I finished reading James by Percival Everett this morning. It is a powerful book deserving of the accolades. I recommend it. It is the telling of Huck Finn from Jim’s first-person narrative. It’s been a long time since I read Huck Finn, so I can’t speak to how it follows the events of that book, and I don’t think that is important. What is important is the claiming of one’s own story and identity. James instead of Jim, and full humanization of James and shining a light on all the systems and social norms used to dehumanize the enslaved. It saddens me that this it is necessary to still do so.

Near the end of the book, James is searching for his wife and daughter who were sold away. This is the passage that stopped me in my reading and I had to just sit with for a bit before continuing on.

At the edge of the spent cornfield, a black man and I surprised each other. He started to run and I called out to him.
“Friend,” I said
He stopped and turned to me, “Where did you come from?” he asked.
“The woods. I’m a runaway.”
“You don’t say. From where?”
“Hannibal. I’m looking for the Graham farm.”
“The breeder?” he asked.
“What do you mean?”
“Graham’s a breeder. He breeds slaves and sells them.”

This is the kind of history the anti-woke, anti-DEI crowd wants to hide and erase. The kind of history they think it is too painful for innocent white children to learn. The kind of history they feel is no longer relevant. Erasing this kind of history is part then of erasing any correction for the impact of such trauma that still lingers, no festers in our society. For everyone.

The next step after the erasure is “meritocracy,” though this kind of meritocracy is an excuse for maintaining control and power. The “meritocracy” we are currently witnessing in government is removing the names, records, history, even current qualified employees that are black and brown and replacing them with largely unqualified white men and women. Karoline Leavitt, Linda McMahon, RFK Jr., Kash Patel, Pete Hegseth to name a few.

This is white supremacy in practice. We are watching it and allowing it to happen. It will not end well.

This is the importance of owning and telling all our stories, painful, joyful, triumphant, shameful, ugly, or beautiful. They are us as a collective and it is only through the telling and sharing of such stories might the arc of the universe continue to bend toward justice.