The Washington Post’s firing of columnist Karen Attiah really has me shook, as they say.
I used to love that paper. I grew up in Washington, D.C., where it was a must-read. I even worked there briefly after college, and always assumed that one day I would end up back in its newsroom. But the paper that helped bring down former President Richard Nixon with its coverage of the Watergate break-in scandal isn’t what it used to be.
Now under the ownership of Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos, the paper claims Attiah was fired because she violated the paper’s social media policy by posting about the late conservative commentator Charlie Kirk. But personally, I think there was a lot more to it than that. Attiah — the last Black full-time columnist at the Post — was an unfortunate casualty of this toxic Trumpian moment that has engulfed America. She symbolizes what’s going on as voices such as MSNBC political analyst Matthew Dowd are being silenced, and journalists are being required to sign a pledge not to share unauthorized information in order to cover the Pentagon.
Americans should be up in arms as our freedom of speech — a bedrock principle in the Bill of Rights — is under attack. ABC’s indefinite suspension of Jimmy Kimmel Live! after the comedian’s remarks about Kirk became a rallying cry — enough to get him back on the air. Social media users are losing jobs and getting doxed because of their posts. Political polarization is extreme.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump sits in the Oval Office plotting revenge against his political enemies and flexing his authoritarian muscles.
I used to wonder how my ancestors survived slavery and Jim Crow segregation. Here’s what I now realize: One day in the not-so-distant future, many will look back at us and wonder how we managed to get through such troubling times. America is not OK.
So, when an email landed in my inbox about a fundraiser dedicated to surviving today’s political climate, it stopped me. I actually read it several times as I savored the words: a “night of insight, inspiration and healing.” If America ever needed all three, it’s now.
The event, scheduled for Thursday at the Fitler Club in Center City, will be cohosted by a trio of real heavy hitters: civil rights attorney and founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, Bryan Stevenson, whose best-selling book, Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption,was adapted into a Hollywood movie in 2019; his brother, University of Pennsylvania psychologist and professor Howard Stevenson; and Robin Smith, a psychologist and a former regular on The Oprah Winfrey Show.
When I talked to Smith, she said the purpose is to “have the conversation that is anything but safe.” The timing is fortuitous given everything that’s been happening. As she pointed out, “This is the season to … not ask, ‘Do you hurt?’ but ‘Where do you hurt, and how can we begin to tend to our injuries?’”
Proceeds will benefit Lion’s Story, a Philly-based nonprofit founded by Howard Stevenson that provides resources and training to assist those attempting to navigate the complexities of racial stress.
“My brother and I grew up in a poor, racially segregated community,” said Bryan Stevenson, whose organization was behind the effort to open the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Ala., in 2018. “We are both the products of Brown v. Board of Education. We have lived that legacy of slavery and lynching and segregation from our own background.”
The Delaware native added that it’s important people don’t allow the country to backslide in its quest for racial justice. “We haven’t even got where we are trying to go,” he said. “So this is not a time for us to be pushed backward. Organizations like Lion’s Story have a critical role to play in that effort.”
If I were around, I would stop by the Fitler Club and try to soak up some of the good vibes for myself. But I plan to take a few weeks off to basically touch grass, as the young folks say, and to think about something other than politics and the implications of Trump’s latest post on Truth Social.
That’s my healing strategy. Hopefully, it will help sustain me for what lies ahead.