by Written by Charles O. Neal
My approach to this anti-racist congressional redistricting process has been completely incorrect!
In an attempt to raise awareness of white, racist Republicans’ attempts to deny the largest Black population in America the right to vote, I have been hammering away at my keyboard and nearly shouting at Black people in Texas!
Do not misunderstand me. Black people need to be aware of what is happening. However, I haven’t considered reminding white people in Texas of the actions of their government.
This is for them.
You white Texans are doing it once more! You are watching as the largest Black population in America has their right to equal representation taken away from them, much like in the good old days when lynching was a family hobby. The good white people have locked their doors, closed their blinds, and pretended that the angry crowd outside isn’t composed of senators, governors, attorneys general, state representatives, and representatives from other states who have assured them they are working for them. This is reminiscent of the days when people said they were leaving it to Beaver to make Texas great again.
It speaks volumes about you white Texans and your capacity to act, speak, and think as though reverse discrimination is real and needs to be eradicated with anti-DEI fervor while silently watching the most basic American/Texan tenet—equal representation under the law—be undermined.
Your silence, white Texans, indicates that you are involved in this racially driven farce. When you say nothing in the face of OVERT RACISM, all of your cries of patriotism and Texas values fade to a whisper!
The fact is that the racist bigots behind this plot are YOUR representatives, YOUR cousins, AND YOUR NEARBOR, and they are counting on YOUR silence as they destroy the constitutional protections that Black Texans have fought, bled, and died to obtain. I am willing to give the benefit of the doubt to those of you white Texans who feel helpless. Do you really want your gravestone to say that? I sat quietly while my fellow Texans’ rights were taken away.
The saying goes that the past is the prologue. The idea that white Texans are so numb that they fail to see that political partisanship is being utilized as a stand-in for overt racism makes me shudder!
One final thing all your white Texan protestations that I don t see color and I don t have a racist bone in my body and (your favorite) .My family and I never had any slaves; they simply vanished in the Texas heat while you sat there seeing classic Texas racism resurface!
Once more, I really regret my misguided calls to action against the racist atrocity being committed against Black Texans. And the white Texans who are idly watching while our government plots the heinous, public lynching of Black Texans in the style of 2025 make me utterly appalled and humiliated!
White Texans, you all need to improve.
The Texas Association of African American Chambers of Commerce is led by Charles O. Neal.
