"BLACKS DON'T EVEN HAVE A SOUL" - Prejudice And Bigotry Thrives In 21st Century

(01/16/2023)
By Bob Weaver

A Raccoon Run black man Jacob Henry "Jake" Catlip was remembered attending church services in both the Raccoon Run black church and school and the Steer Creek white church for "prayin' the house down."

He and his family had been slaves to Calhoun leader Peregrine Hays.

Jake would deliver a long prayer during which he would insert, "Some folks think us Negroes don't even have a soul," recalled by Gladys Weaver Stump, who attended the church services in the 1920s.

Catlip would come to the white church and stand during services, coming half-way up the aisle to deliver his prayer, even through offers were made for him to sit down.

It is more than sad we now had a US president Donald Trump, that has gone from dog-whistle pop-culture bigotry to being a shiny racist, with few in his base raising dismay, most defending him.

For years he had displayed an obsession with race, ethnicity, religion and gender as a showman and businessman.

There were years of Trumps birther statements about President Obama being born in Africa, admitting later it wasn't true, but still continuing to resurrect the myth.

Then normalizing neo-Nazis and KKK members about those protesting, and saying Haitians "all have AIDS", describing African nations as "shithole countries," protesting the idea of admitting immigrants from those countries, particularly Mexican "rapists," always preferring white Norway.

Trump says his recorded statements are fake news, misreported, and most of his supporters seem to agree, while he governed with a new, fabricated "visionary" tweet on most days.

New to pop culture politics, social media becoming an evil and divisive force.

Many have given Trump a pass on the Jan. 6 insurrection, a red flag that our wobbly form of democracy is fading into history. There are layers of reasons to be upset with a gigantic government that is driven by oligarchs on the left and right in pursuit of more money and ppwer. Just look at their net worth.

Reasons to keep it will not likely prevail.

History tells us that governments and civilizations rise up and fall, in modern times more often replaced with egregious forms of totalitarian rule with a pretense of humanity.

While it appeared the movement against racism and bigotry was improving, America is slumping into new depths and a new normal.

There is a dangerous decline of historical professionalism, ethics and civility within politics, both left and right, that has spread to state and local politics.

In the 1950s I had a civics class to the Rev. Glendon McKee, the course teaching that the great American Dream was a melting pot of all races, creeds, minorities, religions, colors, protected by constitutional law.

I still believe in a dream about dignity and equality for human all beings.