I am taking the day off and re-posting the only interesting blog post from my first one ever. This one is from March of 2004.
”The front cover of Orlando Weekly was an article about the neo-nazi march through the heart of the Parramore community, where there are African-American owned businesses, churches with Black ministers filled with Black congregations, teachers, students; people from all walks of this great gift called life living and working. Neo-nazis, firmly in opposition to Black communities like this one, marched through the neighborhood to demonstrate the “crime problem.” They wanted to incite a riot. They wanted to stir the notoriously easy to incense youth of America’s poorest communities into a frenzy and watch their rage erupt. Stir the bees and run.
There’s the story in the Weekly and there have been others about what happened that day, who was arrested, what everyone said, and what time the rally broke up. But I haven’t seen a lot talking about what didn’t happen that day, and to me that is the most interesting part of the story.
That clear, sunny Saturday people lived like many others. I occasionally heard someone mention the rally, but it seemed like they were going on about thier business, going to the Coretta Scott King memorial, heading to the mall to check out some shoes, shopping for furniture, or making some potato salad for the church. I watched the rally on t.v. and on Monday, I asked a student who lives in that neighborhood about it. He said, “My mom wouldn’t let me go.”
He didn’t seem too disappointed, either and I thought about his mother keeping him home that day, and it’s like, well duh, she loves you. The first point in the game that day goes to the mothers for showing up with the love by keeping their sons home.
“Hey mom, can I go down the street to that thing where people might be throwing big rocks and swinging baseball bats and maybe carrying guns? Everybody’s going to be down there getting mad, and I just really want to go.”
“No, son.”
Ding ding ding! We have a winner! And what do we have for the nice lady, Bob? A high school dimploma with her son’s name on it, grandchildren some day, and the peace of mind that comes from knowing your son is not in jail, does not have bullet holes in him, and will be over for dinner on Sunday.
That was one thing that went right. The next is that of the several hundred people out there, only 17 people were arrested, and from what I heard 14 of them were militant college leftists, which we appreciate but can’t rightly claim. They don’t live or work in the Parramore community. It wasn’t my students or their parents down their walking into the trap.
The nazi experiment failed! They weren’t able to prove that African-Americans are all criminals just below the surface of their skins, that they’re destructive and violent and feral, because they refused to be. A large number of people took a given situation and made the intelligent, moral decision not to enter the fracas, visit the circus, or join the debate. They took the high road. They did what Dr. King might have done, they turned the other cheek.
It takes courage and foresight to turn the other cheek, as anyone who has done it will tell you. It’s hard not to flinch when you know a slap is coming, but a whole bunch of people did it. Old ladies did it, business men did it, teenagers did it.
We talked to the students about it, we told them who was coming and what they wanted and why. We told them what we wanted the to do. They are teenagers, but they did it anyway! Even though they knew that they were doing what we told them to do! The kids listened to their teachers and mentors! Hooray for victory number two!
That speaks well of our community and bodes well for it. We need our youth to be strong, thoughtful, and subjective to careful guidance. Only a fool headed for ruin doesn’t heed good advice.”
