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The one thing I have learned over and over as a pastor on the South Side of Chicago is that when you challenge a child, he or she often thrives. They may stumble or misstep here and there and sometimes it takes a day or even several months, but when they “get it” the smiles on their faces tell you everything. There is nothing more amazing than a child discovering that he or she is more powerful or smarter than they originally believed. And for the rest of their lives, they carry within themselves the knowledge that they are stronger than their fears. That is why I believe the gift of merit is the greatest gift a child can receive.
It saddens me that the leaders of Chicago and elsewhere do not believe in this simple lesson. They believe more in race than merit.
I remember decades ago when the elites, intellectuals, academics, and politicians lectured us that if we had a Black mayor and Blacks in power in key parts of the city and Black teachers teaching Black kids, then Blacks would begin to thrive. They told us that it was white supremacy and Whites who didn’t understand Blacks that were holding us back. But by magically making everything Black, there would be no more inner cities, ghettos, poverty, or gang violence. We Blacks would thrive because those Blacks in power understood us, they got us.
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I never believed that fairy tale for one moment.
Merit doesn’t believe in race. Merit does not belong to those who use race as power. Merit belongs to only those who earn it.
But, sadly, far too many of us believe in the fantasy of race and we now have a Black mayor in Chicago who boasts that he has the blackest administration. We also have a Black head of the teacher’s union who hold so much power and sway over our children’s educations.
You’d think these Black elites who profess to care so much about Black children would do something about the failing schools and crime that kills far too many kids. Yet they could care less. I judge people by their actions and there has been nothing of significance and that is why I have no qualms about saying they could not care less. What a sorry fate to be born into on the South Side where there is so much governmental failure.
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What these Black elites do care about is their own power, their status. Most of all, they care about creating the bogey man that President Donald Trump is bringing back the confederacy. Yes, good old Johnny Rebel and the slave master with his whips and chains will be marching down King Drive once again. Of course, this is a beyond ridiculous argument and it serves only one purpose: to deflect our attention away from their systemic failures.
Several weeks ago, black Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said, “There should be no question to what our country would look like had the Confederacy won — we’re seeing it on full display.” The implication here was that Trump was Jefferson Davis 2.0 and that his policies harkened a return to the days of slavery and segregation.
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Then several days ago, Black Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates — the woman who doesn’t trust her public schools to educate her own kids who are in private schools — said Trump “is here to win the relitigation of the Civil War and finish the work of the Confederacy.”
Imagine being a child on the South Side and hearing those words. That child would hear so much anger for the bogeyman of white supremacy and no anger for the failing schools. In fact, that Black elite voice that bashes white supremacy would tell that Black child that it is not their fault that they are not educated, that it is not their fault they can’t get a job, or dream of a better life. It’s the fault of “The Man” aka white supremacy.
These leaders never talk of merit to these children and they never practice it. They have pursued race as their power and that pursuit has corrupted them. That is why I fight them every day from my block on the South Side. I know the power of merit. I know what it does to the mind of the child. And I know how a child who lives the life of merit always — I repeat, always — has the chance to move out of poverty and into a better life.
Merit is the promise that America gives to every one of her children. It takes a certain kind of evil to deny these kids their birthright.
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