I am not here to blame you Mr. Tim Scott, because in spite of you being black, you have made it to become a Senator in the prestigious U. S. Senate
Being the only black Republican in the Senate is still an achievement. You have also demonstrated that you are in favor of changes for the better, for the Black minority particularly in the United States. Therefore it comes as a big surprise to many when you on stage, in front of millions of viewers forcefully declared that “AMERICA IS NOT A RACIST COUNTRY.”
This is where we draw the line, this is where we part company.
You see sir, although you are a member of the Senate, this statement is simple part of the “LIE” that Blacks are trained to say.
As a learned Senator one would have thought that your thinking is way above that. A good job of indoctrination must have been done on you.
By this statement, this lie, this is what you have done. You have disclaimed that the election of President Barak Obama was not an extraordinary important event,
that the NAACP is irrelevant, the naming of Vice President Kamala Harris is insignificant, that President Biden’s effort to address racism is like beating a dead horse, unnecessary, or fighting an imaginary windmill.
The statement also suggests that BLACK LIVES MATTER, does not matter.
This statement is an insult to all Blacks, particularly those families that have lost love ones as a result of racist police interventions.
Hearing this LIE from an educated black Senator is more unbelievable than if it were coming from an educated Senator.
Your white colleagues knew this , so they pushed you in front to do their dirty work.
Well done, Senator Scott.
Baffled as I am, I take comfort from Isabel Wilkerson’s book entitled ‘CASTE,’ which tells a story of an Indian Professor, teaching at a University in the United States, who confessed to her that even though he had achieved so much, the fact that he is from the lowest Caste in India, causes him to be fearful and oftentimes immobilized in the presence of someone from an upper Caste..
You see , years of walking through the back door, years of subservience, years of not permitted to look an upper Caste person in the eye, and years of little or no education, and no real justice.
Is not there a similarity with public floggings, rapes, lynching and inhuman treatments in all forms perpetrated on Blacks, the lowest class.
Becoming a Professor did not absolve him of all the memories of his personal past and he may consciously or unconsciously at times relive some of those fearful moments.
Born into similar circumstances, both the Professor and the Senator may have tremendous difficulty moving ahead to erase those experiences and not to be controlled by their past.
Similarly the little Black boy, on his first day at school was shown a seat in the back of the class where the slow learners sit.
Moving up to Grades One and Two he was also placed in the back of the class. When he got to Grade 4, without being told , he went straight to a seat in the back. In four years he learnt his place.
Senator Scott has made it to the Senate but his color remains the same so is his class. One does not jump caste. But the Senator is not alone. Blacks ,knowingly are being shunted to the lowest level , longed for the day to shake off this stigma.
They deserve the life-style, the privileges and also the one-up-man ship that go
with upper class and upper caste. So Blacks work very hard to get out of that barrel, but the stigma of lower class is still there.
Obviously there is a certain amount of satisfaction, now that Mr. Scott is a Senator, who is entitled to certain rights and privileges. These new opportunities may indicate to him that ‘ he has arrived.”
But what a price?
History tells us about two types of slaves, the House slave and the FIELD slave..
The privileged house slaves kept watch on the field slaves, flogged them and did a darn good job in keeping them in line. Most time the performance of the house slave was to impress Massa.
Who is the house slave in the Senate, and who are the masters? Remember a slave is only worth what a slave master will pay for him/her..
So when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said ‘Let freedom reign ‘, he meant more than the removal of the physical chains. Bob Marley put it this way, ‘EMMANCIPATE
YOURSELF FROM MENTAL SLAVERY’
That was his message not only to Senator Scott, but to all of us….
