OP-ED

When is the last time that you read a national news story in the so-called mainstream media about a successful Black business in America that has achieved unprecedented excellence and profit in today’s marketplace? I know it has been a long time.

Brother Malcolm X, though not with us physically, is still strongly connected spiritually and psychologically, to serious black folks. As we celebrate on May 19th his 97th birthdate, we remember him having a blend of intelligence, vision, talent, self-confidence, persistence and boldness.

Margaret Mitchell’s famous/infamous heroine/villainess (you choose) of Gone With the Wind, Scarlett O'Hara, offered two memorable thoughts which she applied to her own circumstance.  Scarlett said: Life was not easy, nor was it happy, but she did not expect life to be easy, and, if it was not happy, that was a woman’s lot. 

Things are about to get worse for millions of vulnerable people in our country. It looks like the far right-wing majority on the U.S. Supreme Court is getting ready to reverse Roe v. Wade, the 50-year-old ruling that recognized a pregnant person’s right to have an abortion. Abortion is legal today, but pretty soon that will no longer be the case in most of the country.

“Restaurants are places where people from different walks of life gather for nourishment, social interaction, and an opportunity to belong to a community. These things go to the heart of what it means to be American. Segregationists were heavily invested in preventing interracial dining from becoming a widespread reality because it spoke to something even deeper: When people sit down together for a meal, they can't help but recognize the humanity of those eating with them. In addition, when people prepare food for you, they are letting you know that they care for your survival. In essence, cooking is an act of love.” – Soul Food Scholar Adrian Miller

When the Supreme Court overturned Section Five of the Voting Rights Act, it struck a blow to voting rights.  No longer did states with a history of discrimination have to submit their plans to make electoral changes to the department of Justice. 

“Restaurants are places where people from different walks of life gather for nourishment, social interaction, and an opportunity to belong to a community. These things go to the heart of what it means to be American.

COVID-19 is not the only epidemic plaguing America’s Black community today.

My role in Congress is to advocate for my constituents, and I am pleased that one of the best means to fulfill that responsibility has been reinstated. With the return of Democratic control of both the House and Senate, Congress, last month, enacted its first federal spending bill in more than a decade that includes funding for community projects identified by local entities and championed by their elected representatives. While these funding opportunities have returned, so have the misplaced criticism of the policy.

While the United States is finally “out of the full-blown explosive pandemic phase,” according to Anthony Fauci, the two years of suffering and hardship showed Americans and the rest of the world what the United States stands for as a nation.