Due to the revolt by Nat Turner, a new law was passed by the Virginia General Assembly making it unlawful for enslaved or free Africans to learn to read and write. Also, African people were banned from holding religious meetings with the presence of a licensed white master.

It is impossible to truly comprehend today’s culture of systemic racism of unless we have an in-depth understanding of our own racial history. Both today and in the past, “white” America has worked tirelessly to create laws, both de facto and dejure in order to control, marginalize, murder, harm, rape, demean, exclude, brutalize, deny, devastate, blame, stereotype, lie about, etc. Black people and yet they still rise with greatness. We “white” people, in the aggregate, must support justice and equity, not out of guilt, not out of a savior complex, but because acting human is a minimal requirement for civility. We were all born into this insanity. But it doesn’t mean we just watch. It doesn’t mean we say that it’s just the way things are. “White” America must take racial responsibility so that some day, we can live in a nation where the idea of forming “a more perfect union” means justice and equity for all. We have to do better than this. American democracy, equity, and justice must be more more than just an ideology, but an actual reality. We are at the brink of losing whatever is left of our democratic republic all because we “white” folks cannot fathom treating our fellow humans with equity, dignity, justice, and respect. We have a “white” people problem in the USA. Please don’t let fear and hate win the day. Vote like our human & civil rights depend upon it.