Hello My Chickadees,
Can black people have anything that is uniquely ours without it being exploited, politicized, or misrepresented? The word, “WOKE,” which was a vernacular used by African Americans (Colored People), to mean stay alert, be vigilant, regarding the racial prejudice and discrimination you most likely will encounter, has now been politicized and used for everything except its intended meaning. According to Wikipedia, the phrase ‘stay woke’ had its origins back in the 1930s and refers to “an awareness of social and political issues affecting African Americans.” It has now become a catch-all term for everything ranging from people pushing their political agendas, to social causes, and frankly…I HATE IT. This, too, has become yet another thing originated by black folks, and exploited and popularized by others.
Things are changing at lightning speed and all of us ‘common folk’ really need to wake up and ‘stay woke,’ because hard fought privileges and rights gained in the 60s, 70s, and 80s for marginalized people in this country, are being stripped away one by one. It has been proven time and time again that the Supreme Court is NOT our friend; and they recently demonstrated that with the dismantling of Affirmative Action and Roe vs. Wade, just to name a few. Many African Americans who are ‘woke’ see the handwriting on the wall and are bracing for what appears to be the Jim Crow 2.0 train headed our way.
The Bible says, “That which has been is what will be, that which is done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9). Those of us who are Bible believers know it is a pretty good predictor of what is yet to come. In fact, given its track record for accuracy, it’s the best predictor of future events. That being the case, those of us in that marginalized category, just like in the 1930s, better ‘stay woke.’ In my May 2021 blog entitled, “Resilience of A People Who Could Fly: The Power of God and Our Vote,” I shared how after 300 years of being enslaved, the Civil Rights Act of 1866 gave
black people their first taste of freedom, and the 12 short years of progress and advancement thereafter was known as the Reconstruction period. Blacks took advantage of their newly gained freedom to start businesses, establish churches, schools, universities, and even hold political office. All of these changes were under the watchful eye of the Freedmen’s Bureau and federal troops. As black people embraced the power of change that their vote could and did have on their way of life, backlash, which is the usual reaction to black progress, began brewing. I pointed out how some southern whites began to devise plans to restore the southern tradition of white supremacy, now known as ‘Make America Great Again,’ and implemented such laws as the Black Codes, designed to ‘keep the Negro in his place.’ Secret societies such as the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan and the White Brotherhood, reigned terror, restricted the black vote, and succeeded in the implementation of 150 years of Jim Crow. However, Dr. Martin Luther King ‘had a dream’ - black folks woke up and protested, and we got the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which allowed black people to once again step on the freedom train of progress with the desire to believe that ‘we shall overcome.’ Black folks fighting for their rights opened the door for other disenfranchised groups to obtain theirs. If history teaches us anything, it should be that freedom comes at a cost; and backlash is the response to progress.
We inched ever so slowly down the road of progress and towards the dream of truly being a ‘united’ States of America where all people have equal rights, and there is liberty and justice for all. Then a black man decided he could be president, and to everyone’s surprise, he WON. Not only did President Barack Obama win one term, he won twice. The descendants of those who successfully implemented the ‘Southern Strategy,’ went to work on ‘Making America Great’ again, which we know is code for, putting people of color and marginalized folks in their place.
When you can block a person’s vote, you silence their voice. As I stated in my blog on “The Resilience of a People Who Could Fly,” voter suppression is not new in our country, but with the browning of America, we are seeing a surge in the effort to suppress the vote. I mentioned such actions as:
“Imposing strict voter ID laws (racial minorities are more likely than whites to lack accepted voter ID)
Cutting voting times
Restricting registration and purging voter rolls
The 2013 weakening of the Voting Rights Act by the Supreme Court, which has demonstrated throughout history that it is not always a friend to black and brown people
Inability to assist a voter who is disabled or in need of assistance as a result of a language barrier, or disabled in another form from getting assistance with casting their ballot
Redistricting
Gerrymandering, and the list goes on.”
When we sleep on our vote because we think it doesn’t matter, it has a trickle-down effect; and we get governors like Mr. Ron DeSantis who introduces bills like The Individual Freedom Bill which prohibits public schools and private businesses from talking about race, sex, or national origin, because it gives (white) people a feeling of discomfort or guilt. The intent of the bill is to “Shield people (white people) from feeling discomfort over historic actions by their race, nationality, or gender.” A similar bill also passed in Tennessee which bans Critical Race Theory (CRT) in schools and public places, calling it “State-sanctioned racism that creates a hostile work environment” according to CBS news reports.
The most heinous of these plots is the attempt to rewrite history and redefine slavery as “INVOLUNTARY RE-LOCATION,” and to proclaim that slaves benefited from slavery by the skills that they learned during slavery. Added to this insult is that the recent reversal of Affirmative Action in colleges and universities by the Supreme Court, which has been proven to have a harmful effect with respect to enrollment of minorities in California, will now be nation-wide.
It has been said by many philosophers that those who do not learn from their history are doomed to repeat it. Perhaps that’s the reason why the Jewish people teach their children to ‘never forget’ - and this was a practice they learned from God as they built monuments to remember the things He brought them through. As I stated in my blog on Race, “Let’s not sweep our demons under a cloak of denial which only festers and boils until it erupts into riots, or worse, another civil war / race war. As a country, let’s know the truth, ask God and those whom we have harmed to forgive us for our sin, and work together to make our country and this world a better place. America with all its greatness also has a dark and sordid past. We can never heal from our wounds if we refuse to acknowledge that we have them. We are as sick as our secrets. Putting a blindfold on and denying that racism, sexism, and discrimination exist prevents us from healing, and allows the sickness to continue and spread. Refusing to revisit the dark parts of our past, and the ugliness that that kind of hate and discrimination creates, prevents us from learning from it, so as to make the commitment not to repeat it.”
In Matthew 26:41, Jesus told his disciples “Stay awake, watch and pray.” The implication is that something big and bad is about to happen. The truth is, we all need to wake up and stay ‘WOKE’ because as the singer/songwriter Bob Dylan says on his 1964 album, “The Times They Are A-Changin.”
Peace and Blessings to you and your Family,
Gail
PS. “Good Morning My Chickadees: Morning Messages From Mom” is a treasure trove of wisdom messages rooted in Scripture and inspired by the Holy Spirit, to assist us in training our children and ourselves in the way we should go. Check out my website or Amazon to get your copy. Spread the word.