UNITED WE FIGHT
FRONTLINE's Leila Miller wrote a sobering article on the horrors from the Unite the Right rally last year in Charlottesville, Virginia. At this event, dozens were injured and a woman lost her life when a car drove through the crowd. We got a picture of true America. A divided America.
One of my favorite people in the world, NFL Hall of Famer Shannon Sharpe, is very opinionated on race relations in this country. He made a comment one day about how people don't care about things until they happen to them, until the issue is brought to your front door.
Race has always been a topic of conversation at the Okeke household, because we're people of color in the minority, so this issue has literally stayed at our front door and never left. I can remember talks at the dinner table about what happened at school that day. I'm sitting there, begging and pleading my parents to not embarrass me by making a scene about a situation where I was bullied by one of my classmates, who was white.
At an early age, I've always looked up to white people. There was one time I came home from school and asked my dad if I could change my last name to Jones, a very popular name I'd seen on television or something. I received one of the worst beatings in my life that day. I didn't understand it then, but I get it now. Asking to change one's last name is offensive, and I realize my dad was very offended, as he chased me through the house with his sandal.
Little did I know at the young age of 10 that our divided household was a microcosm of the divide between races in this country that have existed for millenia, since slaves landed in America, taken against their will. The events of the Charlottesville car attack amplified the reality black people live in every day. The reality of a broken system that appears to be against equality. African-American comedian Dave Chappelle said in a stand-up special that most of his black heroes were either "murdered by the government or registered sex offenders."
Americans can look at the events from Charlottesville several ways. I personally hope it's wake up call to link arms and unite to end hate wherever it exists.
One of my favorite people in the world, NFL Hall of Famer Shannon Sharpe, is very opinionated on race relations in this country. He made a comment one day about how people don't care about things until they happen to them, until the issue is brought to your front door.
Race has always been a topic of conversation at the Okeke household, because we're people of color in the minority, so this issue has literally stayed at our front door and never left. I can remember talks at the dinner table about what happened at school that day. I'm sitting there, begging and pleading my parents to not embarrass me by making a scene about a situation where I was bullied by one of my classmates, who was white.
At an early age, I've always looked up to white people. There was one time I came home from school and asked my dad if I could change my last name to Jones, a very popular name I'd seen on television or something. I received one of the worst beatings in my life that day. I didn't understand it then, but I get it now. Asking to change one's last name is offensive, and I realize my dad was very offended, as he chased me through the house with his sandal.
Little did I know at the young age of 10 that our divided household was a microcosm of the divide between races in this country that have existed for millenia, since slaves landed in America, taken against their will. The events of the Charlottesville car attack amplified the reality black people live in every day. The reality of a broken system that appears to be against equality. African-American comedian Dave Chappelle said in a stand-up special that most of his black heroes were either "murdered by the government or registered sex offenders."
Americans can look at the events from Charlottesville several ways. I personally hope it's wake up call to link arms and unite to end hate wherever it exists.
Comments
Post a Comment