Editor,
I am so utterly disgusted with the news that “The President” is going to my birthplace of Jackson, Mississippi, to dedicate a Civil Rights Museum. He who pretends not to be a racist, wants to send DACA young people back to a country they know nothing about, plans to build a Berlin Wall along the border, cuts benefits for poor people, gives huge tax breaks to the rich and corporations, fills appointments with other self-centered billionaires and has done absolutely nothing for people of color – he whose best friend is another tyrant, V. Putin – how can this be?
Having grown up a privileged white girl in Jackson, surrounded by white supremacy, hypocritical white Christians, and the awfulness of segregation, I recall with a lot of pain what black people suffered. Only through the struggle of many black people – and too few white allies – did people of color overcome fire hoses, beatings, burning crosses, lynchings, horrible housing, underpaid employment for menial and backbreaking jobs, very poor schools with outdated books, and every single day insults and humiliation from white people who just stood by and enjoyed their privilege.
I was fortunate enough to be raised by a loving woman of color and was privileged to spend time with her in the black community – fine music, turnip greens, black-eyed peas and cornbread, street sounds of laughter, the smell of BBQ – people living their lives in the midst of evil oppression.
I am glad there is finally going to be a Civil Rights Museum. I hope it is not a whitewash, implying that the struggle is over.
“The President” is not the person to dedicate it.
T.A. Laughlin