So many powerful reflections from some of the many astute and passionate minds in the Twin Cities as they looked back 20 years remembering where they were; what they were thinking minutes after evil snatched 3,000 plus lives; and if they had any idea that the horror of that morning of 9-11-2001 was indeed a terrorist attack. ‘The Healing Circle’ presented by “Conversations with Al McFarlane” and co-hosted by The African American Child Wellness Institute last Friday brought depth and richness to the recollections.
“I was attending a conference in San Diego (on trauma) that’s held every year around the end of August, first of September,” recalls Dr. Oliver Williams, Executive Director for the Institute of Domestic Violence in African American Communities. “We were just about to break up into the morning sessions when we were jolted by the sheer, unprecedented magnitude of how the world had changed within minutes, three thousand miles away. It appeared the powers-that-be muted voices and evidence that was counter to what our country’s values were supposed to be. Those issues that would benefit elite American corporations (oil and steel for ammunition) would have representatives sitting at the decision making table.
The Muslims in the city; in the country, caught the wrath. All they could hear was no one wanted them in our country, as if they knew beforehand about what had just happened.
Although it was certainly evil what these men did, were we ever really clear why the US went into Afghanistan and why the war eventually lasted 20 years. President Biden said in defiance of GOP critics, “We have been there long enough. So much money has been spent and it looks as if very little was accomplished. Most of the Afghan soldiers laid down their weapons and joined the Taliban.”
Yele Akinsanya, CEO of Brakins Consulting and Psychological Services recalls exactly where he was when the unfathomable occurred. “I was working and not sure what all the talk up front was about until a lady came into my office and told me there had been a terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. And then I thought, ‘Perhaps what this country had done around the world – some things not so good – that our actions, the way we did things just didn’t sit right with a lot of people.’ Not every diplomatic situation is winnable with guns, ammunition, and bombs,” he said. “There were the Bidens and the McCains, but not too many 1% white elite’s children were on the front line in any international conflict. I’m kind of tired of people who have the financial resources waging war and exposing Americans to more dangers. Most of us are not naïve. We know this is about greed and money. The military complex. The Democrats still increased the military budget 15% when it really wasn’t needed now. We could have used those resources on a world class educational system which is far more important now.”
“On that dreadful day, Al McFarlane recalled leaving his home in North Minneapolis and heading to Lucille’s Kitchen for the Public Policy Forum broadcast. “The t.v.s stayed on so we could monitor the updates of the events that had pretty much left us speechless. My brother, Wain, with his Ipso Facto band, would always open the show. That musical genius in him would always choose or create a song to either support or challenge the show topic of the day. Our guest that day was Roger Guenveur Smith who played Gary, the police officer in Spike Lee’s movie classic, “Get On The Bus”. He was in town performing his one act play as Huey Newton. At the end of our interview, the famed actor wanted to jam with Wain, so they began to sing a famous Bob Marley favorite, “Get up, stand up for your rights! Get up, stand up, don’t give up the fight! It was a poetic moment,” he said.
Personally, I had gotten the call from my oldest daughter living in Brooklyn before I had a chance to turn on the news. It was a three-hour difference. I heard the screams and sirens in the background. She’s always been made of tough stuff because she had to be, being a Black female living in a white world that clearly stated in so many ways that she was not worthy of a piece of the rock of a good life that she would work hard to earn. But no one was prepared for what happened on that unprecedented September morning. Having just emerged from the subway and reaching the main Manhattan thoroughfare, I heard her trying to navigate her way through the choking cement dust and broken pieces still falling. “I’ve got $20 dollars, Mom. I’m going to get a pair of tennis shoes they’re selling on the corner and walk the bridge. I’ll call you when I get someplace safe,” she said.
I was numb, but as always, I had to assume responsibility on my own with few family members to speak of. I also had to console my youngest daughter whose painful and dangerous experience as the first Black female tennis player at a prestigious university where Confederate flags hung in dorm rooms had been a racial hell. I also knew both of my parents were quite ill, but being very private about what lay ahead, I quickly dressed, grabbed my coffee, and headed to the alternative high school where I taught English. I didn’t know how many students would show up. I couldn’t cry yet, but I remember whispering over and over as I drove, “Thank you, God, for saving my child.” About 1/3 of the students showed up. What was so sad was only one could find Afghanistan, Iraq, or Saudia Arabia on a world map!
Calling Minneapolis the epicenter of ‘a new day dawning’, McFarlane asked Dr. B. and Dr. Williams how we make sense of these tragedies of last year and of 20 years ago, as individuals and collectively. He asked, “How do we advance our sense of accountability, responsibility, capability and sovereignty, to reflect a duty and an obligation to be co-authors of the future?”
“I think we have to walk and chew gum at the same time,” said Williams. “Our communities tend to want to work on just one issue at a time. But there’s too much going on; too many destructive forces at play for us not to step up. We need to be having multiple conversations and continue to challenge at every level. Be reminded that domestic violence against children, women, and men is criminal behavior, too. We have to be committed to doing better.”
Dr. B. said she learned of the 9-11 attack while at a consulting appointment at Harvest Prep Academy. “Brother Eric Mahmoud gave the very sad and shocking news. Driving through downtown when heading to another client, the streets were pretty much empty with the exception of people of color. It was just ‘another day’ to us, a passerby commented rather nonchalantly. We live at war in our neighborhoods all the time. And then, I thought, perhaps they just didn’t understand the seriousness of the situation; that thousands of innocent people had probably perished. We didn’t know what was coming next.”
“With COVID, Asians had unjustly become targeted. Culprits attacked them and falsely accused them of bringing the “China disease” into our country. A law was passed in the last legislative session protecting them from abuse on the streets. I kept asking, `where’s the law protecting American Descendents of Slavery (ADOS) people?”
Reflecting on the end of the 20-year war where trillions was spent and not too much accomplished, Dr. B. said, “We should have relinquished power to the Afghans and helped them build an army. What’s that Golden Rule paraphrase? ‘He or she who has the gold makes the rules.’ Americans took that principle to the war front. We don’t know how to empower others. But with African Americans, we don’t know how to hold onto power when we get it. Conflicting values. Capitalism vs. communalism. It’s going to be vitally important to find a way to have open discussions that will effectively help our communities heal one another. “We have to figure out how all of us who are able can do better,” she said. “Our children will depend on us as elders. We hold on to the spirits of our ancestors. I am because we are.”
Tenanye Heard, a life coach for AACWI, thought it was an action movie playing out on the television screen. “I kept thinking of all the trauma the survivors would eventually experience and that is probably still true for some 20 years later. This was by far, at the time, where resilience of the human spirit and the power of good had to surface. We were never going to give up.”
pull quote:The usual way now is for the whites to work out their plans behind closed doors, have them approved by a few Negroes serving nominally on a board, and then employ a white or mixed staff to carry out their program. This is not interracial cooperation. It is merely the ancient idea of calling upon the “inferior” to carry out the orders of the “superior.” To express it in post-classic language, as did Jessie O. Thomas, ‘The Negroes do the `coing’ and the whites the `operating’. An excerpt from The Miseducation of the Negro from Carter G. Woodson, 1933.
We continue to pray for solace, peace, love, and healing.
In memory
After receiving a doctorate degree in Counseling Psychology from the University of Minnesota, Dr. Mary Howard moved to St. Cloud, MN where she was employed as a psychologist (first African American woman) by the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center. She was also an adjunct faculty member at St. Cloud State University. Funeral services were held Friday, September 10, 2021.
