.It’s been a while but I had to share some observations about the state of race relations in the United States of America.
I just saw the report of a young Black college student who was falsely accused of rape by a White student. What came to mind is the facts about Emmett Till. Emmett was murdered, at the age of 14, because a White woman accused him of whistling at her in 1955.
The young college student was asked to leave school immediately. He lost his scholarships. He wasn’t allowed to tell his side of the story. For 18 months he remained silent.
Emmett is dead forever. He will never speak again.
The young college student is suffering as a result of the trauma, but has decided to put his pain into his passion.
Emmett wasn’t allowed to live long enough to clear his name. We won’t ever know what he could have become.
Now that the accuser has told the truth about what happened, the young college student is working on clearing his name and rebuilding his life.
Emmett’s name is eternally associated with the hatred of Blacks in Jim Crow America.
The young college student admits to having sex with the white student. They both admit that it was consensual.
Emmett would NEVER have been able to admit that he even liked a white girl. To have sex with one was as dangerous as playing with a rattle snake.
Some will likely try to use this more recent incident as an example of how bad racism still is in the United States of America. When they do, you can give them an example of how bad racism really was and ask them to stop trivializing the fate of young men like Emmett Till by comparing today’s racial tensions with what Emmett and many other Black men and women experienced.
If Emmett’s story doesn’t convince them of the fact that there has been a radical change in the status of Blacks in America, you can tell them about another similar incident that occurred in Greenwood, Oklahoma. In this tragedy, the area of town known as Black Wall Street was destroyed, and hundreds were killed, because a White woman accused a Black man of sexual assault.
This is not to say that racism no longer exists in the hearts and minds of men and women today. It is to say that even if there are some White men who don’t like to see Black men having sex with White women, it is no longer legal for them to murder them, unlike in the days of Emmett Till or the days of Dick Rowland.
Get a grip on reality. Look at the ones who have benefited from teaching our children that they are still subject to the murderous outrage of their White neighbors. They can hold on to their power as long as they can continue to plant those seeds of fear. They know that if you don’t fear your neighbor, you won’t be afraid of them either!
Here’s the story:
