Welcome, readers, to the Good Men Project Daily Brief!
Donald Glover is a national treasure. I don’t have any evidence to back that up other than his collected bodies of works as a writer, actor, musician, drive, and talent, so you may need to do yourself a favor and dive into them for yourself. This weekend his Childish Gambino project put out a video for his song This Is America, (which we’ll talk about a little later), that brought back to my attention a few stories that I chose to exclude last week due to the sheer volume of breaking news. Equally important to the day to day courtesan drama of Washington to our democracy, is the acknowledgment of the heroics and struggles of everyday citizens living within. This, too, is America.
The mainstream media glossed over these, the independent media glossed over these, I glossed over these, and I was wrong to do so.
Today I’d like to highlight several stories that were drowned in a sea of news over the last few weeks.
My name is Mckay Williams and this is your Daily Brief:
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A 17-year-old high school senior was awarded nearly 4.5 MILLION dollars in scholarships after being accepted into 113 schools. She passed on Ivy League after Ivy League before accepting Bennett College, a historically black school in North Carolina to study Biology. In a system that thinks of her as a statistic, and labels her as an improbability for any college, Ms. Harrison shows that she will not surrender to her type-casting. Look for big things out of this young woman. Tip of the hat to GMP’s Melvin Lars for bringing this story to my attention.
A 29-year-old man, Darren Martin, was questioned by police while moving into his new apartment after calls to the policy of a burglary in progress. Martin had previously served in the Obama White House before his recent move to New York City. I highlight this story, not for its exceptionalism, but because it’s so unexceptional. Darren Martin has the distinction of having worked in the White House, and is the only reason this story got coverage at all.
“The New York City Police Department said officers arrived around 11:26 p.m. after receiving a 911 call about a burglary in progress on the building’s fifth floor. The 911 caller had complained about someone opening and banging doors on the floor who was in possession of a weapon or a large tool, the police said. After investigating, officers determined there was no burglary.”
For the crime of moving while Black, Mr. Martin was questioned by at least six officers as he tried to move into his new home.
“ “Out of necessity, I decided to bring things in, but if it was an opportunity for me to do it another time I would have,” Martin said. “You don’t want to put yourself in that situation where you’re doing everything right but because of how you look, it could get you arrested or worse. So you avoid those, if you’re trying to live your life.” When the police showed up, Martin said, “I knew they were here for me.” “You just know,” he said.”
Maybe if this didn’t happen so often, people wouldn’t be forced to “just know” when the police come.
Whoever you are, wherever you’re from, chances are you’ve arrived at a place before someone you’re meeting. Imagine the reaction you would have when that place calls the police, almost immediately upon entering. Now imagine they then arrest you and take you to jail, causing national outrage. You’d have that cafe, that restaurant, that bar, that police force, that city… whatever it is, you’d have them backed into quite the corner.
Donte Robinson and Rashon Nelson don’t have to imagine, and instead of using the opportunity for personal gain, as many of us would do, they settled the case for $1.00 for each of them, a scholarship program for Starbucks employees, and $200,000 for high school students in Philadelphia.
We don’t need a few more people like Donte Robinson and Rashon Nelson. We need millions more.
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There’s a book by China Mieville called The City and The City, which posits a city that exists within another. Two cities that never interact and whose citizens are physically trained not to acknowledge the other. Childish Gambino’s video for This Is America is a powerful reminder of the America that exists within America. An America that exists for our friends, our neighbors, our fathers and mothers, our brothers and sisters.
We can believe in the dream that is America, a country where all men are created equal, whose citizen’s rights are so self-evident they require no further justification. We can believe that we can continue the quest to achieve “a more perfect union.” We can, and must, also acknowledge that we have not yet arrived at Dr. King’s Mountain Top.
The voices that reflect the truth of their circumstances separate from the majority are equally important to the story of us. Justice, like history, is written by the victor, unless we make the conscious choice to object.
As President Kennedy said: “We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.”
What’s your take on what you just read? Comment below or write a response and submit to us your own point of view or reaction here at the red box, below, which links to our submissions portal.
Mckay Williams is a political columnist and commentator. He writes The Daily Brief at the Good Men Project. He lives in Oakland, California. You can follow him on Facebook and Twitter for updates on current projects.
