When it comes to racial inequality, 2022 pummeled in like other years that blotted America's fairness landscape. A Washington Post article, dated January 23, 2022, tells how black U.S. Marshals complained of racism at the United States Marshals Service for decades. A Stanford University (2022) article reports how scholars seek to tackle "systemic racism and bias," which "is prevalent in America today." Some may wish to write off racism as a past condition of the Jim Crow era. However, it remains a pounding pandemic on Black Americans. They can't ignore it. In fact, the National Institute of Health (2019) states, "Evidence of systemic discrimination suggests a need for more active institutional interventions to address racism in policy and practice."
My latest book - In Black Skin: A Poetic Journey from Black Enslavement in America to Black Lives Matter - expressly looks at race in America through a Black American lens. Along with illustration, it dives into racial profiling, police brutality, employment discrimination, and other blights inflicted on Black Americans. It covers events which have drawn a new generation of activists to join in "good trouble," a term civil rights icon John Lewis coined. With clear and expressive narratives, the book illuminates why the "All Lives Matter" retort to the Black Lives Matter mantra rings hollow for Black American descendants of slavery. Additionally, In Black Skin: shares how Black American soldiers "who protected the freedoms of the free; died without enjoying the liberties other Americans got to see." It highlights the life-saving contributions of Black American scientists, like Dr. Charles R. Drew, who d eveloped the blood bank system, and Dr. Daniel Hale Williams, who performed the first successful open-heart surgery in the United States.
The famous poet Rudyard Kipling once said: "If history were taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten." I heartfully agree. Therefore, much like the early works of Phyllis Wheatley, who wrote the poem "On Being Brought From Africa to America," I wrote, "In Black Skin." It captures American history in a lyrical way a reader will remember. After all, to become a better America, a greater America, we must know our history. During the month of February, in which we recognize "Black History," let us also recognize that Black History is American History. Those who fully know America's history glean why U.S. citizens, at times, join in "good trouble," necessary trouble, and non-violent trouble -- to spur an end to racism in America.
