A Special Klansman

America has fought many battles with many countries but still is fighting within. For a

John David Washington

country founded on life, liberty and the pursuit of justice and equality, why is the difference in skin color such a pervasive issue throughout its history? Never is it more clear than watching the new movie BlackKkKlansman.

As soon as the movie came out, I knew I had to see it. Having many friends that are black and minorities, this issue has always touched a nerve in me. People are all God’s children so I have never understood the need to judge each other based on one God given gene. Genetics is pre-determined, not man’s choice. So many that are racist are more comfortable being around a white criminal than a black professional. It is baffling.

Going to the movie on the very first weekend this new movie was out was exciting to me. The lead actor in the movie is none other than star Denzel Washington’s son, John David Washington. Thinking that would be a draw alone, the inside theater we were seated in was one of the smallest ones they had in the cinema.  Next, to my astonishment, the only other person that attended the Saturday evening showing, one of the most popular times to go to the movies, was one other person, one individual alone seated in the back of the theater as if he wanted no one else to see him.

Watching this film was taking us back to a period in time when prejudices were front and center. There was no need to hide it because it was considered acceptable and anything went. There was a total lack of respect of black individuals in society and this story was true. The degradation this police officer had to endure is down right inexcusable.  All was laughed at and allowable because he was at the level viewed as an animal. Somehow he managed to hold his head high and deal with it.

How is this permissible, I said to myself watching the movie. As a white woman, once again, I found it troubling to watch. I was embarrassed and nauseous that any human being let alone an entire race is blatantly treated like this in America. Seeing children ridiculed for being something other than white is cruel and so unlike what the country was founded on. Hate does not further the principles of democracy, justice or unity as we are, if nothing else, the "United" States. How can that label be retained if we continue tearing apart the foundation of each other?

Watching the film brings together the fact that it has again become totally acceptable to degrade blacks. David Duke is acceptable and praised again. His followers can be embraced and freely march hating all blacks and wishing them death as the inferior race. Wearing hoods is not even needed in America anymore as our President has deemed White Supremacists as good people. Yet, as a black American how it must feel to be targeted as a N@gg#*, spit at, shot at when unarmed, given longer sentences for the same crimes white folks do, have crosses burned in their yards, and on and on must be horrific.  And then to hear some white Americans say racism does not exist in America. Walk a few days in their shoes! White supremacy does not advance America. Racism pulls America back to a dark period and when one of us is weakened, all of us are. 

I felt this movie was a punch in the gut for everyone, white, black, Hispanic, Asian, Jewish.  Anyone who is different or hates discrimination will feel unnerved from the movie and renewed passion for standing up for those who are being blacklisted, literally and figuratively. Those that don’t understand the price others pay for racial profiling and the harm that is done by its aftereffects keep your head in the sand or watch this movie. Ignorance is not bliss. Your lack of understanding of the far greater ramifications of building hatred of blacks and the lasting effect it will have on black children is on you! All God's children are prized. And a black Klansman is far less dangerous than a white one.

MLK Jr Effect on Children

My son was born into a white American family. We started relatively poor. I was 17, pregnant and in high school. His father was a factory worker at a chemical company, 23 and wondering how in the world he was going to support a wife and a baby.  I went to a free clinic. It was the beginning, I suppose of the American Dream.

As we struggled in a one bedroom apartment, we made major head ways and moved to the fancy living accommodations of a two bedroom where no longer was my son living in the hallway, outside the bedroom and in-front of the bathroom.   Our furniture became more than plastic crates and I could buy material to sew curtains for all the windows and life was good.

Before long Jimmy Carter had passed a bill that allowed us to buy a home with a government subsidized loan. We moved into a white neighborhood with our starter home that, to us, was going to be our only home. It was small, compact, but it was ours!  It had rooms the size of my laundry room in my subsequent homes but I was overjoyed. As another child came along, we were truly feeling God was looking down on us smiling. We were middle class in our estimation.

My son, by now, was attending a middle class elementary school with mostly all white children, hardly any black children or any other minorities that I knew of. He had grown into an excellent student for the most part. One of his stand out skills, early on, was writing so it was no surprise to me when he was asked to participate, one weekend in fifth grade in the Governors Competition for Writing.

As I dropped him off, I remember seeing him walk in a neighboring school with about one hundred other kids coming from the District we lived in, all looking like they came from neighborhoods like ours, or better. I left and picked him back up a few hours later.

As we drove home, I found out that he had won an Honorable Mention but not placed in the top 3. I was quite surprised he hadn't won or placed because I knew he was by far the best writer in his grade at his school. I tried not to show any emotion and asked him what the subject matter was that they had to write about.

My son told me they were asked to write an essay describing who they would spend a day with if they could with anyone they wanted to alive or dead in the world.  Then they were to explain what would they do, say or ask. For his paper, he told me he had picked Martin Luther King Jr. I was shocked, here sat a white middle class boy, who, of all the choices in the world picked MLK Jr.

He then went on to tell me the content of his paper. It was about all the questions he would ask. He wanted to know what it was like to live in a world where MLK Jr was oppressed, treated with a lack of respect and how he rose above it. My son wanted to know how difficult it was to confront hate and be so filled with hope.  He was planning on asking him if he thought things had changed since he died, if black children were treated fairly and if not, what should be done. And one of the most profound things he said was that to simply be with him would be an honor.

To quote Representative John Lewis today, on the 50^th Anniversary of MLK Jr being assassinated :

Dr. King taught us to be brave, to be courageous, to be bold. I don't know where America would be, where many of us of color would be, were it not for him. 

His legacy was to speak up, stand up. When you see that something isn't right or fair, you have to do something — you have to get in the way. Get into good trouble.

Reflecting back, the paper my son wrote symbolized to me what racism is not. It showed me that hate is taught to children, it is not innate. My son was willing to listen to the oppressed and learn from their experiences to be a better human being. I was proud that day of my son. I am certain it played a part in him not being given a placement for his paper but I really couldn't care less. In my mind, he won. Oh, what a better world we would be if we all just shut up and listened, learned, cared and changed!