Guest Column
Deeds, not words, will
bring all people together
James M. Waters
Guest Column
Deeds, not words, will
bring all people together
In the NAACP we believe the rights and opportunities of all people must be respected and protected, starting here in Lakewood, New Jersey. We say brotherhood must be practiced, not preached.
At the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, we believe colored people come in all colors.
We believe that racism, sexism and anti-Semitism are wrong; we will continue to fight the demons in our society that advocate and support these negative evils. Even in the 21st century the fight for basic civil rights, equality and opportunity presents a never-ending challenge.
Many in our society are afraid of the truth and others refuse to even talk about the many things that are destroying our world. They don’t want to be reminded of James Byrd, or young Matthew Shepard, or the Philippine postman in California or the Jewish children in the day care center, all of whom were violently and viciously killed in America because of their sex, because of their race and because of their religion.
Innocent lives are constantly being lost because of these evils and many of us sit quietly by as spectators and do nothing. "Evil flourishes when people of good will sit and do nothing." We all can, as the NAACP believes, make a difference.
There are those who would like for the NAACP to accept the disadvantages, disparities and inequities and say nothing. Unlike the association they would have us to be, we are not going to be quiet like that. When we see something wrong, we are going to speak up. We are going to have a "problem" with denial, deprivation and disprivilege.
We will have a problem with injustice, inequality and inequity. We will have a problem with disparities and discrimination. Often, we hear from others that we should go along and get along, but we in the NAACP will not stand mute. We will not be happy and satisfied with our pain and the suffering in our communities.
We will continue to tell our people, "It is all right to challenge the things you perceive are wrong." Yes, we have a problem when things are wrong; when breast cancer, prostate cancer, diabetes, kidney disease, cardiovascular disease, hypertension and HIV-AIDS ravage our community in numbers like no other community, we have problem. When there are serious disparities in health care … we have a problem.
When our young people are being incarcerated, are given harsher penalties than given to others, simply because they are poor blacks, poor white or poor Latino … we have a problem. When banks and insurance companies deny us loans, then charge us double because of our ZIP codes, our surname or the color of our skin … we have a problem. It’s all right to have a problem with things that are wrong.
We believe public education is still the basic cornerstone for millions of American families and their children, but if we fail to address the issue of class size, curriculum development, absenteeism, truancy, drop-out rates and new resegregation trends … we have a problem. It’s all right to have a problem with things that are wrong.
We have the responsibility in the NAACP to articulate problems. "To speak truth to power," and "Have our say." We must continue to identify the problems, know what they are and articulate them. To articulate, you must first open your mouth, you must be on the firing line, you have to go against the grain, you must swim upstream, you must go against gravitational pull and, most importantly, you must stand up and accept the challenges.
With standing up comes a sense of pride, dignity and worth, an acute awareness also that everyone will not agree and be happy with you.
The NAACP articulates problems, we will continue to find what’s wrong, focus attention and advocate for solutions, whether popular or not.
As African-Americans, we understand that probably better than anyone else in our society. We have always been willing to work with others that treat us fairly. The hate in our world today enjoys contributions from all groups and it will take all groups to solve this problem. The NAACP has always been at the tables of civil rights solutions and exclusion from that table will be translated as ethnic disrespect. We will continue to have a problem with things that are wrong, we will continue to create a public awareness and public opinion.
Those that speak in the voice of Jacob and act with the hand of Esau better examine themselves. History will remember all of us by our deeds and not by our rhetoric. God will be watching all of us.
James M. Waters is the president of the Ocean-Lakewood chapter of the NAACP.