In a matter of two days recently my emotions were on a jumping jack. I was sad, angry and getting worse. I don’t think I was alone.
(Just for the sake of reading further, know that “Woke” generally means “alert to racial prejudice and discrimination.” “Anti-woke” generally refers to a political stance or movement that opposes the ideas and values of the woke culture. Anti-woke often views the values of the woke as overly politically correct, divisive, or even harmful to society.)
One day I was appalled that the so-called anti-woke mob, or should I say one parent in this instance, shut down a movie in a Florida school about New Orleans’ sweet 6-year-old Ruby Bridges, the Black girl who took tiny, yet brave steps into integrating an all-White school in 1960, risking her life and being subjected to racist taunts because of the color of her skin.
Just hours after consuming that bit of shameful situation, I was shocked, saddened and angry after the world received word of yet another mass murder in the U.S., this time in a Nashville, Tennessee, school where six victims, two of them Louisiana natives, were killed by a person with an AR-15 killing machine. Then my anger grew in the hours after when those that have the power to limit this kind of tragedy offered the same useless responses: “Thoughts and prayers.”
But, I was incensed even more by a Tennessee congressman who said in response, there is nothing that can be done about it.
Now, back to Ruby Bridges. One woman in St. Petersburg, Florida, had the movie about the courageous little Black girl and her parents stopped because she felt it would make a 7-year-old child feel bad. To hell with the other children in the class who may have learned something from the movie about a historic event and the courage of a little girl and what she has done with her life since. Why couldn’t that child go to the library while the movie was shown?
So now, the school will deny White children and especially Black children a chance to see an important part of America’s history because of one person.
Maybe this disgruntled mom would love this jokingly proposed whitewashing of the Rosa Parks story I recently read.
“One day Rosa Park rode the bus. She was told to move to a different seat. She did not. She did what she believed was right.” End of story. You do know what really happened, right? The most important part was that Rosa Parks was Black and because she was Black, she could not sit in the front of a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. And was told to sit in the back but refused.
That last part would be too harsh for the Florida woman and her anti-woke group.
That mom is probably part of the same groups that go tooth-and-nail against so-called “drag queens,” complaining that they are going to harm America with their sexuality. Really? I am far more afraid of the anti-gun control dude walking around my grocery store openly carrying a .45 caliber handgun in a holster. By the way, he is not law enforcement or security. How many children have drag queens killed this week? Or last week? I don’t think drag queens gunned down the children at Columbine High, Sandy Hook or Uvalde or the little children shot over the past two years in Baton Rouge.
Now back to Tennessee Republican Rep. Tim Burchett, who said of the guns and killing of children: Congress is “not gonna fix it.” So, get ready for more “thoughts and prayers” from his side of the aisle. But you know, we didn’t say that when people were getting killed in car accidents. We came up with seat belts. Now there is a fentanyl problem killing people and we are trying to develop ways to reduce it.
But, because there is a segment of our society who love guns and don’t want any rules in place on their ownership or display, they will crash any real effort to slow the sale or monitoring of the high-powered killing machines, or even rules governing the purchase of guns.
So buckle up folks, the anti-woke will be canceling movies, books and whatever they can that deals with the truth about race and America’s real history. And we will be sending more “thoughts and prayers” to heartbroken families and classmates of dead little children.
Email Edward Pratt, a former newspaperman, at epratt1972@yahoo.com.