Cancel Culture Barbie, Reagan Escudé

And here we go again. 

Straight out of Central Casting is the latest member of the Trump Show to go off the rails.

She’s young, which Trump likes.

She’s blonde, which Trump likes.

She’s pretty and perky, which Trump likes.

She’s talking out about “Cancel Culture”, which Trump also dislikes.

The mystery girl/woman?  College student, Reagan Escudé.

 

The latest victim of her rantings?  Aunt Jemima, which the latest Miss Barbie doesn’t like that it’s being pulled from shelves because, “Who doesn’t love Aunt Jemima syrup on their pancakes?”

Reagan called Nancy Green, "the picture of the American dream."
 

Yes, removing an offensive black figure used as a prop for decades for the pleasure of white people is horrible, awful, a Democratic plot to undermine our democracy.  Not sure who “our” is in this instance, but moving on.

Nancy Green (March 4, 1834 – August 30, 1923) was a storyteller, cook, activist, and the first of several African-American models hired to promote a corporate trademark as "Aunt Jemima".  Ms. Green was also a former slave, something that Ms. Escudé seems to gloss over; Reagan does mention the slave part, but only in passing, like it's not big deal at all.  (It's a HUGE deal)  Likewise with Uncle’s Ben (of Converted Rice fame), and other corporate symbols over the past several weeks. 

Is that removal enough?  NO.  Is it a starting point?  Yes, if it helps ease the pain of even 1 person, or 1 group, that’s a good thing.  But we ALL have work to do, starting with those fragile, delicate white people.  (YES, I’m one of them, and very embarrassed and ashamed right now.)

I don’t have a reference point for what’s it like to be any person of color – African, Hispanic, LatinX, Asian, Pacific Islander, any other person or group.  I can’t imagine what it must be like to wake up every single morning knowing there’s a target or your back, or your forehead.  That’s unfathomable to me.

That I am privileged because of the color of my skin alone, is frankly, mind-boggling, and not in a good way.  I have come to realize that “privilege” is not about social status, income level, belonging to an exclusive country club… it’s much more human and biological than that.

We ARE one people.  The  PEOPLE of Planet Earth. 

John Lennon (remember him?) wrote “Imagine” about 45 years ago, in the early 1970s and he knew then what the rest of us are only beginning to see now. 

“Imagine there’s no countries, it isn’t hard to do.

No need for greed or hunger, and no religion, too. 

Imagine all the people, living life in peace.”

It’s worth looking up on YouTube or iTunes.  But I digress.

(**Side Note-- Think about this. Wouldn't it be amazing to have a choir of young people, the DREAMers, singing John Lennon's "Imagine", and have it filmed for YouTube so the world could see them?  That would be cool!)

Enough IS ENOUGH.  This needs to be the revolution that The Beatles sang about, because that’s what it is going to take to get things done.

Trump won’t move an inch on anything. (He’ll likely get his ‘walking papers’ in November 2020)

Mitch McConnell, likewise, won’t budge because he knows Trump won’t move on it.  (Mitchy will likely not be the Senate Majority leader in November 2020)

And on down the ballot. 

Real police reforms will take place, union leadership or not.  Many officers won’t like the nationwide reporting system and will probably leave their jobs/careers in public safety.  Police, aside from “choke holds”, “knees on necks” and so on, they already have too much leeway as public safety officers.  Maybe reign them in some?  Probably.

I don’t know how or when things will calm down, or return to normal or “new normal”.  My crystal ball is in the shop and reading tea leaves was not a subject I studied in school.

Reagan is just the latest talking head in Trump’s wallet/bed and she’ll be a memory very soon.

The immediate issue of importance is treatment of Black people, demonized, marginalized, threatened… no one should have to go through an entire lifetime like that.  No one.

Bottom line, it’s another (feeble) attempt by white people to minimize the trials, tribulations, and hardships of Black people for the past 400 years.

It’s the reason so many statues and other monuments from the 19^th and 20^th centuries are being torn down around the world right now – Enough IS ENOUGH. 

Black Lives Matter. Period. Hard Stop.

And somehow, for some reason, all Trump cares about is how those monuments and statues are being desecrated, not that the statues are of slave owners, not that the statues are of people who defiled indigenous lands and peoples…. None of that.  Nope, it’s all about statues.

For someone as vain and delicate and obnoxious and vile as Trump is, what’s the real reason he cares about statues?  Statue envy?  Probably.  It’s like that phase we go through in our development that Dr. Freud spoke about – pee pee envy.

And he’s set to sign a proclamation, or executive action or executive order, where he takes that Sharpie and scribbles with the veracity of a 4 year old desperately trying to color within the lines.

Gotta say though, it looks more like an EKG than a signature.  Just sayin’…

BLACK   LIVES   MATTER.

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**Update**  The House of Representatives is set to pass a policing reform bill soon, as of June 25, 2020, however, that is along party lines as Republicans, largely, refuse to get on board.  (I think their constituents feel differently and will not vote them back into office during the next few election cycles.)

Likewise in the Senate with a Republican majority and Trump flunky/toadstool, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. (He’s facing an uphill battle with 2 separate contenders – 1 Democrat and 1 Republican – and he’s sweating now as the Senate will like flip to Democrat control in November 2020.)  His party’s policing reform bill largely does nothing in regards to reigning in police, which again, WILL lead to continued divides and protests around police brutality and lack of accountability.  

Check this out:

1 Black Republican Senator, Tim Scott, from South Carolina

… and many women, but NO color in the Republican party:

Kelly Loeffler, R-GA

Martha McSally, R-AZ

Marsha Blackburn, R-TN

Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-MS

Joni Ernst, R-IA

Shelley Moore Capito, R-WV

Deb Fischer, R-NE

Lisa Murkowshi, R-AK

Susan Collins, R-ME

At the same time there are 4 women of color in the Senate:

Kamala Harris, D-CA

Tammy Duckworth, D-IL

Mazie Hirono, D-HI

Catherine Cortez Masto, D-NV

So, what does this mean?  Real simple.  We can’t change the country until it looks like us, the country as a whole and the world-at-large… period.

YES, that means MORE PEOPLE OF COLOR in the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives. 

And just in case you forgot:

BLACK            LIVES              MATTER.