By Marc Broklawski, cross-posted from Medium
Stafford NAACP takes Stafford County Supervisor Crystal Vanuch to school over comments about black children and police.
Board of Supervisor Crystal Vanuch’s implication that the minority children of Stafford County’s fear of police officers is manufactured from the media is tone deaf.
There isn’t a single black person alive that hasn’t been a victim of driving while black, shopping while black, or living while black. And if it hasn’t happened to them it’s happened to someone they know.
At this point when politicians choose to throw mythical hypotheticals about Black people and our fears being manipulated by the media, they are either willfully tone deaf or ignorant of what is occurring in our country.
Politicians who don’t understand this do not deserve to represent the people. It is time for them to either sit down and listen or find a new occupation. One of the beautiful things about this movement, BLM, is the amount of understanding we have from folks who are not a part of the minority community. Which is why a politician who still doesn’t get it and refuses to understand these things needs to humble themselves and try and learn or get voted out by their constituents.
When you are in the room with elected officials and the views of minorities are trying to be expressed by the lone minority in the room, School Board member Pam Yeung, the white voices shouldn’t be the loudest and its incredibly bold to talk over that lone minority in the room when all your arguments were hinged on the conversation with one student.
We are at an inflection point in U.S. History. The time is now to seek change, but that change can only occur if we elect politicians who have a desire to understand the problems that we face in this country.
Stafford County Branch NAACP
Education Committee
Political Action Committee