The Creative Dedicated Minority
You may not have been an essential worker in the fight against COVID-19” says pastor Kenneth Hart during a peaceful protest in Harlem, “but you are an essential worker in the fight against COVID-1619.” He goes on to say that in 1619 the first Africans were brought to Jamestown, Virginia on a slave ship.
Hello Friends,
Today we celebrate the ending of the last remaining enslaved African Americans in the United States. It is also a day of mourning as we remember our country's history and for those who did not live to see June 19th 1865.
Unfortunately, we are still experiencing wave after wave of grief and heartache. COVID-19 exposed the often hidden problems of institutional racism as we learn that black Americans are dying from the virus three times the rate of white people. It is no wonder why the brutal murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Rayshard Brooks, and many other Black Americans have sparked a global uprising against racial injustice.
“Slavery didn’t end in 1865; it evolved" Bryan Stevenson said in a recent interview in the New Yorker. “The great evil of American slavery wasn’t the involuntary servitude; it was the fiction that black people aren’t as good as white people, and aren’t the equals of white people, and are less evolved, less human, less capable, less worthy, less deserving than white people.”
Those who are black and disabled face even greater devaluation. One study finds that more than half of black and disabled Americans will be arrested by their late 20s. And a third to half of all Americans killed by police have a disability. So we acknowledge and grieve over the recent deaths of black and disabled Americans Sandra Bland, Eric Garner, Freddie Gray, Tanisha Anderson, Deborah Danner, Ezell Ford, Alfred Olango and Keith Lamont Scott.
Listen to Devon's full interview here
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Devon, a partner and leader in our community, faces prejudice through the countless times people harass him out of fear on New York City subways. The black, broad shouldered, autistic man says, “I was reading an article lately of how police violence is a problem these days and why cops need training to treat special needs people, especially others with autism, especially myself... when I try to do good to people they would not care what I say, they just want to be left alone because they think I’m being trouble to them. And that’s really sad. That’s really sad that they don’t want to hear what I have to say.”
The long fight against racism in America and the foundations of deception from the majority in power – deception which evolves to the culture and sneaks its way through the generations – is wearing people down. However, being out numbered should not cause us to lose hope. "We must not be tempted to confuse spiritual power and large numbers." Dr. Martin Luther King said in a sermon titled A Knock at Midnight. “Almost always, the creative dedicated minority has made the world better.”
The civil rights movement paved the way for disability rights and created a ripple effect of change – from the deinstitutionalization movement, shutting down horrendous mental institutions such as Willowbrook in 1987, to passing the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990.
"If you are a human" Kenneth Hart says about our fight against COVID-1619, "you are essential."
Do For One is blessed to have a diverse community – a creative dedicated minority of our own. However, we recognize that we have a ways to go toward making the voices of the black women and men with and without disabilities in our community more central to our work. Saying the right things for a few weeks is insufficient. Addressing the symptoms of racial injustice while overlooking its roots is also insufficient. Our posture comes out of a steadfast commitment to rooting out racism in our own lives and in our community for the long haul.
Yours,
Andrew