Vernon Presley, Vice Chair,
Calhoun County Democratic Executive Committee
Black Lives Do Matter - We have come a long way.
It was a Great day at the Oxford Fest for Calhoun County Democrats - our presence there was very impactful - We accomplished a lot! Our leader, Sheila Gilbert, along with all those who worked to set up the tents, and those who stood to help get people registered, update registration forms, pass out water and sweet treats - were amazing. Thanks Sheila for inspiring us all to work a little harder and better for the good of all citizens.
We as people of color have come a long way, in spite of some white people - who would rather destroy this country than to let black and brown people benefit from it. I watched a news story in which a white lady from Iowa was interviewed and she spoke of a coming civil war in this country. That’s why they scaled the walls of Congress on January 6, beat police officers, and did grotesque things which I won’t mention in this article.
And remember - they threatened to hang then Vice President Mike Pence. See the video: https://twitter.com/i/status/1346963199778828290
In spite of all the hardships - We have come a long way.
Blacks and people of color have had to endure unfathomable treatment for hundreds of years.
It’s in our DNA to survive - look at what we have gone through. Someone in your ancestral line survived being chained to other human bodies for several months in the bottom of a disease infested ship during the middle passage.
They lost their language, customs, and tradition. They picked up the English language as best they could, while working free of charge from sun-up to sun-down. They watched babies being sold from out of the arms of Mothers and watched women raped by ruthless slave owners.
They were made to take names with no last name, no birth certificate, no heritage of any kind. They braved the underground railroad, survived the civil war and entered into share cropping.
They learned to read and write out of sheer will and determination. They faced the burning cross of the Ku Klux Klan, and averted their eyes at the black bodies burned or swinging from ropes hung on trees. They fought in World Wars as soldiers only to return home to America to be called ‘boy.’
They were made to sit in the back of buses after having paid the same fare as whites. They marched in Washington, D.C. with water hoses and vicious dogs turned on them. They were jailed and put in prison throughout this country. Assassinated in Memphis, segregated in the South, Ghetto in the North.
Ignored in history books, stereotyped in Hollywood and many other atrocities people of color suffered. And in spite of all of this Someone in your family line endured every area to make sure you and I would get here.
So, don't worry about receiving one rejection, or facing an obstacle, or losing a friend, or getting overlooked for a job. You can't quit. We can't quit. To the young people: don't entertain the thought of quitting. People we never knew survived from generation to generation so that you could succeed.
Don't You Dare Let Them Down, For We Have Come Too Far Now. Vernon Presley
When the term 'Boy' is Racist...
Discrimination and Language: The Word 'Boy'
WNYC STUDIOS
Sometimes a word is just a word. But other times, it’s an indicator of something more troubling on the part of the speaker. Take, for example, the word “boy.” When being used to refer to a small child, most of us don’t think twice. But when the word “boy” refers to an adult black man, and the speaker is his white supervisor who’s just passed him up for a promotion, it takes on a much different meaning.
It’s for this reason that John Hithon, an employee of the Tyson chicken processing plant in Gadsden, Alabama, sued his employers for workplace discrimination.
Two separate juries awarded Hithon back pay and punitive damages, and the U.S. Supreme Court agreed that the use of the word "boy" could be racist and needed to be examined in the context in which it was spoken, sending the case back to the 11th Circuit. Here’s the rub: on the third trying of the fourteen-year-old case, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed, and threw out all prior rulings on the case.
Adam Liptak, Supreme Court correspondent for The New York Times, explains how this new ruling came about. U. W. Clemon also weighs in. As a practicing attorney and Alabama’s first black federal judge, he’s outraged by how this case has played out.