sarahBy Opeyemi Parham
I am sure you will remember me? I am the Black woman wearing the black cloak with the red velvet lining, who was walking down State Street towards the Capitol as you were walking away, singing and handing out little leaflets, where I listed the four pillars of anti fascism: Protect the people, Disrupt and disobey, Defend civic institutions, Build alternative culture.
Here’s my song, that I was singing:
“We can be people
at the full height of our power.
This is the place,
and now is the hour.
We recognize
our sacred worth.
We hold the power
to transform the earth.”
I thought you might want to actually hear the words to the song. Because our interaction was becoming a little emotionally tense as we spoke, once you made it quite clear that you were a Trump supporter. And your wife whipped out a camera as if you were going to capture some really “viral moment” for your influencer audience (whoever that might be). I turned away from you and continued to walk down the street, as I was singing that line “We recognize our sacred worth,” both because the line is true and because it felt as if you were about to try to pick a fight. As I moved away, I heard you call out, “You’re not even from here!”
Let me just clear up one fact for you, Mister Trump Supporter (and your lovely wife with the cell phone). You two were interacting with an African American woman, age 69, who is the descendant of enslaved African Americans. We were here in 1860s Georgia and likely many generations earlier. My lineage is not documentable before the census of 1860. My people were listed in our years of chattel slavery as property along with the rugs and the furniture; it is only from the oral traditions on my mother’s side of the family that we can identify kin in that 1860 census. And, of course, we Black folks aren’t always so comfortable talking about the blood of the slaveholding oppressors that also runs through our veins.
Just clarifying that not only do I belong here, but most brown people you bump into in Vermont likely “belong” here on turtle island genealogically way more deeply and way longer than European-descended white people like you.
And your wife with the camera.
And that still leaves me at least a fifth-generation American, with two generations of little mixed-race African American children and grandchildren beyond me.
Que lastima, para tus sueños de pureza blanca y poder. Not quite sure what I just said?
Well, since you chose to take a stroll through a peaceful protest in a state that proclaims “freedom and unity,” with clear (but thwarted?) intentions to be a troll, I suggest that learning Spanish may be a great next step in support of your continued participation in a continuing Democracy.
love (way better than sincerely),
Opeyemi Parham, MD, Montpelier
The material presented here represents the opinion of the author and does not reflect the opinions of The Bridge. Commentaries may be submitted to editor@montpelierbridge.com. Preference is given to submissions by those who live in central Vermont. Submissions are encouraged to be 500 to 750 words in length.
