Political election season. It’s the only time in life when I get riled up in a negative way. Quite frankly, I can’t take the antics of the GOP. This season is a little extra because the GOP ring leader is a horrible, hateful, dangerous person. I’ve been trying to banish the anger, but it keeps popping up. Why? Because that fool is playing with my people. He’s co-signing on the racist behavior of the KKK.
Racism never went anywhere. It has been dormant just under the surface lying in wait, percolating. Every now and then it spills into the streets of black America shooting the unarmed, turning a blind eye to poisoned water, raping downtrodden women. As horrific as those tragedies are, they pale in comparison to the racism that was once supported by the laws on the books. At one time it was LEGAL to lynch a black man for looking at a white woman the wrong way. It was LEGAL to kill a black person for reading a book. It was LEGAL to bar a black person from sitting in a restaurant. Should this Hitler incarnate take office, America will be on the fast track back to yesteryear. So yes, I’m angry. I’m angry about what he is trying to do to my people and other people of color as he claims to merely want to “make America great again,” all the while pissing on our heads and telling us it’s raining. So, you damn right I’m angry.
What do I do with this anger? At first, I tried to push it down into the bowels of my psyche. After all, I’m naturally an optimistic person. Spending my precious time being angry about things is rare and short lived. I usually rectify it by coming up with solutions. But THIS anger? It keeps springing back up, nagging at me, interrupting my peace of mind. And we can’t have that.
So, what can I do? How can I SOLVE this? I realized I have to do what any writer worth her salt does. I have to channel it into my writing. It just so happens that I’ve been in the process of writing a TV script that involves racism. I started writing it as a result of the multiple police shootings of unarmed black people. So, I was like, duh Rosalind, you’re already dealing with this topic. It is in my script where I will direct this anger. I will fill the pages with my despair and free my mind of the bondage. I will revolt, maim, murder with my keyboard.
With that said, I present you with the logline for my script:
A ruthless Civil Rights attorney who despises her mixed race lineage takes on a racially charged case that catapults the city of Los Angeles back to 1965 and forces her to rip open old family wounds.
© Rosalind Y. Jackson 2016