Time for some frank realities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I am Black first. I wish I could be American first, but that\u2019s not reality. I wish I could be human first, but that\u2019s simply not reality. I want to be looked at as American. I want to be seen as human. That\u2019s my want. My reality \u2026 I\u2019m Black, and then maybe, just maybe \u2026 I\u2019m American and human. That\u2019s the truth. A truth from which many of us run. Some are wincing just by reading this, but at their core the know this is truth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I can trace my ancestry (on my mother\u2019s side) back to a plantation in South Carolina. We were owned by a wealthy judge of French descent. For my father\u2019s side, all I know is my grandfather was born in Washington, Ind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
White people can generally tell you the neighborhood in Europe from which they hail. Whites in America can claim Irish pride, English pride, Italian pride, Norwegian pride, Polish pride. The list goes on. I know no such luxury.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What I do know is my roots lie in Africa \u2026 somewhere. I\u2019m sure it\u2019s a place this nation\u2019s president deems a \u201cshithole.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I was born and live in a land where up until 1865 my people \u2026 Black people of varying nations of Africa and later, varying shades due to rape by force, threat of force or because Black women simply knew their \u201crole\u201d or \u201cplace\u201d \u2013 rape nonetheless \u2026 were regarded as property, not people and nothing more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Following more than 200 years \u2026 more than 200 years<\/em> \u2026 of brutal slavery, Blacks in America \u201cadvanced\u201d to sharecroppers, maids, janitors; and for the really lucky ones, Pullman porters. Yes, a handful (on scale) here and there were able obtain an education (remembering it was against the law \u2026 against the law<\/em> \u2026 for Blacks to read during slavery). And trust, it wasn\u2019t openly encouraged immediately following.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While slavery ended in 1865, oppression reigned for another 100-plus years. Some (myself included) argue we are still oppressed. Yeah, I can drive in my Cadillac, but I do so peering through the rearview mirror hoping I\u2019m not the next Sandra Bland, the next Walter Scott, the next Terence Crutcher \u2026 the next Philando Castile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And yes, within my lifetime we elected Barack Obama \u2026 a Black man \u2026 to the office of President of the \u201cUnited\u201d States. Hell, we elected him twice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And now we\u2019re paying for electing that \u201cuppity negro.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now we have Donald Trump. Sixty-two million (statistically almost all white) people voted for him. Yes, a handful of non-whites voted for him. Sadly, self-hate is real and to some, \u201cmassa\u201d has been good and the white man\u2019s ice will always be colder. But again, now we have Trump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To paraphrase coaching great Dennis Green, Trump is who we thought he is. He\u2019s the monster \u2026 but he\u2019s not Frankenstein. To me he\u2019s a blithering idiot, with what I\u2019ll assume are pieces of a brain, but he\u2019s not a genius. Listen to him speak \u2026 read his Tweets. On the IQ scale, Trump\u2019s most likely rating is \u201cdullness\u201d to \u201cborderline deficiency.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Again, he\u2019s just the hideous monster. White supremacy \u2026 white complicity \u2026 that\u2019s the real Frankenstein.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even if you didn\u2019t vote for Trump, as a white person, if you do not speak out \u2026 and speak out loudly \u2026 you are the problem. Like I said at the very beginning, it\u2019s time for frank reality. I know there are many white people reading this right at this very moment with several \u201cfriends\u201d of color who have been in a room (more than once) with whites and heard them spew their racist vile and those \u201cfriends\u201d sat silent. A few of you even joined in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, this message is directed squarely at you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You<\/em> are the problem. I\u2019m not in that room. In many ways I can never get in that room, so I can\u2019t speak out. But if you are in that room and you allow this racism to continue, then it is you<\/em> who is no better than the Donald Trumps, Steve Bannons, Steve Millers and David Dukes of the world. Period<\/em>. Don\u2019t call me your friend and not stand up for me when I don\u2019t have the opportunity to stand up for myself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, Trump said people from Haiti and Africa are from \u201cshitholes,\u201d huh? I\u2019m a Black man in America. Sit down with me and millions of others and let\u2019s talk about what a shithole really looks like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Oh yeah, all white liberals, please stop saying your ancestor came from places Trump would have called \u201cshitholes.\u201d He was clear in singling out locations rich in melanin, so please stop with your false equivalencies. Say Trump is a racist and end the sentence with either a period of exclamation point \u2026 but after the word racist, end the sentence, nothing more needs to be said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Make America great again? I\u2019m a Black person in America. When was America ever great for Black people?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Time for some frank realities. I am Black first. I wish I could be American first, but that\u2019s not reality. I wish I could be human first, but that\u2019s simply not reality. I want to be looked at as American. I want to be seen as human. That\u2019s my want. My reality \u2026 I\u2019m Black, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4469,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[484,67,1020],"class_list":["post-4468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","tag-barack-obama","tag-donald-trump","tag-south-carolina","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Insight-News-Website-Images-1-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4468"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4468\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4470,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4468\/revisions\/4470"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}