Here is a story that I heard on NPR this week. It is a tale of a remarkable little girl. A tale that deserves to be retold. It goes like this.
In a small town (Population 9,027) located in northwestern Essex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, about 16 miles (26 km) west of New York City and 6 miles (9.7 km) north-west of Newark, a little White girl aged nine went out to work on a science project and to help her community. She had learned that spotted lanternflies were a nuisance species and she decided to collect as many as she could and use them in a science exhibit to educate others about them. Until this week, the most noteworthy thing about Caldwell was that it was the birthplace of Grover Cleveland, the 22nd and 24th President of the United States. He was the only president to serve two non-consecutive terms, was born in Caldwell on March 18, 1837.
As the little girl went from tree to tree collecting these bugs, a former council member and neighbor named Gordon Lawshe saw the little girl going from tree to tree and picking something off the trees. He was not sure what she was doing but he decided to help her. He put his jacket on and went out to see how he could assist her.
Wait a Minute! Hold on there Persico. You have got your facts all wrong. That is not how the story goes!
Oh, that’s right. I forgot. It was not a little White girl; it was a little Black girl. It was a former city council member named Gordon Lawshe. However, he did not go out to help her. Seeing a nine-year-old Black girl going from tree to tree terrified him. He wasted no time calling the police on our little budding scientist. You can probably guess Gordon’s skin color so I won’t bother telling you.
After the police came and traumatized little Bobbi Wilson, they realized that she posed no threat to the community. Fortunately, her mother had come out before they took Bobbi away in handcuffs.
Now there are many in America who say that racism is dead. They believe that Black people are always playing the “Race Card” when they talk about unfair treatment or systemic racism. Just the other day, the Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction (Tom Horne) said in an interview that there is NO MORE systemic racism in the USA. This man is in charge of education in our state!
In 2008, the U.S. House of Representative issued a formal apology for slavery and Jim Crow laws. This was passed by a voice vote. A rather imprecise method of voting which shields anyone from being identified with a particular stance. A year later, the Senate advanced S. Con. Res. 26 of the 111th Congress, a concurrent resolution apologizing for the enslavement and racial segregation of African Americans. Republicans now seem bent on reversing this apology by making it harder for Blacks, other minorities, and poor people to vote. While monetary reparations were given to Japanese Americans for their internment and mistreatment during WW II, any talk of reparations for slavery generates heated arguments.
Today, the country is seething over the idea of addressing racism in the public schools. It is feared that White Children will feel guilty. Mention Critical Race Theory and you will get shut down quick in school districts all over the country. Even worse is the onslaught on textbooks to sanitize them so that “negative” aspects of American history are omitted.
But all of the above is very academic. For little Black Bobbi Wilson, it probably will not mean much. She would just like to be treated like any nine-year-old White girl with a penchant for science would be treated. Fortunately, our story does not end with her near arrest. National Public Radio published the following article about Bobbi on their website. I have included some excerpts from the article as well as a link to the entire article. It is very heartwarming and worth reading. There are many good people in America and this helps us to remember that.
Nine-year-old Bobbi Wilson may be in the fourth grade, but last month the Yale School of Public Health held a ceremony honoring the budding scientist’s recent work.
The university entered Bobbi’s collection of 27 spotted lanternflies — an extremely invasive species that is harmful to trees and other plants — into the Peabody Museum of Natural History database. Bobbi was also presented with the title of “donor scientist” during the Jan. 20 ceremony.
“We wanted to show her bravery and how inspiring she is, and we just want to make sure she continues to feel honored and loved by the Yale community,” Ijeoma Opara, an assistant professor at the school, said in a statement.
Weeks Earlier:
Former City Council member, Gordon Lawshe calls the police department to report: “There’s a little Black woman walking, spraying stuff on the sidewalks and trees on Elizabeth and Florence,” Lawshe told the dispatcher, according to a call obtained by CNN.
“I don’t know what the hell she’s doing. Scares me, though,” Lawshe added.
Outside, Bobbi, a petite child who wears pink-framed glasses, was doing her bit to comply with the state’s Stomp it Out! campaign, which urges New Jersey residents to help eradicate the spotted lanternfly infestation. She’d learned about it at school and made her own version of an insect repellent she’d seen on TikTok. Making her way from tree to tree, Bobbi would spray the bugs, pluck them from the tree and drop them into a plastic bottle.
Bobbi was still at it when an officer arrived, curious about what she was doing. Body camera footage shows officer Kevin O’Neill approach the child before her mother, Monique Joseph, intervenes.
“You know, you hear about racism; you kind of experience it in your peripheral. If you’re lucky in your life. It doesn’t come knocking on your door. That morning when it happened, my world stopped,” Bobbi’s mother said, according to the university. She added: “The whole community, the science community, got together and said, ‘She’s one of us and we’re not going to let her lose her steam for STEM. We’re going to support the family, we’re going to support this girl.”
So all’s well that ends well right? Well, not exactly. There are thousands of little Black girls and little Black boys in America. When will this end for them? What will it take to end racism? When will we stop judging people by the color of their skins and instead judge them by their character and morality?
Aging Capriciously 