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EDITORIAL Critical Race Theory and the Whitewashing of America

By Dr. John E. Warren

Publisher, San Diego Voice & Viewpoint Newspaper

It was not enough that 47 states have introduced over 500 bills that will limit the time, places and rights to vote in America, as well as allow states to change voter results in those elections that Republican legislatures “feel” had fraud. Without the recent attack on “Critical Race Theory”, it would be possible, for years to come, to show how a racist right wing White America abolished the voting rights of millions of Americans, many of whom happened to be people of color. What is now being called “critical race theory” is not new. It is the very fabric of a legal system which has passed laws for over 100 years, based on limiting the rights of people based on race. It was the essence of the effort in the framing of the U.S. Constitution to count slaves as a fraction of a person rather than as a total human being. Race theory was behind the passage of the 13th,14th, and 15th amendments to the U.S. Constitution in order to ensure that “all people are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights.” It took those amendments to include all people, regardless of race, just as it did with the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Acts of 1965. These legislative and legal acts certainly had race as the basis of the push for equality. The present attack on the concept of critical race theory is another attempt by the same people who brought us Juneteenth as a Federal holiday: to wipe out future discussion of race in our educational institutions. Such an effort in just a short period of time would mean, for example, there could be no discussion of the Tulsa, Oklahoma massacre which many are just learning about 100 years after the fact. There would be no discussion in our schools about Sand Creek or Wounded Knee and the slaughter of countless Native Americans, or the imprisonment of thousands of Japanese Americans during World War II after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and wedropped the atomic bomb on the Japanese - but not on the Germans. If legislatures and school boards can be successful with the abolishment of discussions of race by placing all such discussions under the label “critical race theory”, then we move closer to returning to the America of Jim Crow racism and possibly the apartheid that gripped South Africa with all the horror that came with it. We as people of color must come off of recess. We must now sleep at attention and prepare to fight on a daily basis with all our thought processes and collective numbers. We must read, watch, prepare to march, speak up and stand; as we did during the civil rights movement which brought us to the limited freedoms of today, but not full equality, yet. Take a look at where you live. Take a look at what is being done to people who look like you and those who agree with you, regardless of their color. Register to vote and get others registered. Check the voting records that are being purged and re-register those who are still living. Look at how you are spending your dollars and learn from the Atlanta, Georgia example of going after those corporate entities that support elected officials, corporations who finance the very people pushing voter suppression and the abolishment of critical race theory. This must be a daily battle with no time outs. Will you get involved?

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FAITHFUL UTTERANCES: Spackling the Holes in Your Soul

By Dr. Froswa Booker-Drew

Co-Founder, HERitage Giving Circle

My daughter needed my help this weekend. She has some holes in the wall of her apartment and needed to get them covered. When she first moved, it was important for her to decorate her room with pictures and lights. Realizing that she would be charged when she moves out, she had to hide the evidence of puncturing the walls. Spackling paste was a necessity. As we searched the aisles of a local store, we had to find the correct tools to apply the spackle to the wall. Spackle is a putty that allows you to fill holes and small cracks. What makes it special is that it dries quickly and covers up the damage created. Spackling does not just apply to walls. Life is messy, complicated, and sometimes painful. Life circumstances can create holes in our spirits leaving us exposed and struggling in our hearts and minds. Instead of addressing the root cause of the wound, we often soothe it with temporary coverings. These temporary coverings can start off small. It is taking a bite of something decent here and there. It is smoking (legal or not) because it calms us down. It is drinking a few glasses of wine before we go to bed to relax. If we are not careful, these small moments of pleasure will increase and become full blown addictions, but never really addresses the traumas that we endure. More and more organizations are becoming aware of trauma and its impact on its clients. Instead of focusing on what is wrong with a person, it focuses on what happened to a person. Yet, I do not think many of us think about all of the traumas we have encountered especially as Black people in America. We experience triggers and are re-triggered often without even knowing it. We do not feel safe. Our trust has been broken and transparency is often nonexistent until caught on camera. As much as the church recognizes the need for healing, it is imperative that we acknowledge the trauma. It also means that many churches must pay attention to the trauma they have also caused through ‘church hurt.’ Trauma is not new. Throughout the Bible, there are examples of Jesus healing those who were blind. Some believed their blindness was just something that happened, others saw it as a sin the person committed or that someone else sinned and their decision impacted the person. In John 9: 3, it states, “As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 3 “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.” In Matthew 9:27-29 there is another example of Jesus healing the blind: “27 And as Jesus passed on from there, two blind men followed him, crying aloud, “Have mercy on us, Son of David.” 28 When he entered the house, the blind men came to him, and Jesus said to them, “Do you

believe that I am able to do this?” They said to him, “Yes, Lord.” 29 Then he touched their eyes, saying, “According to your faith be it done to you.” No matter how it happened, they were still wounded and suffering from the trauma of blindness. They knew they needed healing and something different. When we hide our wounds with our choice of spackle, we are ultimately experiencing a form of blindness. We are unable to really see how the pain is impacting our lives and those around us. It is important to acknowledge our situation. Instead of covering it up, own it. It isn’t about staying focused on the wound. It’s about focusing on the healing beyond the emotional or physical. Our wounds impact our spirits. Are you crying aloud for help and going after your healing at all costs because you realize you deserve more than spackle as a cover? Do you believe that it is possible to receive healing and knowing that your belief will determine what happens? Believing that God is more than able “to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us…” (Ephesians 3:2021) Are you working in your own power or in the power of God? If you are working in your power, the spackling putty will only temporarily address the issue.

Real healing begins in recognizing that it is available for you — “But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:5) Realize the trauma, go get your healing and leave the spackle where it belongs.

A Meld of Juneteenth and the 4th of July

It’s time to change how we interact with each other

By Woody Broadnax

We live in a world of uncertainties, a world where Mother Nature can turn on us, a world where our safety and livelihood, even our very democracy is at risk. Our ancestors knew well that without struggle, progress was impossible. We have lived with struggle: Centuries, decades and now a year of pandemic lockdown. The people of this country and city have acted to take mattes in their own hands, for better and for worse. Today we focus on the better: Millions of first-time voters casting their ballots, citizens marching in unity for the consequence of Black lives, people calling for reckoning and reforms in policing and justice, and unprecedented numbers holding institutions accountable for diversity and equity. It’s become clear that time has come to change how we see and interact with each other. It’s time to lift everyone above the fray. Our humanity compels us to protect each other from harm and injustice. Let us repair and strengthen communities so they nurture and safeguard residents. In this year 2021, we celebrate what I call The Meld. Frederick Douglas famously asked, “What to the Slave is the 4th of July?” Until the 13th Amendment was ratified, it was nothing. Today we understand events in their historical context and can re-envision their relationship: Freedom for the colonies to grow into an independent nation was made whole when freedom was granted to that nation’s slaves. The 4th of July is enriched, heighted and restored because of the end to slavery that Juneteenth celebrates. Yet, over 150 years on, this nation is still imperfect. From Nelson Mandela we know “To be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.”

What does that mean? What does it look like in the United States of American in 2021?

For true freedom, we must change hate into love, division into unification (unity) and stagnation into forwardness. Those are grand aims that can only come about incrementally, through smaller actions. Talk to strangers, check in on a neighbor, dance with each other, buy a tamale. The celebration of The Meld is a first act. Let’s use this opportunity to commemorate true freedom by bringing two dates together, bringing our community together to feast and sing and dance, to look one another in the eyes and see our shared humanity. Let’s establish this moment as one in which we’ve risen above the fray, when we can take steps to heal, and establish trust that justice and prosperity are not only obtainable but inevitable.

Juneteenth and the 4th of July, if melded in the hearts of freedom-loving persons, can vary the complexion of opportunity and establish undisputed justice. This meld of two freedoms can foster human connection, allow us to see the touchstones of our humanity, encourage us to commit to action and unburden us from fear.

Woody “Mr. Juneteenth” Broadnax is a long time community activist from northeast Portland. This article originally appeared in The Portland Observer.

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