Race, My Hurting Family, and the Monday Morning Scream

How my family and desire for love impacts my view of those shouting in alarm over White Supremacy

Don Simkovich, MA
Hey Don: The Days of Don Simkovich
3 min readApr 18, 2022

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Photo by Anna Shvets: Pexels

After church and Easter dinner with family yesterday, I logged onto Real Clear Politics in the afternoon, skimmed the list of topics, and clicked into an opinion piece by Ibram X. Kendi. He was describing how Republicans are trying to protect white kids when they oppose Critical Race Theory.

Shortly, after skimming his piece and sighing I got a phone call from my one “son” who’s in jail — again. He wished us a Happy Easter and asked me to send a care package of ramen, the less expensive option that costs $43 with tax since you have to purchase through the company that services the prison.

Look for the link below on where I’ve written about him before.

Racial conflicts and debates have been on my mind for years and I may be finally getting ready to write about my perspective.

Why does my view matter?

After all, I know of an African-American pastor who used to be on staff at the church where I have my membership and he says that white people should listen and not speak when it comes to racial issues.

He’s now a successful senior pastor at a nearby church who produced a workbook on racial reconciliation referring to America as an “apartheid nation” for much of its history.

When we asked him some years ago if he could find a mentor for another son who’s black he said he would, but never did. Yet, he was always ready to give quasi-lectures on race.

I believe my voice matters because I have a multi-racial family — white, black, Hispanic, and bi-racial grandkids. And, we’ve hosted Chinese high school students.

I’ve seen and continue to see both the hurts and hope that family brings. Especially this morning when my 15-year-old granddaughter screamed when her dad called her. I simply can’t go into details of the brief chat that spoke to her, and his, hurts.

And that’s where race fades in importance. I could reveal their races, but family healing and hurts have a much more intimate pain and joy.

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Don Simkovich, MA
Hey Don: The Days of Don Simkovich

Don is co-author of the Tom Stone Detective novels on Amazon and writes content for businesses. Visit Don Simkovich Amazon.