A Bootless Man • SJS

“When white Individuals inform the Negro to carry himself by his personal bootstraps, they don’t look over the legacy of slavery and segregation. Now I consider we should do all we will and search to carry ourselves by our personal bootstraps, nevertheless it’s a merciless jest to say to a bootless man that he should carry himself by his personal bootstraps. Many negroes, by the hundreds and hundreds of thousands, have been left bootless because of all of those years of oppression and because of a society that intentionally made the colour of their pores and skin a stigma and one thing nugatory and degrading.”

– Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. MLK on Genuine Equality – NBC News

CULTURE SHOCK

The quote above is one in every of my favourite quotes by the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Though these are phrases from 1967, they’ve benefit 54 years later. I’m the one Black man within the UH Graduate College of Social Work Austin Legislative Internship Program. I say this to not spotlight the variations I’ve with my different esteemed colleagues, however to tell the reader of the distinctive lens via which I view this expertise. Being a Black man navigating this legislative session has been extremely difficult, but extraordinarily rewarding. The Texas Legislature didn’t plan for folks like me to be working in it when it was constructed. I may even really feel the deliberate exclusion of people that appear like me 133 years after its opening.

I obtained my undergraduate diploma in Social Work from Fayetteville State University in Fayetteville, North Carolina, in December 2019. My alma mater is a Historically Black College/University (HBCU). I lived within the Deep South my complete life. Though born in Michigan, I lived 12 years in Georgia and 16 years in North Carolina earlier than shifting to Texas in August 2020 to begin graduate college on the University of Houston. Professional-Blackness is all I do know. For my complete life, Black tradition and neighborhood enveloped me. Somebody who regarded like me all the time surrounded me. The instances I skilled racism have been all the time exterior of my “beloved community.”

In my quick time as a Texas resident, I’ve witnessed overt racism and bigotry like by no means earlier than. Whereas dwelling in Austin for this internship, it was the primary time I can recall in my life the place a outstanding Black “beloved neighborhood” didn’t encompass me. Though I’ve seen and skilled discrimination, racism, and bigotry, I’ve by no means needed to consistently grapple with it in the way in which I do as an intern on the Texas Legislature; the rhetoric, the tradition. There’s no different technique to describe this aside from a tradition shock.

I discover it incongruous that each time the Texas House of Representatives convenes, it begins with an invocation. Many members tout their Christianity and deep religion of their legislative biographies and say little or no about their legislative skills, emblematic of the payments they cross. Instantly after the invocation, payments are debated and handed within the Home, which immediately conflicts with the religion to which they simply pledged allegiance. I, too, am a person of religion and cherish my convictions. Nonetheless, I don’t consider that one ought to legislate their religion and spiritual beliefs. In a state as various as Texas, it’s absurd to imagine that every one 29 million are Christians.

“Evangelicalism, white supremacy, and politics are all intertwined, and politics are all intertwined, and the Texas Legislature is the right instance of this concern. This group of policymakers has highlighted a number of nonissues whereas ignoring subjects reminiscent of racial and social injustice and inequity. The murders of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd in 2020 didn’t appear to affect conservative, evangelical lawmakers, who sadly are in political management. As a substitute, attacking Critical Race Theory and African American research, voting rights, and abortion turned a precedence for this Session.

Many days I really feel like I don’t belong. Typically I feel that accepting this internship was a mistake as a result of what can I do to dismantle this technique? I’m lucky sufficient to make the most of an once-in-a-lifetime alternative to assist change the narrative. Though not a local Texan, I’ve drawn inspiration from figures such because the late Mickey Leland, Barbara Jordan, and different present legislature members, such because the member for whom I work, the distinguished Jarvis Johnson, and the eminent Senfronia Thompson. They’ve taught me, not directly, to proceed the battle and that progress is much like dripping water. Though change is desired to occur in a single day, it usually comes as the results of perseverance. One in every of my favourite quotes says: “Dripping water hollows stone, not by drive, however via persistence.”

SHAKING IN MY BOOTS

Oh! That’s proper. I don’t have any boots. As a low-income, bisexual, disabled Black Man within the State of Texas, many would inform me to “pull myself up by the bootstraps,” however fail to comprehend I don’t have any boots; I used to be by no means given any and by no means given the entry to amass them. Sure buzzwords like “private accountability” or “God-given proper” appear to be the magic phrases sprinkled on points to make them indeniable. Many conservatives consider that everybody ought to take private accountability for his or her outcomes in life, ignoring the legislative accountability they possess that may affect fairness. The Legislature is the appropriate place to alter points; sadly, some policymakers create issues as a substitute of fixing them.

Conservative lawmakers who’re advocates of non-public accountability ought to take time to study that non-public accountability will not be a cure-all. There are structural boundaries that hinder folks of shade, non-Christians, disabled folks, and other people with completely different sexual and gender identities. Privileged people consider that every one folks should do is pull up their bootstraps as a result of, in essence, that’s all they’ve needed to do or are even able to doing to have alternatives introduced to them. On account of centuries of white supremacy and bigotry, folks of shade and people of differing sexual and spiritual backgrounds should work doubly laborious to get only a fraction of the alternatives that these within the majority get pleasure from.

The Texas Legislature, in some ways, has proved this to be correct, whether or not consciously or unconsciously. Whereas analyzing legislative intent, numerous payments throughout this 87th Session illustrate that those that appear like me and determine like me weren’t thought of. Through the internship, I’ve seen gun rights increased, whereas limitations are positioned on voter’s rights, Medicaid expansion is again rejected, and abortion bans are handed. These points have had a major affect on me. I’ve by no means been so scared and hopeless in my life. The stress of wanting my member’s payments to cross, nonetheless, figuring out that politics would most likely kill a lot of the good laws that might assist hundreds of thousands of Texans weighs heavy on me.

Simply because the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. stated, many Individuals, particularly Black Individuals like me, don’t have boots because of the centuries of oppression we’ve confronted. Equity and fairness are two ideas that ought to information all lawmakers, no matter partisanship. Understanding centuries of injustice ought to information policymakers on either side of the aisle to make sure that “justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

THERE IS HOPE

You would possibly really feel a bit depressed by studying the phrases talked about above; nonetheless, I all the time consider that hope is imminent. All my experiences haven’t been unfavourable. There have been some excellent payments that handed one or two chambers and would possibly make it to the Governor’s Desk. There have been strides made in defending maternal/child healthcare, foster kids, youth experiencing homelessness, to call just a few. Progressive members are working as laborious as doable to make sure that their fixed drip of legislative victories erodes the stone.

Personally, in my capability as an intern, I used to be in a position to assist help a number of constituents in issues coping with state businesses the place we have been in a position to intervene and see optimistic outcomes. I used to be additionally privileged to workers two bills and one resolution regarding Sickle Cell Illness. (The actual cause why I’m right here. I’ll share extra in my subsequent weblog put up).

I consider that there’s hope. I cling to it. I get up daily actively working towards and in search of it. I’m wild sufficient to suppose that there are lots of streams of dripping water right here that may put on a hole within the stone. A lot of them are in my cohort, work in my workplace, and work in different workplaces on the Legislature. As an individual of religion, I wholeheartedly consider that we’ll see “mighty floods of justice and an endless river of righteousness….”

by André Harris, intern with Rep. Jarvis Johnson

Initially posted from College of Houston Graduate College of Social Work’s Austin Legislative Internship Program. The School selects graduate MSW college students to intern on the Texas Legislature throughout its legislative session each two years. This put up was syndicated with permission from its authors.