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“We are determined to be people. We are saying that we are God’s children. And if we are God’s children, we don’t have to live like we are forced to live. Now what does all this mean in this great period of history? It means that we’ve got to stay together. We’ve got to stay together and maintain unity.” —Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., April 3, 1968.
LETTER TO THE NATION
On August 20, 1619 the first enslaved Africans arrived in the United States of America by ship and were unloaded in Jamestown, Virginia. There is a debate regarding the number of slaves on the ship that day, however, what cannot be disputed is that Africans and decedents of those enslaved Africans have been victims of racism and systemic oppression since that time. This period of exploitation represents more than 146,000 thousand days or 400 YEARS of subjugation. This cruelty, harassment, and persecution manifest itself in our daily lives from conception to the expulsion of our last breath. White privilege, which is enjoyed by most other Americans, has allowed the infliction of a myriad of punishments on African descendants simply because of the melanin of our skin.
There are historical moments in time that demand action, and the time is now for unity within the African-American Diaspora. On August 20, 2019 we should take to the streets by the millions to celebrate our accomplishments and speak out against injustice. Institutional racism is not only codified in our Constitution, but it is also embedded in the very fabric of our entire social system. It is deeply entrenched in the minds of every citizen and in the soul of the entire country.
As a country, we are aware, conscious, and complicit in the plight of African American people. However, the degree of racism on individuals can be seen daily on different levels. There are two factors present in each instance: (1) the lack of a moral compass of white America and (2) learned behavior.
For African Americans to say nothing or do nothing on August 20, 2019 dishonors our ancestors. However, our remembrance must begin with the Africans who were captured by those Europeans in central Africa. Forced to travel to the seaports, the long and treacherous journey was filled with r**e and murder by the captors. Those who did not escape the journey embarked at the doors-of-no-return at ports like Elmina and Ghana. Millions of Africans died during the Middle Passage and therefore it would be disgraceful of African Americans to forget about the millions of Africans who survived the Middle Passage and were enslaved from birth to the grave. It would be shameful to forget about those who were r**ed, lynched, and treated like animals; stripped of their humanity, dignity, and their culture. Once freed from physical enslavement, they were victimized during emancipation and placed into internment camps where they died by the thousands after the Civil War at places like Natchez, Mississippi (Devil’s Punchbowl).
How can we not honor those who have been forgotten in time and from our history books? They were leaders and freedom fighters who were murdered for slave rebellions and uprising in a never-ending pursuit of freedom. How can we not honor and mourn those who lost their lives in white riots that destroyed communities like Black Wall Street in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1921? How can we not honor the thousands of African Americans who died fighting in every war that this country has had, yet we continue to be treated as second class citizens on a daily basis?
How can we not give honor to those freed Africans who were businessmen and farmers who were lynched and their lands taken from them and their families members? How can we not remember those who have been victimized by government medical experimentation, the assassination of our leaders, and those who were denied the right to vote for generations? Gerrymandering of voting boundaries is used to reduce our voting power and political influence. Still today our children are subjected to separate and unequal school systems designed to undermine our economic opportunities. And let us not forget the school to prison pipeline along with the unfair practice of sentencing African Americans to longer prison terms for the same crimes. How can we not protest against the millions of acts of racism and discrimination of oppression that is the societal norm in our country?
It is my opinion that the civil war never truly ended for African American people. It was merely agreed that white people would stop killing each other and that descendants of enslaved Africans would continue to be persecuted daily in our society. Based on that, it is understandable why millions voted and elected our current president. The presidential votes showed that over 62 million Americans agree with the President’s racist views and they totally agree with his racist political agenda. These individuals live next door to African Americans; they are the bankers we must ask for loans, teachers we expect to educate our children, doctors we look to for medical care and judges we expect to treat us fairly in the judicial system. There are some of the professionals we look to as the gatekeepers of the American ideals of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. However, in many cases, they are the gatekeepers of oppression!
The Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) and the Corporation for Economic Development (CFED) conducted a study in which they examined the racial wealth-gap. This study predicates that the economic hardship for African American people is so bad that it will take another 228 years for us to achieve some level of economic equality with our white counterparts. The policies implemented by our current president will widen that gap, making that equality more elusive. How many more generations of African Americans need to suffer before we unite?
When it comes to oppression, minorities in the United States have a symbiotic relationship with white Americans. Therefore, we should ask all minorities to join with us on August 20, 2019 to celebrate our collective achievements and openly demonstrate against all forms of “isms” in our society. Every ethnic group over the past 400 years has been suppressed and oppressed by the white privileged, racist power structure and has struggled within this oppressive system.
Institutionalized racism is designed to undermine African American people and control their advancement in all segments of our society. We can no longer tolerate and allow it to oppress and destroy African American people for another 400 hundred years. We need individuals and organizations to help organize protest marches at every state capital and territory in the union. This is not impossible--it can be achieved through unity, leadership and organization.
Will you support this call for a National Day of Unity? If not for you, then I hope you will participate for our ancestors, our families, our friends, our children, and future generations!
Respectfully,
Lyle G. Russworm
All things are possible with our Creator, Faith and Unity! – “Our Ancestors are the true patriots and heroes!”
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Thank you
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