this was the first letter i opened. it was originally published as a note on my facebook account. it’s addressed to m— g——–. he responded in a comment to the note on the book. i will try to publish ppl’s comments below but…idk how that’s gonna work so we’ll see.
An Open Letter to M— G——–, or, They Also Died For Ignorance
M—,
I hope you don’t mind, but after reading your message I had so much to say that I decided to reply in a note. If it’s any consolation, I’m in a place right now where I am writing lots of open letters to different people. Yours just happens to be the first to get published.
I’m not exactly sure what you want to “get my take on.” Is it the comment the guy said at the bar? Or do you want me to respond to your feelings about the election in general? I hope you won’t mind me speaking on both.
To be clear, I don’t agree that people should base their decision of who to vote for based on any surface reason. I define a “surface reason,” simply, as a reason with no depth: a reason requiring no thought, emotion, or knowledge. Race could fall in to that category for some elections, however I don’t think that a Black person’s voting for Obama just because Obama’s Black, counts as a surface reason.
People died so Black Americans could vote. We can name many of them, and share some horribly tragic stories as a part of American history.
People died so Black Americans could vote. We can name many of them, and share some horribly tragic stories as a part of American history. TV One is running a good series right now about some of the martyrs of the Civil Rights movement. However, there are many whose names we do not know and will never know – many people who were hung, castrated, beaten, shot, tortured, raped, bullied, bitten, and just plain killed in the line of fighting for Black suffrage.
They also died for equal opportunity – my opportunity to vote and Barack’s opportunity to win. So to me, being Black and voting for Obama is a unique opportunity to honor all those sacrifices at once. If anything, a Black man having the opportunity to vote for another Black man is the culmination of the Civil Rights movement, rather than being in fundamental opposition to it as you suggested. Read the rest of this entry »
