Black America’s hope addiction
‘God has been trying to give Black people a message, and Black people have refused to listen. God has sent Black people messengers.’
by Naba’a Muhammad, StraightWords.com
Dr. Ricky Jones, a political scientist at the University of Louisville, hit some nerves, minds and hearts with a post presidential election analysis widely shared over social media.
Speaking during a Louisville church discussion, Dr. Jones turned the narrative of Black despair over Donald Trump’s victory on its head. He was responding to a moderator’s question about how he felt about the election outcome.
“I wasn’t surprised at all,” the Black professor replied. “I was happy. And I was happy for different reasons than Trump supporters.
“Obviously, I’m not a Trump supporter, but I was happy because I understand the history of our people. I understand our current condition.
‘Look, I think God has been trying to give Black people a message, and Black people have refused to listen. God has sent Black people messengers. Black people have refused to listen. If you talk about serious Black intellectuals in this country, serious Black thinkers. I mean serious Black political scientists and historians and sociologists, serious Black ministers, we’ve been telling Black folk for years what’s going on.
“But Black people are hope addicts. And as Toni Morrison said, a very real consequence of racism is it distracts you. And Black people are subject to distractions very easily.”
Democratic presidential nominee and vice president, Kamala Harris, would have been a “distraction” had she won, he continued.
“All that said, she certainly was better than the other person, the guy on the other side, because he’s a madman, a committed White supremacist that’s pretty much an open, committed fascist,” argued Dr. Jones.
“So there’s all this talk about what Donald Trump has done. This isn’t about Donald Trump, right? Hitler didn’t con the Germans. Donald Trump has not conned White America. They simply support him. And this was a brazen example, brazen proof to Black folk that this is what America is,” he continued.
“If Kamala Harris had won, you would’ve been subjected to more distractions. White supremacy would still exist. They would still be coming at Black people in myriad ways. But Black people who are hope addicts, you would’ve did the same thing you did in 2008 when Barack Obama won. I saw Black people in 2008 because Barack Obama won. Black people saying, ‘Oh, racism is dead. This proves we can do anything we want to do. We’re now in a post-racial America.’ And the very next year, the Tea Party hit. The very next year, basically, Neo Ku Klux Klan ideology started to take hold. In this country, more and more openly, White people are becoming more aggressive.”
“So if you would’ve had Kamala Harris, Black people would’ve had another excuse to not fight back because you thought, you would think things are getting better. So I know you’re in pain right now, but you should be encouraged that we may be at a moment now where Black people will finally unite, turnaround, fight back.”
His words were powerful and his thoughts were especially clear. We have a problem with hope. Not hope in and of itself but false hope in a system and people who have never worked on our behalf. Their systems aren’t designed to work for us. Any apparent progress we fought and died for has been met by White backlash.
Yet we keep on hoping.
After Mr. Trump won the 2016 presidential election against Hillary Clinton, we hoped Joe Biden would deliver us. So we showed up and showed out at ballot boxes in 2020 and, as Mr. Biden declared, Black voters saved American democracy.
What did we get? When a particular group turns an election, let alone saves democracy itself, that group is seen as important, valuable and rewarded for its contribution to the winning party’s success.
We got nothing aimed at us, given not only our political impact but also our pervasive problems.
Whether talking about violence, overall health, poverty, wealth and earnings, drug addiction, failing urban school systems and devastated rural areas, on and on the list of our losses mounts and we suffer more.
Yet, we have hope. The problem is we also have an addiction. “Addiction is when you have a strong physical or psychological need or urge to do something or use something. It is a dependence on a substance or activity even if you know that it causes you harm. It can impact your daily life,” according to Health Direct.
“Addiction is when you have a need or urge to do something or use something that can interfere with your functioning in other areas of your life. It’s possible to be addicted to anything. Living with an addiction can seriously damage your work performance and relationships if it is not addressed early.”
Addiction can also lead to your death and the death of your children.
“America was exactly what it was on Nov. 6, the day after the election, as it was on Nov. 4, the day before the election,” Dr. Jones pointed out. “Stop lying to your children because when you lie to your children or lie to yourselves and give yourselves false hope, you send your children into a White supremacist world unarmed. … So there was a time when Marcus Garvey would bring the Ku Klux Klan into UNIA meetings and say, ‘tell my people exactly what you feel about them so they can know and they can’t make excuses,’ right?
“Martin Luther King Jr. Went down to Albany, Ga., in 1961, but Laurie Pritchett was a softer, smarter sheriff, and he handled things in a more complex way. And King and his people knew that they had to go to Birmingham where they run into a Bull Connor, who would be more avert with his racism. So King knew then our people can see exactly what’s happening here. Black people didn’t want to fight back in the fifties, and then they killed Emmett Till, and it turned everything around.”
“Emmett Till was killed. That started the civil rights movement. So please wake up, take inventory where you are. … Stop following Black politicians who do not have the heart or the inclination to fight for you, right? You’re not just tolerating them, you are celebrating them,” said the political scientist. “But don’t lie to yourself and don’t lie to your children. Get some heart to fight back. Because at this point, if you haven’t gotten the message that God has given you, I don’t know what will make you get it.”
Ameen.
Naba’a Muhammad, award winning Final Call editor, is host of “Straight Words With Naba’a Richard Muhammad, Bj Murphy, and James G. Muhammad,” which airs live Tuesdays, 9 p.m. to 12 a.m. Central Time, on WVON AM 1690 Black Talk Radio Chicago and is livestreamed at the iHeart Radio app and WVON.com. Get more of his writing straightwords.com.
