OPINION
The Chronicle
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Ernest H. Pitt
Donna Rogers
Elaine Pitt
Publisher/Co-Founder
Managing Editor
Business Manager
Our Mission
The Chronicle is dedicated to serving the
residents of Winston-Salem and Forsyth
County by giving voice to the voiceless, speak
ing truth to power, standing for integrity and
encouraging open communication and
lively debate throughout the community.
How do you
get ready for
Big March
on the City?
The movie "Selma" educated many and revived
memories for others about the tough times of the
Civil Rights Movement. Other movies have touched
on parts of the movement. The documentary "Eyes
on the Prize" showed real scenes of black people
who protested getting bit by police dogs and various
other kinds of police action. But how did all those
people know how to protest? How did they learn how
to march for freedom?
Those questions are relevant today as what has
been called the greatest litigation on voting rights
since Selma prepares to come to Winston-Salem. On
July 13, hundreds of people are expected to descend
on the city as the federal lawsuit N.C. NAACP v.
McCrory is heard. This is the lawsuit filed to over
turn the North Carolina voter law that requires a gov
ernment-issued identification card to vote and ends
various voter laws.
"July the 13th, we begin the most important vot
ing rights litigation since Selma. We're saying this is
our Selma," the Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, presi
dent of the N.C. NAACP, said on May 30. "On that
day, we go to trial, but that evening we will have a
national voting rights march and rally in support of
voting rights. And
we're saying that
because we want
everybody here to
mobilize hundreds of
people to come back
on that day."
The N.C. NAACP
is in the process of
gaining commitments
from people who will
work toward a show of
force on July 13.
The National
Association for the
Advancement of
Colored People also is
planning a march, this
one for later in the
summer. This year's
"Journey for Justice"
will go 850 miles, from
Selma, Alabama, to Washington, D.C. ? through
Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and
Virginia ? "to highlight the need for criminal justice
and voting reforms because our lives matter and our
children deserve to live," says Cornell William
Brooks, president/CEO of the Baltimore-based
NAACP.
How does an organization mobilize for a march in
the 21st century, a time in which we use new tools to
communicate with each other? How do you reach
youth who appear to have crooked necks because of
all the texting they do? How do you reach the grand
mothers with their iPads full of photos of grandchil
dren, not manifestos? How do you reach the grandfa
thers who would rather go fishing than stage a
protest? Isn't all this protest talk pass6'? After all, it
was 50 years ago when all the hard work was done,
right?
Wrong. Fifty years ago, the Civil Rights
Movement was a force because people were sick and
tired of being sick and tired of the injustice heaped
upon them. Black people had pride and felt they had
to prove that they were just as good as white people.
Back then, the Civil Rights Movement moved
through a segregated society in which there were no
mobile phones with text messaging or computers
with email. The desire to live as human beings and be
treated as such was so great that people sacrificed to
gain the inalienable rights that they were supposed to
have. Where is the sacrifice today? Where is the con
cern as those rights are being taken away? Black and
white Americans died for voting rights, but many
black people still don't vote. It's easy to complain
when people who don't have black people's interest
at heart are elected. It's hard to get diem removed if
you don't vote them out.
As the July 13 date approaches, black Americans
in Winston-Salem should remember their history,
vow never to return to those times and act with
finances and other means to make sure that happens.
"July the 13th,
we begin the
most important
voting rights
litigation since
Selma. We're
saying this is
our Selma."
-Rev. Dr. William J.
Barber II, president of the
N.C. NAACP
u
VMS
? m i
Blacks not comfortable with being
black: Lessons from Caitlyn Jenner
Bill
Turner
Guest
Columnist
Caitlyn, "the new nor
mal" for the former Bruce
Jenner's transgender expe
rience - and the frenzied
media attention given to it
- sparked my rethinking
about a critical mass of
Black Americans who
made the change from
being black, in exchange
for being accepted by
mainstream white society
and who, of their' own free
will, abandoned key ele
ments of their former
selves, all to feel assimilat
ed.
Being black has noth
ing to do with the absurd
idea of race as a biological
issue. I refer to conscious
ness of kind and pride, the
self-confident appreciation
for the unique and valuable
contributions of blacks to
world history, and the com
passionate understanding
of and responsiveness to
the situation of less fortu
nate blacks. Branded
mockingly as Black Anglo
Saxons, these are the
blacks who want to fit in,
not stand out, and they
work deliberately to pres
ent themselves and talk
with the right accent act
more like and ingratiate
themselves to the so-called
dominant group.
Unfortunately, this crowd
of code switchers has
reproduced themselves,
now for two generations.
Most Southern-born
and bred black Baby
Boomers like me attended
excellent schools; that is,
up until the word "segre
gated," as defined by the
liberal gatekeepers, came
to mean that such institu
tions were inferior because
blacks attended and man
aged them. Historically
black colleges feel the
effects now in terms of try
ing to enroll a generation
that has been taught "the
white man's ice is colder."
The educational system
requires no serious study of
black history and culture
and any black figure to the
political left of Dr. Martin
Luther King is pilloried as
an unpatriotic militant.
Five decades ago, being
black extended not only far
beyond the color of dark
skin and dashikis and Afro
hairstyles, but it also
reached into the very core
of most blacks' self-aware
ness, their spirits, and was
the driver of an evolving
value system. When James
Brown recorded "Say it
Loud, I'm Black and I'm
Proud" in 1968, many
blacks, fresh from attend
ing Dr. King's funeral,
were ready to spend the rest
of their lives ma&iijJrEtlual
ity, freedom and justice a
reality.
AJ1 of my friends and
most of the black people I
didn't know personally
then were of a kindred spir
it. The ideas prevalent in
that period and space, par
ticularly as expressed in
language, literature, music,
philosophy, politics and
religion were the canvas on
which a new picture of
America would be painted.
Millions of black children
IIlutration by Ron Rogers for the Chronicle
got caught up in this; they
have African and
Africanized names and
their parents, my genera
tion, did and said things
that gave emphasis to black
unity.
Then something curi
ous happened, starting back
when Bruce Jenner was an
Olympic champion in
1972. This conspicuous
change popularized the
turn of phrase on the
acronym NAACP:
"Negroes Ain't Acting Like
Colored People." Many
blacks - now living the
American Dream - under
went the equivalent of
becoming transraced. "We"
became "I" and for many
who benefitted most from
the civil rights movement,
? ."me and mine" and "per
sonal success" hushed the
earlier sounds of black sol
idarity. "Black Power,"
that signature slogan of the
turbulent times - a call for
economic clout and politi
cal influence - was shang
haied and made into an
anti-white rant.
This surgical-like social
operation - the social engi
neering into the equivalent
of the prefrontal lobe of
blacks' social and cultural
souls - was complete with
in a decade. The platform
of racial integration
became the operating table
on which the transforma
tion of many blacks took
place, where cultural dis
tinctions or putting some
thing into a racial context
became politically incor
rect. The blacks who
should be best suited edu
cationally to articulate and
propose solutions to the
major problems of blacks
in the 21st century - still
the problem of the color
line - either don't have a
clue or they are simply
passing, as it were, not
interested.
I have no moral judg
ment to pass on Bruce
Jenner's decision to transi
tion to being a woman, but
I do, as a socially conscious
black man, have difficulty
dealing with blacks who,
because they struggle with
their racial identity, make it
hard for the rest of us to be
ourselves and to do what
needs to be done. No nar
cissism, no vanity in that,
and I am curious to see how
Vanity Fair rolls this out,
what with Ebony and Jet
now in the closet.
Dr. Bill Turner is a
noted educator, writer and
thinker who called
Winston-Salem home for
many years. Reach him at
bill-turner@ comcast jiet.
? Bill Turner 6/6/2015
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