[Bgs-list] A little background on my vociferously argued points...

[Curtis D White Sr]

Charles, thank you for sharing.  This forum is a good way to air internal thoughts & our decision making processes. We are different & come from different walks of life. We must accept each other that way. The power is through persuasion after listening. We choose to intake what we want.  We leave either being persuaded or with added knowledge. I want all of us to see it for what it is & do our best to be part of the positive change, whatever that looks like. In most of our worlds, we are the only brother. Remain strong, my brothers.

C D White, Sr.
Sent from my iPhone

On Jun 11, 2020, at 8:03 AM, Charles Baker <charleshbaker at gmail.com> wrote:


Dear friends. I would like to say that during our friendly yet sometimes contentious lunch conversations I will rarely speak on something unless I’ve done the research beforehand. As an example ,over the last three years I’ve read all of the books in the below screenshot as part of a book club and discussing them with the book club members, often facilitated in the discussion by a local expert often a professor from Furman or another local university.

And for each one of these books I’ve read at least one other book on the subject, more likely three or four. Why? I’m a bookworm and I love learning. More likely than not I’ve also listened to hours of podcasts and read a few or more articles on the subject as well.

In the discussions of these books not only am I usually the only Black man in the room, I’m usually the only Black person or person of color period. If you would like to join the book club I would be happy to have any of you join, just let me know.

Back to today, I didn’t speak about Dabo specifically because I don’t know much about him and really don’t care. I played football growing up, but over the last several years I’ve watched less and less because I’ve come to view it as a gladiator sport and I just can’t get with it like I used to.

In general, too, while I may become shall we say passionately loud about a topic, I try to stick to the facts that I’ve learned. I also try not to interject the personal into the conversation except I know that sometimes people don’t empathize with a subject unless it has personally touched them or a loved one. Sometimes you have to imagine if whatever the thing is happened to you or yours. As an example, Dick Cheney was against gay rights and marriage until his daughter came out of the closet.

All of this is not to say that I’m smarter than any of you. It’s just to let you know that I don’t just make stuff up or strictly editorialize, offer opinion. I would also like to say that I didn’t just come to the protest party. I’ve been “in these streets” off and on since protesting Apartheid at Yale in the early/mid 1980s. Which was successful after months in getting Yale to divest investments in S. Africa (I was not a leader, just a foot soldier). I look back on that as necessary but perhaps a bit naive as we might have been better served working to break down the remnants of American Apartheid that have continued to plague us to this day.

[image.png]



Charles H. Baker
864.990.1297
“Don’t be in a hurry to condemn because he doesn’t do what you do or think as you think or as fast. There was a time when you didn’t know what you know today.” — Malcolm X


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