President's Message
Greetings,
Who am I here for and who are you here for?
I am here for Surafel Assiminew. An Ethiopian boy whose mother came to a meeting I was attending after Surafel was killed by police during a mental health episode…
I am here for the change that I experienced after witnessing the impact of multinational banks and corporations feeding off of the labor of some of the most amazing people I’ve ever met.
I am here for Dyonta Quarles, Aiyana Stanley Jones, Garnett Waller, James and Patricia Waddy, Brittany, Makai, Makenzie, and Kadyn.
I am here for the children and adults who are being changed as they witness billionaire bosses engage in massive layoffs, callous indifference, and economic violence that is destroying the quality-of-life generations have fought for.
I am calling for us to reassess our standing. For the founders of Black History Month, the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, have declared the theme for this month, African Americans and Labor. They want us to focus on the various and profound ways that work and working of all kinds - Free and Unfree, skilled and unskilled, vocational and voluntary - intersect with the collective experiences of Black people.
The former Labor chair of the National NAACP Herbert Hill wrote a book in 1977 called Black Labor and the American Legal System. In the opening chapter he describes the history of Black labor during slavery.
Historians like Mr. Hill don’t solely use slave narratives to describe the work that was done, they use advertisements and ledgers from the era. Mr. Hill’s narrative explains that the enslaved Africans whose labor was being exploited were masters of their crafts.
Africans had mastered farming for thousands of years before they were forced by the Anglo-Saxons and Franks to clear the forests and work the medieval style plantations of the Americas.
These Africans in America knew the seasons; they learned the soil; they sowed the seeds on a foreign land, and they tended their own gardens and the gardens of their masters.
Phyllis Wheatley made an appeal to mercy under worse conditions.
David Walker made a call to arms under bad conditions.
Gabriel Prosser organized despite his conditions.
I am calling for a recommit.
We must be committed to each other: We must be solution oriented; We must focus on thinking globally and acting locally; We must do the best we can, with what we have, where we are.
We must see each other. We must see the labor that is being done by low wage independent contractors all across this county and we must be a place for them to safely and securely organize for change.
We must work to improve our quality of life. Democracy IS under threat politically, but it is also massively under threat economically. The richest people and corporations have the loudest voices. They also have the most power.
We must identify the keys to a democratic economy and push those solutions.
We must see the domestic workers, and grocery store clerks.
We must see the warehouse workers at BWI, and off of Aviation Blvd, and at Marley Neck.
We have to see the transportation needs of warehouse workers from Prince George’s County who work in Bowie but are making deliveries into Crofton, Davidsonville, Edgewater, Galesville, and Shady Side. They deserve not to be under a massive corporate surveillance regime that monitors their heart rate, breathing patterns, and workplace interactions. Racist bosses should not determine if office contractors who have been passed over time and time again for promotions, deserve career advancement.
We won’t abandon each other. Domestic Workers deserve free or low-cost quality healthcare. These are our members. Domestic workers should not be stuck in a workplace that is run by overt racists, determined to undermine their presence due to their race, ethnicity, disability, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, or immigration status.
We are stronger together.
We need corporate responsibility. Corporations should not be allowed to hide behind a veil of political and judicial protection for their discriminatory practices. We must support partnerships with responsible businesses that focus on eliminating disparities and building equitable outcomes for the descendants of those who have been victimized by settler colonialism.
We can’t give up on public programs. We must support collaborations with the AACPS and Anne Arundel Community College to create pipelines for our communities to enter high-paying, high-demand fields.
We need an annual report that tracks the progress of workforce development programs in addressing racial, gender and age disparities in income and wealth. We can’t assume that our relationships of access are relationships of influence.
We must hold people accountable.
As the seasons passed, Black labor, intellect and collective action stirred within us the will to liberate ourselves from someone else’s desires and tend to our own gardens. We didn’t talk much about our plans but the evidence that the master gardener had run away was in the ledger or the advertisement.
“I am here to honor those ancestors and the people of goodwill who have helped them along the way to liberation.
I am here to honor the sacrifices Black people have made for us to even gather in open places and spaces. “We must honor the sacrifices.”
This message is an invitation to join us in celebrating the ancestors who made a way out of no way.
So I ask you:
Will you honor the sacrifices that we must make at this moment?
Will you join us in planting seeds of faith and belief in each other?
Will you join us in creative defiance of exploitation and plunder?
Will you join us in renewing your commitment to defining who you are?
Naming yourself, speaking for yourself and creating your future in a Black led space?
Steven Waddy, Presidentpresident@annearundelcountynaacp.org