction is refuted as "liberal nonsense" and "snowflake ideology" trying to squash their rights as Americans...

When did being an American come to include hatred of other ideas and intellectual discourse so vehemently that it moves people to threats of violence simply for disagreeing? How is that in any way aligned with the freedom of thought and speech which this country was supposedly built on? How is that in any way what America is truly about?

It's not, and it's high time we made that clear.

It's high time we as a people, we as citizens, we as Americans, make it clear that enough is enough. That this isn't just unacceptable, it is wrong, it is unwanted and it will not be tolerated. Period. No exceptions.

We are country of immigrants and misfits and marginalized people who have come from an imperfect start to where we are today and we need to acknowledge that as we move ahead. This land was stolen from our Native brothers and sisters, built by our Brown brothers and sisters and advanced by every shade of the rainbow, every orientation, every creed and we need to accept that, recognize each of us as part of this patchwork quilt that is America and which keeps us warm.  We need to continue to grow and explore that, and when someone comes to threaten it, when someone tries to tear it asunder using words like "freedom" as a cover, we need to stand as one and call that for the lie that it is.  We need to refuse to allow any quarter to be given in the battle for the heart of this country.

No more accepting or excusing the propaganda.
No more accepting symbols of insurrection as legitimate.
No more rallies of hate.
No more excuses.

This was not merely "Americans exercising their constitutional rights", this was deliberate, this was intentional, this was emboldened racists spoiling for a fight.  They hope to ignite a race war in this country. I know that many people are already in this, many have marched and protested and put themselves on the line and in harms way to fight these things...but not everybody has, and everybody is what it will take to do this.

No more sitting on the sidelines.

No more just working behind the scenes.
No more allowing hatred to permeate because it is inconvenient to take a stand.
No more.

We must fill "each unforgiving minute with sixty seconds worth of distance run". We must press forward and not allow an ounce of hatred to squeeze by under the cover of individual belief.  We must call out and drag into the light every lie, every misrepresentation, every excuse that allows this wound to continue to fester.  We must excise this infection from our country.

This was not a peaceful rally, no one is trying to replace anyone, and never has it been said that White lives don't matter.  All of that is a smoke screen, a cover, a lie, to further hatred, to marshal those that racist ideology speaks to.

This was racism, clear and simple. And the fact that it is not being condemned at the highest level and named for what it is, the fact that anyone is giving airtime to this anything other than pure and simple hate is endemic of what still exists in this country.  It is what we have to stand against, it is what we have to fight.

We must be ready, we must be vigilant and we must be victorious, because we are battling for nothing less than the soul of our country.  And I cannot, I will not allow hatred to be represented as America. We must use our minds, our words, our platforms and speak the truth, expose it, liberate it so that the world will see.

We must take our country forward, not back, and free it from these shackles that have oppressed everyone for the past 250+ years. We must finish this once and for all. And when it is done, may it finally be the last battle of the Civil War and we can at last rebuild this nation as a truly UNITED States of America.

It is right.
It is just.
And Lord knows, it is time.

Killing Me Softly with This Privilege.

"When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the 'unalienable Rights' of 'Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.' It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked 'insufficient funds.'

But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice."

~Martin Luther King, Jr., "I Have a Dream"; delivered 28 August 1963, at the Lincoln Memorial, Washington D.C.

And so we come, each day, to the Bank of Justice. In long lines we wait,while the Privileged enjoy the express lane, not because of the simplicity of their transaction, but the simplicity of our system that rewards those with advantage. We wait as transaction after transaction occurs, no matter how complicated, until it is our turn...

and the teller goes on break.

Justice deferred is justice denied.

We came to this bank on the dream of a reverend, believing that this institution was

not bankrupt because so many of our privileged brothers and sisters had cashed their checks and danced in their street with their new found prosperity...we could see it, so there was no way to deny it, and all we wanted was the same opportunity, the same prosperity, the same free toaster.

But that's the thing about having privilege, often you don't want to share it. Somehow you think it cheapens it if others, especially those "beneath" you get it; sharing it somehow means you're losing something, that it is pulling you down instead of bringing everyone up. And so instead of the institution being bankrupt, it is out to lunch, or on break or closing early, any workaround that allows for the same result with a different face.  The institution isn't bankrupt, just continually and consistently unavailable...

Justice deferred.

And like that, your privilege is secure.  No one will take it from you, they aren't allowed in the club.  You have your exclusive rights, your bottle service, but you still maintain everyone is equal, right?  You have not great advantage, just those bootstraps you pulled yourself up by that got you to this place, and if those people would only do the same, they too could enjoy the fruits their labors...but they're too lazy, or unfortunate, or in the wrong place...never mind that your bootstraps were attached to their back and that you pulled yourself up by pushing them down...

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain as weaves his narrative and orchestrates the system that builds each leverage, each advantage to separate from those "less than"...he finesses the real estate, maneuvers the wealth attainment and manipulates the law and legal system all to exclude those not considered worthy and advantage those thought to be, until the divide is so great that the impossible can happen.

And this, then, is where we've come to, this is what progress has gotten us, new ways to deny justice, to defer it, to override it, until a Black man, is killed because an officer was scared of Black men, and his irrational fear, his Negrophobia, if you will, wrapped itself around him like a straight jacket and he shot...

pop...pop...pop...pop...pop...pop...pop

and he killed...

cop...cop...cop...cop...cop...cop...cop

and he was acquitted.  

His forged check was cashed while Philando's had a hold put on it.

Justice DENIED.

A system of privilege built to withstand any assertion, any attack any belief that it exists, like alien abductions, widely criticized and dismissed, yet no one has an answer for why the cows keep disappearing...

And that, therein, is where we have to start, acknowledging the existence of the problem, the stranglehold it has on our county, the interlocking tendrils that have weaved themselves into the fabric of our systems and society until they're almost indistinguishable from the true tapestry that is America...

But how you ask?

There is a thread loose...

A thread with names written on it, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Walter Scott, Freddie Grey, Philando Castile, a testament, a memorial...

We have to grab that thread and pull it, pull it hard so that the fabrications and manipulations unravel to reveal the truth.  Truth that needs to be clear, apparent, have a light shone brightly on it: Privilege does exist and it is killing us.

Eliminating privilege means giving up the EXTRA rights, advantages and special perks afforded you because of that privilege. If one really believes that everyone deserves to be treated as an individual, equal and a human, the it is not only incumbent upon them to cast off the gilded ornaments of privilege, they should want to do so willingly and gladly. For the world to work right, we need to kill it, kill privilege.


It is time to lay it down and give it the slow, agonizing death it deserves and then to perform the last rites for the last vestiges.  

Only then can we be truly free. 

Only then can a Black man give up living in fear.

Amen