I’ve been driving for over 40 years. I’ve had my fair share of speeding tickets and accidents, but I’ve never crossed out of my lane into oncoming traffic.

I know why the double yellow lines exist on the road as well as in life and haven’t done anything to cause unnecessary havoc simply because I can. I recognize the influence I have, and I don’t use it recklessly or unwisely.

I cringe when I see celebrities engaging in behavior they’re way too old to even be thinking of, let alone doing. I threw up a little watching a video of octogenarian Motown legend Smokey Robinson sexually gyrating in a concert. I felt embarrassed for him as I prayed he wouldn’t break his hip engaging in motions he was past his prime for. It reminded me of a trip to Orlando several years ago where I helped my former professional athlete nephew get settled into his new home. After taking me on a jaunt to the tourist sites, he dragged me out to a dance club. It had been 25 years since I had seen the inside of one, and it immediately showed. I had no appropriate club clothes, there were too many people inside for my comfort, and the music was way too loud for my aged hearing. The Orlando women were indescribably beautiful, but I felt like the creepy old man in the club often mocked by comedians. After about half an hour, I asked my nephew to take me back to the hotel, where I felt compelled to call home to talk to my kids to regain my center. I understood where my lane was and knew how to stay in it.

The whole state of Florida needs to take a driver’s education course because they can’t seem to maneuver out of their own way when it comes to creating racial animus and division. Governor Ron DeSantis and his disciples of hate aren’t even trying to hide their obvious intention to deny people of color equity, fairness, and a modicum of respect. First he created false hysteria and sowed racial division by declaring a pointless war on wokeness. He followed it up by introducing legislation that would make it against the law to teach real Black history. Now, an education board, which he has authority over, has enacted standards that Florida’s public middle schools will teach students that some Black people benefited from slavery because it taught them useful skills.

So, let me understand this, you can’t teach what enslaved Africans actually endured, but you’re ok erroneously offering instruction on what you think tortured humans, in bondage and unable to think and act on their own behalf, gained. They make it seem as if the captured and enslaved humans went to HR and asked for specific job trades to be offered to them. Like most people of his ilk, who harbor hidden racial superiority views, DeSantis tried to mask them by acting as if he genuinely understood and cared about the plight of Black people. He defended his poor vehicular handling skills with this ridiculous educational standard by saying, “It will show that enslaved people were able to “parlay the skills they were forced to learn.” I…just…can’t.

So now he’s telling Black people how to interpret what being Black feels like and what’s good for them?

Implicit in his words, he’s like the slave master telling his human property he knows what’s better for them than they do. Just because he’s resistant to the growing awareness and resistance to centuries of white male patriarchal dominance, and white female complicity through silence, doesn’t mean he knows what’s best for an entire demographic of people. It’s interesting how people who are not impacted by racism are always so quick to tell those who are, how to think, feel and respond to it.

Skinfolk are no longer mired in an infantile dependent, mental, and physical state, unable to think, reason and discern. DeSantis and his school board’s demonic disciples’ erroneous and idiotic decision shows he’s yearning for an era and type of Knee Grow that will comply and say “Yassum Boss” and not push back. Those types of “Django Unchained” movie inspired characters actually do exist today. Florida trotted out a “Stephen” who was on the education board and had him defend the decision. I can imagine other skinfolk here nervously reading this and speaking like the Samuel L. Jackson slave servant character, “Boy you better hush yo mouf talkin’ bout dat.” If skinfolk would worry less about what people outside of our culture and community think, stop trying to appease, placate and compromise, and place more effort into engaging in actions that are relevant and specific to us, we

would see less internal cultural degradation, increased equity, and greater overall progress.

Kenneth L. (Kenny) Hardin is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists.