Antelope Valley Press

We need each other

Last week, I wrote about Skidmore’s letter that only wanted to address Carver’s successes and not address Carver’s challenges with racism.

In 30 years of writing to this newspaper, I have only seen two letters from conservatives that have addressed racism.

In 2020, Citigroup estimated that racism has cost the U.S. economy $16 trillion. When conservatives pretend that racism does not exist, it does not get discussed.

My letter last week showed how white people influenced Carver’s life. Additionally, Carver “…traveled widely and spoke frequently, and convinced many wealthy and prominent people to donate money [such as] Andrew Carnegie, Collis Huntington, and John D. Rockefeller.” All three were white.

Henry Ford, who was addressed in Carver’s letters as “my beloved friend” and “the greatest of all my inspiring friends”, was one of Carver’s backers of “chemurgy” (“put[ting] chemistry to work to find nonfood uses for agricultural surpluses.”)

Carver felt that he “…had a God-given mission to use his training as an agricultural chemist to improve the lot of poor Black and white Southern farmers.”

Think about what accomplishments Carver would not have achieved if it wasn’t for white people. One of many Carver’s accomplishments are the following: “on a one-half acre plot Carver increased the yield of sweet potatoes in a few years from 40 bushels to 266 bushels.” When land reverted to cotton after planting legumes, the yields increased significantly.

Carver taught a Sunday evening Bible Class for 30 years and believed that racism “often proved an impenetrable obstacle to the success of his students.” Later white and black students from all over the South embraced him and frequently sought his advice.

We all need each other to succeed. It’s sad that in order to have a conversation with conservatives, minorities have to act like racism doesn’t exist.

Vincent White Lancaster

OPINION

en-us

2023-03-31T07:00:00.0000000Z

2023-03-31T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://avpress.pressreader.com/article/281681144140581

Alberta Newspaper Group