This is an article reflecting on the ways in which the US continues to avert its attention from its foundational involvement in the violence of enslavement. Much like Harvard University!

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Last week, a friend sent an article about the halting of work to uncover descendants of enslaved blacks whose ancestors were kidnapped from Africa and eventually sold to the leadership and faculty of Harvard University to labor in fields and in homes. I would have thought that since the 2013 publication of Craig Steven Wilder's Ebony and Ivy: Race, Slavery, and the Troubled History of America's Universities, disclosing the findings of research to uncover the involvement of Ivy League universities and their dependence on the subjugation and free labor of black people, would be made easily accessible to the descendants of formally enslaved blacks. Perhaps, financially compensating American descendants whose ancestors during slavery lived lives that were "'spent and exhausted' for the production of sugarcane," according to the lead researcher, Richard Cellini.

Hired to locate the descendants of Harvard's enslaved blacks, Cellini was fired before the job was completed. No misappropriation of funds. Nothing sleazy. In fact, Cellini was doing his job! The researcher, however, found too many descendants. Way too many-- for Harvard!

There may be as many as 10,000 living descendants, according to Cellini. He suggests that Harvard wasn't committed, at least on paper, to atone for the past, to confront the truth.

Cellini, according to the Guardian report, had hoped that "Harvard could demonstrate that truth telling and reconciliation are possible on a large scale." Maybe the "silence and historical revisionism" could be "overturned; and that light" could "shine into even the deepest cracks". Maybe. Harvard, the researcher explains, feared that to pursue so many descendants would "bankrupt" the university. To acknowledge, however, that black Americans contributed greatly to the building of this nation and have yet to receive such historical recognition or financial compensation is to dismiss the contribution of "free" labor in the creation of a "more perfect union".

Well, this is the US where institutions like Harvard would prefer that the history of the US's involvement with the slave trade and the beneficial factor of slavery itself would simply disappear. Americans don't want to know that the country systemically kidnapped and sold children, separating children from parents. They don't want to know that human beings were systemically tortured, maimed, and killed for those who believed in "God" and "country".

Dismiss slavery and the people enslaved can be dismissed-- if not attached to dehumanizing labels, such as "lazy", "criminals", and "inferior" beings. Institutions such as Harvard, along with many Americans, it has been my experience that most Americans bulk at the expenditure of money turned over to black Americans. Undeserving blacks, some would say.

But I suspect that the real issue is, for many Americans, involves reflection. A difficult thing for most Americans when it comes to race. Self-reflection. I imagine it's much easier to resort to those usual images associated with black Americans. To admit to the world that black Americans, while tending to fields of cotton and tobacco, made little kings of those considering themselves "hardworking", innocent", and "superior" would be tantamount to bursting the myth of white supremacy in the US. That myth is hard to untangle oneself from no matter how many descendants of the former enslaved are paid off.

Like Harvard University's administration, most Americans don't want to know the truth.

On May 14, I attended the No Kings rally in Kenosha, Wisconsin. More than a 1000 people filled the Civic Veterans Park, including a giant and a very orange Trump. Colorful signs urged no deportations, free Palestine, and, of course, no kings, no dictators.

The crowd lining Sheridan Avenue was loud. Committed. Enthusiastic. Horns blasted from cars passing protesters. The drivers and passengers shouted, "No Kings!" Many displayed "No Kings" signs of their own.

I wanted to feel good about being in this crowd of people opposed to Trump and his brand of fascism. At times, if I just listed, I did. I felt a part of something reaching out beyond the status quo. Truth telling seemed a reality-- until I opened my eyes and looked around again. I had to ask myself, what had changed?

Here was young and old. Middle aged. Working class and folks who seemed to have done fairly well. I went from Sheridan Avenue to the outskirts of the park where folks were signing up to call or mail messages, asking WTF of the Republican US House Congressman, Brian Steil. I stood by as the organizers and many in the crowd joined a guitar playing singer in singing "We Shall Overcome". I couldn't join in.

I was reminiscing on the times when I sang that song. Countless times! I think the first time was in 1970 on a bus from Chicago to protest in Springfield, Illinois. SCLC's Operation Breadbasket rented the bus, and I was a proud member of the Youth Division. I sang the song on Saturday mornings as a member for about two years of organization's choir. I didn't feel as alone as I did on that day at the No Kings rally in Kenosha.

What have we overcome? At least in Kenosha, Wisconsin?

I think I saw maybe four black people. There could have been more. One or two more.

Sixty-nine percent of Kenosha is white. The hispanic and latino make up 19. 5% of the city's population while the indigenous stands at just 0.45 %, according to the US Census Bureau. The black population is at 9.74 %.

Kenosha is between Milwaukee to its north and Chicago to its south. Twenty-five years ago when I came here the first time to teach at the University of Wisconsin Parkside, a few black students or few black city residents existed. For black students and black residents, there wasn't much support. I was introduced, behind my back, as the "black chic" hired to teach in the English department. Only I wasn't allowed to have an office, the only black English faculty, in the English department. It didn't take long for white students to catch the wink before parading off to the chair or dean, reporting of how "uncomfortable" I made them feel.

How has the atmosphere changed? Is Kenosha making progress when it comes to diversity, equity, and inclusion?

At the end of the rally, I reached out to the organizers. The organizers did a good job of reaching concerned citizens, getting them to come out on a Saturday afternoon. But I should have asked why the low turnout of blacks and others-- not part of that 69 %? Did the organizers try to reach out to the black community? To the Hispanic and Latino community?

At 71, I'm tired of hearing the heehawing sound of folks trying to explain what is really fear. But they can't admit it. It would require looking inward. And reading. Above all, listening to blacks, latino/as, indigenous. No one wants to be tolerated or feel as if an attachment to. That is, not to white supremacy! That myth has contaminated too many hearts and minds!

The absence of the KKK or the Proud Boys isn't enough. It is what it is, isn't enough. Why? At least be curious, if not committed to change.

We exchanged phone numbers, and I assured the organizers that I would give them a call. I wanted to ask questions and to express to them how I felt as a .black in attendance at the rally. They might have been suspicious of a black woman claiming to be a writer, a commentator, someone with a doctorate who had taught for decades. It's America! I saw it in the way the two women discussed a white man, wearing a white shirt and black tie. He said he was a journalist.

The legacy of COINTELPRO"

I called both women. Neither returned my call.

Somewhere in the US, descendants of blacks once enslaved are waiting to hear from Harvard. The Guardian reached out to one woman who said that she didn't know where to begin. "'I would go anywhere to talk to anyone at this point,,, Except Harvard, because there's no one I really trust there right now.'"

She seems to speak for most black Americans.

Authors Bio:

Activist, writer, American Modern Literature, Cultural Theory, PhD.