“Da Island Guy”
Sounding Off Social
The summer season is here with lots of ways to get out and enjoy the outdoors. For many, it’s a time for beach life, family reunions, group conventions and vacation travel. With the happenings on the beach or the block, there’re events that bring us together around good times, good life or social impact.
Meantime, the NBA season’s gonna wrap with the naming of a champion after a hard-fought series and long season. As the baseball pastime settles in, the WNBA season finds its groove around rookies and veterans. Whether Caitlin Clark buzz dies-down or not, the lead-up to the summer Olympics in Paris is already having stories of triumph and heartbreak. Ever wondered with all these sports events, you never hear athletes saying they’ll protest if they lose or that they’re being set up to fail by league/sports officials?
Well, the same can’t be said about some in the political world. Since the last presidential election, there’s been a puzzling aspect to how things played out. One way to help solve this puzzle which has become the new social enigma in America, is to take a step back and review the record. As many folks know, that’s how See America In Color (SAIC) came to be. After a series of national news story, a deep dive began into American history, the ‘Black to America’ story, and #HometownStrong comebacks. This led to creating a social-edge campaign/platform that’s about having a better handle of hot-button issues, by how we see America in color, not just black & white.
What’s happening today is an updated version of the Lost Cause trying to take us back. Remember after the civil war, the Lost Cause mindset tried to explain-away why the Confederates lost to the Union. That message grew into a force that contributed to the Reconstruction backlash, since some weren’t happy as Blacks made headway. The disruptive Lost Cause voice grew louder into what later became known as Jim Crow, a period of restrictive and destructive policies/laws. So, when some (who should know better) say that the Jim Crow period was a boom for Blacks, they’re clearly lost or loose with the facts because of what they overlook. It’s as if they wanna take us back, by going from Jim Crow to Joe Tribe.
History reveals many were caught-up in the Lost Cause as a response to losing the civil war’s fight over slavery. In a sense, they wanted to re-insert practices of white supremacy. Furthermore, there were splinter efforts that might be thought of as ‘loose cause’, which like a loose tooth, weren’t fully rooted in substance, but were often conspiracy-based. The enigma we see today mirrors that period. In today’s version, the context involves a switch from slave plantation to duped-tribe plantation. But for SAIC, what we’re trying to do during this period is go from ‘beloved community’ (as Dr. King often described the civil rights movement), to ‘mojo posse’ in efforts to make our journeys one (mojo). To do that we gotta understand current times with the backdrop of:
1. Hate
Nine years ago, a South Carolina community was rocked by tragedy at the Mother Emanuel AME Church. The victims were all church members at Bible Study. The person who carried out this heinous act was someone consumed by hate. This corrosive mindset has different degrees of victimhood, sometimes due to lack of self-love. But it also shows up in those who’re indoctrinated and radicalized by messages that sell ‘whiteness in the context of darkness’, thus being duped. That happened after the civil war as the Lost Cause mindset infected others who got caught up in KKK-thinking, like seen with the church shooter.
2. Harm
The Lost Cause wasn’t the only form of victimhood and hate. As Blacks made gains in public service and personal achievement, there was a backlash which led to a growing acceptance of and occurrences in lynchings. This intimidation became a kinda spectator sport as ‘loose cause’ not rooted in substance, but in conspiracies about Blacks. We’ve heard about the Imposter Syndrome where folks feel like they don’t belong. Well, what we see in ‘duped-tribe circles’ across some sectors of society is the ‘Nobody Syndrome’, where due to poor sense of self, folks offer their less-self instead of their best self.
3. Stigma
Hate and harm during Jim Crow caused social stigma, like signs that said, ‘whites only’. Even in Hollywood back then, some black artists couldn’t stay in the same hotel after performing in the hotel’s ballroom. Think about the days of black & white tv, sometimes the picture would be a bit fuzzy. You couldn’t enjoy the program as much. These days some argue the fuzziness will be made better by being colorblind, by not seeing others in color. SAIC is less about colorblind and more about having a color-mind by not being stuck on black & white tv. But to see things better in color of ‘no hate’ for a fuller life.
4. Dogma
The Civil Rights Movement helped bring an end to Jim Crow. Folks were tired of the hate, harm and stigma that prevailed. A major turning point was the Montgomery Bus Boycott which was inspired by Rosa Park’s courage to no longer ride at the back of the bus. She and others had had enough of the dogma tied to second-class status. Being told you don’t belong or that you gotta take a backseat could have caused some to experience low/lost hope. But instead of those emotions being turned into ‘lost cause’, the people rallied and turned them into one of the greatest modern-day movements in social change.
To close, the Lost Cause was about explaining away the Confederates losing the civil war. These days folks try to explain away a candidate having lost the 2020 Presidential elections. The ‘loose cause’ back then led to a backlash due to conspiracy theories around Blacks. The ‘loose cause’ today is seen in a backlash to DEI and other efforts in social progress. We’ve gone from fighting to protest and eliminate the slave plantation to fighting to inform and elucidate the ‘duped-tribe plantation’. There’s even a ‘loose cause’ in how some rap artists and public figures explain their political views. So, making social change happen means scrapping the ‘fake stage show’, if folks only wanna sell their less-self, not their best self.
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