I've been pretty silent on this blog about a lot of subjects this year. In 2017, I mostly spoke about "issues" (racial, political, or otherwise) on my now-deleted Twitter. I also tried to get more involved in racial issues in the local community. In both cases, I found I wasn't really welcome as a voice or presence (eg; when you show up to the local Juneteenth celebration and no one, black or white or otherwise, will even say "Hi" to you, you're probably/obviously not going to be part of any other conversation that's got any depth to it). Aside from that, I also refuse to step inside any place of religious worship, and the NAACP in Corvallis meets in a church. So I don't go to their meetings.
Essentially, in this post and in general, I'm not speaking up on issues where my voice isn't welcome. Despite the fact that I've been called a "n-word" (and other slurs for African Americans, as well as other races) most of my life, I'm not welcome as a voice against racism...so I keep my mouth shut on racial issues. Despite being sexually abused for the majority of my childhood, I'm not a female so I can't have an opinion on sexual abuse issues...so I'm not going to ride for #MeToo/#TimesUp either.**
Those groups have my moral support, but not my effort to help them in their crusades for justice. Just like they don't have effort to even talk with me on any basic human-to-human level, much less help me with my problems.
So this post isn't going to be about my feelings or opinions on racial issues. I just want to highlight, and pay homage to, someone I view as an important, modern African American figure. Someone I respect.
His name is Benneth Lee.
Mr. Lee, or should I say Prof. Lee, is a former member of the Vice Lords (a street gang founded in, and still primarily based in, Chicago). He spent a significant amount of time locked up in different prisons. Eventually, he transcended that life and went on to become a Criminal Justice Professor at Northeaster Illinois University. Prof. Lee also co-founded, and currently heads(along with Antoine Day), the National Alliance for the Empowerment of the Formerly Incarcerated (NAEFI). If you Google search "Benneth Lee" or "Benneth Lee former Vice Lord" or some such, you'll find a number of articles that tell his story more eloquently than I can ever hope to.
I mostly wanted to put a spotlight on Prof. Lee here because.... we hear so many stories about former African American gang members who become rich entertainers or rich athletes or something superficial like that, but (aside from sporadic local media coverage) we almost never hear about stories where someone comes from being that deeply entrenched in the street life to become an academic with a deep social and moral conscience (and consciousness). Someone who really got out, but continued to do for the community in a real, substantial way. In a way that was and is about uplifting HUMANS instead of some selfish notion of MONEY and a fictionalized, hyperbole of a lifestyle. In a way that inspires those smart kids growing in unfortunate circumstances and places that they go out and get that degree AND they can do something with it. That that's not just something for kids who grew up in suburbs and/or in more fortunate circumstances.
I just think it's deep that he's basically doing the job that the "correctional" system doesn't: preparing the formerly incarcerated for a better life after incarceration. The biggest problem with the system is that we don't prepare people in jails to be anything but "people who used to be in jail" once they get out. Without some help, people in bad situations that cause them to gravitate to a life of crime will just return to that life. What Prof. Lee does is combat the root causes of recidivism. He corrects what the "correctional system" doesn't. That's....amazing. I think that's the future of criminal reform, if people are truly sincere about reforming those who lived that life.
I'm not going to say much more. I just wanted to add the name of a REAL real one to the list of people we talk about this time of year. Someone I have the utmost respect for. A name that might not ring out on a national level like Obama, or Marshall, or Truth, or Douglass, or King, or X, or Parks, etc.... but, in my opinion, Prof. Lee's is a name that's just as important as the ones we all know from our history books.
This year (especially), it seems like Black History Month is about the same old names and a new Marvel Universe movie*. It feels like everything that finally bubbled up to the surface in 2016 got pushed back down in an almost reflexive way after Trump got into office. Like people would rather switch up and podcast with Katy Perry than use the name recognition and political traction they were (seemingly) gaining.
I guess I just wanted to do my part to hep add another name to the larger conversation. Someone who's maybe under the radar when it comes to mainstream knowledge of Americans (of any race).
All of my love and all of my respect to a man who came from the very bottom and who didn't just try to get to the top...he got there. Not JUST getting that degree in higher education, but USING IT IN A SUBSTANTIAL, POSITIVE WAY!
That's something, and someone, to celebrate any month of the year.
ALSO (7/5/18): I was reflecting on my African American teachers in elementary and middle school (Ms. James, Ms. Mitchell, and Mr. Crummel) and thinking about how they were members of 1st and 2nd generation teachers in a fully integrated American school system. It's something I never really understood or fully appreciated at the time. I have to add those 3 people (and all of their peers) to this as well. To think about that...and then to consider how many African American students I see out here getting ready for careers ranging from STEM to social sciences to education... It fills me with a sense of hope that things are getting better, however slowly.
ADDITIONAL COMMENT (added 2/13/18): Today, when I was on campus, I saw some dummy in a truck parked across the street from the physics building (Weniger Hall) with a big, bold sign reading "IT'S OK TO BE WHITE". That sign was probably the stupidest thing I had ever seen on or near campus. If you think your whiteness is threatened in a town that's (approximately) 84% white (noting the 16% non-white residents are mostly students who don't live here fulltime anyway), you're insane. There's a residency with a confederate flag that's been hanging for about half a year that is less than a block away from where this guy was parked, and he's still flipped out about whiteness being under attack? Please. There's even a Nazi who's currently involved in the student government (though he may be gone soon, fingers crossed). So where is the threat to whiteness out here? Or America in general. I remember in the 1990's and beyond in Michigan, the Klan had their occasional city-permitted marches. The only people I remember throwing rocks at them were some of the white punk rock kids I'd occasionally hang out with. And it's basically the same today, anywhere in the U..S.
I don't know.... just think it's ridiculously inappropriate for this guy to be parking that truck in front of campus, especially given the month we're in. While I respect freedom of speech, this guy was obviously trying to be an instigator. It's juvenile and shows he must have one incredibly fragile sense of self.
*I think it's sick how people are acting like some fantasy movie that has a majority black cast and a black director is really going to change anything. You're going to leave that movie theater, and the world is still going to be racist. Real jobs (in STEM, law, etc) are still going to go to mediocre white people (especially white men) over talented people of colour (or women of any colour). With the exception of a few Uncle Tom's/token hires, this is going to be the case regardless of what movies people put out, until something REALLY changes.
(Note: the inversion of the "Anti-Affirmative Action" argument as a rhetorical device was intentional. Switch "black" and "white" and replace "Uncle Tom" with "Social Justice Warrior/Bleedingheartliberal", and it's the same argument a lot of racist white people used against laws trying to create equity in job places. It doesn't feel good, does it?)
If Roots didn't change the racist culture of Earth, what makes you think some movie about a white-man-created black comic book character is going to change things? People confuse me with their comments about how this movie is so "revolutionary". People kill me with the amount of money they raise to make sure some youth programme can get their kids to see this movie, when they could be raising money to make sure black people get to be in college. That's the sad state of things. People are content with some dumb-eff fantasy movie being the totality of social change. That's.... it's not even depressing. It's something worse.
I'm not saying people shouldn't go enjoy the movie. Go get your popcorn, grab your soda, and watch it. But don't try to make it into something bigger than what it is: escapist fantasy.
Also: Dear White People, The Black Panther movie isn't an affront to whiteness any more than a Thor movie is an affront to blackness. It's one comic movie with a majority black cast. Relax. It's ok for everyone to celebrate their heritage through artistic or non-artistic expression, so long as that expression isn't violent or hate-filled. We can all be proud of our respective heritages without being hateful of the next persons.. You can be proud of and secure in your, say, Scandinavian heritage without having to hate or be fearful of someones pride and security in their Nigerian heritage or their Iraqi heritage or whatever.
**(5/2/18)Aside from personal reasons listed, my other main problem with "hashtag causes" like #BLM and #MeToo is that it's branding. It's a trend. And all trends and brands tend to be short-term interests to people who aren't truly interested or invested beyond the moment. A lot of times (especially now-a-days), most of these branded causes feel more like career stepping stones for the founders and lead figures of the causes, as opposed to any real sustained effort. Like, you don't just start a movement and then bail on it as soon as you get a contract to start your own "celebrity interview" podcast or whatever and MAYBE reference the movement you started in 1 or 2 tweets a month. That's flaky to me. I was also really irked by the kid who wrote "#BLM" 100 times on a Stanford U application, as opposed to writing a real opinion on the subject, and got in. I just feel like that kind of thing trivializes the cause.
Like I said, I support Civil Rights for African Americans (and racial minorities in general) and increased accountability in cases of police murdering unarmed blackmen (and blackwomen). I support increased accountability both in AND out of workplaces in cases of sexual abuse/harassment towards women (and men). But I can't get on board with "hashtag causes".
I admit to getting in my feelings about having to stick up for people who don't want to stick up for me. But that's reciprocation. That's necessary to keeping a movement alive. You can't ask people to support your cause and then turn your back on your supporters when they need help in those precise situations that you're supposedly fighting against. That's the worst kind of hypocrisy. It's like T.I. was talking about in his song "New National Anthem" where he says once you get to a higher level (in social or educational senses, for example), it's your job to turn around and pull someone else up with you. If you're not doing that, you were only ever in it for yourself. And like I said two sentences earlier, that's the worst kind of hypocrisy.