Good Thing We Are Woke – Because We Just Got Trumped

Stay Woke. Did you see Jesse Williams’s documentary Stay Woke: The Black Lives Matter Movement? It chronicles the birth and growth of this major movement. Millennials used Twitter, the Internet, and placed their bodies at risk, to force the world to take the movement seriously—while declaring that enough is enough.

Our Heroes. We should all give rousing applause and forever be grateful to Alicia Garza and Patrisse Cullor, the founders of the Black Lives Matter Movement. Our local heroes—Brittany Packnett, Johnetta Elzie, Alderman Antonio French, and adopted homeboy DeRay Mckesson—were just as impactful, as they earned national acclaim, graced covers of national magazines, and gave interviews on national cable, while masterfully utilizing social media to instantly mobilize and sustain a major moment.

Fear. Toni Morrison, the brilliant sister, recently connected the dots between the fears of white America and the shocking election of Donald Trump. She penned a short article in The New Yorker entitled: Making American White Again: The Choices Made By White Men, Who Are Prepared To Abandon Their Humanity Out Of Fear Of Black Men And Women, Suggest The True Horror Of Lost Status.

Sister Morrison’s statement nails reality, as only she can.

“Under slave laws, the necessity for color rankings was obvious, but in America today…white people’s conviction of their natural superiority is being lost. Rapidly

lost. There are “people of color” everywhere, threatening to erase this long-understood definition of America.

“…To keep alive the perception of white superiority, these white Americans tuck their heads under cone-shaped hats and American flags and deny themselves the dignity of face-to-face confrontation…”

Mrs. Morrison explained how the fear of losing this privilege is the main reason why white voters, regardless of class, chose to elect Donald Trump into office despite his many outlandish shortcomings.

Trumped. Those frightened whites Trumped the Democratic party, President Barack Obama, and The Black Lives Matter Movement. In 2008 the Republicans held no power as Democrats controlled the House of Representatives, the Senate, and the Presidency! Today, just eight years later, the Republicans hold all the power, as the Republicans now control the House, Senate, and Presidency. We were asleep at the wheel, thinking Hillary was a shoe in—boy did we get Trumped! And now, yanked to power by fearful whites, the Republicans will undoubtedly extract a horrific price.

Sick and tired. Yes, many African Americans are sick and tired of being sick tired! But really, what are we doing about it other than demonstrating belligerently? How many more young men must die while we heal from the deaths of Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, and Michael Brown (just to name a few)? How many of our young men will continue to kill one another before enough is really enough? How many of our children won’t graduate from high school, but will be locked in a small box with bars at the window and door?

We are woke. But is woke alone enough to heal our community? Of course we should demand that others treat us with respect, yet we are not respecting one another within our own community.? Will anyone ever treat us differently, before we learn to love ourselves and treat ourselves differently? Will anything realistically change until we change?

Motionless indifference and apathy. Terrence Craft wrote an extremely stimulating article titled When Woke Is Not Enough, which was published on the tremendous new website www.blavity.com. He discusses how Millennials use the word “woke” to describe social consciousness and a willingness to protest. Mr. Craft then states the following:

“To be ‘woke’ is a desired intellectual attribute. Yet, in today’s social climate, I find myself increasingly disillusioned with the woke masses. Often, being woke has come to identify those who are no longer sleep, yet now remain motionless in the comfortable bed of indifference and apathy.”

What? Are people perhaps unconsciously remaining motionless and not choosing to act to heal our community? Are people choosing to not control the one piece of the puzzle that I/you/we could control called “our own lives”—in which I/you/we produce our own actions and our own results?

Love in action. The African American community must learn the power of love in action, this is truly the power that should flow from being woke. The power to change our own circumstances; to find and to perform volunteer opportunities that will make a great difference in our communities; and the power to find and join with a small group that shares the same exact passion, who then dedicate themselves to tackling one of the many negative issues that our community faces every day. This is what will transform our culture at every level; self, family, and community. If I/you/we create a healing community of love, then we will thrive beyond our wildest dreams.

In November 2016, Donald Trump was elected our 45th President and regardless of how you feel about him personally, this is a very real reason to wake up. My beloved African Americans we have to make being woke an action word. We have to create a cultural shift so powerful that the culture that once was, will have no place in our new culture, in our new reality.

When we do this, then we will be mutually walking in peace—promoting and achieving equality, equity, and financial prosperity for ourselves. Empowering and transformational love in action will then be the cornerstone of our culture.

EXCELLENCE. But for all this to happen, a lot of people will need to personally decide to be woke and move to action. Wake up to your own life, wake up to your own conditions, and wake up to your own community, and then take action that will propel us to reach a level of high excellence. Excellence will trump white privilege, and our solidarity will solidify our gains, heal our community, and transform our being.