What if January 6 occurred yet again? How would the nation handle it? War Game explores strategies.
On January 6, 2023, VET VOICE, a non-partisan Veterans organization, staged a secret national security exercise steps from the U.S. Capital. The filmmakers were granted access to document the unscripted exercise.
This statement opens War Game, a 2024 documentary film by Tony Gerber and Jesse Moss, and the exercise is an exploration of the U. S. government’s preparation for what could be a major national conflict. Gerber and Moss deftly combine real world possibilities and strategies within the tense atmosphere of real-world stakes.
Is our Government Ready? is the main question vibrating throughout the documentary. As with any game, there are Teams and Rules. Here, the film organizes a bipartisan team strategizing how to defend U.S. interests against an internal enemy.
The cast of characters range from the government, the military, and the intelligence community. It is a surreal behind the scenes as make-up artists ready the cast for their portrayals. Who’s sitting in the chair? Former Governor of Montana Steve Bullock playing President John Hotham; retired United States Army Officer Wesley Clark playing Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; former United States Senator from North Dakota Heidi Heitkamp as Senior Advisor to the President; former United States Senator from Alabama Doug Jones as Attorney General, among other personalities.
Gerber and Moss skillfully capture a range of personal perspectives, from the high-level decision-making to the raw emotions of soldiers on the ground.
The documentary is rich in detail, an engrossing, if occasionally clinical, exploration as it portrays real-life national anxieties, tensions, and fear—visceral fear–of the possibility of a coup and another civil war. Where is our hope?
Visually, War Game brings an authentic, almost intimate feel to what is an overwhelming subject. The realism is enhanced by the lack of heavy-handed narration, allowing the events and participants to speak for themselves.
Overall, War Game provides a compelling and thought-provoking look into national possibilities that could harm our nation. The film remains relevant to ongoing discussions about necessary strategies to preserve our democracy.
Man’s inhumanity to man/makes countless thousands mourn are the two stanzas from Man was Made to Mourn: A Dirge composed by the Scottish poet Robert Burns in 1784 It is a fitting introduction to Green Border, Agnieszka Holland’s newest film on the European refugee crisis.
Green Border is a gritty, stone cold film dramatizing the unexpected terror experienced by a busload of refugees who have paid for their trek to freedom with their savings. Several times I wanted to stop watching the film; several times I distracted myself from the film by scrolling TikTok videos as I paused it. It did not help my viewing experience that Green Border runs for 2 hours and 30 minutes. Yes. Green Border is intense in its dramatization of brutality and desperation for asylum, which can be both compelling and difficult to watch. Holland refuses to let up!
The story begins with a high angle of a lush forest, and Tomasz Naumiuk’s camera quickly devolves into a cold black and white canvas of passengers aboard Turkish airlines. It’s October 2021. A hungry baby’s cry lacerates the quiet humm of the airplane, and a whispered conversation between two women—a mother and a middle-aged woman alerts the audience of the border crossing. The mother says to the woman:
“This route through Belarus is a gift from God. It’s a thousand times better otherwise I wouldn’t have come here. With children. Never in my life. In Harasta, Syria we lost everything, the home, the store. We escaped the siege for five years.”
As the Captain announces, “the temperature is -2. … It was my pleasure to have you all on board and we wish you a very good day”, we are lulled into a sense of safety upon the landing at Minsk airport in Belarus, a country in the center of eastern Europe. Panic ensues when the refugees realize the gift, or the route through Belarus, was but a ruse. One of the activists informs the group,
“The Polish Government does not want you here. It’s telling the Polish people that you are evil. The dictator of Belarus cheated you. He invited you on purpose to use you as weapon against the European Union, and now nobody wants to take responsibility for you here neither Belarus nor the Union.”
They are forced over a border separated by barbed wire and are left to fend for themselves in the forest. The forest is a poignant feature of Green Borders. It is unforgiving and provide no shelter from the elements. We are sutured into every discomfort you can imagine under these circumstances, to include lack of food and water and exposure to freezing temperatures. It’s mean-spirited in every way.
In Green Border, Holland deftly explores man’s inhumanity to man in the dramatization of human suffering, political tension, and the ethics of immigration policies, the latter a pressing global issue.
Green Border is a significant film because it is a major intervention into the conversation about immigration and human rights.
Kenneth Branagh has made a successful turn in the film universe as Agatha Christie’s eccentric but luvable Hercule Poirot in A Haunting in Venice, Agatha Christie’s murder mystery set in Venice, Italy. I absolutely enjoy his interpretation of the egghead detective but he is no match–and I mean NO MATCH–for David Suchet’s masterful portrayal.
You might appreciate Tina Fey’s turn as Poirot’s longtime friend, Ariadne Oliver, mystery writer, though Ariadne’s twist is hurtful, and Poirot feels it in his core. Michelle Yeoh marvels as the enigmatic Mrs. Reynolds.
As it is the cinematography in Murder on the Orient Express and Murder on the Nile, the visuals of Venice are stunning, thanks to cinematographer Haris Zambarloukos, and John Paul Kelly’s interiors are shrouded in delightful shadows and mystery.
Add A Haunting in Venice to your Halloween watchlist. You will not be disappointed.
A word to the wise is sufficient: If you get all twisted and contorted and begin to hiss and spit at a spoiler, read no further:
Parents, be careful: Your children watch you and those around you. They watch your treatment by others, even your friends. Most important, be careful what notes and such you leave around the house. Children are curious, and they will read them. Reading is one thing but to COMPREHEND what is written by you is another. It could get you killed.
And that’s The Skinny!
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Thoughts on the passing of Cormac McCarthy, Author
by Amanda Gailey
(special to The Dreher Report)
Cormac McCarthy died. About ten years ago, I went on a bender reading his beautiful and horrific novels until I hit a point when I realized the horror and nihilism were too much for me, that they were feeding a part of my mind that didn’t need the help. At the time, I lied to myself that the horrible things that haunted my imagination were false, that they would never come to pass. But many of them have. And that’s why, I guess, when I look at my son sometimes, one particular passage in The Road written by McCarthy comes to my mind:
“He’d stop and lean on the cart and the boy would go on and then stop and look back and he would raise his weeping eyes and see him standing there in the road looking back at him from some unimaginable future, glowing in that waste like a tabernacle.”
I associate his books with a period when I was preoccupied with worry about something happening to my children. It was bad. I talked myself down eventually by trying not to indulge the worries and by rationally persuading myself of the statistics. And then guess what? It happened, some of the worst things you can imagine. Even if you have all the love, all the protective instincts, all the statistics on your side, it doesn’t fucking matter at all. That’s what The Road is really about—you can’t do a damned thing but stand there weeping while fate or chance or genetics or the sins of humanity do what they will with the only things that matter to you. So here’s to Cormac McCarthy who died June 13, 2023, and to all standing in the road looking back.
Amanda Gailey is Associate Professor, English at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. She specializes in digital text editing and nineteenth-century American literature, and regularly teaches classes in both of these areas. She has published Proofs of Genius: Collected Editions from the American Revolution to the Digital Age (U of Michigan P).
Ryan Grovey is coming to Lincoln. Ryan Grovey is coming to Omaha. Some of you already know him. Perhaps you learned choreography from him when he was a Zumba® Jammer. Or, maybe he trained you to become a MixxedFit® instructor. How about U-Jam Fitness®? If you have not had the opportunity to meet, dance, and/or train with Ryan Grovey, now is your chance.
His first stop is The Clyde Malone Center, in partnership with Danielle Garcia, for its 2nd Annual Health and Fitness Event, 2032 U Street, 3-5 pm, Saturday, April 15. There, Ryan Grovey will be in full effect on the floor bringing his high intensity dance fitness and strength movements. The event is Free and Open to the Public. (Scroll down for poster).
Interested in becoming a The Grovey Effect dance fitness instructor? Join him at The Slay Dome, 6313 Ames Avenue in Omaha, 9am-5pm Sunday, April 16. Sign up at groveyeffect.com. (Scroll down for poster).
Want to know more about Ryan Grovey? Read The Interview below.
What inspired you to form The Grovey Effect dance fitness program?
A lot of things; the main one being COVID. The pandemic really gave me the push I needed to think about creating my own dance fitness program. I am an accomplished dance fitness instructor, having earned my place in dance fitness by way of Hip Hop, Zumba®, MixxedFit®, and World of Dance U-Jam Fitness®. All along, however, I wanted to start my own platform. I talked with my mother who had encouraged me to go on my own for I don’t know how long. My friends had been telling me to step out on my own as well. I just didn’t know how and when to do it. Then COVID hit. My entire income shot to zero after 10 years of the grind and hustle.
How did the pandemic propel you into The Grovey Effect?
I decided to jump online and offer my first free class. I didn’t know what to call it, but I knew I wanted to do my own thing. I put together all choreography I had created over the years. Once I went virtual, I immediately received hundreds of comments! People were asking where to sign up, even how to become an instructor. Let me tell you I had no idea what the heck I was dealing with, but I knew I had created what was the beginning something new and exciting.
Did you create this all on your own?
No. Not at all. I started out very small and created a tight knit committed community! I organized a team of people—some dancers and instructors–to help bring the vision to life. Everyone flew out to Arizona, including my best friend, Diana. The magic of The Grovey Effect was created in my house. We covered my entire upstairs/downstairs wall with post-its and big notepads outlining choreographies and developing our mission.
We filmed about 30 choreographies; later, I conducted a mock training with our corporate team; we had about 60 instructors our first training!
Our mission is to give individuals an incredibly fun, high-energy and effective workout experience that inspires them to develop and grow in all areas of their lives.
What does The Grovey Effect dance fitness program offer that other programs do not?
The Grovey Effect is dance fitness with dynamic cardio, but we incorporate HIIT and strength-style movements. It’s a challenging engagement with dance. We have customized mixes created and arranged by our Grovey Effect DJ. Our classes move dancers to the mountain with a strong push for them to give it all they have. Get that heart rate up!
How has The Grovey Effect developed?
From that first meeting in my house in Arizona, we’ve expanded to a host of states across the country and internationally. I’m talking Mexico, the Philippines, Malaysia, even Japan. We were in Asia for three weeks!
As leaders in the dance fitness industry, GE instructors are valued contributors to positively change the world and instill GE Culture into the lives of our students and community.
Mark out The Grovey Effect team.
Oh wow, yes, our team is spread out all over the country–the world. Our formatting developer, Renee, is in Seattle, Washington; Angela, our Instructor Care Specialist is in Arkansas; Lori, our IT specialist, is here in Arizona; my mom, Patricia Grovey Evans, of course, is the Vice President, and lives in New Mexico; my executive assistant, Pearly, lives in the Philippines.
What do you want to accomplish with The Grovey Effect?
The Grovey Effect is THE next dance fitness program—the largest–on the same level as Zumba! You can print that! We’re just in our second year and we’re already operating in the international arena.
Walk me through your process for developing new choreography? How long does it take you?
I am actually really blessed because my best friend Diana is my choreographer who does the majority of my choreography. I’ll send her the songs that I like and tell her what I envision—a change here, a step there—and we come together to figure out what we can do to maximize and change.
What keeps you motivated?
I’m just a grinder—always have been. I see my vision and I know my vision. I want to be able to take care of my family and have kids; take care of my mother, so I do what I have to do to ensure that I can contribute to a happy healthy lifestyle in the lives of everyone I care about.
Is The Grovey Effect your sole means of exercise?
My dance fitness program is hot cardio, so I have to really integrate the weight training and be sure to eat well. I eat about five times a day. Lots of turkey and fish, and lots of vegetables.
What is the value of dance to you?
Different rhythms speak to the heart … speak to the soul. Dance is movement, and it can take you to different places even in the middle of class. Not to mention that dance allows you to release all the toxins. When I teach, I am motivated by the people who dance with me and find that my platform inspires them to keep on dancing. Someone told me the other day they cannot live without The Grovey Effect! Another wanted to know about online classes because she was leaving for the summer. All contribute to the value of dance in general. I am glad that The Grovey Effect adds tremendous value to dance!
To learn more about Ryan and The Grovey Effect, click link here.
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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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.
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.
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.
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