By Robert C. Jones
Well vacuous means empty, void, hollow and that is exactly what the Juneteenth celebration at Springfield’s steps at City Hall. Every local and Springfield- centric politician and sycophants waxed poetic of the great accomplishment of Juneteenth becoming a federal holiday.
I know, I know, Rob, what’s wrong with that. Well let me break it down for you. Biden’s first actions were to sign executive orders that exclusively benefit immigrants, Non-Black LGBTQ+ and Asian Amercians. Nothing for Black people who were the catalysts for Biden’s victory.
I’m not done, acknowledging Juneteenth as a holiday and the importance it symbolizes is a nice gesture. However, Black people can’t live and survive off of symbolism, we need tangible change! That tangible change should focus on economic development, access to capital and resources, reparations, education and police overhaul to name a few.
Symbolic gestures may fuel a fleeting internal happiness but it falls short in addressing issues endemic in the Black community. Recently, the country, mainstream media and politicians finally recognized the massacre in Tulsa, OK 100 years later and commemorated this atrocity with songs, poems, dance and a few impotent news specials. We felt good inside, but BOOM, we fell for the okie doke once again for the 1 trillionth time. What was devoid from this memorialization was tangible benefit in the form of recompense to the survivors of the Tulsa massacre and their descendants.
Another inherent weakness about symbolism are the words. Superfluous, verbose and didactic but all culminating in meaningless babble. In waves they moved to the podium spouting in meaningless rhetoric to the mindless crowd of applause. Let me pose a question, who are the villains here, the politicians and their minions or the impressionable Black faces that littered the crowd applauding, knowing change is not going to come. At least, not from the speakers on the podium.
As for the Black politicians, it’s ok to use the term “Black”, it seems that Black politicians are afraid to say Black. Using popular terms such as people of color, Black and Brown, minorities, disenfranchised to describe people in the struggle does a disservice to the Black community. Those terms are intended to comingle our experiences with other groups. No other group of people living in the United States have endured what Black people have endured and continue to endure for half a millennium.
White politicians tend to placate our community with sympathies, understanding and compassion but that never equates to policy, law, or change. Which means more benign neglect: don’t promise anything and we won’t do anything. As illustrated in Springfield’s reputation of being rife with corruption, coordinated attacks against Black community members and city employees, lack any significant Black business community, race soldiers dressed in Springfield police uniforms targeting the Black and Brown community and attacking our grandparents and babies with unrestricted camera surveillance in the Springfield public school system.
If Black people want change in Springfield, THEY have to do it themselves. You can’t rely on duplicitous and disingenuous politicians and some of those politicians share the same melanin as you ~ they’re the worst. Accountability is the key. Don’t automatically go with a politician because he/she is a Democrat, Republican or Green Party or the same race/nationality, you need to look at their body of work in order for them to gain your vote. Do they have a history of making promises they don’t keep, do they have poor character (trust me, you’ll know) and/or exhibit questionable behavior and what have they done for YOUR community. That’s not selfish, that’s self interest. Every group fights and advocates for their self interest: Asians, Hispanic, Jews, LGBTQ+, etc. All of them push agendas and change that will impact their community. We need to mirror that energy and consistency for ours.
Newsflash, the current Springfield political culture does not support the Black community. The paradigm must shift and we need a clean slate ~ “tabula rasa” and by voting out inept, dishonest and insincere politicians only then can we manifest the desired outcomes our community yearns for.
Where do we start? Go to the ballot box and vote the School Committee Members that voted for that dangerous surveillance policy that targets our babies. Vote out the Mayor and a collateral benefit is by proxy the head of Springfield police and Superintendent of schools is out. Then systematically start identifying other politicians that have done nothing for our community.
Therefore, keep you superfluous, verbose and didactic babble. I choose access and opportunity and I know for a fact you’re in our way!
