Summer revelations

“Footsteps mark a person's life course and the impact of their journey on others.”

May is typically the month when I start tackling home projects, sort of like a “Brian to-do list.” In years past, I looked forward to this alone time because it let me get work done at home and gave me a few months until the end of the summer to finish everything. However, this year was different. Unfortunately, as we get older, many of us begin to break down, and I am no exception. Due to back and knee issues, my workload decreased, giving me ample time to do a little family research and focus on current events.  

In a previous essay, “The Hickerson Slave Legacy,” I wrote about discovering who was responsible for “naming” my ancestors. For some, this might not be important, but I was curious for my children so they would have every documented fact about where they come from on my side of the family. As I learned more, I came across uncomfortable truths about slavery and my family history. 

One disturbing aspect of this history is that many families were broken up at an early age and dispersed among different plantation owners. They were raped, sexually exploited, forced to bear children who may have been fathered by the slave master, and sold on the conveyor belt of slavery. Although the plantations may have been close, family ties were disrupted, often disregarded or severed by their sale, inheritance, and forced migration. As a result, many enslaved people never knew who they were related to. This led individuals to form relationships and bear children with unsuspecting family members. As a result, I’ve learned that many of my ancestors were cousins. Thinking back to what my mother told me about why she left the South, it made sense. As she said, “You’d never know who your cousin was.” While I can’t change the past, my kids needed to know how reprehensible the institution of slavery was and the negative impact it had on our family. Even though Black literature is being removed from bookshelves, we will never forget and will preserve our existence through our oral history, music, language, and self-identity. 

While looking back into my family history and grappling with that information, I also paid attention to the many current events inundating the news cycle. The preemptive attack on Iran by Israel and the United States, for fear of them acquiring a nuclear bomb, has shaken our economy. Due to disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz, oil, food, and transportation costs, along with inflation, have left many families struggling to make ends meet. Iran has been a formidable opponent and has refused to surrender. What was supposed to be a short conflict has turned into a drawn-out one with no end in sight. Lost in this self-inflicted pain is what continues to happen in Palestine. 

After the agreed-upon ceasefire on October 10, 2025, Israel has allegedly killed Palestinian civilians, including women, children, and the elderly. This raises the question: Is Israel committing genocide? Social media, which provided much of the alternative coverage of the carnage in Palestine, has nearly come to a standstill and has become a battleground for censorship due to content-moderation policies and platform governance. Moreover, because of an Israeli policy of denying outside media coverage of the war for security reasons, Israel appears to be attempting to control the narrative, to no avail. Scrutiny of Israel has crossed borders and many shores. As a result, there have been reports that many Israelis and former IDF soldiers have been confronted and/or denied service in some countries because of their military service or nationality. 

While you’d think this news was bad enough, it was reported that this summer saw multiple cases of Black people found hanging in public places. I thought these days were behind us, but obviously not. The circumstances surrounding these deaths have led Black families and community leaders to question the effectiveness of authorities and to avoid summarily classifying them as suicides. The image of these deaths is reminiscent of what my family members had to contend with during the era of lynchings and appears to have resurfaced.