Segregation or integration, what does society really want?
Minimal fondness exists here for this time of year as people deliver platitudes about Dr. Martin Luther King and his dream then plunge into Black History Month.
Politicians and other people dust off manuscripts, change several names, join chorused voices for singing of the Black National Anthem or the Negro standard “We Shall Overcome”, while discounting chronic poverty, violence, health challenges, police brutality, and myriad other issues that plague black communities.
Strong Black and Latino men have disappeared from the City of Trenton landscape. The emasculation of majority male representatives delivers a stark realization that not only have we lost our way and place in the community but our diminished roles render us almost irrelevant.
It’s as if Black people have run out of power.
Not only have we accepted silence or engage a request that upward mobility requires Blacks to not rock the boat, just maintain coolness, we allow others to select our heroes — Dr. King over Malcolm X. Jackie Robinson over Muhammad Ali; Michelle Obama over Condoleeza Rice — disintegrating the reality that we need voices and insights from myriad Blacks to move us upward and forward. Still, Black agendas for equality have always required agitation by persons willing to endure retaliation.
And, these conditions exist in the Hispanic community as well as their ship lists in harbors of poverty and despair. Quickly, name a strong Black or Latino voice in Trenton. As we leave the month resigned for Black history, an under-celebrated time in this capital city, only honesty can save us.
By the way, a time existed when Jews, Catholics. Protestants and most Black preachers stood with the NAACP on worthy causes that impacted social concerns. A recent rally against heavy-handed police behaviors toward a Black homeless man attracted no support from most members of those aforementioned groups. Even, yesterday when the City of Trenton joined Hedgepeth-Williams Intermediate School officials in a commemoration event for Gladys Hedgepeth and Berline Williams who ended segregation of city schools temporarily, other than politicians, few Whites attended.
A firm belief exists here that if people want segregation then make that declaration. In the past, white Democrats would stand with us, priests and rabbis shouldered and arm-locked us. Black preachers had voices and attitudes that challenged the status quo.
This question remains relevant for Black folks — were we better off when segregation ruled as the law of the land? And, if Whites in Trenton establish they have no interest in our issues and fights then Blacks and Latinos need a new strategy for the future.
Integration ranks as a personal preference but if Whites show signs of disinterest or aversion to such interaction then let’s have that conversation and subsequent split. Face it, we have reached an unhealthy level of segregation in the City of Trenton. Our pools, our schools and our neighborhoods display non-integration reality.
And, that’s okay. Let’s just stop the racial gamesmanship and opt for the ultimate breakup.