Groupthink, Structural Racism and Defying Logic in Davenport, Florida

_{Read Time: 17 minutes}

We are different precisely in order to realize our need of one another. ~Desmond Tutu

Groupthink: An Old Word Renewed

If you’ve never heard of the word groupthink before, look up Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell. He’ll tell you all about it. It was a new word, a portmanteau, created by Orwell when he published his book in 1949. In short, “the important thing about groupthink is that it works not so much by censoring dissent as by making dissent seem somehow improbable,” a quote from James Surowiecki, an American journalist. Again, in short, groupthink is the opposite of freethought and critical thinking.

Groupthink en masse has been happening for eons in authoritarian places, like China or, what was once Nazi Germany. Who could forget the throbbing crowds raising their arms in unison to their Nazi leader. That was groupthink. August Landmesser, as the image at left shows, crossing his arms while the Nazis around him salute is an example of a wildly brave dissenter against the groupthinkers around him.

But this phenomenon doesn’t occupy space far away from us, as this picture represents, nor does it necessarily happen in big numbers. It starts in small places, like our churches and schools (do they even teach 1984 anymore?). They’re in our government and business bodies and nonprofits organizations. Basically, anywhere there are a group of people, groupthink can happen.

We are naturally born to do what it takes to stay in our groups, agreeing with others or subordinating our real feelings and opinions to those of others. It is a big part of why historical injustices stay injustices for so very long.

To move forward, entities must resolve the past. We cannot proceed undaunted into improving the progress that should be our futures — whether it be in our individual lives or in the social histories of our world — if we don’t resolve issues from the past. This need is nowhere more true than in areas of oppression, denial of humanity, and of our rights to exist. This need to resolve wrongs includes abuse against anybody for any reason, such as racism, torture, and even deporting Americans without due process.

The oppression of racism starts from the bottom and works its way up. It starts from grassroots folks and families with children, people oppressing one another, and goes all the way up to our most important leaders and then back down again, not unlike a vicious circle.

In the free state of Florida, the purpose of “wiping out woke” and DEI efforts, for example, is not an effort to get rid of racism once and for all. Nor is it to somehow get people to believe that racism and bias against Black people is over and done, which in MAGA eyes means that it no longer needs to be addressed by anybody. It’s Florida’s effort to whitewash history, once and for all in this state. It’s an effort to make dissent seem somehow improbable in spite of what we see with our eyes and hear with our ears when it comes to structural racism in government, business, and in the general population, including voters. It’s an effort to demonize the use of good words like diversity, equity, and inclusion. It’s an effort to make poorly educated Americans believe that DEI is illegal or that it is some radically leftist conspiracy.

New York Times columnist Charles Blow said, “‘in February 2020, in a speech at Hillsdale College, a private [ultra-conservative] Christian college in Michigan that [Florida’s governor] DeSantis said, ‘Put on the full armor of God. Stand firm against the schemes. You will face flaming arrows, but if you have the shield of faith, you will overcome them. And in Florida, we walk the line here.’” (Them is a reference to DeSantis’ enemies: LGBTQ, Black and Brown people, fringe folks, et cetera.) Mr. Blow added, “‘DeSantis’ anti-woke crusade was a manifestation of the intolerance and battle thirst of the Christian nationalists, and Florida’s distortion of Black history, and its attempt to rehabilitate the image of slavery was part of that.'”

That’s structural racism. That’s the governor of Florida admitting … he too is a racist. A deep-set racism is the only reason why anybody would believe that the image of slavery needs to be rehabilitated. What needs to be rehabilitated is, not slavery’s image, but, the discussion on reparations and resolutions for our disgusting history of slavery. We cannot stop talking about racism now; we must keep it up, especially since it is not done. It is not over.

The Southern Poverty Law Centers says that “Florida leads the nation” in the prominence of hate groups. Generally speaking those types of groups mostly attract young, male, White bigots. What a combination! Patriot Front, for example, is here in Polk County. They’ve even left their calling card a couple of blocks away from my home in uptown Davenport.

Uptown Davenport

Uptown is what some Jamestown residents call the area around City Hall and Lake Play. And, who are the Jamestown residents? Why, let me introduce you!

Jamestown is a community of people located in the “downtown” area of Davenport. They’ve been at their current location in Jamestown as long as Davenport has been a city.

My theory is this: Apparently, circa 1910, it appears that it was normal to refer to an area by their geography here on Florida’s ridge. The ridge is, what I would call a humongous sand dune (or, hill, if you prefer) that runs down the middle of Florida from Lake Wales up to Clermont. Uptown refers to the area that was higher on the ridge, the area where, it appears, the residents of Jamestown originated.

The Origin Stories of Jamestown

I live in a town stuck with a small town mentality, rife with groupthink, and with both a racist past and present. Davenport’s Black history and those of many communities throughout the USA are being threatened with disappearance of our local histories if no one steps up to the plate to document them. Jamestown’s history, for instance, includes being moved from their uptown nirvana by the lake to a downtown area that was not as nice and was not lakefront. From my experiences with the Establishment folks in our city, I have found that there are actually two Jamestown origin stories. Here is what I’ve discovered so far.

• The Establishment culture’s first and most lasting theory says that the residents by the lake, primarily economically poor, Black people, moved voluntarily to new housing in another part of the city. I’m not sure if anyone knows the exact year this happened, but it happened. This housing was built by Holly Hill, a currently dilapidated eyesore of a corporation adjacent to the Jamestown area. It is said that many folks from the lake area in 1910 were Holly Hill employees and that Holly Hill built new housing “for them.” As all of our Davenport Establishment folks agree, these houses were built without floors.
• Now, the other story goes like this. The residents of Lake Play were forced to move to the floorless housing that Holly Hill built. I’ve actually heard Establishment locals say that these residents should have been “grateful” to have gotten new homes, even without floors. That statement never made sense to me, as I know that I wouldn’t have been “grateful.”

Then I saw the Lake Play photograph above, which were Jamestown’s future residents. When I looked at it, I understood that the Establishment theory, i.e., that these residents moved “voluntarily” was out of whack. It was not consistent with logic. To get this straight: They were given floorless housing in an area that was formally known for flooding, a.k.a., swampland, when their current homes on the lake didn’t carry that risk. Albeit by water, the so-called lake named Lake Play, has never overwhelmed its shoreline. (Being a plugged up sinkhole, it’s not likely to…ever.) As you can see from the lake photograph, they even had two-story homes that surely had floors on their second levels. Why wouldn’t they have had floors on their first levels?

I call it gravity-defying logic.

While there is no indication as to how these residents may have been forced out of their lakefront homes, if in fact that happened, it stands to reason that no right-thinking, common sense individual would have “voluntarily” moved from a perfectly decent home to housing in a less desirable area with no floor.

Therefore, it is possible that the residents were forced out in some way, for example by exploitation, and that no documentation exists as to what kind of force was used. This is not to say that the established story of Jamestown’s voluntary move is not correct. It is to say that no documentation seems to exist on what actually happened back then, so it is not a good idea to assume that people voluntarily moved to, what they understand today, was a worse location, worse housing.

The Ridge & Its First Pool

Way back when in the early 1940s, Davenport was all the rage for its Olympic-sized pool. It was the pool that made Davenport the cutting edge community that it was in the mid-20^th century. Depending on who you speak to today, though, it was used either heavily or barely. I think both are true.

According to National Geographic, “people of color have long faced barriers to American swimming pools.” They were talking about our public pools that had been all the rage until the early 1970s, when they fell out of popularity with White people, who could by then afford to purchase their own private pools.

I believe that for years after it was first opened, the Davenport pool was used heavily and primarily by the White residents, who made up the bulk of the people who lived nearby. Then, and we don’t know when this started, Black residents started using the pool, specifically Black children and teenagers. That appears to be the time when the pool was used more-and-more “barely.” These children were and are currently described by Davenport’s Establishment folks as having been “wild” when they used the public pool, as though no White child was ever “wild” at a pool.

Yep. Logic drowned.

As any woke person knows, racist folks use code words all the time to refer to Black and Brown folks. (Because most folks don’t know I’m Hispanic, I can tell you that — throughout my life — I’ve heard racists I have encountered say things that would make most anti-racists cringe.) I’ve heard this term, wild, a number of times to describe Black people, regardless of whether they are actually wild or not. As hard as it may be for long-time residents of Davenport to believe and as much as I don’t want to have to reveal the truth about our language, it appears that the word, wild, has been unfairly used by our Establishment folks forever to describe the minors of Jamestown. So, I have to ask, why are good Christian Southern men and women doing that to our neighborhood children?

The pool was eventually closed for “maintenance” issues during Davenport’s Decade of Decay. It was filled in and built over for a new City Hall, commissioners’ chamber and associated offices. While there has been talk of constructing a new pool near the city’s new event center, as of today, it appears pretty unlikely that any such pool will ever again grace Davenport.

Juneteenth, a Jamestown Event

^{About Government: Where there is the will, there is a way.}

As Juneteenth approaches, I’ve been thinking a lot about Jamestown and Jamestown Park, the projects that the City of Davenport has overlooked over the years: the issue with them not having had their water lines updated at the same time as the rest of the city; the upgraded street lighting that I could’ve sworn the city promised them many years ago; the lack of shade over their basketball court [and we definitely asked for that many years ago]; and the fact that there was no signage whatsoever reminding Jamestown’s residents of this year’s election. Unlike other parks in the area, Jamestown Park desperately needs more and better parking, a new and/or fixed pavilion, and a pedestrian bridge over Route 17-92. Oh!

And, it needs a freakin’ street curb next to the park entrance, like long, long time ago!

Now, as well, there is the issue of improvements at our local parks. There is Wilson Park, located in a predominately White area and less than a mile away from Jamestown Park. Jamestown got a basketball court resurfacing, which it appears no one requested and was not necessarily “needed.” Wilson Park, on the other hand, is currently getting it’s splashpad doubled in size. Promises made for improvements at Jamestown Park long ago, however, remain in limbo today.

Years back, after a commission meeting wherein the whole chamber was filled with Jamestown’s residents asking for a bathroom for their park (after many years of receiving denials and being offered a port-a-potty), an attendee asked me if I thought our commissioners were racists. I remember looking at her and saying, “It certainly looks like it, doesn’t it?”

Dang! In its 100+ years since its incorporation, Davenport has not had one mayor nor even one commissioner who was Black. Not one. Do you think there may be even one iota of structural racism going on here?

Here’s one more example. Davenport’s government body celebrates federal holidays by giving its staff the day off. On a couple of holidays, like July 4^th and the Christian part of each year’s Christmas season, the city spends money for excellent public celebrations. (Davenport even observes the Christian practice of Good Friday. Go figure.) But for the holiday of Juneteenth, which became a federal holiday in 2021, the city is just getting its bearings, barely.

For Jamestown’s celebration of Juneteenth, Davenport provides city staff, like police and fire department personnel, and for good measure, a few of the Establishment folks stop by too. The city needs to take two measures regarding Juneteenth: Make Jamestown Park adequate for its annual celebrations; and fix the fucking park.

Jamestown’s celebration of this holiday started long before President Biden made Juneteenth a federal holiday. Before 2021, it was celebrated in Jamestown Park the day before Father’s Day as a way to encourage and support the strength of the men in their community. Since Davenport’s Juneteenth celebration originated in Jamestown, I suspect the folks there want to keep it in their park in perpetuity. The City of Davenport doesn’t make this easy when they ignore improvements that the area’s residents have been asking about for years.

Clearly, something needs to improve. Treating all Davenport communities both equally and equitably when it comes to public services and community improvements is common sense, but that sense is lost when racism comes into play. Davenport must improve.

The White Table

Here is a short story to consider when thinking about all the anti-racism I wrote about here today. We are almost all guilty of making mistakes when it comes to the topic of racism. I must say, I have too.

I was at the Juneteenth celebration in Jamestown Park in 2024. I got my food, which is always more delicious than any restaurant in the area. Then I sat down at the closest place I could sit. I had a great time with the other folks who sat with me and I left an hour or two later. So far, so good.

After the event, I was approach by one of the attendees and told, politely and with a smile, that she noticed that I had been sitting at The White Table. The White Table!? WTF. I think I may have busted out laughing, but I stopped and thought about it too. I realized that, wow, yes, I was in fact sitting at “The White Table.”

My understanding is that many of the Whites in attendance in 2024 got their food first, before Jamestown’s residents. So, they were able to sit down first. And, what did we do?

We all sat down together at The White Table. We were like turds in a colorful punchbowl.

I vowed to myself to never do that again, to be more mindful. I realized that there were many people I knew and didn’t know at the celebration. I had an obligation to myself to chat with those I knew and to mingle with those I didn’t.

We all make mistakes. We are human. We must, however, be life-long learners too and, with every day, improve.

Postscript

With that said, if you found anything at all inaccurate with this article, please tell me at my online form or you can also give me your thoughts and theories by writing in the Comment area right here, below. And a happy Juneteenth to all who celebrate this important national holiday.