Page 173 – saobserver

Black Twin Sisters From Texas Make History, Graduate Simultaneously With Master’s Degrees

News

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2023-08-29

Meet Keyara and Teyara Watson-Love, fraternal twins from the Fifth Ward area of Houston, Texas. They recently made history when they simultaneously graduated from Lamar University with Master’s degrees in Speech-Language Pathology, a profession where there is only about 3% African American women.The 24-year-old sisters credit their parents, Michael and Sarah, for their success because they always wanted and encouraged their children to get an education.

As teenagers, Keyara and Teyara graduated from E.L. Furr High School with the highest honors and were in the top 10 percent of their graduating class. They went on to attend Texas Woman’s University in Denton, Texas where they received their Bachelors of Science Degree in Communication Sciences and Disorders of Oral Health with Summa Cum Laude and Magna Cum Laude honors.

Keyara and Teyara were very big on being involved in extracurricular activities. They were a part of many different organizations such as CAID and SOCS which are geared toward speech and hearing sciences.

When asked why they chose to major in Speech-Language Pathology, the twin says they decided to go into this profession because they are very big on helping others and serving their communities, and they find communication difficulties interesting. They comment, “As little girls, we watched our grandmother Ruth Watson help so many people throughout their lives. She had a very big heart and she never hesitated to give anyone a helping hand whenever she could.”

Keyara and Teyara also say that they take their faith in God very seriously and believe that this has helped them get to where they are today.

Both now have successful careers working in their fields of expertise. Keyara works at Eastview Healthcare and Rehabilitation and Teyara works at Copperfield Healthcare and Rehabilitation in the Houston area.

Their jobs involve serving patients in nursing homes with speech, language, cognition, and swallowing difficulties. Just like their grandmother taught them, they want to be as much of a help to others as she was to the ones she knew and cared for.

The Excuse: “They Were Just Men of Their Times”

Mario Salas

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2023-08-29

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Was America Founded On White Supremacy?

Slavery came to these shores brought by the Spanish in the 1500s and later by the Dutch in 1619. Many United States presidents owned slaves. Thomas Jefferson was perhaps the most hypocritical for being a racist and yet having a relationship with a Black women named Sally Hemings. Jefferson once said, “I advance it therefore as a suspicion only, that the blacks, whether originally a distinct race, or made distinct by time and circumstances, are inferior to the whites in their endowments both of body and mind.” This racist narrative was denounced by one of the most devoted fighters in the war against white supremacy and slavery, Davis Walker.

David Walker wrote a strong response to Jefferson’s racism in the fall of 1829, when he wrote and published a pamphlet entitled, “Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World.” In the pamphlet, Walker denounced slavery and encouraged enslaved people to fight for their freedom in every way possible. In his Appeal, Walker offered a powerful vision that blended freedom, religion, human rights, and America’s creed which said we are all equal. Walker argued that slavery violated Christianity and the repeated use of the Declaration of Independence which promised freedom and equality. Walker pushed in every direction to distribute his pamphlet to free and enslaved people everywhere he could. Walker’s Appeal shocked racists and even some white abolitionists who knew nothing about what it was like to be a slave. However, his words sparked the freedom movement for immediate abolition of slavery. It also helped sparked the racist hordes in the South to begin looking for ways to separate from the North.

Walker blasted the hell out of Thomas Jefferson and white supremacy in America when he criticized Jefferson’s words, “I hope you will try to find out the meaning of this verse—its widest sense and all its bearings: whether you do or not, remember the whites do. This very verse, brethren, having emanated from Mr. Jefferson, a much greater philosopher the world never afforded, has in truth injured us more, and has been as great a barrier to our emancipation as anything that has ever been advanced against us. I pledge you my sacred word of honor, that Mr. Jefferson’s remarks respecting us, have sunk deep into the hearts of millions of the whites, and never will be removed this side of eternity.—For how can they, when we are confirming him every day, by our groveling submissions and treachery?”

White supremacy may be political and ideological belief that will last for eternity but one that must be fought at every turn. We cannot allow the crimes of this guilty land to be sugar coated and white washed for the purpose of misleading the population about the real history of America. We cannot allow those who do not want us to know the truth to minimize the significance of white supremacy. We cannot let the ignorant define our history by refusing to ignore the individuals who fought the dominate belief. If one is doing this they are overlooking on purpose the crimes of this guilty land to present a sanitized version of reality. There were always men and women that opposed the dominate view and that is where any discussion about slavery and white supremacy must begin. Those inclined to opt for the simplistic quote that supporters of slavery and racism were, “just men of their times” is a way to ignore the past and to keep racism alive. There were many above the times we will not ignore.

Rev. Claude Black Born at Home, Not Allowed in White Hospital

Mario Salas

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2023-08-22

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Eastside: Steeped in Medical History

The major San Antonio hospitals served only whites or had a “Colored Clinic” physically separated from the rest of the hospital during segregation. The current Veterans Outreach Center of St. Philips College was originally the Good Samaritan, a Black segregated medical facility. The original structure was Corinth Baptist Church in 1915. Eventually, well-known Black contractor W. C. White added a second story. In 1948, with the help of Corinth Baptist Church and others, the structure became a hospital for Black people. Two women who were hospital workers originally proposed the hospital; Rachel Starr was a registered nurse and Genevieve Troutman a hospital technician.

According to a 1948 San Antonio Light Newspaper article, “’Mrs. Starr said that for years she felt a deep sympathy for the city’s Negroes (Blacks) in their need of a hospital. Negro surgeons never have been allowed to operate in white hospitals.” The Good Samaritan Hospital allowed for the members of the surrounding community to have easier access to health care. Once completed, the Good Samaritan Hospital began servicing the needs of the community. During this period, Black people predominately populated the area. Paradoxically, slave owner Samuel Augustus Maverick (1803-1870) originally owned some of the area. Maverick was part of the racialized leadership in San Antonio and a supporter of white supremacy and a pro-slavery group known as the Knights of the Golden Circle (KGC). Unlike his later liberal relatives, Samuel Augustus Maverick was a signer of the Texas Constitution of 1836, which enshrined slavery. In fact, Samuel Augustus Maverick owned seven slaves just before coming to Texas in 1837. Contrary to some beliefs, San Antonio was as segregated as any other southern city.

In 1925, at 716 Sherman Street, a small health care clinic operated by Mrs. Jemima Elizabeth Lee, provided some medical services. The Reverend Claude Black, born in San Antonio in 1916, remembered that he was born at home because blacks could not go to white hospitals. Charles Bellinger, the African-American political leader, donated substantial funds to Santa Rosa Hospital, to accommodate the needs of the “colored T. B. patients” Discriminatory practices created a dilemma in health care for many African-Americans. Some of the more common health problems, left untreated, were due to substandard care under the racist San Antonio city segregation laws.

Addressing the need for health care were Black physicians Dr. Charles A. Whittier and Dr. Madison Preacher. In 1931, Dr. Whittier founded the Whittier Clinic on the East Side to help service the health needs of the black community. These doctors, the clinic, and the Black hospital provided medical training not available in a white supremacist San Antonio. Also, during the days of Jim Crow, the Volunteer Health League founded by G. J. Sutton, organized to raise funds for tuberculosis patients who could only obtain treatment in Kerrville, Texas.

I was quoted in an article making the point that, “One of things we really wanted to do was the Good Samaritan Hospital. This was originally an African-American hospital when the hospitals in San Antonio were segregated.” At one point, the building became a women’s dormitory for St. Philips College and dances often took place there in later years. In December of 2011, the San Antonio City Council approved collaboration with the Alamo Community College District and St. Philip’s College to renovate the former hospital into a veteran’s outreach center. The Good Samaritan Veteran’s Outreach and Transition Center provides free services to all active duty, retired, veteran’s, their families, and the community in the San Antonio Area.

‘You’re Black, So You Have Rights?’: Karen Goes On Racist Rant After Black Neighbor Complains About Dog

News
Racism

Observer Staff

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2023-08-15

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Upsetting a white person while Black can be as simple as telling them what they can and can’t do. Even the recent brawl in Montgomery, when it comes down to it, began when a Black man told a group of white people that they needed to move their boat. Now, a Black person asserting their authority doesn’t always result in physical violence, but white folks—particularly those who constantly assert their non-authority while minding Black people’s business—will ultimately reveal their racial resentment when they are challenged in any way by Black folks.

Take for example a recent video that reportedly took place in North Carolina showing a confrontation between a Black woman and her white neighbor whose dog apparently got loose and wandered into the Black woman’s garage.

And this was her reaction. Twitter I promise you ain’t gotta do your thing cause…..

But I also filed charges. https://t.co/rGEavPBVAW pic.twitter.com/l45Kj8HiDb
— wanderlust (@_ItsMissBre) August 6, 2023

The Black woman who goes by BreYonna (or Bre) on Twitter can be heard assertively (or what white people call “aggressively” when Black people do it) saying to her neighbor, “OK, you gotta get your dog. You gotta put your dog on a leash. You gotta keep your dog out of my yard.”

The neighbor apologized in a tone that made it clear she didn’t think it was a big deal, to which Bre explained that this wasn’t the first time it happened. The neighbor then told Bre that “she doesn’t have to get rowdy,” which already sounds like she was trying to frame Bre as an “angry Black woman” for getting frustrated over something neighbors commonly get frustrated about.

Suddenly, the white woman can be heard screaming, “Get off my property!”

“I’m not on your property, and I never was,” Bre said. “You look crazy. You look like you’ve lost your mind.”

“I will show you crazy,” the woman responded, though it soon became clear that what she meant was, “I’ll show you racist!”

“Whatever. What are you Black? You’re Black so you have rights?” the unhinged white woman who appears to have just then remembered that Jim Crow ended decades ago.

Family members of the neighbor tried to get her to chill out, presumably because her Klan robe slip was showing, but Bre wanted to let Karen go on ahead and hang herself (so to speak).

“No. No. No. Let her say what she has to say. I haven’t stepped over my property line, but I will make sure everybody knows you’re a racist,” Bre said.

“Yeah, you are a racist,” KK-Karen says. “You just think that you’re Black so you’re up in my face, yeah. Oh, she’s Black, you guys. Be scared. Run. I don’t give a flying f**k if you’re purple.”

Now, normally, when a white person flies off into an “I don’t care if you’re Black, white, green or purple” rant it’s only after they’ve been accused of racism. In this case, the white woman is literally the first person to mention race, then she appears to accuse the Black woman of being “racist” just for being “up in my face” while being Black.

I don’t think I’m going too far out on a limb (again, so to speak) when I say her resentment of Black people clearly precedes this incident. She’s clearly projecting here. Just because she’s afraid of Black people doesn’t mean Black people are intentionally weaponizing their Blackness to cause white people to “be scared.”

In fact, this whole episode is eerily similar to the time a Black man told a white woman to leash her dog, and “Central Park Karen” responded by threatening to tell the police “there’s an African American man threatening my life” with a clear emphasis on “African American.”

Maybe some white people are just racist.

By: Zack Linly

House Bill 3979- An Example Of Texas “Not Wanting to Be Black”

Guest

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2023-05-09

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To be seen and not learned, “Everyone wants to be black but no one wants to be black”

Op-By: Melissa S. Thomas, Graduate Student of Social Work at Our Lady of the Lake University, Social Policy Class.

There is a phrase that has been floating around the Black community for a little while now that came from a long-tenured comedian. The phrase goes “Everybody wants to be Black, but no one wants to be Black.” That it is fine to take on African American culture, the dancing, the music, the bravado, but we can deal without all the negativity and history that is the foundation of what it is. The passing of House Bill 3979 is an example of Texas “not wanting to be Black.” It is destroying the education that our children need to aid in the understanding of what it means to be Black. They are taking our history and removing it from the books making us in existence, a historical literary holocaust. According to a 2020 article from the National School Board Association:

“In 2018, 90% of Black students had home internet access. However, this percentage was lower than their peers who were Asian (98%) and white (96%). Among Black 3- to 18-year-olds, 11% had home internet access only through a smartphone, compared with only 2% among Asian and 3% among white students. Among Black students without home internet access, 39% said that it was because the internet was too expensive, suggesting that their families could not afford it. This percentage for Black students was much higher than that for White students.” (Cai, 2020)

If this law continues to have life, how will many of our students learn about their history if they can’t afford to do it at home and the free public school system denies them access? The problem is that the public and our lawmakers keep trying to see things in black and white, to include the people, to see the education of our students on African American topics as a “woke” movement and not a celebration of perseverance and accomplishments.

Though it is a national holiday now, why don’t we celebrate Juneteenth like we celebrate the 4th of July? Why don’t we learn about Benjamin Banneker the same way we learn about Benjamin Franklin? We omit some of the ideas of Abraham Lincoln and how he felt about African Americans but treat Fred Hampton as a terrorist when he was advocating for African Americans to stand up for themselves. The school system has hidden or altered the history of African Americans for so long, now they want to outright get rid of it. When is enough, enough? African Americans have spent the better part of 500 years being tortured, maimed, crippled, and separated from our people. We created new people and embraced a country that didn’t want us here but didn’t want to see us go. Now they have invented new ways to continue the same old practices of torture, maiming, crippling, and separation and it is being done through the removal of our history where it would hurt the most, with the children. It is time for us to move as a people and as a society to ensure that the facts of who we are and what we have been through are told. In Texas that starts now with the removal of the law that is House Bill 3979.