Recently, one of my blog readers emailed me and stated he saw a lot of anger in my blogs against white folks and even people who are abled-bodied. This reader says that the problem of why America is so divided is because of sin, and the solution is love!
I quickly recognized that I could not give him the answers that would change his position, so I decided to address it in a special blog.
I don’t have the correct responses to anyone who disagrees with what I write. I will be the first to admit I don’t know everything. As a matter of fact, the more I learn, the more I realize how little I know.
I do know this! I have lived with a disability for over 45 years. And unless someone tells me differently, I am also a black man. I have experienced discrimination and oppression for being a person with a disability and as a person of color.
And, to be completely honest, I am angry!
I am angry that I have spent all of my adult life fighting to convince society to treat people with diverse disabilities equally — that we are not inferior! But still, we are viewed as inferior!
I am angry that so many great black leaders have been killed, fighting to convince society to treat black people equally.
I am angry that so many black people have been hung, beaten, and murdered in the streets, raped, prevented from voting, and seen as non-citizens.
I am very angry that these fights for equality have been going on for hundreds of years for black people and people with diverse disabilities.
I have every right to be angry, but I am not just another angry black man! If you dismiss me as just another angry black man, you diminish all the injustice!
I believe there are plenty of others out there, black, white, brown, etc., who are just human beings who are angry too regarding all of this injustice and racial inequities!
One of the things my blog reader stated, too, is this, “If you try to force people to change, and that’s what this is leading up to, they will rebel against you.”
This same statement was said to the Freedom Riders of the 60s who fought for changes in the Deep South.
These Freedom Riders were both White and Black Americans. They were angry about all the customs and traditions that were oppressive against black people in the Deep South and decided to do something about it peacefully.
So yes, I am angry, but I am not just another angry black man, and I have good company!
