WS Chronicle

In above photo: Vote button

James J. Hankins, Guest Columnist

There are problems:

The extreme conservatives developed a master plan to deconstruct the rights of blacks, poor whites, women, young people and others minorities.

There are many crusades they are working on, but we will just take a close look at three. These three they must complete to make their 2016 coup as successful as the one in Wilmington, NC in 1898.

Their crusades are gentrification, gerrymandering and voter suppression.

Crusade 1: Gentrification is a scholarly sounding word that means poor and lower middle class property owners move out while the upper middle class and rich people are welcomed to your new neighborhood. The greedy investors, with help from some of our equally greedy elected officers, take the house or land by any means necessary. Some of their procedures are legal and some are not.

They condemn or report your properties for condemnation, buy you out when you fall behind on your mortgage, over evaluate your property and raise your taxes, demand you do repairs to your property that are not demanded in other areas, force you to hire an attorney to protect your rights, and finally foreclose on your property.

Gentrification has had many other names we Blacks remember over the years, including redlining, blockbusting and the “historic district.”

Crusade 2: Gerrymandering is another scholarly sounding word that does only one thing. It happens every ten years after the census is taken. The political party in charge redrew the voting districts so their party will almost be guaranteed to win the most seats in the General Assembly and Congress.
It was gerrymandering of districts that helped the extreme conservatives take control of the state house, senate and the governor’s mansion in North Carolina.

Crusade 3: After diluting our neighborhood in crusade one, putting us unwanted voters together in snake- like shaped voting groups in crusade two, now they use the final kiss of death, voter suppression in crusade three.

Voter suppression is designed to discourage everybody except extreme conservatives from voting. Their claim of voter fraud with no proof is the true definition of fraud. Its purpose is to divide attention, create mistrust among neighbors, and then conquer just like segregation did.

NOTE: Any time a bill becomes a law, someone wealthy makes more money by hiring below minimum wage workers to do the work. The voter ID scam will kill two birds with one stone. The extreme conservative’s goal is to prevent people who would never vote for them from voting. The large amount of money generated will help them pay back a few of their rich donors with favors. The eloquently sounding Latin words they use for this action is quid pro quo. It has the same meaning as the English word for the world’s oldest profession.

Here are solutions:

It will take our three missions of reconstruction to defeat their deconstruction coups.

FIRST: Educate ourselves and others on the candidates and issues.

SECOND: Register to vote and encourage five or more people to do the same.

THIRD: Vote early, by using an absentee ballot or go to vote before Election Day. Encourage those five or more people to vote early also.

The best scrutinized information on candidates and issues can be found in our local Black newspapers.

The Black press will to get the true message out but need money for staff, transportation, rent and supplies to keep printing every week. We must support them and encourage or demand the business we spend money with also advertise in our paper.

John 8:32: (paraphrased) “Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.”

James J. Hankins graduated from Williston Senior High school, military veteran, A&T State University alumni, retired vocational education teacher, past president of the New Hanover County branch NAACP, member friends of Abraham Galloway, and author of the book “What We Blacks Need To Do.” To comment on his commentary or buy a copy of his book, contact him at jhan606@gmail.com.