Curtis Hampton: Struggle to remain a proud American

As we head out of the Independence Day weekend, my heart is heavy due to this brutal assault on the American way of life, in which precedents has been previously set.

Unfortunately, there is a relentless continuation to chip away at our freedoms. These are freedoms that have been granted by law but now, due to our extreme conservative courts, we appear to be losing those opportunities to continue to improve the lives of the American people.

The assault that I speak of is the attack on the freedoms that we have come to know. This assault, this time, is not from some foreign terrorist entity but from our internal conservative courts. This is a perfect reminder that freedom is not free, and we must carry on with the fight.

Sadly, as a 67-year-old African American male and Vietnam-era Air Force veteran, who has survived the South and its segregated communities, segregated schools, segregated public accommodations, second-class citizenship and the Jim Crow Laws which started in 1865 and ended in 1965, I’m exasperated at the thought of having this Groundhog Day-type conversation in 2023.

As our nation turns 247 years old, we find ourselves in a self-inflicted moral crisis. We the people of moral conscience must stand up to hold this nation accountable to its creed. Our splintered and extremist Supreme Court delivered several blows below the belt to our civil and human rights protection. Now is the time to ask, how many of our politicians, organizations and people were complicit through their participation or inaction as we watch our democracy being slowly attacked and radically transformed?

We are also living through the erosion of our rights before our very eyes. The rights that I speak of include the following:

• Limiting LGBTQ+ public accommodations
• Rejecting student loan forgiveness
• Restricting affirmative action
• Overturning Roe v. Wade
• Curbing enforcement power
• Requiring state funding for religious schools
• Expanding concealed carry

These decisions are the result of the conservative Supreme Court’s recent 6-3 decisions. This court has become arguably a politicized Supreme Court and, as a result, has undermined America and taken us back to the dark ages.

In my 67 years, the dark ages refer to a time in which segregated communities, segregated schools, segregated public accommodations, second-class citizenship and the Jim Crow laws were the norm. How can you outlaw affirmative action based upon race when this country was literally built on race? The relationship with our Native American brothers and sisters has deteriorated as we examine the atrocities and human rights violation committed against them. Following Christopher Columbus’ arrival in North America in 1492, violence and disease killed 90% of the Indigenous population, nearly 55 million people. Now the courts want to get out of the business of race when race was and still is a monumental hurdle the African Americans, Native Americans and Latino Americans face every day.

Rather than being grounded in the law, these recent rulings are more partisan actions taken by a court that is mired in ethical scandals and held in low public esteem. These recent decisions will have tremendous impact on America’s Black, Brown, LGBTQ+, poor and female populations. These various populations will find it harder to access top institutions of higher learning, meaning it will be harder for them to obtain leadership positions in business, the military and the public sector. We continue to further segregate under the umbrella of reverse discrimination and, as a result, deny the opportunity to the most venerable of our American society. These sweeping decisions contribute to the continuation of the segregation of the haves and the have-nots.

Affirmative action is undoubtedly an imperfect tool to help narrow the educational gap between whites and the various marginalized communities, but it’s a necessary tool for reducing the generational gaps that exist. The recent rulings have shown a disappointing lack of vision for our future.

It is ironic that the court’s six conservative justices – who hold a total of nine Ivy League degrees – seem intent on keeping the underrepresented and marginalized communities from accessing the educational advantages and privileges that they themselves enjoyed.

If you are still sitting on the fence, now is the time to get off the fence, because we are all affected by the ignoring of legal precedents of this out-of-touch not so Supreme Court. Every man, woman and child is affected directly or indirectly by these short-sided decisions of the privileged. We must demand accountability from our leaders and not allow them to normalize extremism.

Curtis Hampton, a retired aerospace operations manager, in on the boards of the Carl Maxey Center and the Pre-Employment Preparation Program.