It is late into the wee hours night, and I am unable to
sleep. I steer left then right in my bed, often gazing up at the ceiling, eyes
ajar, wide-awake. As I peer into the never-ending darkness, I rise from my
attempted slumber. In an effort to
not disturb my girlfriend and our troublesome dog, I creep on my tiptoes and
gently turn the knob of our bedroom door to exit the room. The house is quiet,
with the exception of the continuous hum of the refrigerator in the kitchen. The
neighborhood of Uptown is quiet, with the occasional few night owls returning
home from a fun-filled evening of debauchery.
Like most nights when I am not
able to rest, I reach for the remote control and search the channels of the
idiot box. On this particular evening, in the technological changing world that
we live in, I search my Netflix account on my “smart” TV and stumble on to a short documentary about the efforts to
re-segregate an area of Baton Rouge. This effort would lead to the rebranding
of the city, splitting one area that is predominately white into its own city,
while leaving the city of Baton Rouge to be, well, Baton Rouge. Different thoughts regarding this
situation enter my mind. As I play devil’s advocate and digest the story I just
watched, I’m left with a hard truth that is often ignored when we look at
situations involving blacks and whites and their respective communities. But,
before I investigate that hard fact, let me explain how this issue hits close
to home.
In my youth, I grew up in a small town of Sardis, Ms. It’s a
forgotten and little discussed about community hidden in the blanket of forest
just north of the state. One would call Sardis a truck stop town, only there is
very little for a drained and exhausted truck driver to stop for. With a
McDonald’s, couple of gas stations, a dollar store, and a downtown that one
would swear was a back lot in Hollywood; Sardis is a relic. Nevertheless, this
town is home to my father and the majority of his siblings. Sardis is a tight
society where everybody knows your name, yep, like Cheers. So, when the time came for my family to leave
Chicago, my father saw it fitting to pack up his family and bring us to his
home – “our” home. One key fact to
Sardis, it’s also predominately African American. During my time in Sardis, I
went to a school that was made up of mostly African Americans. When it was time
for me to go to middle school, I wanted a different, in some respects, a better
experience than what Sardis could offer, at least at the time. Rather then
continuing my education in Sardis I, and my family alike, decided to send me to
Batesville, Ms.
Batesville, like Sardis, is a small, truck stop town that runs
through the northern area of Mississippi, but unlike Sardis, Batesville had
made it a mission to catch up with the times and was more affluent then Sardis,
thus there was this illusion that a better education could be obtained. The
town of Batesville is home to various chains, be it grocery stores or
restaurants. Most, if not all, of Batesville’s streets were paved well before
Sardis. Neighborhoods carry the aura of the American dream. The town square
pays homage to a simpler time; meanwhile, the town surrounding it continues to
develop.
While attending what could be considered the better of the
Panola County’s two halves, Batesville being South Panola and Sardis being
North Panola, I was exposed to a different perspective from teachers and their
commitment to their students. It felt as if the teachers of Batesville put more
effort into teaching the kids. Classrooms were smaller and the teachers were
more responsive to a child’s needs. The kids of Batesville appeared to be more
of the representation of what I expected from society upon growing into
adulthood. With its glowing praise, there was always this unspoken impression
that Batesville was better than that of Sardis, and it didn’t take a scholar
with a PHD to see why and from where this point of view derived. While
Batesville is somewhat mixed, the majority of its citizens are white— at least
that was the case in the early nineties. With Sardis suffering from a
several-years-old murder case that has haunted the town ‘til this day – or at
least that’s the story my father has told – Sardis and its patrons were literally
left on the back of the bus never reaching their true destination.
I myself wanted a seat at the front of the bus, and I wanted
no part in being left behind. Oddly enough, I found myself in a sort of post-desegregation
busing situation that was once a political football dating back to my own
parents’ time. In the twentieth century and now the twenty-first century, history
truly does repeat itself. This is a sad assessment of our so-called great
nation, but this is not isolated to the boundaries of USA alone. No, history
and its vicious cycle is a curse that the world must bear.
But I digress, I had some fond memories and great
experiences while attending school in Batesville, but that would not last. As
my 8th grade year began, my family and I received news that I would
have to leave the school I was attending in Batesville and go to school in my
own county, South Panola – Sardis. It was decided, after three years of going
to school in Batesville, I was not able to continue because I was not in “my” school district. Regardless of the
fact that the bus driver who drove me to school was my next-door neighbor,
regardless of the fact that my family had a sort of namesake in the towns of Batesville
and Sardis alike, I was forced to leave my school just as the New Year was taking
shape. Rather than go to school in Sardis, I packed up my things and I was off,
back to The Windy City – Chicago, where I attended Catholic school before going
into high school.
I, being an individual who thirsts for diversity, needed the
experience of a multicultural environment. I have been this way since I was a
kid, and I am still this way to this very day. I feel it is important for all
children to experience other races and cultures, but on this fateful night as I
watch this documentary, I am left with this burning question. It is a question
that I cringe to even ask myself as well as anyone else, but did desegregation
inadvertently cause more harm than good over the years since the historic day
when the Supreme Court ruled in Brown vs. the board of education? To elaborate
more, did desegregation allow for African Americans to disregard their own
communities, letting many slip into depression and poverty? Has forcing schools
to treat their African-American student body as cattle to meet their “black” quota aided in divisiveness
rather then inclusion?
In watching the documentary, the group of patrons, who so
desperately want to reclaim their schools from the evil and oppressive city
legislation to bus poverty-stricken kids into their communities, make the
argument that this has nothing to do with race. They feel that their school
system is being affected, thus the kids’ education is being affected. That
could be true, but like most things in this country, many of its problems share
a deep connection to “race.”
I will suspend disbelief though and assume that the suffering
of children’s education is all that has lent to these actions and the
neighborhood’s petition to see their section of Baton Rouge become its own
city. The documentary paints the false assumption that this nation isn’t still
segregated when it is more segregated than ever. It is this writer’s opinion
that the fight to desegregate this country has led to the dilemma we face
today. Now I’m not stupid, of course desegregation had and should have happened,
but forcing races to intermingle will only create more resentment for each race
being forced to accept the other. This is a step in the wrong direction, and we
as a nation have been stepping backwards for years.
Desegregation was meant to create better opportunities for
people of all races, to co-exist; however, it was not meant to neglect our own
communities.
In some respects, this is indicative of African Americans as
a whole. Many of our communities are left to only dream and pray for prosperity
rather than work hard to truly achieve it, and that comes from the inside out,
not the other way around. Blacks
are left sitting on the back of the bus while people of other races enter their
neighborhoods. They are left to overhaul the dilapidated communities that they still
call home. This process is happening in many major cities across North America.
Does this statement represent all African-American communities? Of course not,
but not facing this truth will leave the blind leading the blind.
With further examination, one would draw parallels to the
pitfalls African Americans as a whole had to endure to even reach the
milestones that they have obtained at this point. Through faith all is
possible. It’s a great motto for perseverance. It is the motto that led African
Americans to stay strong in the face of the evil that is slavery. It is the
motto that led African Americans to march with Dr. King in protest of their
treatment in this country. It is the motto that led this nation to elect the
first African-American president. I’m not one to challenge it, but I can wonder
if there is more for my race to do. The answer to that is a definite yes.
Picture if you will, a predominately African-American
community with the top schools of the city localized and functioning in it. White
parents are clamoring at the chance to get their kids through the door. Imagine
a society where African-American businesses are flourishing and international
marketers salivate at the opportunity to do business together. In that very
same picture frame, children of color play in a neighborhood not riddled with
rows of countless Baptist churches that are followed by liquor stores. There
are no vacant lots or boarded-up buildings. Gangs are something parents read of
in the latest fiction, and like the conclusion to the creation of all things by
the hands of God – all is good. Nice dream that doesn’t have to be that far
from reality if the communities that are opposite of this vision decide to
claim their own and flourish from the inside out. Will this fix the segregation
problem in our country? No, it will not. There is no fixing it, because it is a
part of America’s DNA. This dream will only exacerbate the problem. What this
dream would do is make the playing field equal. That’s a very Booker T.
Washington assessment I guess, but let’s not be naïve- even in the twenty-first
century, we still live in a society where separate but equal is still the
unwritten law of the land.
Some will misconstrue my words when I write these blogs, but
I am simply calling African Americans to task. Rather than sitting idly by and
waiting for others to intervene in the worst of our communities, it is time to
take ownership and build a more prosperous, safe community for our future – our
Black Future. Expecting politicians
to miraculously pass legislation that will save us and help is a fantasy. While
we should take part in voting, it will not be African Americans saving grace.
Our communities suffer when our institutions of education suffer. Not being
educated is the worst segregation of all. It systematically destroys the will
of a people and divides them from the core outward. In making these statements,
I am not professing that African Americans should unify and build an army to
take down the white man, more less I am saying that we should unify so that we
claim the same amount of respect as another race across the boards.
Why push against the opposition when the answer is smacking
you right in the face?
Take back our identity
and conquer as ONE!
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