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HELL-O AMERICA, HOW ARE YA? NO MATTER. UNTIL YOU DO RIGHT BY ME AND MY SISTERS AND BROTHERS, EVERYTHING YOU TOUCH WILL FAIL
[ “Until you do right by me, I say, everything you even dream about will fail. I give it to him straight, just like it come to me.”-CELIE (a Main Protagonist in The Color Purple by Alice Waters]
AND…
THE OTHER EVANGELICALS BY ISSAC B. SHARP [ EERDMANS PRESS, 2023]
A MOST TOLERANT LITTLE TOWN BY RACHEL LOUISE MARTIN [ SIMON & SCHUSTER, 2023]
“While growing up in the North, I went to college in the South and spent the rest of my life in Georgia and Florida. I would have experienced Blackness differently in the South. In some ways worse and in others better. I would have been more in touch with fear and violence yet also exposed to a different measure of strength and perseverance. I had Black role models in the North, in my Black church, in my family, and in my neighborhood. It wasn’t until I attended the HBCU, Fisk University that I imagined greatness for myself. I could see excellence all around on that campus and in all the places I lived after, though there were also bad examples.” - William Spivey on Medium.com
Conversely, having been born and educated in the North, I was blessed ( a realization upon reflection in 2024) to experience Black role models in the North and South on both sides of my family with roots from…
