RESPECT!

We typically attribute the seven-letter title of this post to the late great Aretha Franklin—as a feminine anthem—and not the song’s global message she spoke of after making it famous. In her 1999 autobiography “Aretha: From the Roots,” Franklin called the song “an ongoing blessing” in her life. “It was the need of a nation,” she said, “the need of the average man and woman in the street, the businessman, the mother, the fireman, the teacher—everyone wanted respect.”

Did change happen? Yes and no. I can’t offer a measurement. All I know is that 56 years after the song’s release, ordinary people still crave respect. They want the ideals in our Declaration of Independence that apply to some to apply to all. Sad to say, however, after 247 years, people still obstruct its first ideal. “God made all men equal and gave them the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” must begin with respect. Only hate casts doubt on other people’s humanity, like the absurdity of the three-fifths compromise. To dismiss the misery and pain of any person is wicked. To refuse to give a thirsty person water is evil. Yet, the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, lingers.

History proves that we cannot legislate respect. Nor can we cowardly dawdle in the status quo and outlive hatred. Though every generation insists the next will be without bias. How? By crossing our fingers? Hearts do not change because we intermingle. So how do we do this? What will it take for all of us to live in America with each other, respectfully? Well, those who believe in God know that God is love. You cannot profess to love or know God and hate your neighbor. No excuses. Just stop it. When you love God, you treat people with dignity and—you guessed it—respect. We cannot continue to cherry-pick the gospel to fit selfish narratives.

Not religious? Be you; I understand. We must affirm our differences or soon destroy each other. But let me assure you that my remedy is unchanging, strict, and elusive. It is simply this. Every American must live for truth, justice, harmony, the right actions, and the right words. These cannot be moving targets. That means rejecting white supremacy, white nationalist activity, or far-right behaviors, whether it’s coming at us passively or aggressively.

Of course, we can all list passive examples of white supremacy, white nationalist activity, and far-right behaviors. You’d think South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley knows them too. Instead, she defended using the Confederate battle flag on her State’s capital. No one believed Nikki’s bald-faced lie as a legitimate answer. Because according to history, the Confederate battle flag never flew as a national flag or during the civil war. In other words, the Confederate battle flag remains the passive example of hate, terror, and death for which it was intended. Full stop. Come on, Nikki. Spare us your bogus “service and sacrifice and heritage” claim. Enough about Nikki and more about passive examples. Statues of Confederate generals and anti-Semitic symbols are also common remnants of America’s contradiction. So is quietly supporting individuals who attacked our Nation’s Capital on January 6, 2021. Ask yourself. Why is calling January 6 participants an angry mob polarizing? Indeed, calling the melee an insurrection should not be a maybe for you. We must also add racist college fight songs, intolerant names for professional team mascots, propaganda that claims the role and utility of people by race, and knowing that extremists will target any “minority” daring to speak out against the affliction of white supremacy, white nationalist activity, or far-right behaviors.

The scope of aggressive white supremacy involves the same old American story of inhumanity. For example, what is happening at the Texas border should make Americans fighting mad. Governor Gregg Abbott authorized using floating buoys covered in razor wire as a makeshift border. However, the Department of Justice calls the buoys “illegal” and the fastened nets below them a “floating death trap.” It’s disgusting. Asylum-seekers should not die entangled in razor wire. Not in America. However, Abbott pushed back. He alleges using the braided barricade is his right. Abbott fails to realize that seeking asylum is an actual legal right internationally. Still, let’s not be confused. His actions are not about duty. Instead, it is a lack of respect for life, and heritage must not continue to determine who lives and dies in America. The other end of the spectrum involves the tactics of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and other State leaders, who have focused on how to teach race in Florida. Thus, the State has released new standards, a rewrite of history, that would teach middle school children that slavery benefitted Black people. Let’s call that what it is, just another lie from the pit of hell. Where’s the outrage?

America’s rebuke should be a cultural reflex to lies, corruption, and attacks on people. If we are who we claim to be. Instead, here I am. Still hoping the unenlightened and the coward find their motivations. Then, join the fight. Citizens coming together to denounce Abbott, DeSantis, and the January Sixers should be like the Nation rallying in the aftermath of 9/11. Our desire to make serial bullies, terrorists, and their co-conspirators pay should also be as compelling.

Instead, individuals demanding respect for groups who had none paid high prices in America. For example, white supremacists burned Ida B. Wells’ newspaper to the ground. All she did was spearhead an anti-lynching campaign that led to convictions. Nobody expresses the role of American racism more clearly than Frederick Douglas. Reading and rereading Douglas’s speech on The Fourth of July improves our cultural literacy. It’s that good (as in comprehensive). Is reading not your thing? Fine. Type “James Baldwin debate” into your favorite search engine. This YouTube video opens people’s eyes. His words, spoken in 1955, are embarrassingly relevant today. Baldwin later found respect in Europe after relocating for a while. The same was true for Kwame Touré (formerly Stokely Carmichael). Before relocating to Liberia, he was the founder of the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the person responsible for coining the phrase Black Power. He saw Black Power as being able to fight the injustices leveled against Black people. However, when you hear the term white power, it means supremacy and domination. Finally, Cesar Chavez underwent a 25-day hunger strike for the rights of farm workers. “Yes, we can” was his slogan, later used by President Barak Obama. Yet, the racial divide in America is as wide as ever.

Now ask yourself. What would the families of rape victims do if America began teaching that rape benefitted their loved ones? How would New Orleans’ residents show out if the Louisiana legislature demanded schools teach that Hurricane Katrina benefitted New Orleans? Jewish people worldwide would lose their minds if our Nation’s position shifted to Hitler being a hero. Would Christians allow our leaders to replace Jackson with a picture of the devil on the twenty-dollar bill? It is simple. There would be violence in the streets. Then, leaders would sing a new tune with deliberate speed.

Yet, we sit idly by as supremacists stab harmony in the heart. Then, while the perpetrators are still gripping the bloody knife, they say to Americans, the victims, “We’re stabbing you because we can, and you can’t do anything about it.”

However, we must fight back. There’s a role for every American wanting to advance decency. So step up! Get in where you fit in. In other words, choose actions that fit your personality and passion. Some of you may bombard your city leaders with letters and phone calls. Others may urge their favorite businesses to make public statements. Your technique may be seeking legal remedies to unlawful acts. Are you still stumped? Join an organization or group whose already making moves. For example, Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) https://surj.org/our-work/ educates and organizes White people into fights for racial and economic justice. Local churches and other grassroots organizations welcome all who want to get involved. Whatever you do. Don’t let tomorrow come without taking a step. Because “we’ll let someone else do it” hasn’t worked.

Finally, I’ve been hearing your discussions and debates. Keep them up. Just refrain from the quintessential dismissal offered by “well-meaning Americans when they say, “Yeah, but this is still the greatest country in the world.” Then wait for those feeling the most pain to grin and agree. That’s far from the “mic drop” moment you may think it is or wish it to be. Those words only communicate what many refuse to work toward. RESPECT!