A brief follow-up to earlier posts where we clearly showed Montgomery County Councilmember Will (Yemi?) Jawando has made several misleading and outright false claims in official ‘proclamations’ or government communications (e-mails from his office) concerning his familial ancestry and story and how it is intertwined with Black American slavery and overcoming government-supported segregation. The most galling of these statements concerned CM Jawando’s statement on Feb. 11, 2022 where he stated “through the middle passage that brought our ancestors here in bondage.”
He also made false claims about how Black History month is “under attack” in certain states:
“Black history is under attack at this very moment,” he [CM Jawando] said. He mentioned recent actions by the Governor of Florida to challenge an AP African American studies course.
Montgomery History, which is the Montgomery County Historical Society and is a non-profit funded in part by our tax dollars, recently unveiled what they call a “digital exhibit” hosted on Google Sites for what they dub “The Immigrant Experience in Montgomery County”.
Featured prominently under “Immigration Stories” are parts one and two about CM Jawando’s familial history and how his mother ended up coming to Montgomery County to raise young Will Jawando. A screen shot excerpt is below (relevant parts highlighted) detailing such history noted in this “digital exhibit”:
It is clear from this that Councilmember Will Jawando can lay absolutely zero claim to “our” or “we” in statements discussing the plight of foundational Black Americans or those who have overcome great odds to become excelling contributors to American society and culture. Using these words (“our ancestors”) indicate some kind of shared history that simply does not exist. The Councilmember should retract those prior statements.
And why the gratuitous shot at “rural Kansas” and by extension the Americans who lived there and presumably still live there? America in 1975 was different then America in 2023, just as America in 2030 will no doubt differ from 2023 in terms of inter-racial marriage and its broad acceptance.
Montgomery County, MD is not immune to its own problems with prejudice and hatred, despite all its noted diversity.
Maybe diversity of thought and in public policy matters, too.
Related posts:
As Black History Month 2023 Draws to Close, Questionable Past Statements Made by Council Members Come Into Focus
Will Jawando Doubles Down on Conflating His Family History with Black Foundational American History
MoCo CM Will Jawando’s Interesting Church and Democrat Party / Think Tank “Elite” Connections