Oppression Is Evil

from Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech

 

I share Martin Luther King’s dream.

Earlier today I read a tribute, from someone who had visited MLK’s historic home in Montgomery, Alabama. She quoted something from that tour, offered in a recording of his voice: 

“It was around midnight. You can have some strange experiences at midnight,” he says through the recording. It was January 1956 at the time, and Dr. King had just received yet another threat. The voice on the other end had called him an offensive name, followed by, “[We] are tired of you and your mess now. And if you aren’t out of this town in three days, we’re going to blow your brains out and blow up your house.”

Dr. King's voice shares how that message shook him to the very core.

“I sat there and thought about a beautiful little daughter who had just been born…. She was the darling of my life. I’d come in night after night and see that little gentle smile. And I sat at that table thinking about that little girl and thinking about the fact that she could be taken away from me any minute…. And I discovered then that religion had to become real to me, and I had to know God for myself. And I bowed down over that cup of coffee, I never will forget it…. I prayed a prayer, and I prayed out loud that night.

“I said, ‘Lord, I’m down here trying to do what’s right. I think I’m right. I think the cause that we represent is right. But, Lord, I must confess that I’m awake now. I’m faltering. I’m losing my courage. And I can’t let the people see me like this, because if they see me weak and losing my courage, they will begin to get weak.’ Then it happened: And it seemed at that moment that I could hear an inner voice saying to me, ‘Martin Luther, stand up for righteousness. Stand up for justice. Stand up for truth. And lo I will be with you, even until the end of the world.’… I heard the voice of Jesus saying still to fight on. He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone. No never alone. No never alone. He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone.”

I’m afraid right now he must be rolling over in his grave. Among civil society, his dream has come true. It’s not acceptable for anyone to hate because of race. Except—that voice he heard, so full of hate that they were willing to kill him, that voice is still speaking. And it’s coming from the people he was trying to help. His people. Their descendants and others seeking to oppress.

I wrote about this last week; at our school board meeting, newly elected school board member Scott Henry had the courage to say that the equity audit report’s suggestion that we hire more black teachers—not because of qualification, but because of race, wouldn’t work.

It wasn’t enough that he was lied about and mischaracterized. It wasn’t enough that they called for his removal from the school board. It wasn’t enough that they got the media to lie about what he’d said. It wasn’t even enough that they made threats to his life and the lives of his family members—just like the oppressors did to MLK. (This is especially ironic following the National School Board Association letter to the Biden administration in September led to Attorney General Merrick Garland’s admission that they were investigating conservative parents as a threat to school board members—not because of any actual evidence of threats from those parents, but because of that letter; are these actually threatening pro-racist Democrats going to be investigated?) None of that would satisfy; they had to seek out his employers and shame them into firing him; what is oppression, after all, if not the ability to take away a person’s means to make a living?

How did the employer, San Francisco-based software company Splunk, explain the sudden firing?

 "We viewed the employee's conduct as inconsistent with who we are as Splunkers and the individual is no longer employed by our company," they tweeted. What he said was that our school district should not use racist hiring practices. That is what Splunk finds inconsistent with who they are? 

Scott Henry called for us not to be racist. He commented,

Because I dared to disagree that it equates to high retention rates, there have been threats upon my life, and my wife and my children have been targeted. I will take responsibility for not saying it more eloquently.

For that he is being called a racist. One tweet put it this way:

This racist Texas #CyFair school board member just said that more Black teachers leads to worse student outcomes. He must resign. And be called out. And maybe sued….— Demanding Liz (@ehanks2208) January 12, 2022 

Did he say that? No. Did he say anything negative about black teachers in either CFISD or HISD? No.

Henry wanted CFISD to hire based on “the content of their character,” and their qualifications to teach, rather than simply the color of their skin, something MLK would approve. But the world has been toppled over.

Harris County Judge (administrator) Lina Hidalgo told the media: 

What we saw the other night was the racism said out loud. And if we allow this kind of thing in a public forum by a public official that represents a school district, what are we allowing?

Did Lina Hidalgo hear his full comments? If she did, what part of “let’s not hire based on race” offends her?

When asked to explain, Henry wrote a statement:

I was defending our school district against attacks from an out-of-state political organization that claimed our schools were failing our students because we did not [have] one pre-determined diversity metric. This political organization claimed that one metric—the percent of black teachers in our schools—determined the quality of education our students receive.

So, if they needed clarification (which they shouldn’t have needed, if they’d heard his full statement), that should have settled it. Someone at the school board meeting called that “walking back his statement,” and said we shouldn’t accept it.

The lies don’t stop.

I don’t know who it was at the Monday night meeting that gleefully spread the word that there was something said they could distort—but whoever did that is evil. I don’t know who the instigator is, but I’m going to call out a couple of the speakers, because of their power and influence, which carry their lies further than others.

Odus Ebbagharu speaking at
CFISD school board meeting January 13.
screenshot from here

One is Odus Ebbagharu, Harris County Democrat Party Chair. He was welcomed with calls of “Odus! Odus! Odus!” from the Odus-friendly crowd. Claiming unanimity with the community, “Republican, Democrat, doesn’t matter,” he says, “To sit down here and listen to what I just heard, this is not the community I know.” Then he called out the school board members and followed with a Desmond Tutu quote:

School board members, when these comments were made, not one of you spoke out. Desmond Tutu said, “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”

The reason no school board members called out Scott Henry at the meeting was because he hadn’t said anything to call out. He brought forth an opinion, based on the data in the report, and made a recommendation, which they would be discussing at some future point. How horrifying! More on the side of the oppressor in a minute.

The other person I’m calling out is Dr. and Pastor Evelyn Ogletree. She says something I fully agree with:

I know teachers of all races. And you cannot determine whether they’re good or bad by their race.

Dr. Evelyn Ogletree speaking at
the CFISD board meeting January 13,
screenshot from here

Scott Henry agrees with that sentence. That was the point he was making. We shouldn’t hire based on race; we should hire good teachers, because their race doesn’t matter. Everyone in support of Scott Henry believes that. Many of the “useful idiots” who were stirred up to hate Scott Henry believe that. We’re in agreement.

Except—those who are spreading the lie that that’s not what Scott Henry believes really do want hiring based on race. They want racist hiring practices. And they want racist treatment of students. But they don’t call it racist if it’s blacks committing the racism.

Dr. Ogletree used the term “African-American” nine times in her sanctimonious 2½-minute speech. She says, “I am appalled at what was said. I am hurt. I am just, really just cannot believe that this is happening in our district.”

You know what does not appall her? The racist tweets her husband sent out on the regular—her husband, Dr. and Pastor John Ogletree, one of the three board members we ousted in the election, and the one who wrote the Resolution that called for the equity audit recommending that our district use racist hiring practices. (We were reminded of these in my friend Bill Ely's excellent public comments Thursday.) To refresh your memory, here are a few:

·       “Yesterday’s Ku Klux Klan members are today’s police officers.”

·       “White Evangelicalism is nothing but slaveholder religion.”

·       “Riots are the American way” (in reference to police killings).

·       “This country was built on bad theology with White men holding bibles!!!”

·       “White Evangelicals… are complicit in Madness, Divisiveness, and Evil.”

·       “If you want to understand white privilege just watch the videos of the insurrection on the US Capital Grounds.”

·       “When will the white pulpit be as repulsed by the taking of an innocent Black life as it is by the taking of the life of an unborn fetus.”

Who’s divisive? Who’s racist? Who’s a religious bigot? Her co-pastor and husband.

But she calls on parents, teachers, and the community to speak out against a school board member for saying what she said: that you cannot determine whether a teacher is good or bad by their race.

So what was that Resolution her husband wrote about? It wasn’t about making sure we treat our students and teachers of all races equally; it was about segregating out blacks and privileging them—and oppressing anyone who stands in the way of that goal.

If you have the power to make a phonecall and intimidate a corporation into firing an employee who disagrees with your political aims, you’re not the oppressed; you’re the oppressor.

If you have the power to make a phonecall and have the government and the press appear at your beck and call and spread whatever message/lie you put out there, you’re not the oppressed; you’re the oppressor.

If you use your race as a threatening weapon against people don't look like you or don't think like you, you’re not the oppressed; you’re the oppressor.

This is evil. The people who perpetuate it are evil. Particularly evil are the ones who lie about anyone standing in their way, insisting they're the evil ones. Sowing discord. Persuading people that they’ve got to stand up against evil racism—by denigrating people who aren’t racist while wielding the threat of labeling them racist to ruin their lives.

One more quote, from the scriptures:

Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.

Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven.

—Matthew 5:10-12.

Scott Henry is being persecuted for speaking the truth and doing his duty, which includes preventing this pernicious racism from taking over our schools. I pray for him that he does not need to wait until heaven for the blessings.

I’d love to see someone out there with connections to a company that could use a good data analyst—to quietly step in and restore this good man’s ability to make a living for his family. Make his life better than it would have been if he’s stayed with a company so quickly willing to give in to the oppressors.

I expect there’s more persecution coming. Brace for it. Because there’s plenty of evil right here in our community.