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Florida has justly earned its recent reputation as the most dysfunctional, surreal, and outlandish state in the nation.

The so-called Sunshine State continues to promote high-profile lunacy. Last week, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced the new, updated framework for how Black history will be taught in K-12 schools, including guidelines that slavery was beneficial to enslaved people.

Yes, you read that last sentence correctly.

William Allen and Frances Presley Rice, both members of the working group that developed the new guidelines, said in a statement the new language describing how slaves learned specialized skills was meant to show that they were not merely victims.

A statement from Allen, a political scientist, and Presley Rice, an author who co founded a non-profit dedicated to raising awareness about the roles African Americans have played in the nation’s history, asserted that “Florida students deserve to learn how slaves took advantage of whatever circumstances they were in to benefit themselves and the community of African descendants.”

Needless to say, many have made it clear they are not going to allow such bull to go unchallenged. Vice President Kamala Harris commented on the guidelines during a speech in Jacksonville: “It is not only misleading, but also false and pushing propaganda, pushing propaganda on our children.”

Harris further criticized Florida’s new standards for requiring high schools to teach that Black Americans were perpetrators in some racially motivated massacres. She described these lessons as efforts by “extremists” to replace “history with lies.” The vice president stated that such an assertion was “not only insulting but absurd,” pointing to how slavery entailed torture, separated families, and reinforced the belief that some people are less than human.

“How is it that anyone could suggest in the midst of these atrocities that there was any benefit to being subjected to this level of dehumanization?” Harris said.

Her comments were applauded and supported by NAACP President Derrick Johnson “for prioritizing the preservation and accurate teaching” of our country’s history.

“Let’s be clear—these hate-inspired policies are a cancer that, if not stopped, will spread throughout this nation, destroying hard-won victories and setting us back decades, if not centuries,” Johnson said.

Even some Black conservatives weighed in on the controversy. Former Texas Rep. Will Hurd, who announced last month he was running to capture the Republican presidential nomination, blasted the idea that enslaved people were able to use slavery as some kind of training program.

“Slavery wasn’t a jobs program that taught beneficial skills,” Hurd, the son of a Black father and a white mother, tweeted: “It was literally dehumanizing and subjugated people as property because they lacked any rights or freedoms.”

To be sure, DeSantis is not the only conservative who has ridiculously and obscenely downplayed the horrors of slavery. The ample, rambling level of commentary in support of slavery on conservative websites is astounding. The alarming fact is that many of these posters are very likely genuine in their misguided viewpoints.

One can only wonder what would make any rational, decent human being suggest slavery – or at least parts of it – was a good thing. The fact is slavery was violent and responsible for the deaths of millions of people. It destroyed families, economically decimated entire populations of people, and robbed individuals of their religion and cultural heritage. The results still linger with us today. There was nothing “positive” about it. This is particularly true of the millions who were lashed down by its cruel and rapacious spirit.

Denying such hard truths will not bring us closer to any sort of racial reconciliation. Acknowledging that such injustices occurred, and then making a committed effort to acknowledging and tackling the issue is the only viable solution for addressing such past abuse.

Perhaps Wwhite people like DeSantis, the individuals who were instrumental in crafting such odious guidelines, and others who feel the need to make perverse justifications for slavery by arguing that it was a “supposedly benign” institution should allow themselves to be bound in chains, taken to an unknown land, sold to the highest bidder, and then let things play out from there.

Better yet, they should take a long, deep, hard look in the mirror of their souls (assuming they have one) and ask themselves: “Am I defending what I would want for myself?”

I think we all can pretty much anticipate what the answer would be.

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Copyright 2023 Elwood Watson, distributed by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate

Elwood Watson is a professor of history, Black studies, and gender and sexuality studies at East Tennessee State University. He is also an author and public speaker.

Earlier this week, the Country Music Television pulled Jason Aldean’s highly controversial music video for “Try That in a Small Town,” after its release last week sparked controversy.

Aldean, one of the biggest country music stars, has been widely criticized the new song and video, which features intense hostility and threats of violence against police protesters.

Some of the tune’s lyrics include: “Cuss out a cop, spit in his face / Stomp on the flag and light it up / Yeah, you think you’re tough / Well, try that in a small town / See how far you make it down the road / Around here, we take care of our own.”

Later in the song, Aldean hints to a conspiracy theory that the U.S. government intends to round up its citizens: “Got a gun that my granddad gave me / They say one day they’re gonna round up / Well, that s— might fly in the city, good luck.”

The video is also sporadically peppers with footage of protesters – some confrontational and violent – squaring off with law enforcement.

More disturbing is the fact that filming for the video occurred at the Maury County courthouse in Columbia, Tennessee, a town with a horrendous, racially volatile history. In 1927, it was the site of the lynching of a 27-year-old Black man, Henry Choate. A riot occurred in the same city in 1946.

Aldean has defended the song’s lyrics and refuted allegations that it alludes to the Black Lives Matter protest movement.

While he has received considerable support from many right-wing commentators and other conservatives, another music superstar, Sheryl Crow, a long time advocate of gun safety, has been among Aldean’s critics . In a Twitter comment Crow stated “I’m from a small town. Even people in small towns are sick of violence. There’s nothing small-town or American about promoting violence. You should know that better than anyone having survived a mass shooting. This is not American or small town-like. It’s just lame.”

The shooting she is referring to is the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history, which took place in Las Vegas in October 2017 as Aldean was performing at the Route 91 Harvest festival. He and his band escaped physically unscathed, but 58 people were killed and 867 were injured.

Aldean’s defense did little to assuage the critics who had already harbored deeply ambivalent feelings toward him. He has also dealt with numerous controversies in the past, and been very sympathetic to right-wing causes, such as:

• Wearing blackface at a Halloween party in 2015
• Declared that he could not distinguish between female country singers.
• Has repeatedly worn a Confederate Flag on stage at concerts.
• Espoused rhetoric that is critical of and offensive to the LGBTQIA community.
• Praised and encouraged maskless concerts during the height of the COVID pandemic.
• Has been an outspoken supporter of former President Donald Trump, calling him “the G.O.A.T.”

While he certainly has the right to endorse whatever political candidates or embrace any political ideology he desires, other people have the right to critique and challenge such a value system, especially as it relates to public figures.

Here’s looking at you, Mr. Aldean.

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Copyright 2023 Elwood Watson, distributed by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate

Elwood Watson is a professor of history, Black studies, and gender and sexuality studies at East Tennessee State University. He is also an author and public speaker.

Despite the Republican Party’s routine claims it wants to increase its appeal with non-white voters, it often seems to find a way to impede any progress made.

Such supposed attempts encountered a series of roadblocks last week when two GOP lawmakers made racially offensive comments, resulting in fierce condemnation from civil rights groups and further weakening the party’s message that it is a large and politically diverse tent.

Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville and Arizona Rep. Eli Crane made the racially inflammatory statements, prompting rebukes from Republican leaders and warnings from some mainstream GOP members that the party’s efforts to attract more non-white voters just became more difficult.

“It makes it very tough,” South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace said. “We want to be a big tent; we want to have diversity in our party; and it makes it difficult to do that when those types of comments are made.”

Tuberville ignited a firestorm of controversy when he told CNN that white nationalists — a group defined as “militant white people who espouse white supremacy … and advocate enforced racial segregation,” by Merriam-Webster — are not inherently racist. “That’s your opinion,” he told host Kaitlan Collins, adding that a white nationalist “is an American.”

Tuberville’s foolish remarks were widely derided by senators in both parties, including Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who declared white supremacy to be “simply unacceptable.” Amid the outcry, Tuberville changed his tune, stating that white nationalists “are racists.”

Meanwhile, in the other chamber of Congress, Crane created his own uproar when he referred to Black Americans as “colored people” while promoting an “anti-woke” proposal on the House floor.

The remark came during the debate on Crane’s proposed Protection of Ideological Freedom amendment to the Pentagon budget. The amendment, which subsequently passed, “prohibits DOD from considering race, gender, religion or political affiliations or any other DEI ideological concepts as the sole basis for recruitment, training, education, promotion or retention decisions.”

While defending his amendment, Crane, a veteran, said the military “was never intended to be, you know, inclusive. Its strength is not its diversity, its strength is its standards. Diversity can be a great thing but that should not be our focus.”

The comments prompted Ohio Rep. Joyce Beatty, former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, to ask for the words to be struck down from the record. “I find it offensive, and very inappropriate,” Beaty said. “I am asking for unanimous consent to take down the words of referring to me or any of my colleagues as ‘colored people.’”

“Wow. Republicans are just openly calling my colleagues ‘colored people’ on the House Floor,” commented Massachusetts Rep. Jim McGovern. “They’re bringing amendments to the floor to stop bases named after Confederate traitors from getting new names. The GOP is not even hiding the racism anymore.”

Crane, a freshman Republican from Oro Valley, Arizona, said “he misspoke.” Yeah, and water is not wet,

“He didn’t misspeak,” Beatty said in an interview with CBS News. “He said clearly what, in my opinion, he intended to.”

Beatty is wholly correct in her assertion. A person espousing such an antiquated, offensive, and regressive term in 2023 does not do so by accident.

The truth is the acrimonious and incendiary remarks from Tuberville, Crane, and others of their ilk are indicative of a larger — and highly toxic — GOP strategy of employing racially foul rhetoric to energize and animate conservative base voters, who tend to be white.

Congresspeople harboring white supremacist views are hardly a new phenomenon. Congress has always had its share of assorted wing nuts and racial buffoons, so to speak, including those on the politically far right. However, it seems that over the past few years there have been disproportionately more of them — and they all seem to be aligned with the Republican Party.

During the past several years, we have witnessed the MAGA hell raisers in the House of Representatives and their frequent, brazenly shameless, racially charged escapades. Like their forebears of yesteryear, they know what they are doing. More troubling, many take pleasure in doing so. It is a sad commentary to be sure.

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Copyright 2023 Elwood Watson, distributed by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate

Elwood Watson is a professor of history, Black studies, and gender and sexuality studies at East Tennessee State University. He is also an author and public speaker.

Ryan Walters, a far right-wing education official who currently serves as Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction, recently caused a political firestorm when he insisted the Tulsa race massacre can be taught in public schools without amounting to “critical race theory” —so long as it’s taught without discussing race.

Walters, a senior level state education administrator, made the comments during a forum at the Norman Public Library earlier this month after he was asked how accurately teaching about the infamous white supremacist massacre – which killed as many as 300 Black people – wouldn’t violate a state ban on teaching critical race theory.

“I would never tell a kid that because of your race, because of the color of your skin, or your gender or anything like that, you are less of a person or are inherently racist,” he told the audience, according to media reports. “That doesn’t mean you don’t judge the actions of individuals. Oh, you can. Absolutely, historically, you should. ‘This was right. This was wrong. They did this for this reason.’ But to say it was inherent in that because of their skin is where I say that is critical race theory. You’re saying that race defines a person.”

Not surprisingly, such a foolish response did not go over well.

Damario Solomon-Simmons, executive director at Justice for Greenwood, harshly criticized Walters’ comments, saying it was “beyond belief” coming from a top elected education official.

“He’s misinformed and this is a disgusting comment and it’s so inaccurate and false,” Solomon-Simmons told Newsweek. “The massacre was all about the skin color of the Black people who were destroyed. The [white mob] call Greenwood N-word town. They said they wanted to run the Blacks out of Tulsa.”

For those of you who do not know, the Tulsa massacre was a horrific act of racial terrorism in 1921 that destroyed the Greenwood District of Tulsa, a nationally-renowned prosperous community nicknamed “Black Wall Street.” Dick Rowland, a shoe shiner and dapper dresser in his late teens, was arrested on trumped-up charges for allegedly assaulting a white elevator operator, Sarah Page.

Encouraged and manipulated by racially-motivated media agitation and other forms of racial hostility, white residents of Tulsa engaged in two consecutive days of violent and sadistic carnage, eventually burning and destroying the Greenwood District. The national guard had to be called in. More than 300 people were killed. The massacre is considered one of the worst incidents of racially motivated violence in U.S. history.

Rather than acknowledging he made a mistake, Walters, who was elected by campaigning on a platform of ordering teachers to be given “patriotic education,” initially doubled-down and went on the defensive. “It doesn’t matter how much the radical left attacks me,” Walters said during the public forum. “It doesn’t matter how much the teacher’s union spends against me. I will never stop speaking the truth.”

Realizing he had stepped in it, he made an attempt to clarify his comments.

“The Tulsa Race Massacre was a terrible, evil event perpetrated by folks that chose to act in a way that was evil and racist,” Walters told the local Fox affiliate.  “I said (at the event) it was evil, all of our kids need to know it and they need to judge the action of those people.”

The truth is a number of whites are in denial about racism. A greater percentage are even more dismissive about the potential negative economic, psychological, and emotional impact that racism can have on the lives of Black and brown people.

A history of violence and discrimination has deeply affected America’s Black population. The results still linger with us today, and those emotional scars are ripped open when callous and careless and comments like those made by Walters and others of his misguided mindset.

Denying such hard truths about various racial tragedies in our nation’s history does nothing to bring us any closer to any sort of racial reconciliation. Acknowledging our racial past and making a committed effort to confront such tragedy is the only viable solution to addressing such an undeniable fact.

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Copyright 2023 Elwood Watson, distributed by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate

Elwood Watson is a professor of history, Black studies, and gender and sexuality studies at East Tennessee State University. He is also an author and public speaker.

After conducting tense research and holding public hearings for more than two years, a California task force determined that payments as part of a reparations initiative could surpass $1 million in certain cases.

The proposal is aimed at targeting historical injustices faced by Black residents who are descendants of enslaved people and have battled against racism and discrimination for generations.

Assembly Member Reginald Jones-Sawyer, a member of the reparations task force, said he intends to use its findings to draft a reparations bill to fellow lawmakers. He is expected to propose a bill in 2024. “Not being able to own your own businesses, not being able to have access to capital, not being able to be hired and move up and matriculate — all of those things kept us from being able to rise naturally,” Jones-Sawyer said.

For the last few decades, the issue of reparations has ebbed and flowed in the American psyche. The subject began to gain steam in the early 1990s during the Clinton administration, when many activists believed Clinton’s centrist/liberal politics were conducive to such a possibility.

While some Black people and white progressives turn a hopeful ear to talk of reparations, there are those of us who are less than enthusiastic about the degree of sincerity as it relates to government officials. We are what some would refer to as the cynics, the racially conscientious men and women who sigh and give the side eye. After so many promising starts routinely followed by abrupt and sudden stops, we cannot help but echo “oh Lord, here we go again, how long will it last this time?”

Cynicism aside, I, like many others, genuinely want to see reparations given serious attention and deep consideration, and not just at various junctures for disingenuous politicians to exploit for opportunistic purposes. The subject is too crucial to be mishandled and manipulated. Sad to say, up until now this has been the case.

To all those who argue that the issue needs to be debated, I say WHAT IS THERE TO DEBATE?! The question as to whether people of African descent past or present deserve to be compensated for past and present injustices should not be “up for discussion!” We already know the answer is a resounding yes.

This nation has financially awarded various groups, including Japanese Americans and Holocaust survivors, for their pain, humiliation and intense suffering. If there is any group in America that deserves recompense for the numerous iniquities, indignities and injustices inflicted upon them, it is Black Americans.

The Black experience in America is a distinctive one that has been simultaneously marked and marred with rivers of blood, mountains of sweat and more than a few tears. Such historical and sadistic treatment has consistently manifested itself centuries later in various and menacing ways. No reasonable person can deny these indisputable truths. Most, if not all of the aforementioned vices are largely due to centuries of past and present circumstances that afflict many people of African descent. The psychological impact is real.

To every white person who make the argument they did not enslave anyone, or that their relatives never owned slaves – so what?! The cold, hard undeniable truth is that you and your forebears have and still do benefit from past and present day retrograde institutional policies that had/still have a disproportionate negative impact on many Black people.

America likes to pride itself on being a fair and just society embedded with the ideas of freedom and justice for all. In the case of many Black Americans, it has fallen woefully and distressingly short. Considerably so. I can think of no better way to make amends for paying a debt that is long overdue.

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Copyright 2023 Elwood Watson, distributed by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate

Elwood Watson is a professor of history, Black studies, and gender and sexuality studies at East Tennessee State University. He is also an author and public speaker.

After decades of aggressive and strategic efforts from influential right-wing forces the Supreme Court outlawed race conscious admissions at universities throughout the nation, dismantling decades of progress and crippling the potential of racial diversity and pluralism at our nation’s institutions of higher education.

Chief Justice John Roberts, speaking for the majority, argued that “the student must be treated based on his or her experiences as an individual — not on the basis of race.” He was joined by conservative Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel A. Alito Jr., Neil M. Gorsuch, Brett M. Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett.

The court did not prohibit considering students’ backgrounds and circumstances in holistic reviews of their profiles. Thus, admissions officers can still give credit to applicants who have overcome challenges relating to their race or who would bring unique experiences to campus.

Interestingly, the ruling did not apply to military academies.

President Biden said the current Supreme Court has done “more to unravel basic rights and basic decisions than any court in recent history,”

In her blistering, powerful and compelling dissent, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson zeroed in on the irony of this decision being based in the equal-protection clause. “

With let-them-eat-cake obliviousness, today, the majority pulls the ripcord and announced, ‘colorblindness for all’ by legal fiat,” Jackson wrote. “But deeming race irrelevant in law does not make it so in life.” Justice Brown Jackson is right on target in her analysis.

It was notable and disturbing that Clarence Thomas has been one of the most ardent opponents of affirmative action, despite the fact it was such a policy that afforded him the opportunity to enroll at Yale Law School. It’s also a reason he is on the Supreme Court today. He was a Black conservative who was in “the right place at the right time.” Such hypocrisy leaves much to be desired.

Many on the right like to argue for a colorblind society by invoking the powerful words of Martin Luther King Jr., that people be judged not on the color of their skin, but rather, the content of their character. There are numerous problems with such an idealistic but misguided demand.

While America is indeed a very colorful, racially diverse, and pluralistic society, our history has been anything but. While racial progress has indeed occurred on some level, the nation is far from the utopia that Dr. King envisioned for it to become. Rather than being colorblind, we are a deeply endemic color conscious, economically stratified and segregated society.

Factors such as endemic poverty, systemic and systematic racism, sophisticated and subtle discrimination, and lack of access to the mainstream are searing perennial issues for those who are victims to such social inequities and inequalities.

Economic and structural racism, educational disparities, environmental racism, health disparities, and chronically segregated communities are unalterable and undeniable realities in the lives of many poor people of color and indigenous populations. Race based remedies in college admissions can serve as an instrument in an effort to level a dramatically uneven playing field.

The truth is the conservative right as a movement is not interested in the welfare of Asian-Americans or any other group of non-white students. Rather, their primary agenda is to reestablish the previous practice of white privilege – more specifically, white male privilege – to the college admissions process while perversely using Asian students as political decoy.

The majority of conservatives who denounce affirmative action are the very same individuals who rabidly mock and ridicule the strengths and advantages a diverse society provides. People of color are not and have never been a genuine priority for them. The disingenuous responses of many on the right to the court’s decision reveals such a sinister truth.

Despite the recent court decision, the truth is that diversity is indeed our nation’s strength. This fact holds true for higher education as well. Future demographics will continue to demand a multi-racial workforce to meet the demands of its population. Thus, it is incumbent on our institutions of higher education to ensure that colleges and universities are producing a student body that accurately reflects the racial make-up of its citizenry.

While those on the right may declare victory, those of us who are dedicated to progress and equality must work to make sure that such a sinister celebration is pyrrhic and temporary. As the late, self-described Black, feminist, lesbian warrior poet, Audre Lorde so deftly stated “the war against dehumanization is ceaseless.”

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Copyright 2023 Elwood Watson, distributed by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate

Elwood Watson is a professor of history, Black studies, and gender and sexuality studies at East Tennessee State University. He is also an author and public speaker.

Last week, an Indiana chapter of Moms for Liberty, a nonprofit organization that advocates for “parental rights” in education, ended up apologizing and condemning Adolf Hitler after previously using a quote from the racist and anti-Semitic Nazi leader in its newsletter.

“We condemn Adolf Hitler’s actions and his dark place in human history,” read a statement from chapter chair Paige Miller on the cover of the revised newsletter. “We should not have quoted him in our newsletter and express our deepest apology.”

The group was recently labeled as an extremist group by the Southern Poverty Law Center in its annual 2022 Year in Hate and Extremism report. The initial version of the newsletter included the quote, “He alone, who OWNS the youth, GAINS the future,” and cited Hitler. While the origin of the quote is not entirely known, it has been attributed in numerous historical texts to a 1935 rally speech by the Nazi leader.

Perversely going on the defensive, the national chapter of Moms for Liberty denounced the Indianapolis Star – the local paper that first reported the story – as engaging in “intentional dishonesty,” even while issuing a statement themselves that condemned the chapter’s decision to quote Hitler.

Tina Descovich and Tiffany Justice. co-founders of the organization, responded in a statement “They should not have quoted Hitler. Period, Parents are passionate about protecting future generations from tyranny, but Hitler did not need to be quoted to make that point.”

Gee, you think? Well, thanks for coming to such a reasonable conclusion.

Of course they should not have used commentary from one of the most odious, despicable, and abominable human beings in history. But the truth is Moms for Liberty is hardly an aberration.

There has always been a segment of Americans – primary white – who have, whether overtly or covertly, harbored rabid levels of hostility and hatred toward individuals they view and perceive as “the other.” These men and women were largely forced to discuss and reaffirm their racist and bigoted viewpoints with like-minded individuals. For much of our recent history, their outpourings were confined to secret conferences, white supremacist communications, underground newsletters, obscure far-right magazines and radio programs and in more recent decades, the darkest, racially-sordid corners of the web.

After their disastrous and humiliating defeat in 1964, the right-wing segment of the Republican Party, who by this time had wrestled control of the party away from the more moderate Stanton/Rockefeller wing, was emotionally and psychologically shell shocked by such a devastating loss, and thus determined to have their collective voices and ideas represented on the national stage.

Over the past several decades, the conservative right has been successful in amassing a cottage industry of right-wing pundits, radio and network hosts, think tanks, magazines, journalists, clergy and other political tools. These forces have been very astute at playing on the fears, resentments, hatreds, fragilities and insecurities that have rankled the psyches of their audience.

Embodied with the perennial dual forces of patience and determination, they have reached within striking distance of being able to claim “mission accomplished.” It has become an alarming, disturbing and distressing state of affairs. Those of us who are committed to a progressive, inclusive society that respects the rights of all American citizens must combat and respond to such vile and fascist-oriented politics progressively, proactively, and with fearless ferocity.

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Copyright 2023 Elwood Watson, distributed by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate

Elwood Watson is a professor of history, Black studies, and gender and sexuality studies at East Tennessee State University. He is also an author and public speaker.

Black Americans are a community of people that have endured abominable levels of trials, abuse and tribulations. Our experience in this country includes rivers of blood, mountains of sweat and countless numbers of anguished tears.

As a Black American, I am descended from a people for whom the history of slavery, lynching, segregation, black codes, poll taxes, oppressive sharecropping systems and Jim Crow laws are historical facts deeply etched in the fabric of history. My ancestors were brought to America as slaves. I can only begin to imagine the sadistic and inhumane treatment they endured.

Juneteenth is a celebration acknowledging the ending of slavery in the United States. On June 19, 1865, Major General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, and announced that all slaves were free. Later that year, on Dec. 6, the 13th Amendment was ratified by Congress, legally and officially ending slavery in the United States. One can only envision the jubilation that emanated from the community of former slaves.

Many slaved had already been freed two years earlier, when President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on Jan. 1, 1863. But in the cradle of the slave-holding confederacy, such a truth refused to be recognized, and racial injustice against Black people in the south endured for another 100 years.

The purpose of Juneteenth is to acknowledge the atrocities of the past, and to educate current and future generations about the struggles of Black Americans, to ensure it will never be forgotten. Juneteenth also serves as a holiday to raise the level of consciousness and to educate Americans of all racial and ethnic groups about slavery in the United States.

Black Americans have long been on the frontline for freedom from racial tyranny. We have been the victims of centuries of discrimination, racial hatred, state-sanctioned violence, a fiercely hostile criminal justice system and numerous other indignities, impositions, and injustices. It is due to this confluence of scurrilous factors that we recognize the necessity of acknowledging a holiday that pays homage to one of the most pivotal moments in the history of Black America, as well as American history in general. Its roots in the reflection of the past offer valuable learning experiences and the opportunity for racial healing.

Today, Black Americans have seen members of its community become congressmen, governors, senators, Oscar winners, CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, billionaires, secretaries of state, and even president and vice president of our country. Despite these triumphs, we have also witnessed increasing poverty rates, heightened white supremacist, profoundly obscene incarceration rates, and other social maladies that threaten to erode (if not outright erase) the gains accumulated over the past half century.

As we celebrate Juneteenth this year, we must keep in mind the ideas and promises of freedom alone are not enough to either sustain or propel us. We must celebrate the holiday in the years to come with the unrelenting intent to rectify the pervasive inequality that remains with us long after that liberating day in June 1865.

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Copyright 2023 Elwood Watson, distributed by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate

Elwood Watson is a professor of history, Black studies, and gender and sexuality studies at East Tennessee State University. He is also an author and public speaker.

As if his political career wasn’t perverse and horrid enough, Donald Trump now hold the distinction of being the first former president in U.S. history to face federal criminal charges

Trump was arraigned on Tuesday on 37 separate counts over his handling of classified information, including willfully retaining national defense secrets in violation of the Espionage Act, conspiracy to obstruct justice and making false statements.

Predictable, some high-profile Republicans have rallied to Trump’s defense. “Today is indeed a dark day for the United States of America,” House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) tweeted. “It is unconscionable for a President to indict the leading candidate opposing him. Joe Biden kept classified documents for decades. I, and every American who believes in the rule of law, stand with President Trump.”

Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, who sought to overturn Biden’s win in the 2020 presidential election based on no evidence of widespread fraud, tweeted: “If the people in power can jail their political opponents at will, we don’t have a republic.” Other leading Republican senators, including Mitch McConnell and Minority Whip John Thune, have remained silent.

For his part, Trump is resorting to his usual posture of portraying himself as the unjustly persecuted victim by a hostile deep state determined to destroy him. “I AM AN INNOCENT MAN,” Trump declared on his Truth Social site, in his signature DEFCON 1, all-caps mode minutes after announcing his indictment. “THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION IS TOTALLY CORRUPT. THIS IS ELECTION INTERFERENCE & A CONTINUATION OF THE GREATEST WITCH HUNT OF ALL TIME.”

Everyone is entitled to the presumption of innocence until proven otherwise. However, in the case of Trump, the likelihood of being innocent seems to diminish on a daily basis. His arrogant, devious, brash and defiant behavior does little to dispel such assumptive notions among rational minded citizens.

Trump is largely the victim of his own making. First and foremost, why he had taken mounds of boxes containing classified information to his Mar-a -Lago residence is still baffling. There are those on the right who shout cries of “double standard “and “hypocrisy,” pointing to Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden and Mike Pence.

Such comparisons have no weight to them. Neither Clinton, Biden or Pence willfully retained or refused to return such documents when ordered to do so. They did not attempt to originate bogus rationales, engage in blatant acts of deception, or openly defy the law. Nor did Biden, Clinton, or Pence lie to authorities or engage in similar forms of obstructive activities. Trump, on the contrary, deliberately attempted to deceive government officials.

Many establishment Republicans, including backers of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, are still hopeful that Trump’s mounting legal woes will cause more so-called pragmatic Republican voters to come to their senses, turn the corner and see the light.

For Trump’s diehard MAGA supporters, this latest indictment will likely further embolden their support of their leader. This latest prosecutorial act will likely reinforce what deeply held suspicions they already held about the supposed deep state. That is a group of well-educated sophisticated, intellectual elites who harbor a deep disdain for rank-and-file Americans.

The former president has been masterful in convincing this segment of voters that the mainstream media and assorted elites have a searing disdain toward them, and that he is the only one who cares about them, is aware of their concerns and has their best interests at heart. The question is whether his base will continue to embrace such a misguided fallacy.

Time will tell.

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Copyright 2023 Elwood Watson, distributed by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate

Elwood Watson is a professor of history, Black studies, and gender and sexuality studies at East Tennessee State University. He is also an author and public speaker.

Last month, the NAACP made waves for issuing a travel advisory for Florida in response to Governor Ron DeSantis’ ruthless efforts to whitewash Black history and severely curtail diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.

“Once again, hate-inspired state leaders have chosen to put politics over people. Governor Ron DeSantis and the state of Florida have engaged in a blatant war against principles of diversity and inclusion and rejected our shared identities to appeal to a dangerous, extremist minority,” Leon Russell, chair of the national NAACP Board of Directors, said in a statement.

As you can imagine, conservatives were quick to react to the news. Fox News host Laura Ingraham yawned off the statement, chalking it up to “election time.” Southwest Florida Congressman Byron Donalds, who is Black, called the NAACP’s decision “silly and dumb.” Florida Sen. Rick Scott issued his own travel advisory, warning “socialists” and “communists” the state is “openly hostile” to them.

The truth is such a response from the right is not all that surprising. Any left of center, or even politically centrist organization is likely to endure negative treatment from right-wing quarters. Any mention of race these days is inclined to send such a crowd into spasms of rage. Nothing new to see here.

I have my complaints about the NAACP and some other Black organizations. But unlike many right-wingers, mine are rooted in substantial concerns as opposed to racial and ideological politics. The fact is too many Black organizations have failed Black folks miserably over the past 30 plus years.

Rather than focusing on tactics and effort that could provide substantial dividends for Black people (and in some cases other constituents), the NAACP and other organizations have too often resorted to performing symbolic gestures. While notable and effective for capturing initial chatter and headlines, the reality is that such efforts do little to address critical and urgent issues plaguing many communities of color.

Such inaction is not confined to the NAACP. The Congressional Black Caucus is just as problematic.

Earlier this year, a few members made a joint public statement on the abuse that Haitian migrants endured at the hands of sheriff deputies at the border, as they should have. Nonetheless, this is hardly sufficient to benefit migrants or communities of color in general.

I fully respect the past victories that the NAACP and many other forebears provided for us. There is no doubt that many of our lives, particularly those of us who are Generation X’ers and younger, are much easier and successful than they would otherwise have been without their heroic efforts. Many of us will forever be grateful for the arduous and precarious mountains they were willing to climb.

Past victories aside, we appear to be at a juncture where the political headwinds are calling for aggressive action to challenge combative right-wing, reactionary forces who seem all too eager to return our nation to an era resembling the mid-19th century.

Back in 1994, Michael Eric Dyson, distinguished professor at Vanderbilt University, wrote in the New York Times that the NAACP “must recapture its radical dimensions precisely because the problems of black Americans – unemployment and urban violence, neoliberal rebuffs of racial progress and neoconservative assaults on young blacks, economic collapse and revived racism – are most assuredly not moderate.”

Almost three decades later, his comments still ring true.

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Copyright 2023 Elwood Watson, distributed by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate

Elwood Watson is a professor of history, Black studies, and gender and sexuality studies at East Tennessee State University. He is also an author and public speaker.