Op-Ed: A Look At “In Spite Of” Instead Of “Because Of”

By Dr. John E. Warren
Publisher, San Diego Voice & Viewpoint Newspaper
Chairman of the Board of Directors, NNPA

Today, we as a nation and Black people in particular are experiencing an attack on all our gains in terms of civil rights. While the attacks clothed in “DEI” and other code words are aimed at us collectively, most of us are still thinking as individuals and complaining about the impact of cutbacks and the elimination of programs and services that have been so important to us.

The one problem we have is that we are not thinking “collectively” as we once did during “Jim Crow segregation.” It was under those circumstances that the NAACP and many of our national organizations were created. We didn’t allow racism and segregation to stop us from working together for the common good of all of us as people of color.

Let us remember the lunch counter desegregation sit-ins. These were a series of nonviolent protests that began in Greensboro, North Carolina, in 1960 and spread throughout the South. Four African-American college students initiated the first sit-in at a Woolworth’s lunch counter. “This was done “in spite of” the racism. And today we sit where we want to with all the equality that followed with the Civil Rights Act of 1965.

We can not allow this Administration, with its usurpation of power, to take our rights and freedoms by cancelling programs and dollars when we, as a people, generate and spend over four trillion dollars a year on just about everything except helping each other.

Let it not be said that we were rendered helpless because funding for programs like education were cut when our churches, once upon a time, provided the additional education services to our children at no cost.

We must harness our resources to grow, protect, and safeguard ourselves “in spite” of this President and his agenda. We were achieving because of our abilities and not because of “DEI” race, equity, affirmative action, or inclusion. We excelled because we were prepared and qualified.

So what do we do now? We harness our votes and prepare for “ANY” election that is coming. Remember that in May of 1957, Dr. King gave a speech titled “Give us the ballot.” This was done at the Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. He said, “Give us the ballot and we will fill legislative halls with men (and women) of goodwill.”

The Voting Rights Act solidified his demand, but too many of us have squandered the opportunities granted since then. We must once again become that “collective” that brought us this far.

Let’s get off our social media addiction to trivia and get engaged in saving our present and our futures. With prayer still being the first order of business, let’s start working together “in spite of” what’s being thrown against us, and get involved “because of” those who came before us and made everything we enjoy possible.

“A Luta Continua.” The Struggle Continues.