by Ronald Jones

(special to The Dreher Report)

Rome. Sparta. The Vikings. Ancient China. Great Britain. Movies have been made about these and numerous other aggressive polities in world history. Each one has conquered, slaughtered, and enslaved their way to dominance, and they conquered, slaughtered and enslaved to maintain their dominance.  

We enjoyed Gladiator (2000) and 300 (2006), as well as their predecessors The Robe (1953), Ben Hur (1959), and Spartacus (1960) (among others), even though the Romans, throughout the course of their existence as part of a republic and later empire, routinely committed mass murder and enslaved countless Europeans. Yet, they’ve been consistently valorized in cinema. The movie 300, for instance, made it seem as though Sparta was a bright beacon of the Greek idea of freedom in opposition to Persia’s despotism and slavery. Sparta, though, repressed its subservient Helot population with terrible ruthlessness.  

I’m aware of Dahomey’s history, and have never had any illusion about the brutality of its armies and the role the kingdom played in feeding the slave trade. However, we shouldn’t shy away from seeing an African kingdom and empire portrayed on screen because of objectionable aspects of its history.  

I want to see every African empire and historical African figure either featured in film or in a mini-series format, warts and all, because every precolonial African state has caused massive bloodshed and suffering from the wars they have waged. On the flipside, these very African states produced some of the finest art, literature and architecture the world has ever seen. Their highly developed statecraft, as well, belied traditional European/American notions of Africans being primitive savages. For example, Scottish philosopher David Hume wrote in his essay “Of National Characters”, that there were “no ingenious manufactures amongst [the African], no arts, no sciences.” Emmanuel Kant, the German philosopher, believed as well, that among “…the Negros of Africa … not a single one was ever found who presented anything great in art or science or any other praise-worthy quality…”  

We should bring to light these African kingdoms and empires just as the Might of Rome and the semi-mythical King Arthur and his famed knights of the roundtable have been repeatedly highlighted in popular culture. 

The creators of The Woman King, I am sure, are seeking to capitalize on what they hope will be a successful Black Panther sequel. Keep in mind, though, that the Dahomean warrior women were unique in the world at that time and in history as being the only organized group of women soldiers. When we speak of great women in African history, it’s usually as individuals. Nzinga or Amina for example, who, besides being strong leaders, demonstrated individual combat abilities. The Dahomean women were regiments of skilled fighters, the elite of the Dahomean military. Their achievements almost demanded a movie.

Ronald Jones is a writer of science fiction. He has written three novels Warriors of the Four Worlds, Blood, Sweat, and Blaster Bolts: Adrenaline Charged Tales of Speculative Fiction, and Interrupted Journey.

We know practically every tract of land through which the train tracks ran: Auschwitz. Buckenwald. Birkennau. Dachau. Sobibor—to name a few. Based on the book by Sebastian Haffner, The Meaning of Hitler is a seductive documentary – seductive because I clung to every piece of dialogue and every scene for that one glimmer of understanding. Maybe, just maybe, this time, I thought, the directors, Petra Epperlein and Michael Tucker; the screenwriter Sebastian Haffner; or maybe the historians Deborah Lipstadt, Saul Friedländer, and Yehuda Bauer; or the pscychiatrists, sociologist, the archaeologist, and famed Nazi hunters Beate and Serge Klarsfeld, will say the words that will put to rest finally just who was Adolf Hitler and shed some light finally on his meaning to the world, in general, and specifically, to German history.

And I waited.

What is interesting about The Meaning of Hitler is the all-present Mercedes-Benz hood ornament. Designed by Gottlieb Daimler in 1872, each point stands for transportation on land, water, and air. The camera filters the scenic routes through the 3-points-in-a-circle as the filmmakers travel to the next destination. Post-screening of The Meaning of Hitler, the luxury status of a shiny white Mercedes-Benz I saw cruising on O-Street, here in Lincoln, Nebraska, was undercut by the ghost of its history; and the knowledge of the complicity of the Daimler Benz company in the Nazi horror. And then there is the microphone—the newly invented microphone–that allowed Hitler to move about uninhibited onstage as it lifted the messages from his voice, carried them through the air, and landed them on the ears of the assembled masses.

And I waited.

Edited with tight-fisted precision, Epperlein and Tucker remarkably juxtapose mob exhilaration over the Beatles at Shea Stadium and Donald J. Trump speeches, the Charlottesville Tiki torch parade with Hitler’s charismatic personality and his ability to move people to action. The political spectacle dramatized by Leni Riefenstahl in her landmark film Triumph of the Will, produced in 1935, adds an eerie dimension to the documentary

And I waited.

Among other destinations, there are visits to Hitler’s ancestral village in Austria, his apartment complex, and Wolf’s Lair, the Third Reich’s Military headquarters. The most disturbing visual is that of David Irving, a bona fide anti-semitic and a fervent denier of the Holocaust. He believes Hitler’s commanders carried out every atrocity behind the Fuehrer’s back.

And I waited

… only to see how Nazism and Hitler has seeped into pop culture and embraced by a new generation. Be forewarned, these are the most frightening interviews.

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by Kimberly N. Brown

(special to The Dreher Report

Been talking with a couple of people about the comments made by television talk show host and personality Wendy Williams on Tabitha Brown, actress and vegan chef. Brown made the announcement that she has asked her husband, Chance, a policeman with the Los Angeles Police Department, to retire so he can pursue his dreams. I am not a fan of Wendy Williams, but her comments prove she clearly is scarred deeply by the infidelity of Kevin Hunter, her former husband and manager.

So many of us are broken. No one talks about how to love in a healthy fashion.

I watched the clip of Williams basically calling Tabitha a fool for giving her husband the go ahead to follow his dreams after he stood by her to help her realize her dream. It was an agreement between both parties. After showing Tabitha’s clip on her show, Wendy predicted “this marriage is going to be on real rocky ground in a moment.” She even went so far as to mock Tabitha’s [southern] accent. What tripped me out is that Tabitha is so well loved, secure in her relationship, and grounded in herself and her faith that she didn’t clap back or lash out at Williams. Instead, she put Wendy in her place and gave her what appeared to be a sincere wish for love. She responded, “Wendy, honey, God Bless you … The pain you must be in to feel this way … and I am so sorry. … This is my prayer for you: I pray that love finds you … and holds you tight … I pray that someone will love you enough to see you … when you are not well. …”

So many of us are broken. No one talks about how to love in a healthy fashion. One of my favorite quotations about loving comes from Paul D, an ex-slave in Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved, who searches himself to find the words to express his feelings for Sethe: “Suddenly he remembers Sixo trying to describe what he felt about the Thirty-Mile Woman. She is a friend of my mind. She gather me, man. The pieces I am, she gather them and give them back to me in all the right order. It’s good, you know, when you got a woman who is a friend of your mind.” Sixo, who was enslaved along with Paul D on Sweet Home plantation, was the original Sapiosexual. He’s not saying that Thirty Mile Woman completes him; he’s saying that she helps him see things clearly — most importantly, she helps him to see his authentic self.

I pray that someone will love you enough to see you … when you are not well. …

~ Tabitha Brown to Wendy Williams

Sixo’s love for the Thirty Mile Woman is different than that tired shit guys talk about when they say they want women to be their “peace” — the passivity of that statement rattles me. It’s a type of nurturing that is one-sided. I prefer the active quality of being a friend to someone’s mind. Life is chaotic and dangerous. There are many pathways to loving — but this way means someone is helping you see yourself the right way, who you ought to be. They are helping you to become the best version of yourself. That’s what Chance did for Tabitha.

What would happen if we developed an ethic of loving where we sought out friendships and romantic relationships that help us to sort each other out? Tabitha Brown made it known–and made it known clearly–that Chance, her husband, helped her to realize the best version of herself. Now, for all of his sacrifice on their journey, she gave him the choice to follow his dreams now that they have made it to the destination. Wendy, your gossip will not–no cannot riff on this kind of love. I join Tabitha in her prayer that love finds you (and finds you soon).

Kimberley Brown, Ph.D. is Associate Professor of Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University. She has published Writing the Black Revolutionary Diva: Women’s Subjectivity and the Decolonizing Text (Indiana UP). She currently is at work on two book-length manuscripts, IncogNegro Stances: Cross-racial Espionage in Contemporary Literature and Film (under contract with University of Mississippi Press) and Through Ebony Eyes: A Black Feminist and Ethical Praxis of Viewing Contemporary Film.

by Anneice Jones Robin

Special to The Dreher Report

Just finished talking to a friend. She has a newborn and people are pressuring her already to have another baby. I encouraged her to follow her heart and not allow others to butt into her uterus. I honestly believe if more women talked about all what happens with pregnancy and postpartum, that more women would choose not to have children.

The changes a woman’s body undergoes to bring a life into this world are truly amazing, but they are terrifying and life/body altering for many as well. So, when some mothers rush to work off that baby fat, don’t just brush off their frustrations or impatience. Know that many times it’s not even about the weight, but it may be a mother’s effort to regain once again a sense of normalcy and familiarity she had with her body before pregnancy.

Settle in. This is about to be TMI. Oh, well. I still would choose to have children but more knowledge about pregnancy and postpartum would have served me well. Like, I am about to be 8 months postpartum, and my organs and abdomen feel bruised to the touch on the inside. Every time I try to do any ab work, I feel like I’m about to tear something. My C-section has caused the skin on my stomach below my belly button to have very little feeling. My muscles were strained during my firstborn’s delivery. I have to have surgery on my rectum. Why? Because I can’t have a complete bowel movement most times without doing an anal douche.

I honestly believe if more women talked about all what happens with pregnancy and postpartum, that more women would choose not to have children.

Stop asking women “when will they have children?” or “That’s the first one; when are going to get the second one? You know you ain’t no spring chicken.” You don’t know if they even want to have children. You don’t know what it took for them to have the child or children they currently have. You don’t know if they can have children. You don’t know if their lives are set up in a way that they feel comfortable having them.

The changes a woman’s body undergoes to bring a life into this world are truly amazing, but they are terrifying and life/body altering for many as well.

I was guilty of making these same asking points for a very long time. Then I began to think what if people asked “so when are you going to buy a house?” or “You should quit teaching, because you’re so good at [fill in the blank]” or “you would be an amazing [fill in the blank]” or “When are you going to get a PhD? You ain’t no spring chicken.” These questions speak to the whole woman; they speak to life outside of the womb.

I mean the world thinks it has a right to butt into a woman’s uterus and the right to tell her what to do with it.

To all my friends: If I’ve ever butted into your uterus, please forgive me.

Anneice Robin Jones is an English Language Arts Teacher (ELA) at Korea International School JeJu and Teacher at Mansfield ISD. She is from Omaha, Nebraska. A mother of two boys, she is married to Tremuir Robin.

by De’Kendria Stamps

Special to The Dreher Report

To those who speak in disbelief saying, “This is Not America!” I offer a friendly amendment to your statement, “This Is Not America to YOU!” It has always been America to us.

This is the same America that practically wiped out the Native Americans. The same America that touted manifest destiny and enacted brutalization and terror on the Trails of Tears and the during the Middle Passage of the mid-Atlantic slave trade.

The America that enacted full on lynchings while parents held picnic baskets on one arm and the hands of their children as they sat down on blankets to watch.

The same America that forced Native children into boarding schools and Japanese families into internment camps. The same America that tricked Black men into being inoculated with syphilis known as The Tuskegee Experiment. The same America that burned down Black Wall Street, Black churches, and Black towns. The same America that allowed the burning of crosses by the Ku Klux Klan in Black yards.

This is the America that hunted down Emmett Till and allowed the murderers to walk free even after they admitted to the crime during an 1950 interview in Look magazine.

The same America denied people the right to vote, stole family land through circumvented property laws, and continues to stifle Black economic empowerment through gentrification and predatory lending practices.

The same America that hoodwinked the nation with Reconstruction only to enact grandfather laws, Jim Crow, and reading tests to compromise our ability to vote. The same America that did not allow women to vote until 1920. The same America that forced members of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. to march at the end of the Women’s Suffrage March of 1913 as to not sully the movement for white women.

The same America that necessitated the fugitive slave narratives of Henry “Box” Brown, Ellen & William Craft, Harriet Jacobs, Frederick Douglass, Olaudah Equiano, and Joseph Cinqué. The same America that celebrated the movie “Birth of Nation”; that same America whose president screened the movie in the White House.

The same America seeking to diminish any other form of beauty that steps outside of its white, blond, blue-eyed ideal.

The same America that wrote of freedom, justice, and the pursuit of happiness while simultaneously choking the life out of millions of nonwhite lives.

The same America flooded our neighborhoods with drugs, refused to enact a standard living wage, and preached bootstrap theology. The same America that decided that your sons and daughters were victims of a drug epidemic and now drug addiction should be considered a public health emergency.

The same America denied Black people the right to vote, stole family land through circumvented property laws, and continues to stifle Black economic empowerment through gentrification and predatory lending practices.

The same America that makes me cry when I look into the eyes of one of my brothers, and he tells me, ‘De’Kendrea, at least they let you in. They automatically see me as a threat’ during a conversation we had about employment.

The same America created an intricate private school system after desegregation and a corrupt public school system funded by an imbalanced property tax system.

The same America that created white flight, suburbia, and exclusive neighborhoods. The same American that created HOAs, citizens councils, public charge, COINTELPRO, and the OG labor unions.

The same America that makes me cry when I look into the eyes of one of my brothers, and he tells me, “De’Kendrea, at least they let you in. They automatically see me as a threat” during a conversation we had about employment. This America does not see his multiple college degrees, strong work ethic, or commitment to his family.

Terrorists, seditionist, and traitors have existed–always.

This is the America that killed Sandra Bland, Breonna Taylor, Rayshard Brooks, Daniel Prude, George Floyd, Atatiana Jefferson, Aura Rosser, Stephon Clark, Botham Jean, Philando Castille, Alton Sterling, Michelle Cusseaux, Freddie Gray, Janisha Fonville, Eric Garner, Akai Gurley, Tamir Rice, and countless others.

So, when you exalt, “This Is Not America.” I offer a friendly amendment, “This Is Not America to YOU.” It has been America to us–always.

Terrorists, seditionist, and traitors have existed–always. They shot James Meredith as he fought for an education in the south, placed our sons/brothers on the frontlines of wars and ripped GI Bill benefits from them upon return, and beat Fannie Lou Hamer as she battled for her right to vote.

So, now that you see it, will you decide to unsee it? Will you hide in your shroud of privilege and supremacy? Will you busy yourselves with book clubs, planning councils, and longitudinal studies? Or will you take a long, hard look inside yourself and your families to root out these seeds of injustice, bigotry, and hate? You will see, it’s the same

De’Kendrea grew up in the bustling metropolis of Crystal Springs, MS (population 4,853), in a family that truly believes in public service and social justice.

She is the FoodShare Outreach Program Director for Madison Region Economic Partnership (MadREP). While working at MadREP she was inspired by quality of life metrics. From there, De’Kendrea quickly developed a passion for issues focusing on the social determinants of health, which include access to transportation, education, and healthy food. Nearly 15 years later, De’Kendrea provides support to our SNAP Outreach team and is happy to spend her days ensuring that all Wisconsinites have access to food and benefits they need to work, learn, play, and live healthy lives.

by Luther J. Battiste, III
National President
The American Board of Trial Advocates
special to The Dreher Report

The American Board of Trial Advocates held its first meeting of 2020 in Charleston, South Carolina, in January.  The keynote speaker during the business session was Judge Richard M. Gergel, a distinguished federal judge in Charleston. He was the South Carolina ABOTA Judge of the Year in 2017 and the trial judge in the case of Dylann Roof, the young man convicted of killing nine church members at Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston.

Judge Gergel spoke about his recent book, Unexampled Courage: The Blinding of Sgt. Isaac Woodard and the Awakening of President Harry S. Truman and Judge J. Waites Waring. The book is about a young African American soldier returning home in uniform from service in the Pacific during World War II.  Sgt. Woodard was struck unlawfully with a blackjack by a white South Carolina police chief, gouging his eyes and permanently blinding him.  The horrific incident was publicized on the radio airwaves by Orson Welles and others, which resulted in a national public outcry about the inhumane actions of the police chief. It was an inflection point for President Truman and influenced his decision to issue an Executive Order integrating the armed forces.  It also inspired Judge J. Waites Waring, a federal judge and native Charlestonian, to become a champion of civil rights in his rulings.

Last week, a 17-year-old girl captured on video a white Minneapolis police officer with his knee pressed on the neck of an African American man, George Floyd, for almost nine minutes. Despite pleas from Mr. Floyd saying, “I can’t breathe,” the officer and three other officers standing by continued until there was no breath left in George Floyd’s body. This horrific event outraged the world and was an affront to the African American community, which was already grappling with the recent deaths of Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor and the disproportionate effect of COVID-19 on African American communities.

Citizens in this country and the world have exercised their First Amendment right to protest the tragic death of George Floyd.  These protests have brought together diverse groups of people of goodwill to challenge the treatment that these men and women suffered and the systemic problems with explicit bias, racism and policing in this country.

The United States of America was born from protest.  Protesters today are demanding equal justice, which is an American ideal not always practiced.  The words “Equal Justice Under Law” are carved in marble above the entrance to the United States Supreme Court. These words emphasize the Fourteenth Amendment requirement that “nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.”

The United States is at another inflection point in its history.  The people of this country are telling us that it is time, it is necessary for us to address the history of racial injustice and systemic problems with policing and the legal system. They are telling us that it is time to respect the rule of law. We, at this time, in this country, must find a way to channel protest to policy.

Protestors at the State Capital, Columbia, SC

ABOTA is an organization of members of goodwill.  It is an organization that has a respect for the Constitution and the rule of law.  ABOTA’s Code of Professionalism states that members should “encourage respect for the law, the courts and the right to trial by jury.”  We have a mandate to support change in our criminal justice system and to dismantle the systemic racism that plagues our cities and country and affects how policing is practiced.

We should actively support social justice for all. It should be a bedrock of our ideals, our mission, and our programming.  Our members should engage in dialogue that confronts the issues that divide us.  We should encourage our government leaders to address the root causes of the problems that result in the misuse of police authority. We should advocate for a legal system which ensures proper charging of offenders and a trial that is fair to the accused and the victims.

I have hope that the tremendous outpouring of peaceful resistance in our streets and the demands for changes in our legal system will serve to bend the arc of the moral universe toward justice.  We should be a country of equality where every person regardless of race, creed, color, religion or sexual orientation can have an expectation of liberty and justice for all.

I have faith that ABOTA members will not be merely observers but advocates for positive change and will seize this moment with enthusiasm, goodwill and open minds by accepting the responsibility to be leaders in creating a better world.

Finally, President Jimmy Carter provided a telling statement about the recent protests nationwide.  “People of power, privilege, and moral conscience must stand up and say ‘no more’ to a racially discriminatory police and justice system, immoral economic disparities between whites and blacks, and government actions that undermine our unified democracy,” the President said. “We are responsible for creating a world of peace and equality for ourselves and future generations.”

Abraham Lincoln knew that the nation could not afford to look away, instilling a sense of duty in all of us, when he said, “Let’s have faith that right makes might; and in that faith let us, to the end, dare to do your duty as we understand it.” He later said,“It often requires more courage to dare to do right than to fear to do wrong.”

(reprinted from the American Board of Trial Advocates newsletter June 5, 2020 with permission by the author)

Luther J. Battiste, III is a founding shareholder of Johnson, Toal & Battiste, P.A. in Columbia, South Carolina. He is a graduate of the University of South Carolina and Emory University Law School. In 1983, Luther entered the political arena and made history by becoming one of the first two African-Americans elected to Columbia City Council since Reconstruction. He served fifteen years as a member of the Columbia City Council including two terms as Mayor Pro Tempore. In 1998, the City of Columbia dedicated to Luther J. Battiste, III the Monument and Plaza in honor of his dedicated service as a public servant.