Dear Dean Magazine: September 2023

JOY FOR ME
NOT FOR THEE
by Myron J. Clifton
Donald Trump and 17 others have been charged, arrested,
and booked in Fulton County Georgia for trying to
conspire with local election and government officials to
change the outcome of the 2020 election.
Specifically, Trump and his group of criminals tried
undoing votes cast by Black voters in Georgia where the
governor, Brian Kemp, had already made voting extremely
difficult for Black people.
And that is the thing, isn’t it? The nonstop effort to make
things harder for Black folk.
In America it is harder to be Black than it is to be any
other race of people. And that is by design and it is fed
and nurtured with every generation of white Americans
and folk from other races who attach themselves to
whiteness.
It is even harder to laugh and have fun.
The mugshots of Trump and the seventeen other anti-
American criminals who tried to overturn Georgia votes
and thus the federal election were immediately mocked,
memed, with created gifs as only the internet can do.
Getting a job is harder, as are getting a home, or renting an
apartment.
It is harder to get into university, get a promotion, get
medical care, and to have a baby and survive having a
baby.
It is harder to walk or jog outside, to shop, play at a
playground, drive in cities and through sundown towns. It
is harder bar-b-que at the park, swim in public pools, shop
at the mall, and to birdwatch in public spaces.
DEAR DEAN MAGAZINE | SEPTEMBER 2023 | p.9