It would be a half-truth if I said that anything that occurs in my hometown (Mansfield Ohio) shocked me. In a word, the town is antiquated. Its physical appearance was antiquated enough to serve as the backdrop for The Shawshank Redemption with minimal if any, alteration. Modernity by-passed Mansfield, Ohio, in a host of ways.

The recent decision by the Mansfield City Council to vote against a resolution proposed by the group Voices of Change, Activism, and Leadership (VOCAL) is a fair representation of local political leaders. Consider for a moment that the embattled resolution sought to classify “racism as a public health crisis.”

Nothing more and nothing less.

According to local reporters, the eight-member Mansfield City Council was evenly divided on the resolution (4-4), an occurrence that allows Council President Cliff Mears to cast the deciding vote. Shockingly, Jason Lawrence, one of only two city council members cast a vote against the resolution.

In all fairness, Mansfield is a fairly typical representation of small towns throughout the nation. Such places are ruled by a white power structure that has worked for decades, if not centuries, making connections that guarantee that its power quotient is not only everlasting but also strong enough to resist the actions of insurgents regardless of their race/ethnicity.

Make no mistake about it, in places such as Mansfield, Ohio, the only way to get ahead is to curry favor with long-standing powerbrokers by displaying your willingness to extend their politico-economic monopolies; those who resist the local power structure will suffer dire consequences. Such is the only logical explanation behind Jason Lawrence’s crucial vote that prevents an official study of the impact of racial bias on the lives of Black people.

It appears that Lawrence has read the writing on the wall regarding available paths to success in small-town America and chosen to display his utility to local white powerbrokers by fighting against the best interests of local Blacks. It appears that the myopic view of Council President Cliff Mears has mesmerized Councilman Lawrence. According to Mears,

What I see is our residents going out of their way to embrace our diversity of races and cultures, and getting along just fine. Are there prejudices? Disparities? Yes. Is it at crisis proportions? Not in my view.

I can accept Mears’s observations as such perspective is typical of white powerbrokers’ view of the voluminous suffering that occurs behind closed doors within Black America. Make no mistake about it, the socioeconomic suffering occurring within not only Black America but also to the vast majority of poor and working-class non-blacks is hidden from white elites. However, the relative invisibility of the impact of economic inequality does not lessen its impact on impoverished Americans. According to Mears,

We should all be proud to live here in Mansfield. I see its residents getting along, helping each other, communicating openly, and welcoming each other into their homes regardless of race or culture. That’s the Mansfield I see, that I live in.

I am convinced that from Council President Mears’s perspective, “the Mansfield I see, that I live in” is greeting card worthy. Unfortunately for the vast majority of residents, this view is a flawed portrait filled with cavernous blind spots that hide the misery and suffering of non-elites, regardless of their racial or ethnic identity.

Make no mistake about it, this is a missed opportunity for Mansfield, Ohio, as it held the potential to uplift a significant segment of its population. One of the most pernicious evils associated with racial bigotry is White America’s failure to recognize that an educated and economically strong Black America is good for America. This inability to recognize the indispensability of Black America in efforts to “Make America Great Again” sits at the core of white powerbrokers’ resistance to measures such as the one mentioned above. In the world that such people live, Blacks and poor whites are a nuisance that is best unseen and unheard.

In the end, I do comprehend what led white council members to fight against the proposed resolution, they have existed in a world where the misery pain, frustrations, and suffering of blacks never reached their ears; now in regards to Jason Lawrence, I have not a clue as to what he was thinking as he was born and raised within the black community. Sadly, I doubt that he has a clue as to why he voted against the resolution either.

Only in America, I tell you. Only in America.

Dr. James Thomas Jones III

©Manhood, Race, and Culture, 2020.