The Anthony Page Center defines, Critical race theory (CRT) maintains that race is not biological; instead, it is a social construction used to protect the social, economic, and legal interests of whites so they can maintain their power.
America is in a sea change of transformation as we discuss race. Racism in America is as every day as apple pie. It is a factor. It is built into the foundation of our country, the experimental country, the idea ideal of democracy. The forefathers, all of them, created a system that captured African people to exploit and abuse humanness. Slaves were not human beings; they were property brought to this country to help build it, from fertilizing the crops to hard labor, domestic labor like building buildings, roads, and the like. Black people in America did the heavy lifting so that Whites could prosper and build wealth. Blacks have fought for not only human rights but long before human rights; there were property rights. Property has no rights. Property is owned. Property is property. The African was a human property that worked and worked and worked. W. E. B. DuBois said, “between man and cattle, God created a tritium quid, and called it a Negro.”
Southern crops like rice, indigo was familiar to the slaves. America created enslavement. The slaves were controlled with fear tactics that included pubic beatings, public lynchings, and rape, which instilled obedience. Slaves were bred like animal stock to produce strong people who could work hard. Labor was free and was not considered human let alone citizens of the great country of America, that spoke about freedom of religion and speech as they established a new government in reaction to the old country of Europe. New laws, new customs, and new people were being created.
Thus, the Negro was created and born under these unprecedented situations and circumstances that created America’s stain and sin. A new people. A new country. Along comes a Civil War some 274 years after the African ships arrived and the African immigrant is Americanized. In good faith to save the United States of America, President Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves on January 1, 1863. with an Executive Order, the Emancipation Proclamation. He turned owned property loose. The slave people left the plantations and their owners with nothing. Lincoln promised 40 acres and a mule, but his assassination eliminated the promise. The newly freed man was no more extended property. Some didn’t leave the plantations, not having anywhere to go. Some fled and began to make their way. The U.S. Government paid the slave masters for property loss; it was the first stimulus package. Imagine the slave owners being provided property losses as the property assumed human rights! Such a demonstration of power defying logic.
Since that time, the Colored, the Negro, The African American, and the Black have sought freedom in America in many forms like voting rights, residential rights, equity, and the like. Leadership voices have come forth to speak to forced injustices. Meanwhile, people were defined by the color of their skin, with a multitude of negativity establishing stereotypes of Blackness. A people’s perception was flawed, troubled, and was to be watched and feared based on inferiority. Stereotypes were created for the race with the darker skin, particularly the Black male. He was to be killed if he stepped out of line, like walking on the sidewalk as a white male approached, looking at a White woman, looking a white person in the eye, or driving in town after sundown and the like. The Black Code Laws were to provoke fear and keep Blacks humble, abiding, docile, and fearful in the presence of Whites as they conducted their poverty lives.
The Black psyche formed with feelings and actions of inferiority and living lives of self-imposed limitations because of race. Some Blacks believed they were unworthy, and religion developed to promote death was desirable because they would then be accessible as they lived in the house of the Lord with milk and honey, no worries, no hard labor, and no beatings. Death, in reality, was better than life, was the lesson. Each generation produces new voices and what Dr. Michael Eric Dyson refers to as “evidence of our intelligence and humanity.” In his new book, Entertaining Race, he writes, “Those imperatives weave through four vital dimensions of contemporary Black performance: echo, shadow, spark, and register. In each case, there is what is given to the white world–what is performed as a shield, face, and deflection–and what is given to, and taken from, Black culture, as the exploration and emancipation of Black life.”
I was on a radio show once, and the White male host asked the question “when did Black families break down?” I responded, “1619 when the slaves were divided and as they left the ships. Families and tribes were split and divided, so there could be no group or ethnic unity.” The design was for the new master in the new country to dominate with complete control. A second-class citizen came into being.
It is a relatively recent history that Blacks can trace heritage with census tracks if they were included, as demonstrated by professor Henry Gates. And often, the travel of the origin leads to a White family and not necessarily a Black one. So, the Black person in America lived with Black code laws, segregations, racism, and Jim Crow. A world of suppression of humanity and a life of denial. A mountain of lies that America was great as a people were destroyed and marginalized at every opportunity. Progress was minimal. There were voices along the way to appeal to the morality of racism, to persuade the power structure to provide better living conditions and to open to citizenship. The Great migration happened. En masse, Blacks left the south in significant numbers for a better life in the North. A major demographic shift took place between 1916 and 1970 with The Great Migration. Northern cities changed as Blacks settled into urban areas like New York’s Harlem and the South Side of Chicago. A new labor force, a new voter, and a new entertainer were born as the southern Black became a northerner.
Dr. Martin Luther King‘s voice was the loudest change agent as he challenged American life with boycotts, the morality of theology, massive marches that threatened the stability of the democracy, and recognizing the power of public policy and the vote. His short 13 years of a career in civil rights brought change to this country. Jim Crow died, opportunities opened, and marchers used their humble feet for the right to vote, and some died the reality. And the race as a whole moved forward. Education denied came forth as Black and White universities integrated and produced the most educated generation America had ever made. Progress was on the rise.
The likes of Reverends Jesse Jackson, Andrew Young, Vernon Jordan, John Lewis, Thurgood Marshall, and countless others took another step forward. They challenged the power system, the economic system, and the caste system of America as they assumed new roles as civil rights leaders challenging American constructs. More doors opened, more opportunities, more power came to be. More Black elected officials were empowered. Laws changed. Power positions from the President of the United States to the President of Corporations, Presidents of universities, to entrepreneurship were established. More freedom, more opportunity. American society was coming forth, as America was becoming what the founding fathers wrote. Progress.
Enters Donald Trump, the worst President of the United States in the Republican Party, comes forth to represent the disinvestment in the progress the country has made, as he assumes dominance, power and tries to turn the American freedom clock backward. He uses new terms and ways with the latest social media communication tool, but his suppression is real. He and his crew have attempted the change the structural realm of America with lies and media. He has challenged the American system in a unique way. He lost the election and said he won and tried to turn the country over into the hands of white maniacs. He lost. He stole the Republican party with bully force and mega dollars and media.
And now here we are with a new form of suppression and oppression, called THE CRITICAL RACE THEORY. That is, to study, discuss and describe the natural history of America or to cover it up. To tell more lies is an option. To kill the natural history of the American Indian and to forget or forgo Black America and its contributions of labor, the building of America, industry, sports, and entertainment. Not to tell the history of a people is to kill a people. The ultimate act of “white privilege” is to deny and disregard the reality of Black enslavement. There is no such power as ignorance.
America will never rise to the greatness it deserves as new tactics are created to maintain and support racism. For racism to be dealt with, to be eliminated from the culture, it has to be confronted. Freedom and equity will come; it will evolve with a political and economic system. People cannot continue to be denied or suppressed. Think of the evil that has been bestowed and the lost opportunities that have been dismissed as ignorance has been granted rather than the light of freedom. And still, we rise with a watchful eye.
And where are we now, America? Educational institutions examine a new phenomenon, a history, that is old as America itself, CRITICAL RACE THEORY, looks at the denial of the country’s reality, its origin, its people, its progress, its evolution?
That said, is it Race, Revolution, Renaissance, Revelation, or Remedies in the year 2021?
