Each day, the news plagues us, so much so that it will make even a staunch Republican grab their wig. Day after day, week after week, we have a bunch of lunatics running this country, and there is no shame in their game.

It’s a litany of ways of how this administration is catering to white supremacy, and how to maintain their power, because they want us to think they are the aggrieved people.

Are you familiar with the Dred Scott decision, an enslaved man who in 1857 sued for freedom for himself, his wife, Harriet, and their two daughters, Lizzie and Eliza’s freedom, but was unsuccessful? The Supreme Court ruled that blacks were not considered citizens and therefore couldn’t sue. Furthermore, black men had no rights that a white man had to respect. Shameful.

The plot is the same today: white supremacists want unequal rights. As a result, this administration is stripping black people of our rights, such as DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion). They are preventing the teaching of our history in classrooms. Along with redistricting maps to make the voters elect them every time. This gerrymandering happens every 10 years after the census. States redraw the boundaries of congressional and state legislative districts to stack the deck against anyone different from the self-choosen supremacists. You better believe Republicans will rig the maps in their favor; it has been happening way before they were called Republicans, since 1812.

They are targeting federal education offices. They don’t want people of color to learn and understand their rights or our history. No. They want to dictate who, what, when, and how people maneuver. They are constantly attacking our civil rights protections, even removing historical material that has anything to do with slavery and Native Americans. They are making segregation legal again, and racial discrimination legal again, and they have a bought and paid for Supreme Court on their side. They are stripping us of affordable housing, robbing us of having the Affordable Care Act for healthcare, attacking historical Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), and controlling white universities like Harvard—requiring them to teach what this administration wants them to teach—the list is infinite.   

Where do we go from here? How do we take care of ourselves when we are powerless over what is out of our control? We will not be moved, because our ancestors already fought this fight for us. We have to pick up the baton and finish what they started. We must restore and maintain our spirits because their plot is to cause an environment of fear, and we have to fight back. Yet, we must be vigilant because it’s risky to speak freely. We have to protect ourselves and each other because the law doesn’t matter anymore. The Oligards are ruling.

I know most will not want to hear this, but two major holidays are upon us, with the major one being Christmas. Let’s shut it down. Do not purchase anything. Let me repeat this, “Do not purchase anything.” If you have to give a gift, consider making something and having a conversation with others about why this is important, rather than purchasing. Forget about Black Friday—it’s not for us, it’s for them to get their financial books out of the red.  

We have to remember what Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., et al did during the 1968 call for economic action. They called for us to redistribute the pain from us to them. Support Black-owned businesses, especially Black journalists who are telling us the truth, like Joy-Ann Reid, Roland Martin, and Don Lemon. But let’s not support the racist Uncle Toms and Aunt Tommies. Let’s get off these social media platforms that have these algorithms targeting us, inciting us, against one another, while honoring white supremacists as heroes. They are not. Let’s understand that they are who they are—racists. Understand that AI (Artificial Intelligence) is not our friend. Let’s not utilize this to write and think for us, but let’s use critical thinking for ourselves. Read. Let’s learn as much as we can. We can do this, and like Dr. King called for, while emphasizing nonviolence.

Each one of us has a responsibility to help democracy work. We need leadership, not necessarily leaders. We must commit ourselves. Share our resources, no matter how small. Organize within our communities by mobilizing what we have. Start a walking group. Strategize with one another; perhaps we can clean up a block in our neighborhood. Disrupt the status quo. Refuse to be a follower of hate. Instead, engage in love—an agape love for freedom. Participate in elections to elect people who work with us, not against us.

We must vote in every election. September 30 is a special election to recall Executive Frank White. Personally, I see it as a power grab because he did not support using taxpayer money to support billionaires in building new football and baseball stadiums. Yet, you get to vote for who you want, but please vote. Let us demand the reclaiming of our country. Now is the time. No one is going to save us; we must save ourselves. May peace be with us all.