A constant flow of water over years will smooth out the surface of rocks. It may take a few years or a few centuries; but water transforms rocks. The question is, did the rock really change or did it wear out? While this sounds like some philosophical question, two events this week lead me to this. The Montgomery Brawl and my move to Boston. Boston was once called the most racist city in America. So while black people would comment on my move to Boston and it’s racist roots, white people would comment about the cold. Two very different perspectives which mirror the American experience.
This is the pulitzer prize winning photo, The Soiling of Old Glory, from April of 1976. A black man was attacked by white protesters who were against school integration. I graduated from an integrated high school that same year. I remembered the protests over school integration in Virginia in the late 1960s. But this? A lone black man under attack is viscerally painful. City Hall, the site of the photo is a 5 minute walk from where I live. On Friday afternoon, the plaza was heavily populated and I sat in stillness, curious if anyone knew the history surrounding this place. As usual, I looked around, noted the landscape and escape routes. I know, it sounds like overkill, but, you know, it’s something a lot of black people do. Two worlds, evidenced by the Montgomery Brawl this week.
Black History was made this week in Montgomery Alabama. There was no defense assistance for Ted Landmark, the black attorney attacked with a flagpole in April of 1976. However, August 5, 2023, a community rushed to aid of the black 56 year old, co-captain Damien Pickett.
It started after the captain had spent 45 minutes asking the cruisers to move the pontoon they had docked in the riverboats parking space, a request that was met with swearing and obscene gestures. When one cruiser lunged at the captain with both hands and knocked him back, the skipper dug in for a fight. Seeing him outnumbered and quickly overwhelmed, Black onlookers swarmed to his defense, kicking off an epic brawl that was caught on camera from multiple angles.
Scuba Gooding Jr and the Riverboat Rumble: why Alabama brawl memes have real power
Andrew Lawrence
Riddle me this, why did the pontooners think it was ok to gang up and attack a black man doing his job? Why did the teenager with a flagpole think it was ok to attack an black attorney on his way to court. This is the hard part, the persistent denial of institutional racism. In the case of Montgomery, some of the headlines read the boaters were fueled by alcohol and adrenalin. Of, the subtleties of racism that sought to give the white boaters an excuse. What about fueled by life time of privilege and unchecked racism?1 The images of a lone black man under attack by 4 white boaters are disturbing, yet the start of something remarkable as the black community rushed in to intervene.
There is still a clear and present danger of racism in the US. We’re three years post George Floyd and while it seemed to be the tipping point for societal change, the experience is almost the opposite. Companies pledged diversity and inclusion, new roles were established, objectives were touted and a lot of noise around what turned out to be performative nonsense. There was hope that organizations would start to value diversity. How can you design a product for women without women involved, how can you create a marketing campaign to sell to a group of people without representation? It all just makes good business sense, yet, organizations failed to see how institutional racism impacts hiring and decision making. With the recent Supreme Court ruling against affirmative action for college admissions, many companies quickly and quietly disbanded their Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs, under the guise of “we want to avoid a lawsuit.”
The elimination of affirmative action, which was to correct institutionalized and historical injustices, is the new noose of lynching. This legal loophole allows corporations and institutions to throw away metrics and not self reflect on the possibility that the lack of diversity is hurting them and stay nestled snuggled in the world of institutionalized racism and false ideologies. 2
Another way to smooth rocks? Tumbling. This mechanical intervention smooths the surface of rocks quickly in minutes versus decades or centuries. So, maybe in the conversation of racism, what would an intervention look like? For non black readers, would you have intervened to stop the potooners from beating the black man? Have you commented like the wonderful Mama Tot, Ophelia Nichols? Y’all this is worth a listen. Pause and think about your answer. How has your community responded to the brawl? Is this new information ? Your responses are indicative of how the smoothing the rocks on racism will happen in the US. Will we have to wait for racism to wear over time or will there be an intervention?
1For additional context, we’re constantly subjected to “whitewashing.” One example, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Willy Wonka) published in 1964 by British writer Ronald Dahl. In the book, the Oompa-Loompas are black pygmies who Wonka imports from “the deepest and darkest part of the African jungle” and enslaves in his factory. After pressure, Dahl agreed to, in his words, “de-negro” his characters in the 70s. The Depressing Truth About Willy Wonka’s Oompa Loompa
2Looking at you Ron DeSantis saying the enslaved “developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.” Mr DeSantis, if you were educated, you would know, Africans were kidnapped based on their skill set with agriculture, livestock, artistry, music making and many other. So don’t even think for a minute the new revised history lessons for Florida are true.
Balancing on Unstable Surfaces 
After hearing that DeSantis line, I suggest that he and his family move to North Korea, Eritrea, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, Türkiye, Tajikistan, United Arab Emirates, Russia, Afghanistan, or Kuwait as slaves to see how that vocational benefit actually works.
Will an upcoming post reveal the rationale for your move East?
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