This is who we are

 I've heard over the years one saying that resonates deeply within the inner recesses of my mind.  I hear it when we have any major catastrophic event that shakes us to our core.  “This isn’t who we are…this is America!”

And as always, I agree with whomever is making that statement and hope that things will get better.  I hope that if the events that causes us to band together uncharacteristically would force us to learn about ourselves.  It would force us to look in the proverbial mirror long enough for us to truly see who we are as a people.  Because you see, it’s only in this that we would learn.

Sadly, many of us only take a glance in the mirror and not a gaze.  We go on with our lives as the event falls in our review mirror.

I’ve always believed that we aren’t horrible…that we care about our citizens.  I believed that people give generously when they see someone from another country suffering.  I believed that when our hearts are moved, we have the capability of caring enough to act to right a wrong.

What I realize now more than ever is that although many of us reside on the right side of history, there are a lot of us that don’t.  We don’t care about how others may suffer.  We don’t care about the plight of others…especially if they do not look like us.

This is who we are.  We are a nation where the minority doesn’t care about other people.  We live under the guise that most of us are good, decent law-abiding people.  And while that may be true, we need to understand that there is roughly 33% of our citizens that don’t care about others.  They care if people that don’t look like them migrate to this country; never mind the fact that we are a nation of immigrants.  This is who we are.

We are a hate-fueled people.  We care about inconsequential things like race, national origin, sexual orientation, and religious affiliation.

We listen to people that lie and behave as if they are telling us the truth.  We don’t want to believe we could be this bad…and yet we are.

This is who we are.

We have people marching because they think it is okay to take away the rights of others.  Our democracy is hanging on by a thread because at this very moment, legislation is being implemented to stop most of us from voting.  There are members of congress that don’t have the moral compass to lead our country the way that they should, and instead decide that they are going to use their platform to promote their own agenda.  We have a political party that is struggling to maintain power and have no interest in governing.

 This is who we are.

I don’t know if we will survive all of this.  I pray that we do. We have morphed into an America that I don’t recognize anymore.  I know that who we were wasn’t perfect.  I know firsthand that as an African American man, I and people that look like me have been the victim of oppression consistently and systematically.  We have been the victims of violence that has torn through our towns and neighborhoods in the past.

This is who we are.

I say this because the people that are in charge will not relinquish power easily.  When you are used to getting the best that this country has to offer, and you are reluctant to share it with others that’s a problem.

But this is who we are.

~ J.L. Whitehead

 

A new format

 

Hello Readers,

I’m sorry that I have been missing in action for the past few months but there’s been a lot going on.  Without going into details, I’ve made the decision to change the format of the blog.  I will no longer be talking about politics. I’ve become so dismayed with the state of our government and to be honest, I don’t like the direction that our country is going in.  I especially don’t like the fact there a few trying to force the majority to kowtow to their way of thinking…even at the expense of their own health.

Moving forward, this site will be dedicated to articles that express my opinions on various issues.  The catch is that none of them will be political.

It was time for me to take a break from politics and focus my energies on topics that will appeal to the LGBTQ audience.

We’ll see how this goes.

For those of you who followed this blog, thank you so much.  I hope to gain a new following with this new format.

~ J.L. Whitehead

The new Republican party

 

Lately, it is easy to dislike the Republican Party.  They used to stand for being fiscally and socially conservative.  That used to mean fiscal spending and social programs was kept low with the remote possibility of working with their Democratic constituency in addressing issues that impact society…whether good or bad.

We thought that with the removal of Donald Trump from office, the Republican Party would somehow reinvent itself to align more with what our constitution speaks of and serve the American people.  This is what some of us thought.

Instead, they have chosen to embrace Trumpism and embody the lack of a moral compass; pledging their allegiance to a man that lost the presidential election, was twice impeached and caused an insurrection that left several people dead and many injured.

The most obvious reason for them behaving in the way that they are could be that they know that the Republican Party does not stand for anything that could be construed as positive for the American people.  They have not proposed any legislation that would benefit the people that live in this country and with that realization comes the fact that they do not stand for anything constructive.

 The leader of the minority party is Mitch McConnell.  He has decided that the party that he believes belongs to him will do everything to block any accomplishments made by the Democratic party.  In a repeat of what happened during the Obama administration, the Republican party will become the party of obstruction and deflection.  They will accuse the Democratic party that they are the ones that will be the party of obstruction which in many ways will bring the accomplishments of the Biden administration to a screeching halt.

But here is the thing; shouldn’t Mitch McConnell and every other Republican elected to office serve the American People?  Isn’t this why we pay their salaries?  I mean, isn’t the whole purpose of our government be that they reach across the aisles and work with their opposing parties to come up with something that would best serve everyone that lives in this country?  Isn’t that the point?

Wasn’t that always the point?

So why aren’t they doing that?  Well, as much as I would like to lay the blame at the feet of the Republican party, I must fault the whole process.  I do not believe that we should have a Democratic party.  I also do not believe that we should have a Republican party; and we do not need anyone that pledges their allegiance to a man as opposed to the people of this country.

 Instead, we need one party that functions with a cohesive set of beliefs.  You can believe that you are conservative and bring your ideals to the table that would…wait for it; serve the American people.  This is the same with the Democratic party.

If white people are terrified of the black and browning of this country; instead of being fearful, maybe you should embrace it.  Understand that fleeing to an all-lily white area is not going to solve your problems.  There will always be black people.  There will always be brown people.  Maybe it is time for you to embrace them instead of running away from them.  Maybe your fears are unfounded.  Maybe they were grounded in a belief system that is a throwback to the forties and fifties.  Maybe it is time for you to face your fears and figure out why you were so fearful to begin with.  Was it something that you were taught?  Was it something that was learned and passed down throughout the years?

Was it something that you saw as you watched your families move from home to home hoping that you would find the perfect neighborhood?

I do not know.  But whatever the reason is, isn’t it time to set those reasons aside and understand that those reasons are unfounded?

I cannot speak for the Republican party because there will always be someone like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Josh Hawley.  There will always be people that will do anything possible to cling to power at all costs.

 We will perhaps never know what makes the Republican party tick, but I know what we can do that will fight against their ideologies.  We can vote…no matter how long it takes; no matter how difficult they make it for us to cast a ballot.

We must show them that racism is not the path to a perception of success which translates to wealth.  We ought to show them that they are employees of a government that adheres to the constitution that was written by our forefathers.

Plain and simple, it is the people of this country that you work for.  You do not work for Donald Trump.  This is and perhaps never was about how the government works for you.  It is about how the government should work for the American people.

Maybe it is time for the Republican party to choose what they genuinely want to be.

Maybe it is time for them to re-invent themselves into something good.

We can only hope.

 

~ J.L. Whitehead

 

 

 

 

 

 

How does America feel about voter suppression?

Civil Rights Act of 1964

I was three years old when the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was created. People of color and their constituents fought the idea of white dominance and suppression. People of all colors lived and died so that the preamble of the United States Constitution blanketed everyone in spoken word and deed.  We trusted our elected officials to do what we sent them to congress to do.  We thought (perhaps foolishly) that the idea of white supremacy would die down slowly with the implementation of the Civil Rights Act, which is why I find it unfathomable that we are in a similar position now as we were then. We have been fighting this battle now for over fifty years.

The fight is real and the response from whites is just as visceral now as it was then.  We are finding out that the idea of white supremacy did not die as much as it has evolved.  Just like people, our ideals have become something that is ingrained in us.  It forms our core beliefs in who we are as well as what we want to be.  And yet despite all of this, you would think that we changed into a better people.  For many of us, we have and for a small portion of us, we have not and perhaps never will.

Watching Politics

I started paying attention to politics back when Clinton was in office.  I watched the fiasco of the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal unfold before the world stage.  I was a little taken aback about how quickly the primeval instinct of the Republican party’s response would be to his affair, clutching their pearls and quickly taking the moral high ground.  They did this not knowing that twenty years later, the people would elect a morally bankrupt man who would turn America on its ear.

Simultaneously, we had the realization that the country was rapidly becoming black and brown.  This would lead to a clash that would culminate with the election of Joe Biden as the 46^th president of the United States along with a vicious fight for our democracy.

The Republican party has become something that I hardly recognize anymore.  They used to reflect conservative values; and even though I interpreted that belief to be more about being socially conservative as opposed to fiscally conservative, that belief has fallen by the wayside and in its place is something that is starting to look like autocracy instead of democracy. Even as you read this, the Republican party is pushing out 253 pieces of legislation to restrict voter’s rights in 43 states across the country. 

Is America pro or con the idea of voter suppression?

So how does America feel about voter suppression?  That depends on who you ask.  For the average black and brown person, the response is quick.  They stand against it because they will not tolerate something that restricts their right to vote.  For the Americans that support the current Republican party’s endeavors, the silence is deafening because no one wants to admit that they support (whether secretly or not) the idea of restricting the right to cast a ballot especially if those casting said ballot is black or brown.

Most recently, Governor Brian Kemp of the state of Georgia signed into law the following:

“The new law imposes new voter identification requirements for absentee ballots, empowers state officials to take over local elections boards, limits the use of ballot drop boxes and makes it a crime to approach voters in line to give them food and water.” CNN News

 Put another way, the Republicans want the option to severely limit black and brown turnout for fear that they will never win another election...at least not anytime soon. Rather than come up with something legislatively that would win over Americans, Republicans would rather cheat.  They want the option to choose who wins and who loses the next election.  What this means that if their nominee wins, great.  If their nominee does not win, then somehow, the opposing party cheated…something that they are trying to do right now.

This is nothing new from the Republican party, but it is the first time that they decided to embody the merits of Trumpism as opposed to standing on the right side of morality and fairness.

The far left

I have been accused of being part of the far left although to date I have never been linked to any conspiracy theories; at least not yet.

I am not a part of the far left.  I stand firmly on the side of what is right and wrong.  Hopefully, we all know this…white, black, and otherwise.  And yet, we have people that will turn a blind eye to what is wrong in the name of what I believe to be for nothing more than whiteness.

The sins of whiteness

It is some of my white brothers and sisters that have repressed, maimed, killed, incarcerated, raped, and pillaged communities of colors for generations.  It is some of my white brothers and sisters that implemented policies like Jim Crow and when that was abolished, they implemented Mass Incarceration.  It is some of my white brothers and sisters that have subjugated whole races of people into slavery…and we are tired.

White people have fled neighborhoods when people of color moved in…as if somehow, we would inflict some disease on them if they stayed to get to know us. 

I say this as if I need something from white people…and I do.

I want you to be me for a day.

Or even better, look at yourself from the outside in and ask yourself the question, “Am I really living up to the person that I want to be?”  “Do I exemplify what is good, fair and decent as I say I do?”

~ J.L. Whitehead