Last year, a black man by the name of Derrick Wilburn came forward at a school board meeting in Colorado and gave a three-minute personal testimony. It was one of the most sensible and powerful statements on the race situation in America to be found anywhere.
This is, in part, what Mr. Wilburn had to say that day:
“I am the direct descendant of the North American slave trade. Both my parents are black, all four of my grandparents are black, all eight of my great great grandparents, all sixteen of my great greats. On my mother’s side my ancestors were enslaved in Alabama. On my father’s side we were enslaved in Texas.
I am not oppressed, and I’m not a victim. I neither oppressed nor a victim. I travel all across this country of ours, and I check into hotels, and I fly commercially, and I walk into retail establishments, and I order food in restaurants. I go wherever I want whenever I want. I am treated with kindness dignity and respect, literally from coast to coast.
I have three children. They are not oppressed either although they are victims. I’ve taught my children that they are victims of three things: their own ignorance, their own laziness, and their own poor decision making. That is all.
My children… we are not victims of America. We are not victims of some unseen 190-year-old force that kind of floats around in the ether. Putting critical race theory into our classrooms is taking our nation in the wrong direction. Racism in America would by and large be dead today if it were not for certain people and institutions keeping it on life support. And sadly, sadly, very sadly one of those institutions is the American education system. I can think of nothing more damaging to a society than to tell a baby born today that she has grievances against another baby born today simply because of what their ancestors may have done two centuries ago.
There is simply no point in doing that to our children. And putting critical race theory into our classrooms in part does that. Putting critical race theory into our classrooms is not combatting racism is fanning the flames of what little embers are left. I encourage you to support this resolution: let racism die the death it deserves.”
You can visit Derrick Wilburn’s website here.
