The history of the Commonwealth of Virginia is not going away. It’s racist past has now become the topic of manifold conversations, like the way the #MeToo moments became the most discussed issue a few months ago.
I have ranted about these attitudes for decades. Not only because they personally affected me, but because they were wrong.
But, these depraved beliefs persist because too many residents of Virginia (and the world) enabled them. Instead of calling out such behaviors as manifested by City Fathers, State Legislators, College Deans, and friends, folks just stood by and let these hatemongers spew their invectives.
As Governor Northam unintentionally shared with the world, the errant teachings and biases have long existed in the Commonwealth. Such as when he stated it was in 1619 that ‘indentured servants’ first came to the Commonwealth. No, Ralph Northam- they were slaves, not indentured servants.
Please note that it’s not simply the Eastern Virginia Medical School and/or Governor Ralph Northam. No, Attorney General Mark Herring admitted to such behaviors while at the University of Virgina. (Charlottesville and UVA are two of the places that I described as perpetuating such behavior until the late 1980s…)
It wasn’t just the country club in Charlottesville that posted the sign, “No Jews, Blacks, or Catholics Allowed”. (Blacks was NOT the term used.) It was every member of the club that said nothing when they passed through the entry pathway.
Let us not forget that it’s also not just the Commonwealth. We have elected officials in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, and Texas that are denying votes to Black to vote. By passing ridiculous voter identification rules (which don’t allow but one sort of ID to work- and the officials move the place where one obtains it further and further away from Black population centers- and then cut their hours of operations).
Or, they remove long-standing practices of early voting on Sundays- with the official reason that “too many Sunday voters are Black and Democratic”.
And, no one in those states says a word.
It’s also the churches. Consider the Baptist Theological Seminary. Whose founders were slave owners. Or, where White Evangelicals espouse beliefs that as the country becomes majority non-white (by 2045), ‘the country will enter a tailspin’. (That was reported by the Public Religion Research Institute).
It’s not just the N word that was on that country club sign.
It’s hate crimes- and the fact that folks sit idly by as they occur. It’s the fact that Black women die at thrice the rate that White women die during childbirth.
Or, attributing the fact that poverty is due to a lack of effort, not institutional racism. (We’ll discuss this after Valentine’s Day.)
What did Hannah Arendt say? “The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil.”
Or, Edmund Burke? “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
It’s time for good folks (or those who think they are) to come to the aid of their country.
No. It’s way pay that time!
There are good people, such as the Reverend Robert W. Lee (the great-great-great-great nephew of the famed general) who has paid a price (due to his ancestry) for his work battling racism and other types of hatred. And now, sexual abuse within the evangelical movement is coming to light – so sickening. I have a sinking feeling if someone gets hold of every yearbook in the South, no one will want to see what is within those covers.
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Many schools are doing just that. (UVa claims to be “shocked” at what it found. Yeah. Like TheDonald tells the truth.)
And, most corporate groups are telling executives to scour their past- to come out in front of what will inevitably be found.
Thanks for the addition to the conversation, Alana.
It’s sad to see so much discrimination still going on today. But with so many stuck in the past, I doubt it will go away any time soon.
It takes us- that’s you and me- to stand up and say “huh?’, “how could you?”, when we see or hear those negative thoughts and biases, Martha.
That’s how it stops.
I don’t think it’s true that people in the states say nothing. I remember the last time I voted there was a free number you could call for a lawyer group who wold come help you on the spot if something funny was going on. But I totally get what you are saying about good people doing nothing.
You obviously travel among different folks than I. Perhaps, because I reside in the Commonwealth, a lover of things Old South (read biased Confederacy), travel in other Southern states (and Eastern and Western and Northern, as well as through Europe) that I routinely see such actions.
And, confronting people, especially those close to us, is not easy or pleasant. Never mind those are far removed from us. I have no problem calling out racism when I see it in the news, when I read it, but when a friend makes a comment in the form of a joke, it becomes a dangerous thing. I know what that friend is thinking. I know what that friend is meaning with his/her joke and I also know that confronting it could easily spell the end of a friendship. Which of course, is quite necessary at time. Yet painful simultaneously. Oh what a world we live in. I truly now believe that loads of people have no good in mind….. But today is one of those days…I am still ranting. 🙂
It may not be easy or pleasant- but it IS something we must do, Jessica.
Otherwise, we are condoning- perhaps even encouraging- such behaviors. Yes, I lost a friend who espoused both anti-Semitic and anti-Black sentiments (epithets?). But, I have heard from another that he has changed (AT LEAST OUTWARDLY) such misbegotten behaviors.