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You have to be “woke” to understand it, I guess.

Last week, conservative activist and author Bethany Mandel went viral for her screeching response on defining the term woke, which has become the catch-all phrase on the right for everything wrong with our country.

During the March 14th edition of The Hill’s web series “Rising” to promote her new book “Stolen Youth,” Mandel had difficulty responding to a question from co-host Briahna Joy Gray.  The clip has now amassed millions of hits online and ample amounts of gleeful commentary from progressive journalists and activists mocking Mandel for being unable to describe the very thing she was attacking.

After her fiasco, Mandel claimed Joy Gray made a disparaging remark about parents on a hot mic before the interview began, which effectively threw the right-winger her off her game.

“Just before we went on air, Briahna Joy Gray was on a hot mic. I heard her demeaning parenting in general in colorful and nasty terms, stating parents only have kids in order to perpetuate their own narcissism,” Mandel wrote on Twitter. She went on to tell Fox News she was anxious throughout the entire interview.

Her suspiciously defensive response drew the ire of more than a few social media observers, including some on the right. While there were a number of conservative bloggers who tied themselves up into twisted pretzel knots to defend one of their own, there were other conservatives who were willing to see the forests for the trees and took Mandel to task.

Mind you, this is a person who has actually written a book on the topic of wokeness, yet found herself clueless when asked to define what the term represented. Truth be told, this is hardly surprising. As was/is the case with critical race theory, the social and cultural far right have no idea what the word woke represents, let alone on how to define, or provide an adequate definition to such terms.

We have seen conservatives falsely ranting about the implosion of Silicon Valley Bank being caused by wokeness. Wall Street Journal columnist Andy Kessler’s disingenuously opined that Silicon Valley Bank collapsed because they had “‘1 Black’, ‘1 LGBTQ+’ and ‘2 Veterans’” on the board. He further commented: “I’m not saying 12 white men would have avoided this mess, but the company may have been distracted by diversity demands.”

Kessler is smart enough to know there have been predominantly and/or all white male boards that have demonstrated rampant degrees of incompetence. Has he not studied or followed past and recent history as it relates to bank failures? Instead, he has chosen to engage in a perverse form of intellectual dishonesty in an effort to appease his conservative readership.

The reason why people like Bethany Mandel, Andrew Kessler and many others on the right have such a difficult time defining the term “woke” is twofold. First, they do not know what the term means. Secondly, their intention is to employ vague meanings to the word. It is designed to be void of any concrete definition. Thus, it can be distorted and weaponized to attack anyone, event or movement they either dislike or see as an unalterable political threat to their political, social and cultural advancement.

Needless to say that such an empty value system leaves much to be desired.

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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.

What is going on with Tucker Carlson?

In private messages unearthed by lawsuits against Fox News, the fiery host was a fierce critic of former President Donald Trump, even as he continued to praise and defend him on television.

“We are very, very close to being able to ignore Trump most nights”  Carlson wrote in one message, adding, “I truly can’t wait.”

“We’re all pretending we’ve got a lot to show for it, because admitting what a disaster it’s been is too tough to digest. But come on. There really isn’t an upside to Trump,” Carlson wrote in another. “He’s a demonic force, a destroyer. But he’s not going to destroy us … truly can’t wait … I hate him passionately.”

Compare that with Carlson’s most recent rhetoric, where he’s attempted to paint the Jan. 6 insurrection as benign. Here’s a satirical summation by USA Today columnist Rex Huppke:

“The patriotic tourists who arrived at the Capitol bearing gifts for lawmakers were the real victims. As they merrily walked up to the building, the glass on many of the exterior doors spontaneously exploded. Then U.S. Capitol Police officers came along and began slamming their faces into the fists of the innocent and unsuspecting visitors. You don’t hear anything in the mainstream press about the number of knuckle injuries suffered by these peaceful souls.”

Has the debilitating effects of either amnesia, schizophrenia or denial gripped Carlson’s mind and impacted his better judgment? While I am not a physician, my diagnosis would conclude that Tucker has been infected with a severe case of dishonesty.

Recently, Carlson has been discreetly choosing snippets of the Jan. 6 insurrection, probably the most documented crime in our nation’s history, from footage exclusively bestowed upon him by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. It’s not surprising Carlson is trying his darndest to redefine the deadly narrative of that infamous day, considering his inflammatory commentary assisted in agitating the already fierce emotions of more than a few psychologically demented souls who physically and violently assaulted the U.S. Capitol.

Deceptive allegations aside, some Senate Republicans aggressively refuted Carlson’s depiction of events.

“When you come into the chambers, when you start opening members’ desks, when you stand up in their balcony, to somehow put that in the same category as permitted protest is just a lie,” Sen. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota told reporters.

Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina called Carlson’s claims “bulls–t,” while Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, the No. 2 Senate Republican, admitted, “There were a lot of people in the Capitol at the time who I think we’re scared for their lives.”

“It was a mistake in my view for Fox News to depict this in a way that is completely at variance with what our chief law enforcement official thinks,” said Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell.

Carlson and his Fox News colleagues are charlatans who pose a grave danger to our democracy by manipulating their news programs to weave and spew dangerous and pernicious falsehoods they themselves do not believe. The shameless group of grifters at Fox (already super wealthy people) give preference to ratings, company profits and their careers at the expense of the future of the nation.

Unfortunately, there’s no use trying to convince them otherwise, since they haven’t stopped scheming up mischief, paranoia and discord. Try to count the number of times Fox News hosts go after transgender rights or use the term
“woke” during a normal day of broadcasting.

To quote the music group “Cage the Elephant,” there ain’t no rest for the wicked.” The truth is Fox News, as it currently operates, is a bastion of strategic scheming and abundant lies, where virtues such as truth and honesty are antithetical to their current core mission. They should rename the network as fake, fraud or fixed news.

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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.

Editor’s note: This column has been updated to add credit for a satirical paragraph to USA Today’s Rex Huppke. 

It’s been over a week since Dilbert creator Scott Adams was canceled by hundreds of newspapers across the nation, as well as Canada, for racist tirades he unleashed on his own YouTube show.

Adams, who is white, suggested that white people “get the hell away from Black people,” referring to Black Americans as a “hate group.”

“It makes no sense whatsoever as a white citizen of America to try to help Black citizens anymore,” Adams said. “White people trying to help black America for decades and decades has completely failed. And we should just stop doing it. [Because] all we got is called racists.”

Tell us how you really feel, Scott.

During the Feb. 22 episode of his YouTube podcast “Real Coffee with Scott Adams,” the cartoonist was attempting to comment on a Rasmussen opinion poll that posed the following question: Is it ok to be white? Seventy-two percent of respondents answered “yes,” including 53 percent of Black respondents. Twenty-one percent of Black respondents said they “weren’t sure,” while 26 percent said “no.”

This was not the first time the former comic strip artist has waded into controversy. In 2011, he argued women are treated differently by society for the same reason as children and the mentally disabled — “it’s just easier this way for everyone.” He also said 2016 GOP presidential candidate Carly Fiorina had an “angry wife face.” Detecting any sexism here?

It didn’t take long for personalities on the right to take to their social media platforms to whine about Adams being “cancelled” by “oversensitive leftist snowflakes.” This typical response of attacking the messenger is a tactic frequently employed by the right (and in some cases, the left) to sinisterly scrutinize and weaponize against opponents in a effort to discredit them.

This reductive tactic of levying the charge of cancel culture against one’s opponents is getting old. Most rational folks understand people are expected to take responsibility for their behavior. Do you have the right to free speech? Yes, you do. However, with free speech comes both responsibility and potential consequences.

Perhaps those who are rushing to defend Scott Adams, like Twitter owner Elon Musk and right wing podcaster Charlie Kirk, should take a few steps back and ponder why they’re so quick to defend those who offer such callous views. A long, hard look in the mirror is overdue for Adams, Musk, Kirk and others of their ilk. Do you hear me, Tucker Carlson?

What is even more troubling is the fact people like Adams want our nation to remain mostly segregated and balkanized along racial lines, and for white people who live in racially diverse communities to “get the hell away from Black people.” While his viewpoints are offensive, they represent a segment of more than a few white Americans who harbor such regressive values but would not dare utter, in fear they too would jeopardize their careers.

Such disturbing and distressing comments made by Adams and his fellow kindred spirits demonstrates that while we have made progress in our nation as it relates to racial issues, we still have quite a way to go.

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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.

John Fetterman’s announcement that he has checked himself into a hospital was met with bipartisan praise. Far right politicians from Texas senator Ted Cruz to fellow Pennsylvania centrist representative, Susan Wild, to New York left wing congressmen Richie Torres lavished support on the senator for publicly disclosing and confronting his illness.

Reaction to Fetterman’s predicament demonstrates the dramatic transformation of perception and attitudes toward public health and mental illness. For decades, it was seen as a stigma to be afflicted with such an ailment. Politicians were particularly vulnerable.

John Eagleton, a Missouri Democrat and a vice-presidential nominee in 1972, was hospitalized three times for depression and underwent electroshock therapy. The revelation of that news eventually doomed Eagleton’s political prospects, as presidential nominee George McGovern and other Democrats bigwigs encouraged him to withdraw from the ticket

Societal enlightenment and the progression of public attitudes notwithstanding, we still reside in a society where men have largely been conditioned to refrain from being too emotive in their feelings. Historically speaking, it has been seen as inappropriate for men to demonstrate any sort of personal vulnerability. Men who exposed their vulnerabilities were seen as less masculine or effeminate.

As a result, men have been taught to be strong, self-reliant and as independent as possible. Consequently, many men, (due to societal and personal decisions) rather than address the issue with others, have far too often opted to suffer in silence, to their own personal detriment.

I have a very close friend who suffers from an acute level of depression, bordering on manic depression. He has discussed with me how he has encountered some desolately dark chapters, where various sorts of demons’ fester and torture his inner soul. Yet, with the support of a strong and loving wife and daughter and friends (including me), he has been able to weather such sporadically tumultuous and suffocating storms, witness the eventual light at the end of the tunnel and persevere. Unfortunately, despite such admirable resiliency, there are moments where he is fearful he will collapse and plunge into a condition that will result in a fatal outcome.

Like many people, I have endured chapters of depression. This was particularly the case after my parent’s deaths in 1987 and 1995. Through the support of siblings, friends and other vital resources, I was successful in conquering such smothering clouds of darkness.

Depression is not a vice solely confined to middle aged and older men. It can affect young men who, even in our supposedly postmodern age, are still expected to retain as many of their masculine qualities as possible. While it has become more permissible for men to be sensitive, caring, cultured, and intellectually aware, there remain superficial expectations they still be brawny, robust and as true to their male roots as possible.

Given such a culmination of complex and contradictory factors, it should not be surprising that men as a whole are facing ever increasing amounts of stress, anxiety and depression in their lives. It is imperative that the greater society make an effort to confront, combat and dispel the often-unrealistic expectations that are frequently placed upon them. The reaction to Fetterman’s announcement is a great step in rejecting those expectations.

There is nothing unmasculine in seeking assistance or admitting vulnerabilities. After all, no man is an island. Real men are human.

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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.

Here we are. Another year, another February, and we are deep into another Black History Month.

Every year, for 28 days (29 in leap years), we are rightly introduced to and reminded of the innumerable contributions Black people have made to this nation. Corporations make bold and brazen acknowledgments, educational institutions salute Black history, and churches sponsor dinners representing a culinary smorgasbord undeniably definitive of recipes that originated in the African diaspora.

All of this is good. Black people have a complex and vibrant history vastly distinct from other ethnic groups due to the religious, economic, social, psychological and educational experiences that have been visited and inflicted upon us.

By exploring and acknowledging Black History Month, the nation is paying homage to a group of men and women who are strong, resilient, innovative, forgiving (in some cases, arguably too forgiving) and have contributed immensely to the vitality and success of the United States – a nation where some people never intended for us to obtain full citizenship or be fully included within the panorama of American culture.

Black History Month undercuts cultural stereotypes by highlighting vital facts, notable statistics and distinguished accomplishments. Although there has been notable improvement in media portrayals of Black peopleover the past few years, particularly regarding commercials, the triumphs far too often are obscured and dismissed from public discussion.

Truth be told, racism has always been a part of this nation. It is deeply ingrained in the fabric of our culture and is as American as apple pie. What we have witnessed over the past several years is blatant, undisguised bigotry – the type that many white people had to keep disguised and leashed since the 1950s – now being allowed to unapologetically permeate various sectors of our society, in many cases without consequences.

Anyone who has a pulse and is socially and culturally woke is astute to the current challenges facing Black Americans. We have brazen right-wing politicians who routinely stoke the flames of racial and cultural animosity and division. The time is ripe for a reinforcement of Black excellence to combat such racial resistance.

Since the time of this nation’s inception, Black Americans have had to wage a historically long battle, fighting to obtain rights that were supposed to be guaranteed by our constitution – rights most other groups have taken for granted. The mountains and minefields that our ancestors had to face head-on and triumph over are a testament to their impervious strength and spirit.

We are enduring similar battles today in the 21st century. Being Black in America often means waging an ongoing battle. It means dealing with a history and people that have been defined by blood, sweat, tears, pain, occasional dashed dreams, setbacks and periodic victories.

Black history is not some event that should be confined to one specific month of the year. The history of Black people, like other ethnic groups, is one that deserves full and undivided attention.

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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.

Let’s face it, when Fox News gives Democrat a B+, you know they really delivered an exceptional performance. That was the grade the rabidly right-wing media network gave President Biden on his State of the Union address.

As someone who usually doesn’t watch these annual speeches to the nation, I did buck my previous trend and decided to tune in for this one. Admittedly, I harbored some degree of apprehension wondering if Biden would be up to the task. If they were forced to be honest, I’d imagine most Democrats harbored similar concerns.

As the speech progressed, I witnessed a president superb at conveying his signature characteristics of hopefulness and affability. He was at the top of his game, and engaged in a masterful “bait and switch” with Republicans, playing them like a fiddle. Republicans yelled and complained, but in the end Biden brilliantly had them standing and applauding in support of Medicare and Social Security.

What the State of the Union revealed was the contrasting style of the president and his adversaries. The Republicans, with their reactionary combativeness, are unwittingly solidifying their image as unhinged guerrilla warriors. Meanwhile, they’re helping Biden present himself as a level-headed and congenial counterpuncher.

It’s an open question why the president’s political opponents are creating such stark contrasts in temperament that plays right into Biden’s hands. Research shows most Americans prefer politics that lean more toward civility as opposed to rancorous. By keeping the hostility factor high, the GOP is in danger of facing the same fate they did in 2020, the election Biden described as battle for the “soul of the nation.” Some of his opponents have failed to learn this lesson.

Political savvy aside, the fact is Biden’s age is the monkey on his back and a source of serious concern among many Democrats. There is a sizable perception the president is simply too old to seek reelection. Party leaders and donors are undoubtedly concerned voters will be loath to cast a ballot for someone who will be 86 at the end of his second term. Indeed, a recent Washington Post-ABC News poll showed that within his own party and among Democratic-leaning voters, Biden’s support is tepid at best.

Which is why it doesn’t come as much of a surprise seeing Biden aggressively emphasize his vitality, an obvious attempt to reassure voters there is more than enough vigor left in his octogenarian body and soul. However, the intense campaigning during a presidential election – regardless of age – can be a grueling process that takes its toll on the body.

It is almost certain Republicans will attempt to employ Biden’s age and perceived fitness for office as an issue to weaponize during the 2024 campaign. However, if the GOP nominee is Donald Trump, which is likely, who will also be a man in his 80s, (coupled with additional baggage) then such an argument will render moot.

The truth is Biden is a politician of remarkable career resiliency. Despite enduring tragic, potentially life-altering circumstances, he has managed to rebound and persevere. Whether it is the universe guiding him, personal grit or perhaps, divine intervention or fate, he has weathered more numerous storms that would have likely demoralized if not outright broken many other people.

Something to keep in mind for those underestimating our current commander-in -chief.

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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 Yale School of Public Health held a ceremony to celebrate Bobbi Wilson, a nine year old Black kid from Caldwell, New Jersey who efforts to eradicate spotted lanternflies was seen as an environmentally progressive gesture.

The ceremony also served as an opportunity to recognize Wilson’s donation of her personal spotted lanternfly collection to Yale’s Peabody museum, where she is now listed as the donor scientist on its official database.

Yale doesn’t normally do anything like this … this is something unique to Bobbi,” said Yale School of Public Health Assistant Professor Ijeoma Opara, who organized the event. “We wanted to show her bravery and how inspiring she is, and we just want to make sure she continues to feel honored and loved by the Yale community.”

While such actions were well-founded and well-deserved, what was less welcoming was the incident that led to such an outcome.

On October 22nd, a local neighbor named Gordon Lawshe called 911 to report that a “little Black woman” in a hood was spraying sidewalks and trees near his home. “I don’t know what the hell she’s doing, scares me though,” Lawshe said, according to a recording later released by the Caldwell Police Department.

The police eventually arrived. Realizing they were dealing with an innocent child, they quickly took some questions from her mother and closed out the case. While we can be grateful that the young lady was not a casualty of police violence, the larger issue remains – what made Lawshe assume that a nine-year-old child (a petite one at that) was an adult? Why would a supposedly “little Black woman” cleaning sidewalks and spraying trees“scare” him? His actions were both troubling and disturbing.

The incident focused attention on the “adultification” of young Black children, who many experts say are treated more harshly by police than their white counterparts.

Far too often, the justification for this kind of suspicion of Black children is due to the blatant denigration and degradation of Black youngsters. This dehumanization begins with long ingrained stereotypes of Black students as troublemakers and thugs. As any reasonable person should realize, rebellion from teenagers is common among all races and genders. Nonetheless, Black children, simply by virtue of their skin color, are viewed as more dangerous, unhinged and more prone to violent behavior.

For example, George Zimmerman conceded at his bail hearing more than a decade ago that he misjudged Trayvon Martin’s age when he murdered him. “I thought he was a little bit younger than I am,” he said, meaning mid-20s. But Martin was only 17.

Black girls are subject to similar beliefs, according to a study by the Georgetown Law Center on Poverty and Inequality. A group of more than 300 adults viewed black girls as more adultlike, needing less support and protection than white girls, and as knowing more about sex and other adult topics.

I remember when I and my siblings were young children, whether it was for babysitting, helping moving equipment or other tasks, how my parents would have to inform the adults in question, (yes, white adults), that we were young children and thus, did not set our own schedules, let alone, dictate the rules of our household. Some of these conversations would end with the grown adult in question apologizing for their actions.

The truth is Black children deserve to be granted the privilege of being children like any other race of children. We can all be thankful that nine year old Bobbi Wilson was not another statistic due to the result of trigger happy policeman or an overzealous, racially profiling neighbor. May her future be one that is bright and productive.

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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.

The death of Black people at the hands of law enforcement has become so commonplace that it’s easy to feel both outraged and psychologically numb.

Over the past few decades from Rodney King to George Floyd, we have become front row spectators to grainy and, in some cases, graphic footage of police officers engaged in horrific levels of violent behavior toward people of African descent.

We can now add Tyre Nichols of Memphis, Tenn. to the growing number of victims, a list that is already far too long. The world recently witnessed Nichols, 29, being savagely kicked and beaten at the hands of five police officers: Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin III, Justin Smith and Desmond Mills Jr.

“I’ve seen the video myself and I will tell you I was appalled,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray. The same day, the city of Memphis released footage of the three-minute beating at the hand of the officers, who have been charged with “second-degree murder, aggravated assault, aggravated kidnapping, official misconduct and official oppression,” according to the Associated Press. Two other sheriff deputies have been placed on leave, and the city’s controversial scorpion unit has been disbanded.

Sad to say, but not surprisingly, the standard police report of the incident was manipulated to claim Nichols was armed, had tried to reach for their guns, was resistant to arrest and uncooperative at all stages of the incident. Fortunately, video footage that was released sharply disputed and dispelled false police allegations. The Justice Department has launched an investigation into the matter.

Needless to say, the incident is unsettling on many levels.

There are some people (in particular, White people) who claim that racism is absent from the story,given the fact all officers involved are Black. How can a Black person be racist against a Black person? Unfortunately, individuals of every race can harbor racism toward one another. Intra-racial prejudice or nativism does exist, and Black cops can be racist against Black people.

From the colorism (light skin/dark skin saga) to socio-economic and educational stratification to certain religious preferences (the latter three examples apply to all races and ethnicities) and so on, the Black community has had its history of social and cultural divisions. This is rooted in a psychological racism stemming from White supremacy.

Black law enforcement has had a particular adversarial relationship with the Black community, specifically those in lower income and working-class communities. In his iconic and critically acclaimed 1991 film “Boyz`N’ The Hood,” the late director, John Singleton detailed what he saw as the deep level of animus that Black law enforcement displayed toward their fellow Black brethren.

In his Pulitzer Prize-winning book, “Crime and Punishment in Black America,” James Forman Jr. details at length how Black police officers are just as inclined to harbor anti-Black bias a white officers. Forman is not alone. In one of his numerous essays, mid 20th century intellectual extraordinaire James Baldwin recalled that Black officers had to work so much harder to prove himself to their white colleagues.

“‘If you must call a cop,’ we said in those days, ‘for God’s sake, make sure it’s a white one.’ We did not feel that the cops were protecting us, for we knew too much about the reasons for the kinds of crimes committed in the ghetto; but we feared black cops even more than white cops,” Baldwin wrote.

There are police officers and other members of law enforcement who are decent, law-abiding human beings who manage to perform admirably doing a job that undeniably is stressful. There also is a faction — one is too many — who adamantly and shamelessly abuse their power. Internal bias, cultural stereotypes and other factors notwithstanding, Black people are human beings and deserve to be treated with as much respect and dignity as any other group of people.

These killings are modern day lynchings. Such sadistic behavior and wicked disregard for people of color cannot continue.

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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.

In his ongoing attacks on what he describes as “woke politics,” Florida governor Ron DeSantis has denied permission for an AP African American History course to be taught in Florida public high schools.

NAACP Director Ivory Toldson condemned the course’s rejection, calling DeSantis’ decision a “dereliction of his duty to ensure equitable education for all Floridians.”

“Dismissing this important subject as lacking ‘educational value’ defies centuries of evidence to the contrary,” Toldson said in a statement. “African American history is American history, and failure to comprehend this very simple fact is un-American in and of itself.”

“Florida has gone from Don’t Say Gay to Don’t Say Black,” noted New York Rep. Ritchie Torres, who is both Black and openly gay.

What’s more glaring are the subjects not omitted from the curriculum: AP European History, AP Art History, AP Japanese Language & Culture, AP German Language & Culture, AP Italian Language & Culture, and AP Spanish Language & Culture.

Courses from various ethnic groups were given the green light to be taught by the governor’s office, yet the history, politics and culture of people of African descent was prohibited. Talk about racial profiling.

One of the arguments DeSantis has employed to justify his reductive antics is that he wants to make certain kids don’t feel ashamed or any degree of discomfort or guilt about themselves due to their race. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that he is referring to white students here, though he should be aware Black students have routinely been taught to feel uncomfortable and ambivalent about the history of their ancestors.

I hate to be the one to break it to DeSantis, but history can be ugly at times, especially towards minority groups. Black people were lynched and forced to suffer under Jim Crow laws. Inhumane atrocities were committed against Jewish people during the Holocaust. Women have often been victims of sexism and misogyny. LGBTQ people have frequently been the targets of violence. And on and on.

Young people, by and large, are not ashamed to be introduced to the realities of history. Unfortunately, it’s their parents and elders that often resent being confronted with questions about the past that contradict what they were taught and learned.

Although he has yet to announce, it is hardly news that DeSantis plans to run for president next year. So just as he did with his Martha’s Vineyard ploy, DeSantis is just espousing racially inflammatory commentary to endear himself to a right-wing MAGA base that’s predominately white. Those voters fear the arrival of new immigrants and hold an endemic degree of hostility toward anyone or anything perceived as “the other.”

While he lacks the same level of sinister charisma that Donald Trump embodies, only time will tell whether DeSantis will become the Republican’s presidential nominee. For the moment, he’s feeding his wild-eyed jingoistic supporters right-wing catnip to satisfy their reactionary intolerance.

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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.

This month, as we celebrate Black history, millions of Americans will celebrate the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Dr. King was, without question, one of the greatest historical figures of the 20th century. He dedicated his life in an effort to ensure the ideals of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness would be in reach for all those who were marginalized and had been denied access to full citizenship rights for far too long.

Like many people, Dr. King was a complex man. He engaged in marital infidelity. He was prone to volatile anger. He could be bawdy and crude. Like many men of his era, he could be disturbingly and overtly sexist. At times, he suffered from envy. Other times, he could be ruthlessly competitive. In essence, he was human.

Despite these personal shortcomings, he was able to galvanize and awaken the conscience of a sizable segment of this nation (and the larger world), to a degree very few other individuals were able to do.

It has become custom to reflect on the life and times of Dr. King while speculating what he would think of the United States today. I would argue ambiguity would likely be how he would view our divided country at the moment. A deep degree of ambivalence.

Despite the fractured racial climate, this nation is notably more racially integrated (some would say desegregated) than the America in which Dr. King resided. Almost half a century after his brutal assassination, the nation has witnessed Black Americans become governors, senators, and mayors in many of the nation’s largest cities. We have witnessed Black men and women become university presidents at some of the most prestigious colleges in the nation , most recently, Harvard university. And we witnessed the nation elect its first Black president. There is no doubt Dr. King would have been thrilled with such unprecedented milestones in our nation’s history.

These accomplishments aside, Dr. King was realistic about racism and its pernicious effects. Were he alive today, I believe he would be an adamant critic of systemic and systematic racism. Although he would be 94 years old, that wouldn’t stop him from being on the front lines with other activists, denouncing the ongoing police brutality that routinely claims the lives of many Black and Latino Americans. He’d be a vocal critics of the seemingly hostility and apparent indifference that has defined the mainstream media and a sizable segment of white America.

A staunch advocate for equality in all its forms, Dr. King would be front and center, fiercely challenging unscrupulous politicians, greedy businessmen, and opportunistic bureaucrats. He would strongly advocate for voting rights and challenge those who seek to deprive certain groups of such an opportunity. He would continue to bring attention to the multitudes of individuals who are being marginalized in our society.

He would have been a vociferous critic of the ballooning tuition debt increasingly making college unattainable for many lower income students. Unlike many of today’s leaders, Dr. King would not have sacrificed his own people or political constituencies for his own personal gain. He would have seen that while there has been progress, there is still much work to be done.

Were he alive today, Dr. King would undoubtedly take the initiative to rectify what he saw as the wrongs that remain in our society and he would not relent from doing so until every American citizen, regardless of race, gender, class, sexual orientation, and religion would be able to say without any apprehension “free at last, free at last, thank God almighty I am free at last.”

That is the Martin Luther King, Jr. I envision.

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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.