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“They will not be judged by the color of their skin, but
by the content of their character”. Elijah thinks that it is
important that we stand for things in the future and not
just today. We cannot allow our voices to be silenced
again.
In today’s world people see racism as what it was 40
years ago and they do not believe it has evolved, so
when you try to identify it some people will say that’s
not racism. When you look at an elected official who
calls on his constituents to shoot looters, Elijah has a
major problem with that. First, there was not anyone in
Ouachita Parish who was looting so Jack Clampit did
not have the
right to say
that. Even if
there were
people looting
that still is not
the correct
re- sponse
to be made.
There are a
mul- titude
of different
ways those
people could
have been dealt with outside of being shot. People voted
for Clampit and they shouldn’t have to see or tolerate
behavior like this. After the post was made, Clampit
was warned by someone on Facebook that his post was
insensitive and would reach people of multiple eth-
nicities, Clampit doubled down and stated, “I’m not
worried about the next election. I am concerned about
the business owners who are losing their dreams due to
thugs. Many of which are black.” Going back to the orig-
inal statement that is the evolution of racism you have
to keep in mind the evolution of subliminal messages.
Businesses were still in phase one of being closed, and
majority of them were not looking to reopen soon with
Covid-19 numbers still on the rise. There was never
any looting going on but now with Clampit’s approval
people are going to occupy their businesses just so they
can sit in wait and have the possibility of shooting a
looter. Brass says for Clampit to call to action and sug-
gest shooting looters, was a way to condone and incite
the behavior that has already been happening across the
nation. Elijah says it’s very disturbing to him that people
take pride in the thought of taking another person’s
life. Especially the lives of Black and Brown men and
women. Jack Clampit being an elected official calling for
people to harm and possibly kill you over something
that can easily be deescalated is not the behavior that
should be represented and tolerated by someone in
office. It is very disturbing to have so many different
congress people making the same comments or sitting
by and not correcting the behaviors of their fellow
congress people. Brass believes anything is possible, but
it’s going to take the entire community to join together
and demand change. If the majority would just speak
out and come together collectively by bombarding
his cell phone and flooding his emails then maybe a
difference can be made. This is not the first time that
Clampit has made statements that were offensive to a
particular group of people. When people are consistent
with their message and continue to target a particular
group of people with their statements, changes need to
be made because obviously that official doesn’t have a
particular group of citizens in mind. Clampit needs to
know that things he has said are unacceptable and he
needs to be held accountable for it. Hopefully the voic-
es of the citizens will be heard and Clampit will know
he needs to resign.
When asked about his future, Brass noted that he
began the process of founding a Non-profit that would
eliminate many disparities in the community. This
Non-profit is expected to start work in late summer to
early fall 2020. He is optimistic that the community will
band together to support the Non-profit and assist in
meeting the needs of the community. Brass also desires
to be more involved in the political conversation and
wishes to create conversations amongst his generation
that inspires political participation. He believes that
everything we do involves politics in some form or
fashion and that people do not have the luxury of not
having any understanding of politics or an eagerness to
learn and get involved in some way.
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