relationships

Slaps and Kisses: Black Voters Beware

/ J. A. Faulkerson / Leave a comment

Last week, I watched as 12 jurors in Donald J. Trump’s election fraud trial convicted him on all 34 counts. Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for United States president, is now a convicted felon. But to hear him tell it, this historic trial was nothing more than a blip on the screen.

His now being a convicted felon is significant, though.

Monumental really.

It is something that has never been seen before, at least in these United States of America.

The last person who was under this type of scrutiny was former president Richard Nixon, who submitted his resignation from the post before his term ended. Nixon was ultimately pardoned by his predecessor, Gerald Ford.

But what does it say about us, the Republican Party really, when you allow a man who is also facing legal jeopardy in Georgia and Florida, to even be allowed to take a third shot at the presidency, at being the Leader of the Free World?

What does it say about us when participants in the Fake Electors Scheme (in support of Donald J. Trump’s Stop the Steal Campaign) are being indicted in states like Wisconsin and Nevada?

What does it say about us when the insurrectionists who stormed the U. S. Capitol on January 6, 2021 are serving jail sentences while the person who lit the fuse, Donald J. Trump, is taking a third shot at the presidency, at becoming the Leader of the Free World?

It says more of us need to see the writing on the wall. Donald J. Trump and his conservative Republican acolytes are trying to play the U. S. electorate for fools, make us suspend belief in what our ears are hearing, our eyes are seeing.

Trump and his conservative Republican acolytes are quick to say that we Black people should more closely identify with Trump because U. S. jurisprudence has never been on our side. Disproportionately, Black Americans have been incarcerated at higher rates than any other racial/ethnic group.

Last I checked, though, Donald J. Trump isn’t Black, he’s white. As a white man, he is the beneficiary of unmerited privilege, while Black people have been browbeaten by past slavery, ongoing oppression and micro-aggressions since our Black African ancestors arrived in captivity on that Virginia shore in 1619.

So, why is he equating his real crimes with the plights of Black Americans and Black American criminal defendants?

Because the self-proclaimed emperor is now wearing no clothes.

In short, his fraudulent behavior is now on full display, and he’s afraid.

He seemingly wants us Black people to use our votes on November 5, 2024 to save him from being convicted and incarcerated. This desire seemingly is at the forefront of his mind, even though he and his conservative Republican acolytes were the proponents of campaigns that successfully terminated Affirmative Action, eliminated diversity, equity and inclusion programs, and banned books written by Black American writers from public schools and libraries. Ultimately, Donald J. Trump and conservative Republicans are undeniably endeavoring to dictate what we Black Americans can and cannot say about white supremacy, racism, prejudice and discrimination.

If you’re Black, this is all you need to know. Donald J. Trump does not have, and has never had, our best interests at heart. This is nothing more than another one of his con jobs. Consequently, any Black person voting for him on November 5, 2024 should have their Black Card revoked.

A person should never be rewarded with a kiss on the cheek when they’re violently and repeatedly slapping you across the face.

Donald J. Trump knows winning the presidency will give him the power to make his federal charges go away. However, he will still have to answer for his state-level crimes in Georgia, where he tried to pressure state officials to find one more vote than he needed to receive the state’s Electoral College votes.

Again, we Black Americans have been about the business of saving the nation’s soul since our Black African ancestors’ 1619 arrival. We, more than any other racial/ethnic group, want the USA to live up to its creed, that all men and women are created equal, that we have inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. A historical analysis reveals that we have fought back against our enslavement and oppression both violently and nonviolently. At the end of the day, the unconditional love and neighborly compassion in our hearts allows us to remain nonviolently resolute in our quest to work with like-minded individuals to create a more perfect union.

On November 5, 2024, let’s use our voting power to excise the cancer that is Donald J. Trump and irresponsible, conservative Republican leaders from our body politic.

Democracy and the Rule of Law must prevail.

No human being is above man’s law…or God’s law.

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A Reconciled Nation of Equals

/ J. A. Faulkerson / Leave a comment

Clint Smith’s book How the Word Is Passed bids readers to reckon with the history of slavery across America, but after I read it, I concluded that it does so much more.  In an era in which white American conservatives are championing campaigns to suppress black American history and stymie contemporary black American progress, it is a gut-check reminder that Black Americans’ struggle for life, liberty and happiness is far from over.  If anything, it’s only the beginning.

Smith trope’s is important to remembering the treacherous road we Americans have traversed just to get to a place where we can even consider the importance of treating each other with decency and respect, regardless of skin color.  While it is true that white Americans subjugated black Americans during the Transatlantic Slave Trade and the post-Reconstruction Jim Crow era, and the governmental leaders of these bygone eras tried to make amends for this original sin through the passage of legislation, the fact still remains that too many contemporary white Americans believe that enough has been done to correct their white American ancestors’ original sin. 

What Clint Smith makes clear in How the Word Is Passed is that today’s unenlightened segment of the white American majority is committed to perpetrating campaigns designed to suppress inconvenient truths about the Transatlantic Slave Trade and the passage of post-Reconstruction Jim Crow laws.  This historical suppression is in line with the conservative Republican Party’s voter suppression in states controlled by Republican governors and legislatures.  And they’re using the removal of Confederate statues in places like Richmond and Charlottesville to condition white Americans to rally around whiteness by falsely telling them that the removal of these statues is an affront to what their white American ancestors have built, these United States of America. 

But if they would start taking this line of thinking a few steps further, and understand what Clint Smith is getting at when he explains to us how the word is passed, they would recognize that the true change-makers and entrepreneurs were the enslaved Blacks whose uncompensated labor laid the foundation for what this nation is becoming, a more perfect union.  In other words, the United States of America was built on the backs of enslaved black Americans.  And the only way to truly perfect this union is to acknowledge their white American ancestors’ crimes against other human beings (black Africans), offer contemporary black Americans an apology for their white American ancestors’ crimes against other human beings (black Africans), and compensate the descendants of enslaved black Africans for the next 400 years through reparations.  More importantly, though, contemporary white Americans must believe wholeheartedly that all men, humans really, “are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Know this, the word that my black African ancestors passed to members of the contemporary Black American Diaspora is that we should use our righteous words and deeds to light the way to the kind of enlightenment that allows all of us to become a reconciled nation of equals.  

Constituents Before Party

/ J. A. Faulkerson / Leave a comment

 

Culture Code Logo 2, 8-11-20
On Friday, August 7, 2020, Congress failed to extend payroll protection payments for thousands of U.S. citizens who are at risk of losing their jobs through no fault of their own. Prior to our appointed Congressional leaders’ failure to lead, many of their employers were receiving weekly payments of $600 just to make ends meet for themselves and their families while weathering the storms wrought by the COVID-19 Global Pandemic.
 
Under the old plan, the $600 weekly payments equated to $2,400 per month, or $28,800 per year. Because there is so much noise out there, perpetuated by #TheOtherGuy and Republican legislators in both the House and Senate, most people failed to recognize that the $28,800 per year payment exceeds Federal poverty guidelines for a family of two ($16,910), a family of three ($21,300), and a family of four (25,750). So, when Republican legislators proposed $200 during their negotiations, all I could do was scratch my head. They actually wanted to lower the payment to $200 per week, or $800 per month, $9,600 per year. That would have been a pay decrease of $19,200.
 
But we all knew #TheOtherGuy was going to try and step forward to make us think he is making America great again. He reportedly signed an Executive Order stating that the weekly payroll protection payments should be set at $400. While this amount is an improvement on his own party’s opening salvo, it still only gives at-risk workers annual payments of $19,200, which exceeds the Federal poverty guidelines for a family of two (+ $2,290) but falls well short for a family of three (- $2,100) and a family of four (- $6,550).
 
But based on the news reports that I’ve seen and read, #TheOtherGuy’s Executive Orders are nothing burgers, resulting from the fact he has no control over how the nation spends its money. This control sits squarely in the hands of Congress. So, what he did is more of a distraction than a solution. Therefore, Congressional leaders need to return to the table to hash out a deal that at least lets at-risk workers know they care. But they won’t. Why? Because Republican legislators have shown from the outset of these negotiations that their loyalty is not with their constituents, it’s with #TheOtherGuy. To me, that’s a heart issue that the Republican Party refuses to acknowledge as a problem, and shows they lack the moral fortitude to address it.
 
But I acknowledge it. Why allow the wants and needs of one man to supersede the wants and needs of your constituents, which includes Republican, Democratic and Independent voters? We can only hope that more members of the Republican Party acknowledge their erroneous decisions to make a 180 degree turn and do what is right for all of the people. For it will be these moral and decent legislators that allow us to change the tone, enable us to become less selfish and more selfless.
 
Truth be told, we must applaud the efforts of our Congressional leaders from the Democratic Party. Their staunch support for the continuation of, and, in some instances, increase to, the $600 weekly payments is further evidence they have never stopped fighting for all U.S. citizens. Yes, we U.S. citizens have our differences of opinion, but the thing we have in common is our love for life, liberty and happiness.
 
Like many of you, I am tired of one man and one party trying to manipulate my thoughts around these common values. As long as they are promulgating hate rather than love, division rather unity, nothing they say or do will ever resonate with me. We have to get out of the business of stepping on our neighbors, or disparaging them even, to advance self interest. In short, we can’t allow one man and one party to become the thermostat that sets a room temperature designed to suppress the expression of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
 
In the months leading up to Election Day, November 3, 2020, the Republican Party has already shown it will cheat to win, with some of its members either directly or indirectly expressing an openness to accepting foreign assistance from the Russian Federation. And very few of them, if any, said anything when the leader of their party sent Federal troops to Portland, Oregon to trample the First Amendment Rights of peaceful protesters.
 
What is becoming increasingly apparent, though, is supporters of right-wing extremism are committing crimes under the guise of Black Lives Matter to undermine not just the Black Lives Matter Movement, but the Civil Rights Movement as well. By marching alongside Black Americans they don’t know, and have no empathy for, they give #TheOtherGuy the cover he needs to further criminalize Black bodies. He is also able to bamboozle Independent voters into believing excessive or deadly force is always warranted during encounters with Black Americans.
 
And this takes us back to where we started, Congress’s failure to extend payroll protection that allows a family of four to live above the Federal poverty level. When we cast our votes in the lead up to Election Day, we have to remember how the Republican Party mistreated U.S. citizens during a global pandemic. They didn’t think it was important enough to give U.S. workers a livable wage. They also displayed a tone deafness that prevented them from saying or doing anything that shows they believe #BlackLivesMatter too.
 
Those, my friends, are offenses that are not rooted in love, justice and peace.