By Lola “C.R.T.”  Renegade 

Critical Race Truths

After fifty-six years, I still remember my daddy coming into the dilapidated shack we called home in Redwood, Mississippi, and delivering the heartbreaking news to Mama: “ Darlin’, Pat and Minnie’s boy got killed in ‘Nam!”  He was referring to Army PFC Robert Lee Scott who was not only a casualty of war abroad, but also a victim of the racism, poverty, and injustice of the still-confederate Jim Crow-Mississippi at home.  Robert began his tour of duty on August 28, 1968. Just fifteen days later, on September 11^th —one day before his 20th birthday—he was killed in Quang Tin Province, 9,133 miles from the Ballground Plantation in Redwood, where he had grown up. 

Redwood is part of the Vicksburg Micropolitan Statistical Area and is located near the junction of U.S. Route 61 and Mississippi Highway 3.  It is approximately 10 miles north of Vicksburg, a city made famous by the Battle of Vicksburg, which marked a critical turning point in favor of the Union Army during the Civil War..

Robert’s parents worked on the plantation – Mr. Pat drove tractors, and Ms. Minnie worked as a domestic in the homes of the white people who claimed the land – the Simralls.  African Americans who lived in this rural part of the Delta were a close-knit community, equally steeped in poverty, inequality, and a searing belief in God.

All of us remembered when Robert was drafted, went off to Vietnam, and returned home in a flag-draped coffin and a Purple Heart. Though I was eleven at the time, the vision of Robert’s young wife pregnant at his funeral with their first child will always be with me.  Robert is buried in the cemetery at Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church, up Highway 3.  I still visit his grave when I am there paying respect to my parents, other relatives, and extended family members who are long gone.

PFC Robert Lee Scott’s name is etched on Panel/Line:  44W/29 of the Vietnam War Memorial.  He is sandwiched between 20-year-old Marine Corps PFC Billy J. Scott, an African American from Cincinnati, Ohio, killed in Quang Nam Province, and 21-year-old Marine Corps CPL William Slade from Greensboro, North Carolina, killed in Quang Tri Province, also an African American.  A total of sixty-three were killed in battle that day–on September 11^th –many of them barely twenty years old.  Among this group were eleven African Americans and four Latinos – more than 23% young men of color.

While searching the Wall, I came across another young African American man with the same name,  Marine PFC Robert Lee Scott.  He was killed nine months before “our” Robert.  A resident of Houma, Louisiana, he was sacrificed in Vietnam on January 26, 1968, just twenty-three days after his 20^th birthday—in Lam Xuan Cua Viet River Sector, South Vietnam, Quang Tri province, 9,016 miles from home.

Nearly 60,000 Americans perished in Vietnam.  Draft-dodger Trump has labeled these fallen soldiers “suckers and losers.” It was during his presidency that he made these disparaging remarks.  His father used his influence to obtain a medical deferment, citing bone spurs as the diagnosis.  This practice was common among wealthy white elites who avoided the draft while the poor – both whites and minorities – were served up as cannon fodder in foreign lands all under the pretext of defending democracy.  Meanwhile, the privileged lived their hedonistic lifestyles neck-deep in the blood of the fallen.

While both Robert Lee Scotts were tragically killed in Vietnam, Donald “Bone Spurs” Trump, was shielded by his wealth and white skin.  He evaded the draft and lived a life of ruthless excess.  Dodging the draft allowed him to revel in a life of decadence – amassing fortunes, partying with pedophiles, traveling the world, skiing the slopes, playing endless games of golf, discriminating against people of color, demanding the death penalty of five innocent young men of color (Central Park Five), bankrupting businesses at least six times, stealing from his charity resulting in the State of New York shutting it down, creating a scam university for personal profit, sexually assaulting women and bragging about it, sexing up a porn star and Playboy bunny while married, hating immigrants unless they are from European countries or he is married to them, marrying three times (twice to immigrants), fathering four anchor babies plus one other non-anchor, overtly lying and cheating in every facet of his life without consequences.

Trump was gifted a “reality” television show, The Apprentice, that propelled him to fame and, ultimately, the U.S. presidency in 2016.  While running for president, he became the leader of a domestic extremist group (MAGA) and incited an insurrection to overturn the 2020 election when he lost his bid for re-election.  Trump and his gang attempted to disenfranchise voters in battleground states, demanded secretaries of states to “find votes” to overthrow outcomes not in his favor.     

During his tenure as president, he ended women’s reproductive healthcare, stole classified documents from the White House, destroyed government documents, appointed many grossly incompetent loyalists, withheld funding from Ukraine for a personal favor, courted dictators, flagrantly mishandled the COVID-19 pandemic resulting in the death of hundreds of thousands of American citizens.

Now, as a convicted felon facing 34 counts with more trials to come, and as a twice-impeached former president, Trump is once again running for president. His goal is, more than likely, to evade prison, erase all the charges against him, exploit the country’s Treasury for himself, his family and wealthy supporters, and further downgrade America into a third-world dictatorship. The list of his dastardly deeds goes on into infinity giving credence as to why Trump should not be allowed back on Pennsylvania Avenue or any close proximity to the White House. 

In stark contrast, Vice President Kamala Harris is running for president against Trump. She presents a career marked by a commitment to public service and a track record of legal and legislative accomplishments. Before becoming Vice President, Harris served as a U.S. Senator, Attorney General of California, and District Attorney of San Francisco. In her various capacities she has championed progressive causes and worked on a range of national issues, including healthcare reform, criminal justice reform, fair housing, environmental justice, consumer protection, and economic inequality. Her campaign for the presidency represents a continuation of her commitment to public service, aiming to build on the progress made during the Biden-Harris Administration. Unlike Trump, Harris is a non-felon with a career dedicated to making America great.

America will never truly be the greatest country in the world as long as 45% of its voting citizens continue to support, embrace, and elect the likes of Donald Trump.  They are intent on turning America into a kleptocratic kakistocracy, run by racists,  misogynists and plutocrats.  This historical and deep-seated flaw will forever be America’s greatest weakness and its ultimate undoing.

At 67, I have more years behind me than ahead, and I have worked for over forty years to make America a better place by embracing Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Beloved Community.  I am reminded of another fellow Mississippian and advocate for social justice, Fannie Lou Hamer.  She endured decades of racism, inequality, violence and eviction from her home for registering herself and others to vote and suffered a non-consensual sterilization—commonly known as a Mississippi appendectomy.  In 1964, in her testimony before the Credentials Committee at the Democratic National Convention, Ms. Hamer asked a poignant question:

 “Is this America, the land of the free and the home of the brave, where we have to sleep with our telephones off the hook because our lives are threatened daily, simply for wanting to live as decent human beings, in America?”

On Tuesday, November 5, 2024, sixty years later, we will answer Ms. Hamer’s question and send a powerful message to the world about who America truly is. When Vice President Kamala Harris is elected President, we can finally tell PFC Robert Lee Scott and countless others who sacrificed their lives for democracy that their deaths were not in vain. 

#where-truth-is-never-a-theory