Nine Hometown Realities more important to me than trying to ban the Confederate flag

Nine Hometown Realities more important to me than trying to ban the Confederate flag —

If a had a million bucks to donate . . .

If I was thirty years younger, with that former energy level . . .

If there were 36 hours in my day . . .

If I had political weight to throw around . . .

Here are nine realities I’d focus on (and which I DO pay attention to) before joining a crusade against the symbolism of the Confederate flag.

Which BTW I don’t like. But time, energy & resources are limited; don’t we all make priority decisions?

For me, I’d rather focus on realities over symbols. And all the items here are real right where I live; not stuff I see only on TV, a tablet screen, or a license plate. (Oh wait – I do see the flag on license plates. Whatever.)

Such as:

The reality that in my supposedly progressive town in North Carolina, black drivers are stopped by cops four times as often as whites, for no other reason than race. (Same thing is true in supposedly moderately progressive Fayetteville, with no other explanation there either. And lots of other places. “Driving While Black” is NOT a symbolic statement.)

The reality that at least 40,000 mostly black voters were successfully deterred from voting in the 2014 NC election by racist vote suppression tactics — and that 40,000 was the margin  that sent another New Confederate to the U. S. Senate. (And in this case, I actually did get arrested two summers ago, protesting NC’s vote suppression campaign, which is expanding.)

The reality that NC citizens of color are unemployed or underemployed (working full-time for poverty wages) at twice the rate of whites. The unemployment rate among black youth is much higher.

The reality that in NC state prisons, 57% of inmates are black, though only 22% of the state population is black.

The reality that on death row in NC, 51% inmates are black or other nonwhites; but only only 22% of the state population is black.

The reality that 38% of black children in NC live in poverty. Oh, and BTW — 43% of Hispanic kids and 37% of American Indian kids in NC also live in poverty. (Only 15% of white kids live in poverty.)

The reality that more than 200,000 black citizens of NC are shut out of Medicaid by the rightwing legislature’s refusal to accept the program’s expansion under Obamacare. (And hey — there’s also 176,000 whites shut out by this refusal; I’m for them too.)

The reality of widespread homo- and transphobia in black churches. (So who’s perfect?) This problem, which is being exploited nonstop by the religious right, hits close to home: I live in the same neighborhood where an icon of this work, Rev. Pauli Murray, grew up. Plus the gay black Quaker civil rights organizing genius Bayard Rustin is one of my church heroes. And Mandy Carter, a founder of the National Black Justice Coalition which spearheads this struggle, is a neighbor.

And last but not least, the reality of 24 identified hate groups in the state — even more than Mississippi! (Hello — are you listening FBI? NC-SBI?)

So I hope you get the idea. With more time, this reality list could be longer. But I want to get it up and out, into the mix.

Most of these items are just as real in much of the rest of the South, and the country at large. But I’ll let others talk about their home places.

And like I said, I’m still no fan of the Confederate flag. Symbols do matter.  

So maybe I’ll protest it one of these days after all.

When I get around to it.