An Icon on the Hill & Beyond

by with No Comment CultureFeaturedPolitics

Georgia Representative John Lewis was labeled as the humble giant on the Hill. However, his colleagues referred to him as the Conciseness of Congress. He’ll be remembered for his continuous fight for Voter’s Right, his lifetime fight for all people. 

At the 1963 March on Washington where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” address, Civil Rights leaders asked John Lewis to tone his speech down afraid that it would be too much and would cause controversy. Lewis was the last living speaker at the march on Washington.

On October 8, 2013, Lewis was arrested outside on Capitol Hill for civil disobedience while he was standing up with protestors for Immigration reform. Nothing new for Lewis… he had been arrested 40+ times for peacefully protesting when the stakes were just as high. On October June 12, 2016, the nation was shocked by another shooting. This time it was the Pulse Night Club, a gay night club that was personally targeted in Orlando, Florida. On June 22, Rep. Lewis held a floor sit-in on the floor of The US House of Representatives just ten days after the Shooting. The sit-in protest, which was to fight specifically for gun control, lasted for more than 12 hours with roughly 40 Democratic House Representatives by his side. 

Lewis was not just an icon on the Hill, but beyond. In fact, he was mainly known for his work and legacy off the Hill. He was born the son of sharecroppers on February 21, 1940, outside of Troy, Alabama. He was inspired by the activism surrounding the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the words of the late Dr. Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., which he heard on radio broadcasts. He made a decision at a very young age to become a part of the Civil Rights Movement. While a student at Fisk University, John Lewis organized sit-in demonstrations at segregated lunch counters in Nashville, Tennessee. In 1961, he volunteered to participate in the Freedom Rides, which challenged segregation at interstate bus terminals in the Deep South.

From 1963 to 1966, Lewis was named Chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), which he helped form. John Lewis led over 600 peaceful, orderly protestors across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama on March 7, 1965. The marchers were attacked on that bridge by Alabama state troopers in a brutal confrontation that became known as “Bloody Sunday.” He suffered a skull fracture and was one of 58 people treated for injuries at the local hospital. Despite more than 40 arrests, physical attacks and serious injuries, Lewis remained a devoted advocate of the nonviolence philosophy.

In 1981, he was elected to the Atlanta City Council. And in November 1986, he was elected to Congress and served as U.S. Representative of Georgia’s Fifth Congressional District since then. Earlier this year, Lewis attended the 55th-anniversary of the march in Selma, which was a surprise appearance considering his illness. One of his last public appearances was in DC on Black Lives Matter Plaza (16th Street) with Mayor Muriel Bowser. He not only was there to see the name change of 16th Street, but also to witness in person the large display of Black Lives Matter painted in yellow. Such an iconic moment for one of the original fathers of the Black Lives Matter movement to witness. 

In December 2019, Lewis presided over the House vote to restore voter’s rights. The House voted and passed this bill. The Senate never even brought the bill to the floor for a vote. That bill still remains on Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell‘s desk still today. Lewis made his transition from this earth on Friday, July 17, 2020, after his battle with pancreatic cancer. Whenever I now hear the sound of the thunder it will remind me of his thunderous voice of advocacy. His legacy will live on.

Similar Read: You Are NOT Your Ancestors!

Are We Surprised?

by with 7 Comments CultureFeaturedGen Z

It’s all over the news. Another black man was murdered. Two white men chased and shot Ahmaud Arbery in broad daylight and they sat peacefully in their home for months, without remorse or conviction for what they had done. Ahmaud Arbery’s shooting comes as no surprise to me but I, like many black and brown people across the nation, am grieving.

Amidst COVID-19, black and brown families are suffering – from physical health problems, hunger, distress, and many ailments brought by a long history of inequalities. However, Ahmaud’s shooting hit me hard. I often would try to stay fit by jogging outside my neighborhood. How do I know I won’t be shot like Ahmaud? My brother, a tall skinny runner who recently took up jogging outside, could have been a younger Ahmaud, a Trayvon Martin or Tamir Rice. The black community has no time to grieve. The black community must deal with the current pandemic AND the threat of white nationalism and violence. We are being hunted at the mercy of others, machismo wrapped in the enjoyment of killing prey and the prey happened to be an innocent man jogging. Words cannot describe the feelings surrounding his death. I am concerned but more so angry at those who turn their cheek to injustices. I am concerned that non-black communities are turning a blind eye to murder, with the same lack of remorse and convictions as the killers.

We live in a day and age where social justice is popular, acknowledging the strife of vulnerable communities is popular, and passively advocating for black and brown communities is popular as well. One post for non-black communities “should” be enough to show support. However, those who post are returning to their everyday lives and environments where black lives do not matter. They don’t have to matter and if they do, they are inconvenient and burdensome. The question is how are non-black and brown communities changing the discourse about black men and women in their own communities? What are they doing to curb negative views of black and brown people? How do they truly see us on a day to day basis? As we can see, perceptions are stronger than reality and black folk are perceived as dangerous.

The lives of individuals in power take precedent over ours. Even more so, is the view that racism only happens in the South and the South is to blame for these incidents. Don’t get me wrong. The South has had a long and complicated history with racism. However, I do not believe that racist acts and murders only happen in the South. If anything, Ahmaud’s murderers possess a white identity that is reflective of white people across the nation. That blacks do not belong, are dangerous, and they are beneath that of white folks. No matter their athletic ability and likeability, we are still animals, and nothing will change that. 

Similar Read: Justice for Ahmaud?

Justice for Ahmaud?

by with 5 Comments CultureFeaturedRace Relations

[New Contributor]

February 23, 2020 – I don’t remember much about that day for myself. It was a Sunday so I probably went to church, came home and got in some comfortable clothes, and spent the rest of the day on the couch doing much of nothing. Within a couple of weeks, I’d be on lockdown in my home for the foreseeable future, unsure of when my life would get back to normal, if that ever was to exist again. It was on that day that 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery decided to go for a jog in his Brunswick, GA neighborhood. Unbeknownst to him, a father and son would be out on the same road that day looking for trouble. You see, they kept their loaded shotguns in the back of the truck I’m sure just in case they passed some wandering deer, possums, or for the occasional menacing ni**er. Of course, they say that this Black man, jogging down the street trying to tend to his own health, “matched the description” they say of a burglary suspect. According to them, that’s when they grabbed their guns and decided to leave the house in an effort to pursue him on a “citizen’s arrest.” What happens from there is anyone’s guess, and the coward filming appears to be more concerned with catching the action than preserving a life considering that he later shared the video with friends bragging about what had happened.

I’m not going to spend a whole lot of time combing back through all of the details and facts that we can find on every major and minor news outlet. I don’t have the time to contemplate why it’s appropriate for the state of Georgia to allow people to get a haircut during the Covid-19 pandemic, but conveniently can’t find the means to arrest or bring charges against 2 men who have spent the last 2 months at home, alive, believing that they had every right to pursue another human being and kill him without any question. I’m sure that, after a couple of weeks, they assumed they were in the clear and that nothing would be done. The father and son had probably even turned their attention to protesting the loss of their own “freedom” during a time where people were dying, because it wasn’t directly affecting them so they wanted the privilege to move around freely again. After all, it’s their American right to do so!

My questions at this time are many, my anger is at a boiling point and I don’t have enough energy to process frustration. Instead, I find myself asking- 

“Was Ahmaud not allowed to be scared when 2 men rolled up in a pick-up truck pointing guns at him?”

“Is it possible to fight back when strangers come out of nowhere and interrupt your peaceful jog by pointing a long gun at you and screaming at you in a way that must’ve rendered you confused and in shock?”

“Why is a very real threat to people who look like me always laced with questions and doubt, as if it’s some sort of made up, imaginary fantasy?”

“Are we still unable to acknowledge the history of domestic terrorism towards Blacks in this country? The kind that makes sure every Black child is given “the speech” by parents and elders from the time they are able to listen, and doesn’t stop even into adulthood because now a wife is also concerned that her husband may not make it home safely.

“Was my ability to feel pain stripped away when my ancestors had their children stolen from them at an auction block, never to be held or nurtured again? Am I still supposed to be that numb?”

“When do I get to feel what I want to feel- fear, hurt, frustration, pain- and express it without being labeled as “angry” and “black.”

I can’t say for sure what will happen this time. If the District Attorney is suggesting that it is taken to a grand jury, I can’t respectfully thank him for his consideration and walk away expecting justice to be served. What I am sure of, however, is that the courtesy that the Black community has extended to those who have hurt us over the past 400 years is wearing thin and patience is running out. I am educated and experienced, and this weekend will receive a doctorate degree. Yet, I personally will think twice about the vengeance I withhold, and will no longer be polite in my stance when the death Black and Brown people is a movie that can be played over and over again without even a warning label, as if to desensitize us all to the fact that Ahmaud was even human. Ask yourself when was the last time you even saw a video of a dog being killed that didn’t come with a warning or of “graphic violence and animal cruelty”? I’ll wait…

What the 2019 Election Results Say about 2020

by with One Comment FeaturedPolitics

Tuesday night’s election results have been spun by every pundit to project onto the 2020 presidential race. When put in context, some of the highlights are relatively meaningless. Matt Bevin’s loss in the KY governor’s race is not an accurate representation of the political dynamics in Kentucky. Bevin has repeatedly appeared on the list of the most unpopular governors in the country. It says something about the strength of the KY GOP to nearly carry an incumbent with a 2:1 unfavorable rating to a near tie with the setting Attorney General who is the son of a popular former governor. It also says something that the GOP swept the rest of the statewide races by landslide margins, including the election of the states first Republican (and African-American) Attorney General. In Mississippi, the Lt Governor defeated a popular 4-term Attorney General. People can quibble about the margins in these races, but the real story is not what happened in Mississippi or Kentucky. The election results that matter occurred in Virginia. 

For the first time in nearly 3 decades, Democrats control every statewide office and the state legislature. The political trend in Virginia has benefitted Democrats, but it is a similar trend in other states. George W Bush carried this state by 8 points in both of his elections. Before the 2006 election, the GOP had large majorities in the state legislature, both senate seats, and 2 of the 3 state constitutional offices. The growth of the DC metropolitan area in northern Virginia has fueled the blue resurgence, but the tide in suburban areas is a growing threat to Republican electoral prospects.

In the initial post-mortems of the 2016 elections, the media focused on the rural midwestern counties and communities that flipped from Obama to Trump, but they overlooked the counties and communities that flipped from Romney to Clinton. For all of the blue-collar working-class White voters that broke the Blue Wall of Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, there were just as many college-educated middle-class Whites and Latino voters in suburban districts that stayed just beneath the media radar because it did not flip a Romney state to Clinton. While Trump’s margins in working-class states across the Deep South and Midwest were incremental improvements over Romney, he did significantly worse in Texas, Georgia, Arizona, Colorado, and Nevada. 

We are witnessing a seismic political reorganization around new issues that shatter the red/blue narrative that has lingered since the 2000 election. Some issues like abortion and guns will not be affected by this shift, but others like immigration, trade, and global relationships/competition will become the new litmus tests. States with a heavy reliance on international commerce and immigrant labor like Texas and Arizona will continue their transition into purple states, while rustbelt states with a skepticism of global influences like Kentucky, Iowa, and West Virginia will continue become more red. 

John Edwards spoke of ‘Two Americas,’ and while he was technically right, his analysis for why this exists is not. The ‘Two Americas’ are not necessarily the right vs poor, it is urban/suburban vs rural and old vs young. States with growing senior populations and states that have fallen behind in the technology revolution of the last decade are the real base for Trump’s political party. As the percentage of college grads increases, Trump’s grip on the state decreases. This trend started under Obama, but Trump has accelerated it. It also means Trump’s coalition cannot win a national election, but like 2016, it is possible for his opponent to lose it. 

Similar Read: The Trump Doctrine: What Ukraine Says About Trump’s Foreign Policy

The Race for the South

by with No Comment Diversity & InclusionFeaturedPolitics

2018 saw a new wave of Democratic candidates coming out of southern states. Alabama ushered in a surprise wave of excitement at the end of 2017 with the special election of U.S. Senator Doug Jones. However, that Alabama excitement did not spread into southern states for the 2018 midterms. States like Texas, Georgia, Tennessee, Mississippi and Florida all had big races at the U.S. Senate or gubernatorial levels. The top tickets Democrats in those states lost.

Some lost by small margins while others were a gap large enough to consider it a landslide.  

Candidates like Stacy Abrams of Georgia and Beto O’Rouke of Texas tapped into new voters through the excitement surrounding their campaigns, but ultimately failed to secure the victory.  In Abrams case, voter suppression played a major role. As the first African American female to secure the Democratic nomination for governor – ever – she fought against the state’s Republican Secretary of State, Brian Kemp, who refused to resign even as he administered over the electoral process while running competing against Abrams in the race.

O’Rouke narrowly lost – 48.3% to 50.9% – to Republican incumbent Ted Cruz who saw his lead tightening closer to election day. Having served as the congressman for Texas’ 16th district, O’Rouke ran a campaign that didn’t rely on the traditional polling to advise him.  He pledged not to accept PAC contributions and raised nearly $2 million in the first three months through small donations.

Florida also held a gubernatorial election where Democratic nominee Andrew Gillum fought hard against the Republican nominee Ron DeSantis, falling by less than a percentage point.  Gillum was the first Black nominee for governor in the state of Florida in a racially tinged campaign. And down in Tennessee and Mississippi, U.S. Senate races were top ticket competitive races, but both Democratic nominees lost to their respective Republican candidates.

So, what happened? Voters were energized by the Democratic slate, but failed short to secure the top ticket seats. Conversely, these competitive races did usher in a new wave of Democratic talent for down ticket races. In Texas, Republican judges lost control of the Third Court of Appeals and the Fifth Court of Appeals.  In Tennessee, a wave of twenty African-American women were elected to local and state seats in Shelby County. Alabama had 55 women run for state-level offices. Gun violence advocate, Lucy McBath, won her congressional seat in Georgia’s 6th Congressional District.

While the larger races did not turn out how Democratic voters in the respective states might have hoped, they did help bring change in other down-ballot races and energize new voters. 2019 is here and now campaign teams are gearing up for 2020. Looking to the past, candidates can only hope for a better future.