Black people been here before. Not our first rodeo.
By Norma Adams-Wade
Texas Metro News
https://texasmetronews.com
So, the President signed his “Big Beautiful Bill” (BBB) into law on the 4th of July holiday. Under standard procedure, the bill will take effect January 1, 2026. We await the fallout.
One’s interpretation of the BBB depends on what side of the aisle you’re on – Democrat of Republican. The bill’s opponents call it the “Big Ugly Bill.”
While we await the aftermath, I urge the African diaspora to think of Ghana’s Sankofa bird that is one of the symbols of our heritage. The bird looks back and gains wisdom from its past, which enables it to move forward wisely in its future.
It would help to get a bit more familiar with the new law. In some instances, the federal government shifts the responsibility for citizens getting government aid to individual states. Still, the message many average citizens likely get is that the government is saying it will no longer feed the poor, house the homeless, and cloth the naked.
Some critics say the government’s message is that it wants women to have babies instead of abortion, but it will not help care for the babies once they are born. The mother is on her own.
The bill’s supporters argue that there are significant benefits. They say the new bill eliminates income taxes on Social Security benefits for most over 65 taxpayers, and that it approves a few added standard deductions when that age group itemizes their tax statements.
Sankofa bird experience
I experienced a Sankofa look-back moment recently. The moment reminded me that, BBB or not, this is not our first rodeo as a people. …We’ve been through this and more before.
During my look-back moment, I stumbled across an article I wrote decades ago. The article was about a wealthy Dallas woman who took it upon herself to supply meals at eight school and community sites in poverty neighborhoods.
A lightbulb went off in my head. I should say a memory bulb flicked on. I was reminded that what goes around, comes around. There is nothing new under the sun. I began to remember eras and community practices that prove the nothing new philosophy.
The Sankofa bird looking back proves that we as a people do not need Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Stephen Miller, Mike Johnson, Ron DeSantis, Greg Abbott, Dan Patrick, Ken Paxton, and all the other crutches. Our ancestors’ survival tactics show us the way. Yes. The crutches helped when laws forced them to. …..But we as a people know how to make it on our own. Again, this is not our first rodeo.
I recall vividly how the African-American and Latino communities made it through the Jim Crow era – a reality current generations can only experience by hearing their grandparents’ stories and through movies.
I was just thinking….the point is that we had very little government aid when our ethnic communities were cut off from the mainstream in ghettos, and our people had to pretty much fend for ourselves. Yet…we made it – and here we are still. We’ve heard more than once that our current generations are descendants of strong human stock that survived the death knell Middle Passage across the treacherous Atlantic Ocean from Africa to the New World well over four centuries ago. We will survive this passage as well.
Community gardens & our own aid services
So, here are the suggested plans: Yes, we can keep WIC, SNAP (food stamps), Medicaid, Medicare, and such in the background – but for the most part, Let’s aid ourselves.
Our clubs, fraternities, sororities, nonprofits, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts can be the arms and legs of our own self-made volunteer services. Let’s stretch our imagination to even consider reviving such community service groups as the New Black Panthers, Black Lives Matter – without the controversy – and Chicano movement offspring advocate groups, similar to La Raza Unida Party, Brown Berets, and League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC).
Churches, Mosques, synagogues already offer help, including food distribution. Yet, we will have to do more. Something like what was done in the 1930s Depression Era. Watch The Waltons re-runs on cable TV to learn more. There are also various Bible stories where families took care of the widows and orphans — even Bible stories where if a husband died, his brother took the wife under his own wings and cared for her. Yes. A number of church members will need the services themselves. Yet, they still can volunteer to cook, package, and distribute the supplies and meals that donors provide.
Recent decades have seen a big surge in community gardens. Let’s make those gardens actually feed our communities. Instead of food stamps at the grocery store, let’s go to the garden! Imagine that. Let that sink in.
Expand pro bono services in various fields
Lawyers already do pro bono services without charging fees. Physicians can now greatly expand their own pro bono sites where free or very low-fee health services can be made available. Yes. Physicians may likely have to figure a way around some kind of license restrictions. But that too can be done. Where there is a will, there is a way. Get a friendly legislator involved to get around or create new legal avenues.
Teachers can return to teaching subjects in church classrooms that detractors like Trump and Ron DeSantis do not want taught in public schools. Black communities used to do it. We can do it again.
Repurpose neighborhood Kool-Aid pickle houses
What about a form of the neighborhood Kool-Air Pickle House? Do not tell me you have not heard of those houses because I know you have. Instead of a designated house in the neighborhood where many kids go after school to buy a Kool-Aid picket for a nickel, dime or quarter, repurpose the house and have Sis. Willis and Mama Lucy give out sandwiches, chips, an apple, and cup of Kool-Aid or water after school and during the summer. Word would spread to kids quickly that if they are hungry, they can come to that address.
Images of sewing, gardening, carpentry
Certain of us will recall images of smokehouses and work shed in back yards — right here in Dallas. We remember or have heard stories of Grandma daily positioned over the kitchen stove and Grandpa planting produce and pulling peas from the backyard garden for upcoming suppers. We see Mama at the sewing machine making school clothes for all the youngsters. And Daddy chopping or sawing wood to made tables and chairs for the family and neighbors.
The kids looked over shoulders or stand beside the elders and learned the craft in order to carry it on for their own future families. We can do this, y’all! We have done it before. Asé.
Dallasite Norma Adams-Wade is a Texas Metro News senior correspondent, The Dallas Morning News retired writer, and a National Association of Black Journalists founder.
