The Best of
“The Way I See It”
& Other Political Writings
(1989-2010)
The Best of
“The Way I See It”
& Other Political Writings
(1989-2010)
Jamala Rogers
Copyright © 2011 by Jamala Rogers
All rights reserved. Any part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, or otherwise, and verbally quoted as long as you credit the author or the book.
ISBN-13: 978-1-4566-0569-8
Published in eBook format by eBookIt.com
Book cover by Inkosi Designs
St. Louis, Missouri, USA
To my mother, Lollie Brashears—
my first teacher and literary critic
Introduction
Most people who know Jamala Rogers - especially her mother - would not be surprised as to how she became a featured columnist for the award-winning St. Louis American.
The story goes that Jamala approached publisher Donald Suggs in 1994 and asked in a very direct manner why there were only men whose political views were worthy of print in the newspaper. She had known “Doc” for many years and knew that the publisher would take her concern seriously.
Dr. Donald Suggs and Jamala Rogers participated as
panelists at an unknown event. (c. late 1980’s)
Dr. Suggs invited Jamala to fill that void. She had not raised the observation to take on the task; after all, she had just reluctantly accepted a position in the administration of the City’s first African American mayor. Setting up the Office of Youth Development for Mayor Freeman Bosley, Jr. was going to be challenge enough.
However, Jamala eventually accepted the invitation to join the St. Louis American. And the rest is history.
Jamala joined Shirley Deavens, already a mainstay with her religious column, Living the Abundant Life. They opened the door for other columns by women. At one point, there were seven African American women simultaneously expressing their views about life, love and struggles in the award-winning St. Louis American.
Jamala’s commentaries were most consistently printed in the St. Louis American but they also appeared in many other publications. In 2006, she joined the editorial board of BlackCommentator, a weekly online publication. Regardless of where they are published, Jamala’s articles make their way into everyday conversations, onto the airwaves of talk radio, into the lesson plans of classrooms, and onto the bulletin boards of workplaces. The power of her words, the clarity of her analysis and the passion of her purpose has been embraced and debated for almost thirty years.
Those in power often feel the sting of her words when they trample on the rights, aspirations and dignity of working people, especially children and youth. Some are compelled to defend themselves as did the mayor to Jamala’s critique on Why the City Sales Tax Lost or the Catholic official to The Injustice by the Catholic Church.
In most instances, her readers believe that she speaks with them and through them - understanding their feelings of hopelessness, joy, fear and accomplishment. They often share their stories with Jamala about how they found their voice or how they confronted an abuse of power. This is exactly why Jamala writes. She wants people to read more and write more. More importantly, she wants them to better understand the world in which they live, and that desperately needs their help for a complete and total transformation.
The selection of articles for this book is a combination of reader favorites and those that document significant events or struggles. Some titles may differ from their original published titles. Articles are from the St. Louis American unless noted otherwise.
Preface and Acknowledgements
Up until not too long ago, when you came into St. Louis by air, you’d be greeted by two murals at Lambert International Airport. Flight…An American Triumph was unveiled in 1980 as an illustrated history of aviation. One problem: Not one black face was included in the historical depiction!
When the racist and revisionist history was pointed out by members of the local Tuskegee Airmen, then Mayor Vince Schoemehl retorted there was no need for two murals. That colonial attitude is a reverberating reframe in the city that I often trace back to the infamous Dred Scott decision of 1857. The ruling said that black folks were only 3/5 of a human being; we have no rights that white people have to respect.
The second mural, Black Americans in Flight took almost a decade to complete, with much of that time going toward fundraising. The mural example speaks to the determined spirit of black St. Louisans who must fight every day to assert their full citizenship and to get respect. The airport wall is symptomatic of the racial dynamics that permeate the social and cultural fabric of the city as well as define the economic and political relations between the races.
In the Lou, ours is an ongoing struggle to overcome intractable racism to create a safe and just place that protects the human rights of all. This is a city which has held several dishonorable titles, including Most Racially Segregated, Most Dangerous City, Least Kid-Friendly City, # 1 in Racial Mortgage Rate Disparity, just to name a few. St. Louis racism is not just a figment of our imagination, it is our brutal reality.
My intent is always to have a conversation with my readers - to inform, to inspire, to challenge, and to move them to action. That’s whether it’s the waitress at the local restaurant or the professor at the university. Those conversations invariably continue while I’m at the grocery store, at a protest, at the clinic or wherever I meet people. Those insights are incorporated into future writings so that the summed up experiences are not just circular, but are expanded and deepened.
My writings are inspired and informed by the valiant struggles of peoples to their oppressive and exploitative conditions no matter where they are in the world. My goal is to expose the systems that reproduce those conditions and to provide possible strategies for our collective discussion and actions. I strive to show the inter-connectedness of the global economic system and how it affects are daily lives.
I’d like to thank my biological family, especially my siblings Loretta, Cheryl, Vanessa and Ben (deceased), for their love and encouragement over the years. My regret is that my brother’s premature death deprived us both of sharing in the excitement of my first book. I think my father, Bennett Massey Sr., and stepfather, Virgil Brashears, Jr. would have been pretty puffed up about the book if they were still alive. The life lessons from my “village“ are never far away when I write or speak and have definitely helped to shape my world view.
Percy Green II, my partner and soulmate, has helped me to truly appreciate St. Louis civil rights history with his stories about ordinary people creating extraordinary places and events. It really does fill in the gaps of where we are today and why.
Much respect goes to my political and cultural family which makes up the