I read as much as I can from as wide a variety of sources available to me. An important email from the National Trust for Historic Preservation crossed my desk regarding the encroachment of a public highway upon an historic African-American settlement and cemetery.

Fortunately, the State of Maryland has announced plans “to avoid ground impacts to this historic site,” according to the information.

Understandably, I was relieved to learn that Maryland modified any plans that would have led to the desecration of the final resting place of so many of our ancestors. Had it not been for the occasional, but inappropriate, disturbance of African-American graves and cemeteries, I would have had nothing to fear. My reflection caused me to think of the times African-Americans – living and dead – have been degraded, demeaned, and/or had their human remains desecrated at the altar of American racism.

An election and two court trials loom large in my reflections.

The racism of the governor-elect of Virginia and his supporters, and the trial of the accused murderers of Ahmaud Arbery and the trial of accused Wisconsin murderer Kyle Rittenhouse consumed a good portion of my thoughts.

Virginia Gov.-elect Glenn A. Youngkin, a Trump acolyte, orchestrated a not-so-subtle gubernatorial campaign that exploited the prejudice, fears and racial hatred of thousands of Virginians. Polling indicated that, as expected, jobs and the economy were the number one issue among voters. Labeled by The New York Times as an “unlikely issue,” education ranked number two among Virginia voters. The crux of the education issue was Critical Race Theory.

Professional educators weigh in by confirming that CRT is not taught in Virginia public schools. What has set off these “good” Virginia voters is the discomfort they and their children feel when forced by textual confirmation to take an honest and critical look at the brutality and inhumanity of their ancestors’ conquest of this nation.

Gov.-elect Youngkin has pledged to eliminate CRT “from Day One.” This informs me that Black history and other records of white inhumanity either will be revised to soothe the guilt of a white audience or eliminated from the curriculum entirely. Among their outrageous justifications is that Black history makes African-American youths feel like “victims.”

Gov.-elect Youngkin’s proposed remedy for the imaginary CRT brings to memory the words of Dr. Carter G. Woodson, the “father of Black History:” “Those who have no record of what their forebears have accomplished lose the inspiration which comes from the teaching of biography and history.”

While judicial trials seek the elevation of justice, the two trials I referenced leave questions about that in my mind. In one, the case of the murder of Mr. Arbery in Georgia, a jury has been seated that reflects what I call “Georgia Justice.” The jury in that trial is composed of 11 white people and one African-American. In the history of Southern jurisprudence, that composition is known as the “15-minute acquittal.”

In the other trial, the Wisconsin judge has ordered that the two people shot and killed and the one person wounded could not be referred to as “victims.” As a student and practitioner of the law, I find it difficult to identify persons killed by an under-aged assailant who crossed state lines with a weapon he unlawfully possessed as anything except victims.

Any objective observer understands that contemporary information is being shaped to justify the oppressive acts of an antagonistic white America. Our legitimate appeals and demands for justice and equity fall on deaf ears. Things done to us or those who support us are, more than ever, considered in good order.

Degradation and desecration remain the order of the day. This cannot continue without our response.

The writer is national president of the National Congress of Black Women.