Black Americans, African Americans

Black Americans, African Americans

Casey Gerald is a compelling speaker and thinker. He seems to have a gift for writing. I watched him in an interview last night; he got me thinking for sure.

His audience, at least for his essay about Escape? African-Americans. If others read it, fine, he says. But it is meant for "his people". I get it. "Your people", Casey. African-Americans are his people.

But there are other factors at play, too, Casey. Are fellow blacks just your people?

For example, all Americans, like them or not, are my people. I am white. My people are brown, white, black, and many other shades. I belong to them and they belong to me. We are Americans. When I do work for law enforcement, I am not doing it for only whites or blacks or Hispanics or Asians. When I am a soldier I am not serving one particular race.

I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Those are my people. Many are different colors, ethnicities, shapes, and sizes. They are my people no matter what ethnic group they come from. Some are black. I have known African-American members of my faith since at least 1978. A big year for my church, indeed.

I knew one member of the church, for example, and became his friend in Provo, Utah. He was from Ohio. Both his grandfathers were white but he was black. His grandmothers where black, and then his own parents were black.

Mixed race, as some of my black friends would say. I get it.

Barach Obama was raised by his white mother and white grandparents. I was raised by my white parents, my mother was white and also lived in Indonesia, and also re-married a new husband when I was still a minor, a bit like the former President. Barach is black, but he is mixed. So is Tiger Woods and maybe millions of other Americans.

Casey, you are speaking to part of those people, the Americans who are "fully Black", or only their black part? Does your message apply to the mixed race ones?

I know that when it comes to cases of police brutality and mistreatment for racial reasons in the United States, that a person who is only 1/8 black will be treated as "all black", and the mixed portions will not matter that much.

The 400 year anniversary of African-Americans creating their own race, in the words of Gerald, which I understand and agree with, gives the new significance of what it means to be black. Own it, be it, Gerald seems to say. (I need to read the essay: I am white, but again, I feel a belonging and ownership to this message.) He may not know it, but his essay is meant for me as well as millions of others.

I am Tiger Woods. Remember that? Long before his fall from grace in 2009...

We are Americans. All of us. We all bleed red. We all serve each other and fight and die for one another. That is the American that I am. Colors of skin and cultural background should be measured in the context of how Martin Luther King espoused it. By merit.

True, I do not have ancestors that have been slaves, to my knowledge. This does not cause me the emotional trauma, going back to the 1800s, as Gerald correctly communicates to African-Americans, that this legacy has left since emancipation. Decades of post-bellum segregation and oppression have caused many more internal and external problems among the black populations of our nation. The remnants of these issues are very extant to this day, 2019, which include generations of poverty, poor education, poor neighborhoods, and the levels of less savings and budgetary power than many other Americans.

This is not right, this is not fair. I acknowledge that these disparities exist and need be dealt with. 

Blacks, African-Americans, according to Gerald, should all have therapy to heal from generational and present trauma. We all need therapy of sorts, I agree.

Having been raised in a faith with no drugs or alcohol, having hosted multiple foster children as young man and child, having gone through Boy Scouts, having served a mission, having spent time as a volunteer for my faith and community, having joined the U.S. Army and worked in dozens of jobs across all the U.S. continental time zones, I have a few things to say that I hope would help African-Americans (again, my people), and people of all backgrounds: live clean, live strong, live right, live to give, give back, pay attention to those who know great things and have achieved great things. Pay attention and invest in yourself and your people. Your people are me, my family, and us. I am part of your family. I am your brother, you are my brothers and sisters and aunts and uncles. You are my cousins and relatives. I am part of you, you are a part of me.

Casey Gerald, you are my brother and I respect your views and accomplishments. Hear me when I say: W.E.B. DuBois and Booker T. Washington wanted the same thing: they wanted you and I to thrive.

There is no debate, there is only one message. Let's be co-citizens in victory.

Let's be humans and brothers, sisters and family. We care for each other, we respect one another, we serve each other, we live and die together.

We are here together. One human race.