Don’t Blame The Kids (On The Women’s March and Getting “Woke”)
I wore black on the day the Thief-In-Chief was inaugurated, swearing up and down my apartment as he swore up and down to protect his constituents. The image on my shirt, a picture of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X shaking hands, was the only thing beaming on my apparel. Only one of my co-workers had discussed any plans to discuss the proceedings. I wanted to abstain from what was sure to be malarkey. This was the first inauguration I had no intention of watching live. Yes, I even saw both Dubya’s inaugurations for critical analysis. I hate that people keep saying “Don’t worry; we’ve survived worse” because some people don’t survive the “tough times.” Only those that get to tell the stories of how we survived. I needed a visible form of protest on January 20th, 2017, as is my right.
This inauguration redrew the lines from “left vs. right” to “human vs. inhumane,” and too many of us are caught in the crosshairs.
For those who’ve followed me for some time, you know the types of discussions I’ve had with prior classes. I’ve spoken about the merciless killing of black children at the hands of the state, the deportation of millions of children, mostly Latino / Chicano, and the unfair state of standardized testing on my students. Sometimes, I’ll do it through a professional veneer, and other times, I just go off. Each time, I hoped to elicit some form of response, to plant a seed within the listeners that would last them long after they graduated from my classroom. This year, I thought I had the words for my students because I had done it so many times before.
After my presumed readiness, on January 20th, 2017, while the small-handed fool placed his nails on Bibles, all I could muster was “if you’d like to talk about the events of today, let me know.” Their response was the biggest thud I’ve felt in a Don't Blame The Kids (On The Women's March and Getting "Woke") | The Jose Vilson: