1919 – White people riot in African American neighborhood of Dublin, Georgia and leave two people dead, during nationwide violence later known as “Red Summer”

July 6th

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I want to get one of the Photos O’ the Day out of the way before getting to more serious things.

This sign, from a mid-western big-box home goods store (which rivals Lowes or Home Depot) is entitled ONLY IN JULY 2020:

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I feel compelled to share this video to represent Sunday as after I heard these words from the video (words which I did not know existed,) I heard them again in the amazing homily that I heard preached as I attended mass on-line.

Please take a few minutes to listen to these gripping and convicting words – especially for me – a white man living nearly 170 years after Frederick Douglass gave this speech on July 5, 1852.

I’ve been thinking much about the musical “Hamilton” this weekend, so this video by the actor who originally played Thomas Jefferson (a notorious slave owner) caught my attention:

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What relevance does this speech given by Douglass, more than a decade before slavery would finally be abolished in the U.S.A. (recall that slavery was banned by England in 1807 – four decades before Douglass spoke in 1852,) have on a Independence Day Weekend almost one hundred seventy years later?

In this Summer of Uprising, I could list many reasons why these words by Douglass are so relevant today:

But such is not the state of the case. I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us.

I am not included within the pale of glorious anniversary!

Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us.

The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common.

The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me.

The sunlight that brought light and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn…”

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4h2927t.html

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But here’s just one timely reason, in the form of two related graphs:

I highly recommend that you look at the source of this data as it offers interactive maps which show the COVID-19 rate in every county of the nation – broken down by race.

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One means of commenting on the racism entrenched in our society one hundred and sixty years after the end of the Civil War is through humor, especially satire.

Key and Peele are two of my favorite “sketch comedians” with many, many funny and often thoughtful videos on YouTube.

Here’s a couple of hard-hitting ones:

Finally, as a teacher who has subbed once or twice myself, I find this classic one absolutely hilarious: