Cancel Culture War By Mark Lampkin

What happened to us on the road to 2021?

Prayerfully most of us have lived through the tumultuous and possibly treasonous, four-year presidency of Donald Trump. By God’s grace, we have not lost family members or friends to the COVID-19 virus that is still running rampant throughout parts of the World. The U.S. has lost more than 575 Thousand souls to the virus, and the country of India is losing thousands by the day. The science continues to guide our decisions on how best to move forward into the “new normal.” If only we had been told the truth in January 2020.

And now we find ourselves still debating what to do about something that this nation has too long closed her eyes to; our addiction to violence and white cancel culture.

We are witnessing the gnashing of teeth and colliding of societal norms about what is acceptable in this ever-evolving nation of immigrants. What could be so challenging to allow the cultures of ALL the people who make up this nation to be seen as equal? Those of us who have lived six decades or more on these shores have undoubtedly heard stories of how people of our (finger tapping on the back of my/your hand)skin color have been the last hired and first fired in employment, housing and financial equity accessibility. That was bad enough.

When the names of Emmitt Till, Medgar Evers, Fred Hampton, Peoria Native-Son Mark Clark and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr are spoken…we may not readily connect their deaths to America’s “always-present” need to cancel out any and all voices that object to their need to remain powerful beyond question: By any means necessary. But that is exactly what motivated the people who killed them. The history books we have all been taught from do NOT tell the whole story. Maybe that is where the phrase “white-washed” originated.

Since 2017 we are now demanding that America’s white majority “see” the insanity of expecting us to honor the likes of Confederate army traitors Jefferson Davis and General Robert E. Lee, founding father Thomas Jefferson, and even, God forbid, old Abe Lincoln, as heroes worthy of unfailing respect. The truth of their lives and mindset regarding our ancestors must not be relegated to the margins of history. If they’d had their way…we all might still be in bondage.