Black History Month Celebration

On Wednesday, February 16th I, Zeke Streetman interviewed Charetta Jones in the Hodges Library at the University of Tennessee. Knoxville

Right now, Black history is very important, especially with what's going on with Critical Race theory and people being denied access still to this day, from things we should have been free from a long time ago. 

I believe in Doctor King’s Dream. We've met a lot of what he foreshadowed for the future. If he were alive today, he’d be 98. I think he’d be appalled by the racial profiling and the shootings. 

We as a whole, as a nation, need to come together. Our country right now is so divided and torn. It’s almost like we’re walking on eggshells. We don’t know how to react or who to talk to about certain issues that are going on in black culture. We’re not a melting pot, but a tossed salad. We’re not quite mixed– we’re still set in our ways.

It’s always been important for me to learn and have great knowledge. Not only do I study black history the other 11 months of the year, but I also take great pride in my culture and in being a black woman. There are so many things I would have been denied access to in 1953 that I have access to now. I wouldn’t be able to sit in this library.

It’s funny– when George Floyd died– in Knoxville, we all came together. It's weird– I went to one of the marches. It’s odd to see, there were some black people in the crowd, but also a lot of white people.

Young white people were shouting, “no peace, no justice” I was sitting next to a white person, and the people there were coming together. It was beautiful to see that. The young people see it, strive for it, and don’t want it to be as divided. I think our country is still young, and we can learn and overcome the adversities in our pathway.

I’m not going to say that Barack Obama instituted the divide, but his election was historical. Not only the first black man but the first biracial man to become president. I cried. I got down on my knees and asked God to protect this man. Back then, the divide was swept under the rug, and it wasn’t as apparent because we had a black man as president.

When Donald Trump became president in 2017, when he started his first term, I was heartbroken. I remember going to work, and I was mad. I shouldn’t have been, but you look at people differently. 

The fact that people don’t see the divide is really bothersome for the black community. It was like, when Trump was in office, it was okay to talk negatively about people of color, people with handicaps, people that were different from the so-called norm.

It wasn’t okay, and it isn’t okay to talk about somebody different from you because they talk differently than you or because they look different than you. That doesn’t give you the right to talk down to somebody– we’re all God’s creatures, and we all have the same blood in our veins. God created us to be one. That’s how it should be. When I was at the march for George Floyd, it was an epiphany for me.

I’m all for equal rights. I’m not going to talk against you if you’re gay, straight, trans. I’m not going to talk against you if you represent something important to you. 

As far as the Bible goes, I know what the bible says, but I’m not going to talk down to people. We need to come together to fight as one human race, not as gay, lesbian, straight, black, white, Indian, Asian. We need to be as one to make this country thrive and be better.

Right now, we’re in the worst pandemic we’ve ever seen. People don’t want to work because they’re terrified of what this Coronavirus has come about from it. Two years ago, we had a toilet paper shortage, and now, we are currently in a terrible labor shortage. I suspect that by 2029, we’ll be in the next great depression. It’s hard out there, and times are rough.

I was at Family Dollar, and a woman asked me if another cashier was available. She didn’t realize that we were in a labor shortage, and only two people were working. One person was stocking in the back, and I was the cashier.

Many people don’t realize that people don’t want to work. They’re expecting another stimulus check. Biden’s trying as hard as he can to avoid going down that route. It’s not that he doesn’t want to help the people, but to be somebody that can do it, you have to seek the kingdom of God first. To seek the kingdom of heaven, he is wanting us to stop talking about it and be about it.

Trump was all talk, no action. He tried to build the wall. Biden is about doing, and action, and if we became that kind of nation instead of being lazy, arrogant, and entitled, we could be the nation that we strive to be. Right now, we are a super-conglomerate, we’re a superpower. Right now, we’re one of the biggest nations economically, but if we don’t have anything together then it isn’t going to work.

That’s what Biden’s talking about. The GOP doesn’t want that because their taxes are getting raised. They want to keep their taxes for themselves, keep the poor, poor and make the rich get richer.

When I go to work, ringing people up, I like to see people not judge me for being black. If you go into some of these smaller towns and counties, all they see is the color of my skin, not the person that I am. They don’t see me as smart or college-educated, but as someone who is out to get them in some way. 

I’m the kind of person who thinks we can be better, where we don’t judge based on the color lines. I believe it’s a different world, a completely different world.