Mayor Donna Deegan is creating “a Jacksonville that works for all of us,” by forming an advisory board only for black people.

Credit: X

Apparently, our mayor is unable to represent the entire population, so our city government is now accepting applications for the African American Advisory Board made up of 11 liaisons to help Deegan liaise with those who don’t look like her.

Donna announced the creation of the board during a black history month celebration at City Hall in February.

Credit: Mayor Deegan X account

Jax Today explains, “the board, similar to others that have been created to engage different minority groups, will allow Black residents to share their thoughts and ideas with Mayor Donna Deegan and the City Council.”

When the announcement was made, reportedly one city council member “yelped his immediate approval” while another council member “gave the idea a standing ovation.”

For the record, there are only two other advisory boards involving race and or ethnicity in Jacksonville. The Asian American Advisory Board and the Hispanic American Advisory Board.

Deegan used several trite platitudes to open her speech before proclaiming the city officially recognizes “February 2024 as Black History Month in Jacksonville.”

She encouraged “all citizens to create a city that works for all of us by listening to black voices, learning about the experiences of our black neighbors, celebrating black history month and fostering a community that celebrates its diversity.”

Deegan proudly held up the document showing the cameras, “this is signed by me!”

The mayor then called to the podium the director of equity for my favorite local race hustling nonprofit, 904Ward, and handed over the proclamation to her along with an affectionate hug.

Regina Newkirk Rucci & Mayor Donna Deegan|Photo: Will Brown, Jacksonville Today

It is important to note, this race-based theatrical production, was sponsored by the city sponsored nonprofit. Yes, you read that right. The mayor and city council, gives

money to groups like 904Ward so the organization can put on important events, like this one, recognizing themselves and all the great work they are doing pretending to end racism by spending money.

Recent example, 904Ward paid a private construction company $187,000 to remove a 109-year-old Confederate monument no one gives a crap about, from a park no one uses, in the city’s most dangerous neighborhood to end racism.

Donna tells a local reporter the monument had to go because “there was so much concern about the injury that it was doing to the community, at large, in… especially to the black community that had to see that all day long.”

After a quick search, there isn’t a single documented case of the monument attacking anyone in Duval County, black or white. 

In totally unrelated news, 43 homicides were reported in the area in 2023, making the neighborhood surrounding the monument the most dangerous in Jacksonville.

Luckily, the monument is now gone, and we are all now a smidge less racist. 

When we know better, we do better, just like our mayor keeps telling us.

If you are unfamiliar with the 904Ward, check out Eye’s reporting:

https://eyeonjacksonville.com/diversity-is-our-strength-not-reading/

Back to the speech…

Meaningless platitudes continue as the mayor says, “we celebrate our past with an eye towards the future.” She goes on to say, “we will continue to bend the arc of the moral universe toward justice. In my speech at the Martin Luther King Jr. Unity Breakfast, I talked about the Tale of Two Cities. We can’t have that anymore. We will not have that anymore in a city that we all love.”

Donna explains the African American Advisory Board will report to “me” and the City Council any findings, recommendations or annual reports from the black community.

“My hope is that by creating the mayor’s African American Advisory Board we are taking another step to bend the arc of justice.”

There is that phrase again.

Arc of Justice… Tale of Two Cities… I am intrigued. What is the “that” Deegan is referring to which we can no longer have anymore ‘in a city that we all love’?

Full disclosure, before writing this article I did not understand the comparison to Charles Dickins’ novel. But I went to Terry Parker High. We didn’t read classic literature in my English classes. 

So, after brushing up on Dickens, I watched Deegan’s speech given at the city’s Martin Luther King Breakfast.

Filled with emotion, she opens with the line, “This gathering is proof of what happens when persistence fuels our passion for unity and when love leads us to forgiveness and empathy.”

No, sweetie. The gathering is proof Democrats stick together when reparations are paid.

This year’s MLK Breakfast was the first joint breakfast between our city government and the NAACP in five years.

Back in 2019 the NAACP refused to join the city, led by Republican Mayor Lenny Curry, [no relation to author] for the annual meeting until Curry agreed to spend millions on “disparities” among public works projects in certain areas of town.

I wonder how much our mayor had to pay them to attend this year’s “unified” breakfast.

Then that quote again.

“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.”

Deegan says her speech will “reflect” on what that phrase “means to us as a city”.

The mayor starts off highlighting Jacksonville’s fourth in the nation ranking with a population of more than a million, among US News and World Reports annual ranking of Best Places to Live. As well as Jacksonville taking the top spot as Best Places to Live in Florida. The mayor says our city is beautiful and the world knows it.

It was the best of times,

“As proud as we are of this success, no one should deny that this prosperity is unevenly spread across our city and the inequities are largely experiences around racial lines.”

it was the worst of times…

Donna continues, “While segregation and redlining are dead by law, their ghosts still haunt our neighborhoods.”

It was the age of wisdom,

Then, our mayor lists all the reasons why Jacksonville is a terrible place to live for black people.

it was the age of foolishness…

Deegan says, “overwhelmingly black Zip codes have medium home values that are nearly 10 times lower than Zip codes that are white.”

Thanks to Eye on Jacksonville’s reporting on the important topic of ‘Combatting Racist Heat Waves’, we already know those neighborhoods are also 10 degrees hotter than white neighborhoods. What a strange coincidence.

Deegan says the “predominantly black” northwest quadrant of town has “poverty rates five to ten times higher than other party of our city.”

Thanks to Eye on Jacksonville’s reporting on the important topic of ‘Combatting Racist Heat Waves’, we already know those neighborhoods are also 10 degrees hotter than white neighborhoods. What a strange coincidence.

https://eyeonjacksonville.com/combatting-racist-heat-waves/

Those same areas of town also “experience lower life expectancy. Nearly 10 years shorter than the rest of the city.”

Deegan says the “predominantly black” northwest quadrant of town has “poverty rates five to ten times higher than other party of our city.”

10 x’s lower, 10 years shorter, 10 x’s higher… Why is it always the number 10?

Donna wraps up her depressing diatribe with the sad statistic, “black babies in Jacksonville are three and a half times more likely to die in infancy than our white babies.” 

All those terrible things put together led the mayor to conclude: “Call it whatever you want. Systemic racism or racial inequality. The fact remains that race in Jacksonville still largely determines life expectancy, infant mortality, home ownership and job opportunities.”

Deegan vows to erase Jacksonville’s alleged “deep-seated” and “persistent racial inequalities” and create opportunities that “bless all of our neighborhoods.”

“So, to bend the arc of history towards justice, will require our collective efforts here in the present.”

Madam Mayor, you keep using that quote… and I do not think it means what you think it means.

Credit: BlueSky App

Don’t worry mayor. President Obama didn’t understand the quote either. At least you haven’t stitched it into your office rug, like the former president did.

Several left-wing publications penned multiple articles explaining why Obama and the Left doesn’t understand MLK’s quote.

Chris Hayes, a reporter with NBC News and the Editor-at-Large of The Nation, says the quote was his favorite of MLK’s until he found out Dr. King borrowed the phrase from an 18^th century preacher. It seems the Ivy League educated & former Harvard fellow, isn’t aware the word “Reverend” also means preacher.

Hayes, a 45-year-old white dude, arrogantly wrote an entire article explaining why MLK got his own quote totally wrong.

Credit: NBCNews.com

In Hayes’ article, “The idea that the moral universe inherently bends towards justice is inspiring. It’s also wrong,” he argues MLK’s quote “expresses a specific kind of informed optimism, an eyes-wide-open faith in humanity.” He suggests, MLK believes there is good and bad in the world, but ultimately good prevails.

Hayes is kind of on the right track… bless his heart.

In a Daily Beast article on the topic, Michael Wear who directed faith outreach for Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign, claims MLK’s quote was “originally intended as a spiritual truth, not a political one.”

There are a lot of different versions of the quote out there. Honestly, it is too time consuming to find an exact source for each requote. I did find an audio recording of MLK using the quote in a sermon given to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Atlanta from August 1967. Interestingly, MLK mentions Jacksonville’s James Weldon Johnson by name in the sermon.

Fun Fact: James Weldon Johnson is of Bahamian decent, just like yours truly.

According to Wear, “It’s very clear that, apart from Jesus Christ, the idea of a moral arc of the universe was inconceivable to King.” 

Wear backs up his claim by providing MLK’s quote in full context. King writes, “Evil may so shape events that Ceasar will occupy a palace and Christ a cross, but that same Christ will rise up and split history into A.D. and B.C., so that even the life of Ceasar must be dated by his name. Yes, ‘the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.’”

What Wear is trying to explain on behalf of MLK, bless his heart… is, if the tomb is empty… anything is possible. (Yes, 1122-ers. I know.)

That is why Chris Hayes believes MLK got it all wrong. There is no room for God, hope or faith in liberation theology.

Hayes argues the so-called “inequality gap” between black and white people when it comes to wealth, infant mortality and homeownership has either increased or stayed the same because of an unnamed “political movement” established at the country’s founding preserving “American racial hierarchy and white supremacy.”

Now, where have we heard that before?

Country, consolidation… tomato, tomahto.

These national injustices led Hayes to the following epiphany. Hayes writes, “More apt, perhaps, than the metaphor of the moral arc is the idea that American life exists on a planet whose very gravity is white supremacy.”

There is a solution. Hayes explains systemic white supremacy can be overcome with “sustained effort, organizing, intention and struggle.”

Hayes ends with the closing line: “Nothing bends towards justice without us bending it.”

And there it is.

God can’t do the important work of handing out government cash while pretending to save minorities from white people. Only folks like Deegan and Regina Newkirk Rucci can do that.

Continuing her speech at the MLK breakfast, the mayor goes on to share the good news she will end pretend systemic racism in Jacksonville by spending tens of millions of dollars of other people’s money on preventing black infants from dying, after school literacy programs, public pools, city parks and give “struggling families” $25,000 to use towards a downpayment on a house.

Infant Mortality

Deegan tells us black babies are three and a half times more likely to die than white babies because of “deep-seated” and “persistent racial inequalities” created and intentionally left unchecked since Jacksonville’s consolidation in 1968.

The mayor’s 2023 Transition Committee Report also uses the ‘tale of two cities’ comparison to describe racial discrepancies accessing medical care in Jacksonville.

The Transition Report argues black babies die at higher rates in Jacksonville because there isn’t a government agency to “implement evidence-based transdisciplinary” programs to save them. 

Whomever wrote the mayor’s report bloviates how “fortunate” we are to now have a mayor with the “political will” to come up a plan which finally “address the inequities and loss of life.”

The report tells us Deegan’s administration is going to make inequities between blacks and whites disappear by giving a whole bunch of money to the Partnership for Child Health, “reestablish” Jacksonville as a Child Friendly City and hire four new “community health workers” to work with the Northeast Florida Healthy Start Coalition. 

Credit: PartnershipforChildHealth.org

The Partnership for Child Health is yet another city sponsored nonprofit with several more organizations under its umbrella.  The website says the group is creating an “integrated system of care” with other nonprofits to transform the “medical, mental, behavioral, and developmental health systems for children, youth and families” by providing programs “they need to reach their full potential.”

Part of helping families in Jacksonville reach their full potential is with really important training programs for local health care professionals.

Training programs like “An Introduction to Health Equity, Cultural Humility, and COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy” and “Uncovering the Wounds of Structural Racism in Health Care” where medical industry professionals practice the “teach-back” method to help “increase vaccine uptake.”

Now, I cannot think of a single reason why any of my black friends wouldn’t blindly trust the government when it comes to their health.

Credit: Yarn.com|Half Baked (1998)

Now, on to this “reestablishing” Child Friendly City nonsense. 

Apparently local doctor, Dr. Jeffrey Goldhagen who is the chief of the Division of Community and Societal Pediatrics with UF’s College of Medicine, has pushed since 2017 to implement UNICEF’s Child Friendly Cities Initiative (CFCI), in Jacksonville.

The CFCI is a Marxist, nuclear family & societal destroying ideology teaching governments to recognize children have “basic human rights” and their “voices and needs” are considered priority in governmental policy and decision making.

Child Friendly Cities promise children impossible things, like the right to be free from violence and endless streams of government cash to local nonprofits guaranteeing to meet every possible need of every single child throughout Jacksonville. 

Baldwin Middle School and Sandalwood High School were selected to set up Child Friendly Charter programs implementing CFCI into the schools back in 2019.

According to the Florida Times-Union, the child-friendly culture “incentivizes good students to speak up and act out when injustice is happening.” And in “serious” cases of students misbehaving, kids will be allowed to create a “student court” to decide their peer’s fate.

The program is essentially socially engineering children into becoming the virtue signaling behavior police of each other in the name of equity, whilst teachers are too busy ironing student’s brown shirts to notice the tail wagging the dog.

As far as the “reestablishing” designation.

Jacksonville was never really “designated” as a Child Friendly City. In May 2019, Dr. Goldhagen, along with UNICEF, held a conference in Jacksonville with the hopes of implementing Child Friendly Cities across the country… and that’s about it.

The last way the mayor is going save lives is by adding four people to the payroll of the Northeast Florida Healthy Start Coalition.

Credit: nefhealthystart.org

The NEFHSC’s website proudly brags about receiving $10 million in funding, spending 90% of it on “direct services to at-risk pregnant women, new mothers, infants, fathers and families” to “reduce disparities in birth outcomes.”

The group claims its mission is to reduce infant death and improve the “well-being” of local families.

The NEFHSC created nine other nonprofits employing about 50 people, all basically doing the same thing. One of the groups within the group, the “Hey, Mama” campaign “focused on raising awareness with Black women,” by using social media, billboards and a mobile pantry van to teach them about infant mortality and “disparities.” The group, along with all the others, target Zip codes with the highest rates of mortality: 32209, 32210, 32208 and the Zip code I grew up in 32211.

Credit: NEFHSC Annual Report 2023

Since the group couldn’t figure out how to end “disparities” and prevent minority infants from dying in 2023 by spending $9 million, Deegan believes giving them millions more will do the trick in 2024.

I looked into the data in Duval County. Our city, made up of close to a million people, averages 12,000 live births a year.

2023’s numbers are not out yet, so I am using the Department of Health’s numbers for 2022.

According to the Department, 31 babies died before their first birthday in Duval County.

Out of the 31 deaths, 22 black infants and 7 white infants died.

When it comes to infant deaths considered “preventable,” 16 black infants and 5 white infants died.

Clearly, we can see there is a discrepancy between different races.

Did structural racism really kill 22 innocent infants? Or could something else take the blame?

Jacksonville’s Chief Health Officer says a lot of these deaths are “related to preventable causes, including sleep related issues.” Like bed-sharing, loose items in bed and incorrect sleeping position.

What the numbers do not reveal is a breakdown of the educational status of the mother. Based on my research, that data doesn’t exist.

Without knowing the educational status of these women, we cannot possibly get a full picture of the root causes of infant mortality among different races.

The lack of data leads me to believe the information is intentionally withheld validating the emotional claim racism is the cause of discrepancies instead of the logical conclusion of maternal ignorance due to a lack of education.

In totally unrelated news nobody cares about…. 7,986 babies died by abortion in Duval County in 2022.

While the city spends tens of millions trying to stop consolidation’s racism from killing minority infants, it doesn’t spend a dime trying to prevent women from ending the life of their unborn.

The city kind of encourages it.

Following the overturning of Roe V. Wade, one City Council member put forth emergency legislation paying city employees upwards of $4,000 for out-of-state abortion services.

After the councilmen withdrew the proposed legislation, he claimed to a local newspaper he only proposed the bill in the name of equality.

“I don’t support abortion, so you all need to understand that. But what I did support was women’s rights,” he reportedly said.

Ohhh, I get it.

The councilmen doesn’t really support murdering unborn babies, he only supports the mother’s unconstitutional “right” to kill her unwanted child, which is totally different.

This evil, racist idea systemic racism is the cause of unhealthy black Americans and infant mortality isn’t just a local thing. This ideological rot is running rampant throughout Western medicine.

Medical schools, medical journals and pediatric offices across the country are being polluted with the outrageously false and dangerous narrative structural racism is also built into our medical system.

So, the obvious solution to preventing racism in the medical field, is to no longer determine a clinical diagnosis based off diagnostic testing, instead doctors should treat patients based on something called social determinants of health (SDoH).

SDoH are the life circumstances and the environment determining health outcomes. Meaning…  your feelings, how much money you have, your skin color, whom you bump uglies with, religion, square footage of your home, local rainfall totals, lava flows, whether Mars is in retrograde and how well you get along with your neighbor’s cat all determine your medical status.

After reading a few published papers on the topic, I learned, if racism ended today, it would still exist because in the past native peoples were forced to move somewhere else by people who didn’t look like them. So even if every human representing every race/ethnicity on Earth achieved total equality, those who share the same skin tone as those who facilitated native removals hundreds or even thousands of years ago, would still be racist.

Understand, pretend structural racism is eternal.

Literacy Programs

We know from Eye on Jacksonville’s expose ‘Jacksonville is in a Crisis,’ the City of Jacksonville spent more than $173 million in the past few years trying to teach kids how to read and the city openly admits tens of thousands of students are still illiterate.

This past December, Jacksonville’s City Council approved more than $5 million in slush funding for the mayor’s reading pet projects.  She is promising to spend even more in 2025.

Public Pools Funding

The mayor also vowed to spend millions on the city’s public pools, several of which have remained closed for several years over staffing issues and maintenance.

Woodland Acres Pool; Jacksonville, Fl. Photo: First Coast News

Last summer 16 of the city’s 34 pools were closed due to more than 100 lifeguard vacancies. The city hopes spending more money on a new marketing campaign and an hourly pay increase will entice potential hires.

City Parks Funding

And city parks, really? We have plenty. 337 to be exact.

Credit: VisitJacksonville.com

The top of Visit Jacksonville’s website features the slogan “The City of Parks,” and brags our city has the largest urban park system in the country.

Honestly, do we need another one?

Down Payment Assistance Program

Now… on to the $25,000 homebuyer handouts the mayor says will help solve Jacksonville’s so-called “affordable housing crisis.”

In March the mayor announced a $2 million pilot program called 2023-2024 Down Payment Assistance Home Ownership Program, to help 200 first-time homebuyers with down payment and closing costs of up to $25,000.

Credit: News4Jax.com

The mayor believes giving “struggling families” thousands of dollars to buy a home worth up to $335,000 will create generational wealth by reversing structural racism built into the fabric of Jacksonville since consolidation via redlining.

This idea government can create wealth for individuals by giving them cash in the name of reversing racism, is yet another divisive race-based movement being pushed throughout the country by the Biden Administration via government attorneys and race hustling nonprofits.

The Justice Department posted a video on its website bragging about shaking down banks and mortgage companies allegedly “guilty” of discriminating against black & Hispanic people in the housing market.

Credit: DOJ.GOV

The video explains redlining began in the 1930’s when government maps outlined communities of color in red and designated the area “hazardous or high risk” for mortgage lending.

Redlining was outlawed in 1968.

Assistant Attorney General Clarke says, “redlining is alive and well.”

The video tries to make us believe white families are 70% more likely to own a home than black families because black skin prevents homeownership. And because of that, black families are only allowed to have a median wealth of $44,900 in the United States, compared to a white family whose white skin allows them to earn $285,000.

See for yourself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEdxi4nSf-w

The video accredits the information to a paper written by four race activists. The paper shows all sorts of graphs and charts trying to get the reader to believe the data, compiled by the authors from more than two dozen other papers, is true.

So, after the government deems a mortgage lending company or bank guilty of “modern day redlining,” it will give the guilty party’s local government a multi-million-dollar slush fund to force the “guilty” to set up branches, provide financial education and “invest” in community partnerships specifically for black and Hispanic people.

Credit: DOJ.GOV

Which is exactly what happened in Jacksonville.

In October, the DOJ held a press conference in town bragging it secured more than $100 million in “relief for communities of color nationwide,” including $9 million allocated for Jacksonville to “resolve” accusations that Ameris Bank engaged in redlining in minority neighborhoods around town.

The government accused Ameris Bank of failing to open a branch in a majority black or Hispanic neighborhood, sending free checking advertisement mailers depicting white models to 13 zip codes around town while excluding minority neighborhoods, and closing its only branch in a minority neighborhood in 2019.

The bank issued a statement denying any discrimination and even condemned discrimination “in any form.”  Ameris, basically paid the settlement to drop the issue.

Jacksonville’s settlement is the tenth secured under the federal government’s “Combating Redlining Initiative” which began under the Biden administration in 2021.

I stumbled upon an opinion piece written by a local newspaper retiree with more than 47 years of experience in the business. The award-winning former newspaper editor tells Jacksonville even though most Americans “played no direct role in redlining”, white Americans benefitted from it and because of that we are guilty and must “remedy” the “injustice.” He claims a book taught him Americans have accepted unearned “privileges,” therefore we must “accept the duty to correct the inequities we did not commit.” The retiree demands “strong local action” and a justifiable “sense of outrage” as rectification.

Our local newspaper shamelessly printed an article telling the city it serves, they are all racist jerks who need to feel so guilty about what lying Democrat politicians did back in 1968, they must demand the government forcibly take their own money and give it to minorities and that will somehow erase the past while also creating wealth for those receiving the cash.

During Garland’s Jacksonville press conference, an assistant attorney general said the government is “helping” black, Hispanic and other “communities of color” buy a house, “generate wealth” and “fulfil the American dream.”

I feel less racist knowing the DOJ along with the Deegan Administration are helping provide a government sponsored American Dream for everyone except white people.

In a completely unrelated coincidence, the mayor’s downpayment assistance press conference was held in the driveway of a newly constructed home in the Talleyrand neighborhood built by JWB Real Estate. In October, the real estate company was accused in a federal lawsuit of discriminating against minority renters via race-based screening algorithms. The company denies any wrongdoing but did pay a settlement. Apparently, money really does cure racism. So, all is forgiven, I guess.

During the presser, the council member representing the 32206-Zip code discussed the importance of giving “grassroots people” free money so they can stay in the neighborhood they grew up in.

Even if it sucks and is the worst one in town, we should rebuild their neighborhood, because politicians tell us that is the right thing to do to end racism.

My grandmother grew up at 1537 Wigmore St. in Talleyrand.

Credit: Google Maps

She graduated from Andrew Jackson in 1947.

Credit: Classmates.com

There is a reason my family sold the house and moved across the river. It is the same reason banks and businesses left the neighborhood and will only begrudgingly return by federal court order.

There was never a thought for my family to stay or keep my great-grandparent’s home in a rundown neighborhood waiting for a government handout. My great-grandparents and grandparents hardly had two nickels to rub together, but still managed to move on and live a wonderful life building a large family still living in Jacksonville today. And it is not because we are white. 

The city of Jacksonville shouldn’t spend millions of dollars encouraging people to move into or continue to live in dangerous neighborhoods with failing schools, dilapidated infrastructure and high rates of violent crime with no opportunity just because their great grandparents lived there, and politicians say they should stay.

The truth is, the sun set on the 32206 neighborhood long ago. It has been rundown since the 60’s.  The neighborhood will never change until the desire is there from those who already live there or from those willing to privately invest. It will happen, one day, organically. Like it should.

Credit: Google Maps|32206 Outlined in Red

Until then, I would advise the mayor and council to stop meddling in race-based real estate development. The push to revitalize historic homes in Springfield has shot up home prices in the area with homes listed up to $789,000.

Yes, Springfield is a little nicer with more stores and restaurants. And yes, eating a pepperoni slice at Crispy’s inside its historic art deco pizzeria/art gallery while listening to live music is really awesome, but the area is still surrounded by the highest rates of homicide and crime in town.

Which brings us back to the Tale of Two Cities comparison. Deegan says she was quoting former city attorney Harry Shorstein when using the book title.

From what I can find, Shorstein was quoted in the Times-Union using the tale of two cities comparison when discussing the crime and homicide rates in the 32209-zip code between 2016 and 2018 as the highest in the city.

The quote was mentioned in the 2018 article on the topic of consolidation.

Our current mayor seems to be echoing the same baseless argument made for decades. Politicians promised certain things to get a consolidated government and those promises were broken intentionally due to structural racism put into place in 1968. The article even quotes a study from 2008 claiming “longstanding issues of racism, poverty, and socio-economic disparities is killing our babies.”  The article also argues a 2014 report suggests “miles of unpaved roads, hundreds if not thousands of homes,” are without waterlines and still use septic tanks.

Honestly, there really isn’t anything new under the sun.

The mayor’s argument that life in Jacksonville is miserable for black people because of racist politicians crafting the city’s consolidation seems pretty disingenuous at best.

Since 1865 Jacksonville has had 45 mayors.

Before consolidation in 1968, the last republican mayor served in 1888. The democratic stronghold ended when Ed Austin switched to a Republican in 1993, leaving office in 1995.

Ed Austin was the first Republican mayor of Jacksonville since Reconstruction.

Jacksonville was a Democrat town a century before consolidation and for two and a half decades after J-ville’s original sin.

The only people the mayor can blame for all those so-called racist broken promises is the political party she represents and the people, white and black, who supported consolidation.

For heaven’s sake, give it a rest!

Back to the mayor’s press conference announcing the African American Advisory Board.

904Ward’s Newkirk introduces a “young black American poet and playwright” to the podium to perform her poem, ‘Pan African Sky.” The student is a senior attending Douglas Anderson School of the Arts. (Which, I believe, is another one of those completely unrelated coincidences no one seems to notice but me.)

Her performance received a standing ovation.

Our local media never mentions what the student’s poem was about. Simply the title. While the performance may seem innocent, understand her poem was chosen for a reason.

In the poem, the girl happily dreams about the Pan-African flag representing her and life is good while munching on treats from “Sweet Pete’s.” But then she realizes her skin color and racism forces people to hide black pride flags as well as gay pride flags. However, pride returns when she remembers her faith in black liberation theology.

Pan-Africanism is kind of a catch all phrase for different movements in Africa all sharing the common goal of uniting black Africans to eliminate “colonialism” and white supremacy from the entire continent.

An opinion article on Al Jazeera’s website claims Pan-Africanism is the “panacea” to the Western world’s “systemic racism” problem and can also help “contribute” to the “African American agenda.”

This is basically a deadly racist game of tit for tat. Back in the day racist British white people did a lot of not so nice things throughout Africia. So now the idea of blacks replacing whites peacefully or by death as justifiable retribution for the sins of other’s has finally reached its way into current Western academia, American culture and governmental policy.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is nothing more than America’s version of Pan-Africanism.

Now, why would an American school girl sing the praises of a deadly race-based ideology at a city sponsored event allegedly celebrating American black history?

An even better question: why isn’t anyone in the room smart enough to understand they are cheering on a child who is preaching black liberation theology from the mayor’s podium?

Bishop Rudolph McKissick of Jacksonville’s oldest historical black church, Bethel Church, was selected to give the event’s benediction.

Credit: YouTube

While politicking, oops sorry, wrong word. While “praying” from the mayor’s podium during a race-based policy signing, Bishop McKissick began by thanking the “eternal one” for “a history that cannot be politicked away or policied (sic) out.” 

Before dismissing the crowd, the bishop thanked his ancestors for watching everyone gather around a “multifaceted” and “diverse” table promising to “loving and valuing each other equally.”

I wonder if the bishop was valuing Gov. Ron DeSantis “equally” during the funeral for one of the Dollar General shooting victims when he lovingly described DeSantis as “a demonic governor whose hands is filled with the blood of three victims.” The anger filled pastor told parishioners during a sermon following the shooting, he is in pain because, “I have to read the manifesto of a 20-something white male who decries his hatred for black people, knowing that he is only writing what so many are feeling.”

Wow. Ok… now… I think that assumption is a little above your paygrade Bishop. I read the manifesto. The shooter was a wack-job. He saw himself as some sort of overweight Paul Revere believing an army would come together and follow him after his death. His kill hitlist included Eminem, Machine Gun Kelly and “Honorary White Man” Justice Clarence Thomas.

He was insane and did the taxpayers a favor by putting himself down. The world is a better place without him. But what one pale pudgy racist decided to do is in no way a reflection on anyone else but himself. The shooter is responsible for what he wrote and did, no one else. Blaming others for the sins of one man is the same thing as our mayor blaming us for the plight of those choosing to live in the run-down neighborhoods of what was once was pre-consolidated Jacksonville.

The bishop also took time after DeSantis suspended his presidential campaign to make a guest appearance on an MSNBC show hosted by America’s favorite race hustler, the Rev. Al Sharpton.

Because no one actually watches it, no one saw McKissick childishly congratulate the country, while bloviating about how sad he is “for the state of Florida. Because now it gives him more time to get back to making Florida into the plantation of bigotry and disenfranchisement.”

Bishop McKissick has suffered from so much bigotry and disenfranchisement growing up in Jacksonville, he is now allegedly worth more than $11 million.

Back to the closing “prayer.”

Without ever saying the word “God,” the bishop gave thanks for the time of sharing and asked the in the “name of the one who orders my steps” to dismiss the crowd from City Hall.

If you are still with me, I know this is a lot to take in. There is so much here.

Based off my research, I have noticed a local trend.

Community activists create nonprofits trying to fix an issue they either made up themselves or created, with free money from the government. They promise to attain some arbitrary goal that sounds great on paper, but in reality, is impossible. Like ending undefinable “disparities.” Politicians hand out government cash with a wink and a nod. And nothing ever improves. Which can only mean systemic racism runs so deep throughout this city, millions more must be spent to eradicate it.

Poverty isn’t based on race. Poverty isn’t political or generational. Poverty is a choice. It also is arbitrary: the government defines poverty.

History proves racism is real and did have a major effect on our city. Ax Handle Saturday was in 1960, and by 1964 segregation was outlawed by the same Democrat president who later outlawed redlining in 1968. (Hey speechwriters this is where the mayor’s line, “when we know better, we do better,” is applicable.)

The mayor, her administration and local nonprofits must stop telling people their lives are predetermined because of the color of their skin.

In her MLK Breakfast speech, Deegan said Jacksonville “must recognize a basic truth that our individual destinies are inextricably bound to one another.”

If that were true, there wouldn’t be a need for an African American Advisory Board.

If you would like to apply for a spot on the African American Advisory Board, applications are due by May 3.

Application link: https://www.jacksonville.gov/departments/boards-and-commissions/appointment-opportunities/mayoral-boards-and-commission-application