WASHINGTON — I never “wanted” to get anything because I was Black, but I never wanted to be “denied” anything because I was Black either. Fairness – we want to have a fair opportunity to compete, fair evaluations, and enforcement of our laws.

And this is what all Americans should want and expect regardless of their skin color. It is simple.

In my family, due largely to the Grace of God and hard work, the following occurred: My likely cousin from New Bern, North Carolina, former Republican congressman George White, in 1901 predicted the rise of Black people “like a Phoenix” in America.

Despite being slaves, my great grandparents, George Washington Petteway and wife Cecilia White Petteway (also from New Bern, N.C.), founded the first school in their area for former Black slaves in 1870. It continued for over 70 years.

While having an illiterate father and despite our family being attacked and lives threatened by the Ku Klux Klan in the 1960s in Connecticut, my three sisters received doctorate degrees (PhDs and a JD), one brother became a schoolteacher and successful coach, and my other brother is one of the oldest Black retired U.S. Army Colonels in the nation.

After I threatened to sue the Republican National Party for attempting to limit my opportunity to compete for the Republican nomination for Congress, at a subsequent congressional delegates convention I became the unanimous choice for Congress for the Republican Party, though it took nine ballots and seven hours.

I was the first Black politician to represent an overwhelmingly white congressional district over 30 years ago. It was just 4% Black. Today, the growth of Black people in Congress, a record number, is a result of Black members representing majority-white districts.

Let us remember that if you have two or three troublemaker students in a class of 25, those few can easily hurt the progress of the entire class. Well, in like manner, a handful of racist folks can make the country look bad. Yes, there are a few bad apples in every barrel.

Some actors/folks are a little late for the Oscars. But if they were not, they would win the Best Performance in a Nonsense Role.

The winners of the acting Oscar would be all the folks who at first established Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs in response to the tragic killing of George Floyd. They then quickly rescinded their “magical cure” to help “improve race relations” (I say facetiously) following the Supreme Court’s reversal of Affirmative Action.

Let me see if I understand the message from our Oscar winners… It means they no longer want Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Ok…. I think I got it. Moving on.

The runners-up for the award were the folks who felt that they would “improve race relations” by getting rid of the Aunt Jemima brand (pancakes and syrup), as well as Uncle Ben’s (rice).

It must be noted, however, they were tied with the folks who removed the names of “bad people” from their streets, schools, buildings, and military bases, along with the removal of confederate statues.

So, Black people should feel better now?

No. None of those actions produced a single job for a Black person.

In the past, no faction of the Black community fought for these trivial causes. I do not recall any of the great civil rights leaders (Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X or Huey Newton) fighting for those things. Thus, those who fight for them today qualify for the Nonsense Role Award.

Anybody can compete for this dubious “distinction.”

For example, Jussie Smollett, a Black actor, is nominated for his performance in attempting to “charge” former President Donald Trump (happens often) and his MAGA crowd in the “performance” of beating him up because they were bad people.

As fate would have it, Smollett’s hoax failed. Eventually, he was arrested and convicted of orchestrating and paying for his own beating.

Over stiff competition, DEI won the Best Performance of a Nonsense Role Award. After all, despite their daily drip, drip, drip announcements of companies and schools eliminating DEI programs, nobody in the Black community would even seem to care. Nobody other than those holding a handful of jobs were affected. There was no meaningful change in race relations with DEI so I guess we will see no meaningful change without DEI.

Heck, except for a handful of Black folks possibly being compensated to voice their objections, you will only hear crickets from the Black community on DEI.

For Black America, we merely watched the once advocates of DEI become adversaries of DEI. It was like they were playing with themselves.

The Lifetime Achievement Oscar goes to the two universities that put forth what appeared to be at the time sincere efforts to improve race relations, but they ultimately resulted in making them worse.

One was a California medical school that admitted Black students with much lower academic and overall leadership credentials over white students. It was tied to a prominent law school that allowed a Black person to receive a large number of points in the admission process simply for being Black. Being Black ranked higher than a person’s essay score.

We did not need the Supreme Court to rule such a practice was wrong as even a seventh grader could have determined that. These two schools each win the Lifetime Achievement award. They actually made race relations worse, as did the aforementioned Best Performance in a Nonsense Role Award winner and nominees. Those acts would even make good white people angry.

America is a God-fearing country made up of good people who have made America the greatest country in history.

For the sake of our country, the good white people, the vast majority of America, must not get tricked by the “actors,” who, via their “performances,” show they are truly not interested in fairness for Black people.